Al-Ahram Weekly | Books Supplement

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 May 2002 Issue No.585
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At a glance
A shorthand guide to the month compiled by Mahmoud El-Wardani

Magazines and Periodicals

Adab wa Naqd (Literature and Criticism), monthly literary magazine, issue no. 201, May 2002, Cairo: Progressive National Unionist Party publications
The latest issue of this Cairo monthly opens with extracts from the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish's most recent poems written in Ramallah in January 2002, entitled Halat Hisar (State of Siege). Essays, texts and feature articles make up the rest of the issue, with Sayed Al-Qimni discussing Ossama Bin Laden's television addresses and their effects on US policy after 11 September in an essay on the possible legitimate uses of violence, and Wadie Amin summarising the life and work of 1920s playwright and script writer Badie Khairi. There are also memoirs by writers who first published their work in Adab wa Naqd, such as Mohamed Kamal, Mustafa Ebada, Fatma Kheir, Somaya Ramadan, Mohamed Baraka and Youssef Shaker, and two essays on literary developments in Azerbaijan.

Nour, A Quarterly Review of Books, Spring 2002, Cairo: Arab Woman's Publishing House
The spring issue of this women's magazine has caught up with events in Palestine, publishing a number of telling statistics, including the number of Palestinians killed or injured, the number of trees uprooted and the number of medical staff attacked over the period from 28 September 2001 to 7 April 2002. The magazine also publishes, in Arabic translation, extracts from an open letter, "Do Something", by Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, which appeared recently in the British newspaper The Guardian, and a report from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah by Palestinian-American Maha Sebitani. There is also a long essay by Radwa Ashour on Lebanese writer Zahra Omar (1933-1999). The rest of the magazine is devoted, as usual, to book reviews.

Al-Arabi, Monthly magazine, issue no.522, May 2002, Kuwait: Ministry of Information
The Sultan Al-Uweis Foundation, a Dubai-based private institution, recently gave its annual award to Al-Arabi magazine, and in its latest issue the magazine duly celebrates this honour, publishing articles on the foundation and the contribution it has made to Arab cultural life over the years. Elsewhere in the issue, critic Gaber Asfour writes on love poetry, Abul-Maati Abul-Naga on late writer Abdalla El-Toukhi, Mohamed Ali Shamseddin on canonical Arab writer Al-Gahiz and Kamil Youssef Hussein on another pillar of the Arabic literary canon, Gamil Ibn Muammer. Historian Qasem Abdou Qasem writes on his favourite topic, the Crusades, while Mahmoud Fahmi Hegazi deals with the heritage of Arab medicine in Europe. Finally, Barakat Mohamed Murad examines the Ikhwan Al-Safaa, authors of the first Islamic encyclopaedia.

Tiba, A feminist occasional publication issued by New Woman Research Centre, Zero issue, March 2002
This, the first issue of a new feminist magazine, aims, according to editor Amani Abu Zeid, "to emphasise pluralism and to avoid totalitarian discourse". A forum for a multiplicity of female voices, the periodical hopes to engage feminists and the society in which they live in a perpetual, many-sided interaction, focusing not only on feminist theory but also on feminist practice and the connections between the two. Essays in the new issue include Nola Darwish on the history of the Egyptian women's struggle, Mervat Abdel-Nasser on the "hegemony of the body" and Adi Abu Zahara on the "feminisation of culture".

Nazra: Independent Cinema Association, Spring 2002
The first issue of this occasional magazine, which is concerned with independent cinema, fills a huge gap in the literature dealing with non-commercial cinema. According to the foreword, the editors also conceive of their publication as a window onto various cinematic experiments both past and present -- but only onto those experiments that attempt to liberate film from mainstream commercial cinema. In both format and content the magazine is appropriately innovative, and the main folio of the first issue chronicles the history of independent cinema in Egypt, dealing with such pioneers as Mohamed Bayoumi and Aziza Amir, as well as amateur filmmakers and groups such as the Lebanese "Station 29." The issue also includes an interview with director Yusri Nasralla.

Al-Hilal, monthly magazine, April 2002, Cairo: Al-Hilal Publishing House
The main theme of this issue of the prestigious, time-honoured monthly is the Muslim new year, and it includes two important studies by Mohamed Ragab El-Bayoumi on new and previously unknown aspects of the Prophet Mohamed's flight from Mecca and Tareq El-Bishri on moderation within Muslim traditions of thought. The issue also deals with the reclamation of Cairo's Islamic monuments, which are currently deteriorating, publishing a translation of an article by American archaeologist Caroline Williams and bringing the issue up-to-date with an extensive piece of reportage by Amani Abdel-Hamid. Other highlights range from Galal Amin on cinema and social transformation to Safinaz Kazim on a recent offering on the Egyptian stage, Shakespeare's King Lear.

Sutoor (Lines), monthly magazine, issue no. 65, April 2002, Cairo: Sutoor Publications
The "culture of the defeated" is the central topic around which the present issue's articles revolve, Karim Abdel-Salam writing on end-of-the-world culture, Adel El-Nahhas on the culture of betrayal, Mohamed Raouf Hamed on the hypocrisy of scientific culture, Said Ismail Ali on social equality vs. educational equality in the post-millennial world, Salah El-Amrousi on the decline of the Egyptian economy and Ahmed Mohamed Saleh on the culture of disaster. Among other reviews and articles in the Arts Department of the issue, Mohamed Hisham reviews Radwan El-Kashif's The Magician, and Safaa El-Leithi follows the latest developments in the musical career of the Lebanese diva Fairuz.

Al-Thaqafa Al-Alamiya, issue no. 110, January/February 2002, Kuwait: National Council for Culture, Literature and Art Publications
A bimonthly publication from Kuwait, Al-Thaqafa Al-Alamiya publishes translations of significant recent articles on cultural matters for an Arabic-speaking audience. This latest issue's focus is on trends in sociology, and it includes translations of pieces on "Rationality and Emotion in Max Weber's Society," "Modernisation's Challenge to Traditional Values" and "Male Bonding in Chinese History and Culture".

Ruwaq Arabi, occasional publication, Cairo: Cairo Centre for Human Rights Studies
The special file contained in the latest issue of this important magazine focuses on the prominent Arab thinker Hisham Sharabi, including articles by George El-Masri, Salaheddin Abdalla, Ahmed Abdel-Halim Attia, Ibrahim El-Ibrashi, Sayem Abdel-Kerim and others, discussing issues ranging from Sharabi's theoritical orientation to the rebelliousness and alienation of his thought. As a result of Farid Abu Se'da's being appointed managing editor of the journal, in an unprecedented gesture the magazine has published a poem by Mohamed Afifi Matar and a story by Garennabi El-Helw -- testifying to its greater interest in contemporary literature. Other highlights include a portrait of the Egyptian feminist activist Dorreya Shafiq, a previously unpublished text dealing with the tribal covenant of the Awlad Ali nomads in the Western Desert, and an explanatory reading and report on the effects of 11 September on civil life in the Arab world.

Books

Ali Al-Zi'baq, Farouq Kourshid, Cairo: General Organisation for Cultural Palaces (Popular Studies Library Series), two volumes, 2002. pp341; 583
A new edition of the sira (epic life) of the legendary figure Ali Al-Zi'baq, this book expresses an aspect of the Arab story-telling tradition that has emerged at different times, and with different content, down through the centuries. Originally an oral epic, the sira is difficult fully to understand, since, in order to do so, the contemporary reader must be aware not only of the significant variations across its many written versions, but also the important developments it has gone through in its oral form (the sira of Ali Al-Zi'baq first appeared as a tale in The Thousand and One Nights). In refashioning the story in contemporary form, Farouq Kourshid displays an awareness of its prominent place in the history of Baghdad and Damascus, as well as of Cairo. For, in its depiction of the exploits of an ordinary individual against corrupt authorities in a period of intrigue and decline, the sira is also a historical portrait of Egyptian character.

Al-Safina (The Ship), Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Cairo: General Organisation for Cultural Palaces (Arab Horizons Series), 2002. pp240
This popular edition of one of the late Palestinian novelist, critic and translator Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's best-known works will no doubt introduce this towering contemporary figure to a wider audience. The quality of the present edition is rather disappointing, however: though duplicated from a previous edition, it fails to acknowledge its source, and no information is provided on the place of the novel among Jabra's other works. Nothing is said, either, of the nature and extent of Jabra's contribution to present-day literary life. The publishers would have done well to have included one of the numerous critical essays now available on Jabra in the present edition, since without notes and apparatus, the novel might seem to have come out of a void.

Tariq Al-Nisr (The Eagle's Route), Edwar El-Kharrat, Cairo: Centre for Arab Civilisation, 2002. pp439
Edwar El-Kharrat has almost 50 books to his name, and this is his 15th novel. Dealing with the nationalist struggle in the author's native Alexandria before the political demonstrations and upheaval that took place in the city in 1946, El-Kharrat draws on his own experience of these events, and particularly on the two years he spent in detention in the Abu Qir Prison, in order to illuminate this important period in contemporary Egyptian history. In contrast to many of the writer's previous works, the novel is realist in manner, being particularly faithful to the details of its author's biography. Among El-Kharrat's most intimate and unassuming works, the book's narrative line is straightforward and direct, making the book read like reportage or like a personal journal of the period, reporting an Alexandria of political meetings, Marxist debating societies, demonstrations and secret committees.

Al-Imama wal-Siyasa wal-Khitab Al-Tarikhi fi Ilm Al-Aqa'id (Politics and Historical Discourse in the Science of the Doctrines), Ali Mabrouk, Cairo: Cairo Centre for Human Rights Studies, 2002. pp377
In this book, the author examines the concept of imama, the critique of social rules and regulations at a specific historical period. In exercising imama, the person making the critique will take the present as his or her point of departure, travelling back in time in order to expose past social rules for consideration. The aim of the exercise is to arrive at a fuller understanding, and possible refashioning, of contemporary moeurs through historical critique. According to the author of the present book, however, imama differs methodologically from ordinary historical practice in that it is a "thinking about the present that aims for the past", whereas history is "a thinking about the past that aims for the present". Yet, in both cases, the future is out of bounds. The book opens with a long chapter attributing the present crisis of Arab thought to the a-historical standpoint adopted by many contemporary thinkers, with subsequent chapters discussing the work of various Muslim historians in the light of the political and ideological conflicts that surrounded them and conditioned their work.

Min Dakhil Israel (From Inside Israel), Emad Gad, ed., intro. George Habash, Cairo: Merit, 2002. pp577
This book collects together a number of articles on aspects of the State of Israel and its various institutions, concentrating on the international-relations network surrounding the Zionist project that first gave rise to Israel. As the editor indicates, the book adopts "the theory of continuous social struggle," throwing the Arab-Israeli conflict into sharp relief, explaining the failure of the peace process. The contributors include Emad Gad on the demographic dimension of the struggle, Ahmed El-Sayed El-Naggar on the history of the Israeli economy and Baher Shawqi on inter-Israeli divisions.

Lailat Al-Sahrawardi Al-Akhira (Al-Sahrawardi's Last Night), Farid Abu Se'da, Cairo: Supreme Council for Culture, 2002. pp149
Part of a new book series from the Supreme Council for Culture aiming to publish work by authors who receive grants from the Ministry of Culture, this play bears witness to the notion that such grants are effective in producing accomplished work. Based on the life of the great Sufi Shehabeddin Al-Sahrawardi, who was hanged by the religious establishment of his time, the play defends freedom of thought in the light of the dichotomy between those religious thinkers who were allied to the nation and those who were allied to the ruling Sultan. This is Farid Abu Se'da's sixth play, and he has also published eight collections of poetry.

Dirasat fil-Thaqafa Al-Wataniya (Studies in National Culture), Anwar Abdel-Malek, Cairo: Dar Misr Al-Mahrousa, 2002. pp339
The first edition of this book by the renowned Egyptian political thinker appeared in 1967. But in this, the second edition, neither author nor publisher has contributed a new preface to take account of the new context in which the book is being republished. This would have been valuable, since the book contains numerous short and impressionistic pieces published in newspapers and periodicals throughout the 1950s and 60s. Only a new rhetorical flourish on the book's back cover accompanies the new text: "The publication of this book is being undertaken in response to the difficult circumstances under which Egypt and the Arab world are currently suffering, in an attempt to confirm the notion of the national culture as the basis of any viable project of renaissance." Perhaps the most relevant part of the book is the author's original introduction, in which he states that "These pages, then, dealing with the politics of culture, are part of the structure of a philosophy of civilisation, without which the future remains unsafe..."

Muhandis Al-Alam (Architect of the World), Emad Abu Saleh, Cairo: Samizdat, 2002. pp91
In a note on the cover of this poetry collection, the author has indicated that the book is not for sale, as he did on the covers of his previous books. Part of an innovative series of texts whose objective is to unsettle the literary establishment, the book opens with an address to critics and another to poets. The various, sometimes far-fetched and improbable, experiments that follow these addresses summarise the project Abu Saleh established for himself in earlier books such as Omour Muntahiya Aslan (Long Forgone Conclusions, 1995), Kalb Yanbah Liyaqtul Al-Waqt (A Dog Barking to Kill Time, 1996), 'Agouz Tu'limuhu Al-Dahikat (An Old Man Who Finds Laughter Painful, 1997), Ana Kha'if (I Am Afraid, 1998) and Qubour Wasi'a (Wide Graves, 1999).

Qabl wa Ba'd (Before and After), Tawfik Abdel-Rahman, Cairo: Arab Civilisation Centre, 2002. pp117
Here at last is a new edition of the controversial novel by Tawfik Abdel-Rahman that was banned several months ago. At that time, this novel, together with two others published by the General Organisation for Cultural Palaces, caused controversy and prompted conservative readers to object to them on the grounds that they were "pornographic". The Minister of Culture then banned the three novels, dismissing those responsible for their publication. Despite its being the author's first novel, Qabl wa Ba'd is an accomplished, semi-autobiographical work of distinction by an author who is well known among the ranks of intellectuals in Egypt.

Mi'at Aam min Al-Haky: Dirasa wa Mukhtarat (100 Years of Story-telling: An Essay and Short-Story Selections), Mahmoud El-Wardani, ed., Amman: Amman City Council, 2002. pp427
Published on the occasion of the Jordanian capital Amman being selected as Arab Cultural Capital by UNESCO, this selection of Egyptian short stories, accompanied by an introductory essay in which the writer gives the reasons behind his selection, includes 28 stories, representing 28 writers, and follows the progress of the short story in Egypt over the past 100 years. Starting with the work of Mahmoud Taymour and ending in the 1990s, the book presents a panoramic view of the genre, presenting the short story as a form that early on broke free of French models, becoming an increasingly Egyptian form. The contribution of the Generation of the Sixties is emphasised.

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