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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 January 2000 Issue No. 464 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 January 2000 Issue No. 464
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Monthly supplement
The barber of Baghdad
Ard Al-Sawad (Land of Darkness), a novel in three volumes, Abdel-Rahman Mounif, Beirut and Casablanca: Al-Mou'assassa Al-Arabiya Lildirasta wal-Nashr (Beirut), Al-Markaz Al-Thaqafi Al-Arabi Lil-Nashr wal-Tawzi (Casablanca) 1999.Fiction and reality
Abdel-Rahman Mounif
Chinese monuments and miracles
Al-Seen: Mo'jizat Nihayat Al-Qarn Al-Ishreen (China: Miracle of the End of the 20th Century ), Ibrahim Nafie, Cairo: Al-Ahram Centre for Translation and Publishing 1999. pp200Deep roots, shallow soil
Landmarks in the History of the Communist Party of the Sudan in the half century 1946 - 1996, Mohamed Said al-Qaddal, Beirut: Dar Al-Farabi, 1999. pp310Cinematic maladies
Al-Cinema Al-Arabiya Al-Mo'assira (Contemporary Arab Cinema),Samir Farid, Cairo: The Supreme Council for Culture publications,1998. pp260Horses in the desert night
Night & Horses & the Desert, An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature, Robert Irwin, London: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press. pp462Heritage in the balance
The Arabic Literary Heritage: the Development of its Genres and Criticism, Roger Allen, Cambridge University Press, 1998. pp437Summer torments
Azhar al-Shams (Flowers of the Sun),Youssef Rakha, Cairo: Sharqiat Publishing House, 1999. pp143Hill of evil counsel Tal Al-Hawa ,Youssef Abu Raya, Cairo: Al-Hilal Novels, 1999. pp146
Century, conceived and edited by Bruce Bernard, London: Phaidon Press, 1999. pp1120 --see caption--
To the editor
At a glance
A shorthand guide to the month compiled by Mahmoud El-Wardani* Al-Faylaq (The Corps), Amin Ezzeddin, Cairo: Fustat Publishing House, 1999. pp174
* Ana Baqqa wa Adel Hammouda (Adel Hammouda and Me), Ahmed Fouad Negm, Cairo: Zeinab Publishing House, 2000. pp108
* Jamal Eddin Al-Afghani, El-Sayed Youssef,Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organisation, 1999. pp255
* Masirat Hayati Hatta 1964 (The Course of My Life to 1964), Mohamed Youssef El-Guindi, Cairo: Organisation for Cultural Palaces, 1999. pp208
* Al-Mohammashoun wa Al-Siyasa fi Misr (The Marginalised and Politics in Egypt), Amani Massoud El-Heddini, Cairo: Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, 1999. pp302
* Al-Kotob: Wughat Nazar (Books: Viewpoints), monthly magazine, issue no. 12, January 2000, Cairo: The Egyptian Company for Arab and International Publication
* Al-Hilal, monthly magazine, January 1999, Cairo: Al-Hilal Publishing House
* Al-Arabi, monthly magazine, issue no. 494, January 2000, Kuwait: Ministry of Information
* Sotour (Lines), monthly magazine, issue no. 39, December 1999, Cairo: Sotour Publications
* Al-Osour Al-Jadida (New Eras), monthly magazine, issue no. 3, 2000, Cairo: Sinai Publishing House
* Adab wa Naqd (Literature and Criticism), monthly literary magazine, issue no. 172, December 1999, Cairo: Progressive Nationalist Unionist Party publications
To see other book supplements go to the ARCHIVES index.
Illustrations courtesy of International Commitee of the Red Cross
"Folk drawings and tales", Cairo, 1996
Fiction and reality
By Abdel-Rahman Mounif"In choosing a specific period from the history of Iraq, my main concern was to put under the microscope, for myself as well as for the reader, a specific geographical area and its people. The aim was to investigate a mood and a climate that is so close to one that it presents itself only as noise, even tho
ugh it is actually quite distant, and we know very few of the basic facts. In Ard Al-Sawad my concern was not to chronicle the period of Dawoud Pasha's reign. Rather I was interested in the period as part of an attempt to reach a new formulation of life and of relationships.
"This novel, even if it deals with a past historical period, is nonetheless concerned with the present, trying to decipher a pattern in order to help to understand what is happening now. Many novels that employ history end up being hostages to that history; they are reproductions of what is already known. Why read a novel if you can read a book of history? Thus the recreation of historical events is best achieved not by fictionalising a history that already exists, but rather by creating parallels in fictional form that enable you better to understand that history. The reader of Ard Al-Sawad will encounter a great many heroes with names and features that are unrecorded in actual history and who were very possibly non-existent. However they exist in the novel by virtue of the meanings that they bear, allowing the novel to distance itself from the specific historical period on which it draws and calling that history into question as part of an urgent quest for a new and different reading of history.
"Ard Al-Sawad, in a nutshell, is a rediscovery of society and a rereading of the people that inhabit that society. One of the central preoccupations of the novel is the condemnation of foreign intervention and a desire to see society rid itself of foreign influence and the dictates and impositions of foreigners. Another of its main concerns is a desire to dig deep into the lives of people living in society's lowest strata, discovering their sentiments and the dreams they have buried in their chests. It wishes to expose and hold up to the light their search for simple and honourable lives. To say that the novel was dictated by an emergency situation [the current circumstances of Iraq] would be a gross reduction of the kind that the novel, any novel, must avoid.
"There is no doubt that the present sufferings of the Iraqi people could move a heart of stone, and that such suffering has created deep resentment. It is a suffering that, besides its cruelty and injustice, gives an indication of the Dark Ages through which we are living, in which one blind superpower attempts to impose its hegemony over the rest of the world. This merits opposition all the world over. However, the real aim of the novel, though it also involves something of this, is not only to expose such suffering. I also wanted Ard Al-Sawad to investigate a brighter side in the events that move people to express their will, dreams and desires. Thus the novel deals with all that hinders people from venturing towards new horizons and all that forces them to accept the unacceptable. In this sense the novel is as much a contemplation of history, and of man and the unequal relations that stand between men, as it is a contribution to the creation of a more progressive consciousness to counteract all that stands in the way of humanity. If the novel intersects with the present, its main concern is still to cast a new look over the past, though this new regard also reaches naturally into the future."
Based on an interview conducted by Moussa Barhouma with Abdel-Rahman Mounif in Amman and published in the London-based Arabic magazine Al-Wasat, 10 January 2000.
