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Al-Ahram Weekly 9 - 15 March 2000 Issue No. 472 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 9 - 15 March 2000 Issue No. 472
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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New hallmarks of academic research?
Monthly supplement
Alexandria re-inscribed
No One Sleeps in Alexandria, Ibrahim Abdel-Meguid, tr. Farouk Abdel-Wahab, The American University in Cairo Press, 1999. pp409
Southern PartThe Crusades through Muslim eyes
The Crusades -- Islamic Perspectives, Carole Hillenbrand, Edinburgh University Press, 1999. pp648Economic schizophrenia, global style
Misr wa Riyah Al-'awlama (Egypt and the Winds of Globalisation), Mahmoud Abdel-Fadil, Cairo: Dar Al-Hilal, 1999. pp264Canine ruminations
Darourat Al-Kalb fil Masrahiya (The Need for the Dog in the Play), Girgis Shukri, Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organisation, 2000. pp101History and parallel history
Tumanbay: Al-Sultan Al-Shahid (Tumanbay: The Martyred Sultan), Emad Abu Ghazi, Cairo: Mirette, 1999. pp96Sun Dancer speaks his sorrow
Prison Writings: My Life is my Sun Dance, Leonard Peltier, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1999. pp243Novel of novels
Al-Bashmouri II, Salwa Bakr, Cairo: Supreme Council of Culture. 2000, pp151Chagall's Arabian Nights: Four Tales from The Thousand and One Nights with lithographs by Marc Chagall, Prestel Verlag, 1999. pp163 Read caption
To the editor
At a glance
A shorthand guide to the month compiled by Mahmoud El-WardaniMagazines & Periodicals
* Al-Kotob: Wughat Nazar (Books: Viewpoints), a Monthly Review of Books, issue No. 14, March, 2000, Cairo: The Egyptian Company for Arab and International Publishing
* Aafaq Ifriqiya (African Horizons), quaretrly, Cairo: State Information Service, issue no. 1
* Al-Thaqafa Al-Alamiya (World Culture), bimonthly cultural magazine, Kuwait, no.99
Books
* Al-Riwaya fi Nihayat Al-Qarn (The Novel at the End of the Century), Ali El-Ra'i, Cairo: Dar Al-Mustaqbal, 2000, pp371
* Al-Himaya wal-Iqab: Al-Gharb wal-Mas'ala Al-Diniya fil-Sharq Al-Awsat (Protection and Punishment: The West and the Religious Question in the Middle East), Samir Morqos, Cairo: Miret, 2000, pp210
* Al-Wataniya Al-Misriya fil-Asr Al-Hadith (Egyptian Nationalism in Modern Times), Amina Higazi, Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organisation, 2000, pp555
* Khamriya, Amin El-Ayyouti, Cairo: Al-Hilal, 2000, pp121
* Awlamat Al-Faqr (The Globalisation of Poverty), Michael Chossudovsky trans. Mohamed Mostagir, Cairo: Sotour, 2000, pp328
* Hal Intahat Ostourat Ibn-Khaldoun? (Is the Myth of Ibn-Khaldoun over?), Mahmoud Ismail, Cairo: Dar Qibaa, 2000, pp333
Books is a monthly supplement of Al-Ahram Weekly appearing every second Thursday of the month. We welcome contributions and letters on subjects raised in this supplement. Material may be edited for length and clarity; and should be addressed to Mona Anis, Books Editor, Al-Ahram Weekly, Galaa St., Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt; Faz: +202 578 6089; E-mail: m.anis@ahram.org.eg
For advertising call +202-5780233; Fax +202 394 1866To see other book supplements go to the ARCHIVES index.
Illustrations courtesy of International Commitee of the Red Cross
"Folk drawings and tales", Cairo, 1996
"What's it all about" -- the cover story of the September 1999 issue of Books reviewing Edward Said's memoir Out of Place dealt with an article by an Israeli writer in the conservative American magazine Commentary in which he claimed that after three years of research he had discovered inaccuracies in Said's own account of his past. Professor Hoda Guindi, who was unknowingly interviewed for the Commentary article, and subsequently misquoted, sent a letter of complaint to Commentary which the magazine refused to print. Below is the letter, sent to the editor of Commentary last December.
Sir- I have just seen your September 1999 issue containing the article, "My Beautiful House and Other Fabrications by Edward Said", containing reference to me, Hoda Guindi; consequently I am writing to record my objections to the content, manner, tone and tenor of these references.
I utterly refute the contention that I "reminisced in an interview" "about... the Saids" (p.4) and again "reminisced" about Edward Said (p.15, Note 42). Taking the word "interview" first: The correct version of the "interview" and "telephone interview" (p.15, Note 42) is as follows: An entirely unknown person rang me up and, was not encouraged to have a conversation; he then turned up -- uninvited -- at my flat, where he was kept standing at the door and coldly but politely told that I was busy and could not spend time talking to him. On this occasion I merely verified that this was the building in which the Saids had lived. Upon his being asked why he was interested, the gentleman said that he was a student at Princeton writing a research paper on Edward Said; I then asked him which of Said's books he had read, and must confess to being rather taken aback when he said he had read none; I, however, put this down to declining academic standards! I then, naively, as it has now transpired, queried as to whether he had sought an interview with Said himself. Again he replied in the negative. And that was the end of my brief meeting with him. He later rang me up and asked for further details about Edward Said, some of which I answered but brought the "telephone interview" to an abrupt end when it became obvious that the interlocutor was being less than forthcoming about his objectives! At no time, either during the short telephone conversations or the brief encounter at the door of my flat did the gentleman mention than he was writing his "research paper" with a view to publication nor did he seek permission to quote me. According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, an interview is "a conversation between a reporter and a person of public interest, used as a basis of a broadcast or publication," or "a meeting of persons face to face, esp. for consultation," and therefore I believe, that it is obvious that no "interview" took place. Not even can the definition of the transitive verb "interview" which is to "question to discover the opinions or experiences of..." apply!
At this juncture, I wish to assert that, had the gentleman had the honesty to reveal his true purpose, he would have received exactly the same answers to his questions, because, as stated by me, but not reflected in the article, I told him the truth! However, this truth has been so manipulated and the article includes so many innuendoes that a totally false impression has been created. This false impression, is compounded by the use of the word "reminisced"; to "reminisce" is "to indulge [my emphasis] in reminiscence"; indulging in "reminiscence" requires, I would have thought, a leisurely and prolonged conversation, not a meeting of a few fleeting moments standing at the threshold of one's flat and short telephone calls.
Furthermore, I object to the use of the words "furnished this information" (p.23, Note 112), the implication being that nowhere was this "information" available, and a great discovery was made! Had the gentleman applied to Edward Said himself I'm sure he would have been more than happy to supply or "furnish" any such information.
More seriously, the connotations put on the few given facts and the manipulation of vocabulary result in precisely what the writer self-righteously accuses Edward Said of doing: "serv[ing] up a widely distorted version of the truth" (p.2). I never gave any dates or times since I was unaware of them; I never mentioned Edward Said's age when he went to Victoria College (p.8, p.23, Note 112) for the simple reason that I never knew it! I couldn't "recall" that he frequented the nearby Gezira Sporting Club where he played tennis (p.15, Note 42), since the GSC, being a British enclave to which my family being Egyptian were not admitted until about 1949, never figured in my early childhood or "reminiscences". Neither did I "state" that "the Saids lived in the building year-round" [sic.] (p.15, Note 42), and far from saying that I "could not recall his family's having made trips to Palestine" (loc. cit), I said and I quote "I was too young to know, but I seem to remember that at the time of Al-Alamein the Saids went to Palestine, but I'm not sure"!!! Thus, I believe that it is only fair to say that either the alleged "interviewer" or the writer of the article has been somewhat economical with the truth!
Lastly, I wish to disabuse the writer of his complacent presumption that Edward Said "release[d] a revised standard version" of his life, because of the "85 interviews" "conducted" by him "many with persons known to him" (p.8). At no time did I inform Edward Said that I had been "interviewed" since I had no inkling, as pointed out above, that this non-interview was because someone was delving into his past, and secondly because the truth was told and the truth cannot hurt!
Neither Edward Said's nor my reputation needs defending, but, obviously, they need protecting from the misrepresentations, misinterpretations and misleading assertions that amount to a travesty of the truth, to be found in the references made to my supposed statements contained in this article. Are these the new hallmarks of academic research?
One last word, if you don't publish my letter of rebuttal -- in full -- I will be forced to take further action.
Hoda Guindi,
Professor of English Literature,
University of Cairo
