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13 - 19 June 2002 Issue No.590 Books |
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Hussein's book of consolation
The Days, Taha Hussein, Translated by EH Paxton, Hilary Wayment and Kenneth Cragg, Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2001. pp406
Written by one of modern Egypt's greatest writers and thinkers, Taha Hussein's The Days (Al-Ayyam in Arabic) is a three-part autobiography. Part one of Al- Ayyam (translated into English as An Egyptian Childhood) was first published in a serialised form in 1926- 1927. It was followed by a second part, serialised in 1940 (translated as The Stream of Days), and a third in 1967 (translated as A Passage to France). This single paperback volume combines the English translations which appeared in 1932, 1943 and 1976 respectively.
The Arabic title Al-Ayyam was not chosen haphazardly. The word, whether in literary or colloquial Arabic, is pregnant with such meanings and associations, of which Taha Hussein must have been aware. It can mean "life", "time" or destiny; it can evoke such associations as the ups and downs of human life, the precariousness of human affairs or the need to avoid over- confidence or too much complacence. Some of these meanings and associations must have been at the back of Taha Hussein's mind when he decided to review his "days" or life.
Al-Ayyam is written throughout in the third person. The author never refers to himself directly; he rather speaks of "our friend", "the child", "the boy", or "the young man". The choice of this narrative style was not haphazard, either. Hussein tries, in many ways and with varying degrees of success, to maintain some distance between Taha, the protagonist of the book and Taha Hussein the author or narrator. He wanted to review his life, or parts of his life, as objectively as possible. Given this, I find it quite scandalous that Kenneth Cragg, who translated part three of The Days, had the audacity to rewrite the whole book, using the first person.
The Days is a partial autobiography, as it only covers those periods in Taha Hussein's life, in which he pursued his formal education starting from the Qur'anic school (Al-Kuttab in Arabic) at his hometown in Upper Egypt to the Sorbonne in Paris. The main milestones in this journey may be indicated as follows. Born in 1889, Taha lost his eyesight at an early age (three or four) and went to the school village, the Qur'anic school. In 1902, he went to Cairo to study at the Azhar. He was supposed to finish this course by obtaining the final degree, the Aalimiyya, which would have entitled him to have a teaching post at the Azhar. But Taha did not obtain the degree: he attended the examination in 1910, but failed or rather "was failed". A few years earlier, he became disillusioned with the Azhar, its traditional ways of learning and thinking. So in 1908, while still a student at the Azhar, he joined the newly-opened Egyptian University. As the university provided its courses late in the afternoon, Taha managed for a while to stay astride between the two establishments: Al-Azhar and the university. This transitional period lasted for about two years, that is to say, until he failed to get his final degree from Al-Azhar. From that point onward he devoted himself to his course of study at the university.
In 1914 having obtained a doctorate degree, the first ever to be granted in Egypt, he was sent to France to study history. He was supposed to obtain a licence in the arts, but he managed also to obtain the so-called University Doctorate, plus two higher diplomas. Having got these degrees, Taha came back to Egypt in 1919.
Thus The Days divides naturally into three parts, corresponding roughly to the three major periods in Taha's formal education. Part one deals in the main with his education in his hometown, especially at the Qur'anic school. Part two deals in the main with his religious education at the Azhar in Cairo. As for part three, it deals mainly with his university education both in Cairo and France. This last period ends in 1919, and that is where the last part of The Days comes to an end.
There is, however, some overlapping between the three parts. For instance, part three covers, understandably, the above-mentioned transitional period between the Azhar and the university. On the other hand, part one contains a whole chapter on the beginnings of Taha's education at the Azhar, the subject proper of part two. It also contains a tribute to Taha Hussein's loving wife and her angelic influence on his life, a theme which is developed in part three. The only explanation I can think of for these anticipations is to say that at the time when he dictated part one, Taha Hussein might have intended to add further instalments, or at least envisaged the possibility of doing so. These forms of overlapping highlight the need to consider the three parts together, something which this single volume allows.
Reviewed by Abdelrashid Mahmoudi
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