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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 June - 5 July 2000 Issue No. 488 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 June - 5 July 2000 Issue No. 488
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Return of the spirit
I consider Hadith Eissa Ibn Hisham the first modern Egyptian novel. Although it has not received the attention it deserves from researchers, I believe it is a great work. It draws directly on the Arab heritage through its use of the maqama style. Its content of social criticism has shaped Egyptian novels until today. In fact, that novel affected our whole generation.
After Eissa Ibn Hisham, I read Mohamed Hussein Heikal, known as the father of the Egyptian novel, then Taha Hussein and El-Mazni. Then I reached Tewfik El-Hakim, whose works were truly landmarks in the evolution of Arab novel-writing. In the truest sense, they represented and helped shape a new age.
El-Hakim's writing ushered in a modern phase in the art of narration. In all truth, after the early sources of inspiration that shaped my concept of narration, such as the Qur'an, the Thousand and One Nights, and the epic tales that so fascinated me as a child, my direct mentor was El-Hakim. Awdat Al-Ruh, I believe, marked the true birth of the Arab novel. It was written using what were then cutting-edge narrative devices. Its predecessors, on the other hand, had turned toward the Western novels of the nineteenth century for inspiration. Awdat Al-Ruh, in that context, was a bombshell.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
