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. pp200
Deep 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. pp310
Cinematic maladies
Al-Cinema Al-Arabiya Al-Mo'assira (Contemporary Arab Cinema),Samir
Farid, Cairo: The Supreme Council for Culture publications,1998.
pp260
Horses in the desert night
Night & Horses & the Desert, An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature,
Robert Irwin, London: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press. pp462
Heritage in the balance
The Arabic Literary Heritage: the Development of its Genres and
Criticism, Roger Allen, Cambridge University Press, 1998. pp437
Summer torments
Azhar al-Shams (Flowers of the Sun),Youssef Rakha, Cairo: Sharqiat
Publishing House, 1999. pp143
Hill 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
|
Books
Al-Faylaq (The Corps), Amin
Ezzeddin, Cairo: Fustat Publishing House, 1999. pp174
Amin
Ezzeddin is the historian of the Egyptian workers' movement, producing in
the 1970s-90s a number of important books that documented the movement and
investigated the social, political and historical circumstances that surrounded
it. Who would have thought, then, that such a man would be capable of producing,
at the very end of the 20th century, an innovative and readable novel? Yet
here too Ezzeddin tackles his favourite issues, for the novel depicts the
misfortune of a young fellah forced out of his home and thrown unjustly onto
the battlefields of World War I. "It is," according to critic Ahmed El-Khamisi,
"a beautiful, vital and animated picture, reflecting an aspect of popular
national struggle prior to the 1919 Revolution."
Ana Baqqa wa Adel
Hammouda (Adel Hammouda and Me), Ahmed Fouad Negm, Cairo: Zeinab Publishing
House, 2000. pp108
The
famous colloquial Arabic poet and lyricist Ahmed Fouad Negm has uncharacteristically
decided to engage wholeheartedly in a moral battle instigated against him
by journalist Adel Hammouda following the celebration of Negm's 70th birthday
at the World Trade Centre in the presence of business tycoon Naguib Sawiris,
who sponsored the celebrations. In this book Negm collects the documents relating
to the disagreement, beginning with Hammouda's initial article in Al-Ahram,
"Horses are not sold in supermarkets", and includes interviews and an extended
commentary on the history of his relationship with Hammouda.
Jamal Eddin Al-Afghani,
El-Sayed Youssef,Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organisation, 1999. pp255
Jamal
Eddin Al-Afghani played a crucial role in the modern Islamic movement and
more particularly in the Egyptian national struggle directly prior to and
following the Orabi uprising in the late nineteenth century. Besides dealing
with the historical period in which Al-Afghani emerged, the author of this
study also tackles aspects of Al-Afghani's biography in great detail, delineating
his position on capitalism, socialism, and the French Revolution, which had
not at that time completely receded from consciousness. He also presents a
concise commentary on Al-Afghani's view of Darwin's theory of evolution, which
he expounded in a monograph entitled "In Answer to Atheists". The author goes
on to devote a complete chapter to Al-Orwa Al-Wuthqa, the magazine Al-Afghani
started in Paris following the demise of the Orabi uprising.
Masirat Hayati
Hatta 1964 (The Course of My Life to 1964), Mohamed Youssef El-Guindi, Cairo:
Organisation for Cultural Palaces, 1999. pp208
The
author of these illuminating memoirs -- one of the leaders of the Egyptian
Communist Movement from the 1940s to the 1960s -- abruptly ceases to remember
as soon as he reaches 1964, after dealing with five years spent in the Wahat
Political Internment Camp as well as a further 15 years spent in jails, in
exile or on the run. Mohamed Youssef El-Guindi comes from a deeply rooted
Wafd family, his father being pronounced President of the "Republic of Zifta"
when the town declared its independence during the 1919 Revolution. Unlike
his father, however, El-Guindi embraced Marxism, and for several decades that
were interspersed with arrests and internments, he remained faithful to his
principles as an active member of the Communist Party. His activities culminated
in an extended period of wandering around Europe in flight from the authorities
in Egypt, from which he returned in 1952. In a mixture of historical and autobiographical
narrative, El-Guindi offers us the distillation of his unique experience.
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
The
issue of marginalised people and the residents of shanty towns was for a long
time relegated to the cursory attention of journalists and filmmakers or to
minor academic studies. With Amani Massoud's book, however, the issue receives
its first comprehensive treatment, perhaps in response to growing levels of
poverty and an increase in the numbers of the marginalised as well as the
progressively worsening conditions in which they live. The book is divided
into two main sections, the first of which deals with various approaches to
the explanation of poverty and marginalisation as well as to modern concepts
of marginalisation and government policies designed to deal with it. The second
section provides case studies of three Egyptian shanty towns, and shows us
to what extent Massoud's analysis is relevant, adding to the credibility of
her project.
Magazines
Al-Kotob: Wughat
Nazar (Books: Viewpoints), monthly magazine, issue no. 12, January 2000, Cairo:
The Egyptian Company for Arab and International Publication
The issue of this triumphant end-of-the-millennium initiative revolves around the year 2000 and the abrupt beginning of a new and uncertain age, with Mohamed Hassanein Heikal resuming his key-note comments, discussing in this issue the political map of the Arab world on the first morning of the year 2000. Other valuable material in this issue include an excellent translation of a New York Times composite book review by Garry Wells, that amounts to a condensed history of the 20th century, covering a vast amount of intellectual, cultural, social and political territory with reference to Peter Conrad's Modern Times, Modern Places, Eric Hobsbawm's The Age of Extremes, Oliver Zunz's Why the American Century, Clive Ponting's The Twentieth Century, and Loraine Glennman's Our Times: The Illustrated History of the 20th Century. Elsewhere El-Sayed Shalabi illuminates the issue of 21st-century power balance in his review of Zbignew Brzenzinski's The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives. Other highlights include a century of sports by Hassan El-Mistikawi, Galal Amin on the Battle of Seattle, Helen Ibstien on Aids, "the sin of the 20th century", and an entertaining and informative review by Abdel-Azim Anis of Paul Hoffman's The Man Who Loved only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth.
Al-Hilal, monthly
magazine, January 1999, Cairo: Al-Hilal Publishing House
This
special issue of the prestigious monthly -- one of the oldest cultural periodicals
in the Arab world -- devotes a whole section to the year 2000, with original
contributions by such well-established authors as the film critic Mostafa
Darwish, the economist Galal Amin and the scientist-writer Ahmed Mostagir,
as well as rare, long forgotten texts looking to the millennium some 50 or
70 years before it was due; these include a speech by Gamal Abdel-Nasser,
a quaint but heart-warming prophetic piece (whose predictions have since been
proved wrong) by the pious Azharite Sheikh Mansour Ragab, an open "letter
to my son" by Ahmed Amin and one by Hussein Ahmed Amin, the son in question,
to his son, as well as contributions by the two famous writers Abbas Mahmoud
El-Aqqad and Mohamed Farid Abu Hadid. There are also memoirs by Rushdie Said
and Mostafa Swief, besides a special section on present-day Egyptian universities,
the education they provide and some of the challenges they are facing.
Al-Arabi, monthly
magazine, issue no. 494, January 2000, Kuwait: Ministry of Information
This
issue of the foremost Kuwaiti publication incorporates its usual array of
elaborately researched articles on a broad variety of complex themes -- Ahmed
Abu Zeid's study of the life and work of the Egyptian Sufi poet Omar Ibn El-Farid,
"Sultan of the Lovers", and Abbas Youssef Al-Haddad's contemplative and informative
piece on the philosophy of hatred particularly stand out. Elsewhere the magazine
offers its usual selection of original poems, short stories and translations.
Aside from a slightly more extensive section on the sciences and a long article
by Galal Amin -- whose writing seems to be increasingly in demand -- the magazine
publishes a long and elaborate interview between the Lebanese painter Fatma
Al-Hagg and the famous graphics artist and painter Helmi El-Touni.
Sotour (Lines),
monthly magazine, issue no. 39, December 1999, Cairo: Sotour Publications
The
main pivot of the current issue of this increasingly popular cultural monthly
is the Arab-Israeli conflict, and this is aptly and forcefully entitled "a
conflict of existence". The issue includes an article by Abdel-Wahab El-Messiri
on deconstructing Zionism, as well as a broad range of articles that approach
the conflict from a variety of perspectives, including a critique of the discourse
of "normalisation", an assessment of the scientific aspects of the conflict,
and an overview of post-Zionist Israeli literature. Other sections of the
magazine provide coverage of the last rounds of the Cairo and Damascus film
festivals, both of which ended recently, and a wide range of opinion pieces
dealing with various aspects of life in the next century. Highlights here
include the veteran cultural critic Abdel-Azim Anis meditating on hopes and
illusions for the future.
Al-Osour Al-Jadida
(New Eras), monthly magazine, issue no. 3, 2000, Cairo: Sinai Publishing House
The
current issue of this magazine offers the reader the chance to read the complete
text of Umberto Eco's recent essay on language, illusion and internationality
in Arabic translation. It also provides two articles on American foreign policy
and Zionism, while a section entitled "New Ghosts" features the complete text
of a rare manuscript chronicle documenting the misfortunes of an extended
Palestinian family, now residing principally in Iraq, who have fallen into
complete oblivion. Besides original fiction and poetry, the issue offers,
among other things, an article on Matisse and a profound reassessment of the
Ashari Islamic doctrine.
Adab wa Naqd
(Literature and Criticism), monthly literary magazine, issue no. 172, December
1999, Cairo: Progressive Nationalist Unionist Party publications
This Cairo journal dedicated to criticism and the arts features a regular section devoted to the work of a young or little-known author, and the current issue celebrates the achievement of a recently deceased young poet and journalist, Magdi Hassanein, publishing six of his poems. In a new section entitled "Tittle-Tattle", the journal features Ghada Nabil on a recent conference devoted to women's liberation, an Open Letter from poet Helmi Salim to Farouq Goweida, also a poet, together with a further letter by Shaaban Youssef to artist Inji Aflatoun. There are comments on the award to the German writer Gunter Grass of the Nobel Prize for Literature, as well as remarks on a recent seminar given over to the work of Edward Said.
