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Al-Ahram Weekly 9 - 15 September 1999 Issue No. 446 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 9 - 15 September 1999 Issue No. 446
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Focus Culture Features Books Special Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Ancient days
There are a number of reasons why my early works focused on Ancient Egypt though two stand out as being far more important than the others. Firstly, I would have to say, the 1919 Revolution had filled me with profoundly nationalist feelings, and this led, naturally, to a desire to probe into history in search of similar nationalist instances of rebellion against foreign occupation. Secondly, the discovery by Howard Carter of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 created an unprecedented flurry of interest in Ancient Egyptian history, not only in Egypt, but all over the world.
Thus motivated, I read everything I could find, in Arabic, English and French, about Ancient Egypt. And as a result I could trace certain features of contemporary life to their origins thousands of years ago, often in very unexpected and at first glance far from obvious ways. I certainly reached the conclusion that the unity of the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, of which the 1919 Revolution was but one, though admittedly dramatic, expression, was clearly rooted in the ancient history of the valley's inhabitants.
Since I had always nurtured the ambition to write novels set in Ancient Egypt, I collected all the material I had found in history books and sifted through it for themes. Thus equipped, I wrote Abth El-Aqdar, followed by Radobis. With Kefah Tiba (The Struggle of Thebes), I lost all interest in the ancient period, and became wholeheartedly focused on modern times. It was in an attempt to come to terms with a contemporary reality that I wrote El-Kahiral Jedida, and ever since that day I have been preoccupied, almost without exception, with the present.
In the seventies however, I experienced a revival of interest in Ancient Egyptian history, and began work on El-'Ayesh Fil Haqiqa, a novel that is the result of a new found interest in the life and times of Akhenaten.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
