A shorthand guide to recent publications compiled by Mahmoud El-Wardani
Magazines
Al-Kotob: Wujhat Nazar, monthly review of books, issue no. 56, September 2003, Cairo: Egyptian Company for Arab and International Publication
Unlike previous issues of this reputable publication, the present issue offers fewer book reviews than general articles, perhaps in reflection of increasingly critical global conditions. Opening with the latest installment of Mohamed Hassanein Heikal's assessment of the US imperial project, the article dealing specifically with the role of the military in US politics, the issue also includes a fascinating column by Salama Ahmed Salama in which h e draws a connection between the recent deaths of the Iranian Siamese twins, who died in an attempt to separate them, and the suicide of British weapons inspector David Kelly. Elsewhere, Sabri Hafez reassesses the relevance of George Orwell's contribution in the light of present-day culture on the occasion of the latter's centenary, while scholars including Laila Abul-Magd and Hassan Hanafi deal with a range of issues, ranging from Jewish fundamentalism to the role of religion in social transformation. Ahmed Osman writes on the legend of the Kingdom of Israel, poet Farouk Shousha discusses the intricacies of the Arabic language and Ayman El-Sayed analyses the failure of the Arab-Israeli ceasefire. The magazine celebrates National Fellah Day with two articles on Egyptian provincial life over the last 50 years and agricultural reform, by Asem El-Desouqi and Ezzeddin Kamel, respectively.
Al-Adab, monthly magazine, Beirut: Dar Al-Adab, issue #7 and 8, vol. no. 51, July and August 2002
This issue's comprehensive dossier on the Arab-Israelis, or 1948 Palestinians, as they prefer to be known, is an admirable contribution to the Palestinian question for which the editorial team of Al-Adab deserves congratulation. It throws light on a crucial, if often ignored, aspect of the Palestinian struggle and does so with singular adaptability. The dossier takes up 84 of the magazine's 105 pages, covering every aspect of Arab- Israeli life, including the process of "identity elimination" to which the 1948 Palestinians have been subject (Anton Shalhat), the gender issues they face (Safaa Temiesh), their plastic arts (Salim Fahouli) and theatre (Naif Khouri). It also introduces the work of 10 new poets and eight new writers of fiction living, as fellow Arabs have it, under siege. Elsewhere in the issue, Ahmed El-Khamis and Rania El-Masry comment on the repercussions of the American invasion of Iraq, while Arab intellectuals and activists contribute two documents: the manifesto of a new pan-Arab movement to be launched in November, and a call for a unanimous position against Washington.
Al-Hilal, monthly magazine, issue no. 9, September 2003, Cairo: Dar Al-Hilal
This issue of Al-Hilal lacks the magazine's usual thematic "pivot", but three articles nevertheless constitute an integrated file: Mounir Zahran on the rules of the game following the fall of Baghdad, Mohamed Youssef Adsi on the ambiguities of US policy and Abdel-Rahman Shaker on the Egyptian peace initiative and the rise of Iraqi resistance. The rest of the issue is somewhat haphazardly put together, though individual articles draw the reader's attention, offering the usual standard of illuminating discussion and critique. Gamil Matar, for example, tackles the connection between the diamond trade and civil wars in Africa, while Ahmed Mohamed Saleh gives a distressing assessment of the use of Arabic on the Internet. Safinaz Kazim reviews the recent Conference of Intellectuals organised by the Supreme Council of Culture, Asem El-Desouqi recounts the history of the Hashemite dynasty in Iraq, and Abdel-Azim Anis illuminates the career of Iraqi economist Esam Khafaji, who returned recently to Baghdad following an extended period in exile, only to resign from the governing council instituted following the invasion.
Adab wa Naqd, monthly magazine, issue no. 217, September 2003, Cairo: Al-Tagammu' Party
A cluster of articles included in the latest issue of this Cairo literary magazine deals with a play by Abdalla El-Nadim, Al- Watan (Nation), first published in 1901 and republished here with numerous commentaries. Introduced by Girgis Shoukri, the play is presented together with testimonies by present-day writers Sherine Abul-Naga, Yasser Abdel-Hafez and Somaya Ramadan. Other commentators include Salah Eisa and scholar Mohamed El-Beriri, who undertakes a comparative study of the concept of the nation as understood by Tawfik El-Hakim and Mohamed El-Mansi Qandil, as well as by other less celebrated provincial and urban citizens. Another cluster of articles, edited by Magdi Abdel-Hafez, celebrates the achievements of the late French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Articles here include Darwish El-Halwagi on neo-liberalism, Ahmed Zayed on culture and power, Ashraf Abdel-Wahab on cultural capital and Ahmed El-Sherif on masculine domination.
The central theme of this issue of the literary magazine is "Liars", a reference to the innumerable faces and masks of lying in the present world. Many writers broach as many topics, with Edward Said, Ezzat El-Qamhawi, Fouad Fawwaz, Yehya El-Rakhawi, Ahmed Mohamed Saleh and others dealing with the politics of falsehood, Egyptian "levels of lying" and the various forms of brainwashing. Saad El- Tawil offers a translation of an article by two Israeli scholars, Joseph Al-Ghazi and Dovenik Fedal, on the "great lie" embodied in the notion of Arabs voluntarily abandoning their land, whether in 1948 or afterwards. Saleh Soliman takes on the enormous task of identifying lies in the international media, while Akram El- Qassass enumerates the 10 "essential lies" of the Egyptian government and its media apparatus. The rest of the magazine provides the usual stock of articles, translations, reviews and literary texts.
Aafaaq Ishtirakeya, occasional book, issue no. 1, August 2003, Cairo: Third World Publications
This is the first installment of an occasional book series entitled "Socialist Horizons", which according to the editors constitutes an attempt to provide objective, scientific answers to persistent questions of economic and political reality. The series seems to be an informed attempt at integrating the various shades of the Egyptian left into a persuasive discourse, one that keeps up with the social, economic and political realities of present-day society. The principal topic of this issue is American-Zionist aggression and possible methods of countering it, and the proceedings of a seminar on the role of the left in this struggle, with contributions by Ahmed Nabil El-Hilali, Rifaat El-Said, Shahenda Meqled, Eryan Nasif, Mohamed El-Guindi and others, is published in full. Farida El-Naqqash explains why socialism remains both a possibility and a necessity, while Sherif Hatata discusses the progression from economic to human development and Salah Adli takes stock of popular opposition in Egypt in recent times. A host of similar articles are juxtaposed with reports on political developments in the Sudan and on US policy in the Arab world.
Al-Maraa Al-Jadida, occasional women's magazine, 2003, Cairo: New Woman Studies Centre
The US-led invasion of Iraq continues to reverberate on the pages of this issue of the Cairo women's magazine, which includes a detailed assessment of the role of women in war by Bahiga Hussein. Elsewhere in the issue, Hala Kamal translates a piece by Indian writer Arundhati Roy on confronting empire, Samar Nour discusses a Red Cross report on violence against women, Ahmed Zaki comments on the 20-21 March demonstrations in Cairo against the US-led war, in which women played a crucial part, and Alia Sameh profiles Zaha Hadid, a London-based Iraqi architect whose designs reflect her Babylonian heritage. Other highlights include Nadia Abdel-Wahab on the healthcare system's endorsement of violence against women, Amal Abdel-Hadi on the last Arab Woman's League conference and Inji Badran on the events that took place to mark International Woman's Day in Cairo.
Books
Al-Sahibi: Fi Fiqh Al-Lugha Al-Arabiya wa Sanad Al-Arab fi Kalamihim (Al-Sahibi: On Arabic Philology and the Arabs' References in their Speech), Abul-Hussein Ahmed Ibn Faris Ibn Zakareya, ed. El-Sayed Ahmed Saqr, Cairo: General Organisation for Cultural Palaces (Zakhair Series), 2003. pp640
The author of this book is among the greatest scholars of the fourth century of the Hijra, the century of Ibn Hatta and Al- Jawhari, author of the well-known dictionary Mokhtar Al- Sahhah, Al-Marzabani, Al-Askari and Al-Baqilani, among others. Ibn Faris wrote on grammar and syntax, as well as on philology, discussing the reasons for favouring one poetic diwan or dictionary over another. This tome is named after the dignitary to whom it was addressed, as was the literary custom of the time, Al-Sahib Ibn Abbad, a minister as well as a scientist and man of letters. It is a remarkable book in that unlike the majority of scholarly works on language written at the time it almost exclusively concentrates on the origins of words, for the most part eschewing the study of grammar and syntax. The book also makes a very persuasive case for the link between the Arabic language and Islam, going so far as to say that learning Arabic is the duty of every Muslim. The book can be divided into two main sections, the first of which deals with general aspects of the language, including its origins, its various forms and its transformation over time. The second section tackles linguistic performance, discussing the alphabet, semantics and the rules of rhetoric. The present-day reader of Al-Sahibi will incur an enormous benefit, becoming acquainted not only with unfamiliar modes of discourse, but also with the close links between the arts of the Arabic language and Islam.
Al-Asr Al-Genomy (The Age of the Genome), Moussa Al-Khalaf, Kuwait: National Council for Culture, Art and Literature (World of Knowledge Series), 2003. pp237
On 15 February 2001 humanity succeeded in one of its most difficult and remarkable projects, the deciphering of the code of life, or human genome. For the first time, men and women really knew themselves, coming up with a map of human nature in the shape of a map of human DNA in the human genome. The subject of the present book is the implications of this achievement for the age in which we live. Many, for example, believe that the mapping of the human genome will enable people to control their genes. Yet, the importance of the book derives not from a detailed exposition of the science of genome but from the author's ability to translate that science into day-to- day possibilities for the ordinary reader. The author concentrates on the future, discussing the future of medicine, which he says will rely largely on genetics. In this and other ways, however, the book sounds an alarm, warning of the enormous social and moral developments of the age to come, and the possible horrors of genetic control.
Brova bil malabes li faslin fil jahim (Dress Rehearsal for a Season in Hell), Ahmed Morsi, Cairo: Miret Publications, 2003. pp114
An established artist who has lived and worked in the US for some 25 years, Ahmed Morsi is also a poet who has contributed to the modernisation of Arab poetry since the early 1950s. The poems included in this, his last diwan, were written between 1999 and 2000, and they amount to a single polyphonic text dealing with the experience of expatriation of an Egyptian in the cities and towns of the United States. Hell is a theme that recurs in many poems: is this the hell on earth, to whose existence the alienated and the isolated have contributed? "Whose voice is this that howls/" the poet writes, "In the corners of Hell's stations/Calling on him with absurd insistence/To listen to muted sounds/However much they hide their features?"
Now in her eighth decade, Egyptian writer and feminist Nawal El-Saadawi continues to live and write like a young woman, as capable of opposition and dissent as she is of being stimulating and provocative. In the past, El-Saadawi has been subjected to attacks and critique, even abuse, as a result of her argumentative prowess. However, this has not stopped her from expressing and defending her opinions through literature and activism alike. This book is an example of such self expression, and it brings together old documents and new essays. Despite the remarkable variety of what the book has to offer, its material has at least one common denominator: it embodies the author's striving to go beyond the limits of her historical situation, to reach and transcend the breaking point of every issue, whether her subject is domestic violence or legal double standards.
Ahyaa Al-Qahira Al-Mahrousa (Neighbourhoods of Al- Mahrousa, Cairo), Abbas El-Tarabili, Cairo: Family Library (Special Works Series), 2003. pp406
Thousands of books have been written about Cairo since it was founded by Al-Mu'iz Lidinallah Al-Fatimi some 10 centuries ago. No major historian seems to have escaped its charm, hence the availability of extensive historical texts on Fatimid and Mamluke Cairo as well as on the Cairo of Mohamed Ali's progeny. This elegant book comprises a long and absorbing tour of the city's neighbourhoods, and unlike most books on Cairo it concentrates not on the Fatimid city but on the various suburbs that have been integrated into it. It includes four sections, each of which seeks to cover one part of the city. The first section deals with the period during which the city centre was located outside the old Fatimid city, following Mohamed Ali Pasha's decision to reconstruct the metropolis. The second tackles those parts of the city that used to be villages or Nile islands, such as Boulaq, Roda and Shubra. The third broaches former parts of the eastern desert, like Abbasiyya and Ataba. And the fourth section goes from Husseiniyya (the area of the fetewwa, or strongman) to Heliopolis and back, discussing the great markets of Cairo on the way.
Unlike previous issues of this reputable publication, the present issue offers fewer book reviews than general articles, perhaps in reflection of increasingly critical global conditions. Opening with the latest installment of Mohamed Hassanein Heikal's assessment of the US imperial project, the article dealing specifically with the role of the military in US politics, the issue also includes a fascinating column by Salama Ahmed Salama in which h e draws a connection between the recent deaths of the Iranian Siamese twins, who died in an attempt to separate them, and the suicide of British weapons inspector David Kelly. Elsewhere, Sabri Hafez reassesses the relevance of George Orwell's contribution in the light of present-day culture on the occasion of the latter's centenary, while scholars including Laila Abul-Magd and Hassan Hanafi deal with a range of issues, ranging from Jewish fundamentalism to the role of religion in social transformation. Ahmed Osman writes on the legend of the Kingdom of Israel, poet Farouk Shousha discusses the intricacies of the Arabic language and Ayman El-Sayed analyses the failure of the Arab-Israeli ceasefire. The magazine celebrates National Fellah Day with two articles on Egyptian provincial life over the last 50 years and agricultural reform, by Asem El-Desouqi and Ezzeddin Kamel, respectively.
This issue's comprehensive dossier on the Arab-Israelis, or 1948 Palestinians, as they prefer to be known, is an admirable contribution to the Palestinian question for which the editorial team of Al-Adab deserves congratulation. It throws light on a crucial, if often ignored, aspect of the Palestinian struggle and does so with singular adaptability. The dossier takes up 84 of the magazine's 105 pages, covering every aspect of Arab- Israeli life, including the process of "identity elimination" to which the 1948 Palestinians have been subject (Anton Shalhat), the gender issues they face (Safaa Temiesh), their plastic arts (Salim Fahouli) and theatre (Naif Khouri). It also introduces the work of 10 new poets and eight new writers of fiction living, as fellow Arabs have it, under siege. Elsewhere in the issue, Ahmed El-Khamis and Rania El-Masry comment on the repercussions of the American invasion of Iraq, while Arab intellectuals and activists contribute two documents: the manifesto of a new pan-Arab movement to be launched in November, and a call for a unanimous position against Washington.
This issue of Al-Hilal lacks the magazine's usual thematic "pivot", but three articles nevertheless constitute an integrated file: Mounir Zahran on the rules of the game following the fall of Baghdad, Mohamed Youssef Adsi on the ambiguities of US policy and Abdel-Rahman Shaker on the Egyptian peace initiative and the rise of Iraqi resistance. The rest of the issue is somewhat haphazardly put together, though individual articles draw the reader's attention, offering the usual standard of illuminating discussion and critique. Gamil Matar, for example, tackles the connection between the diamond trade and civil wars in Africa, while Ahmed Mohamed Saleh gives a distressing assessment of the use of Arabic on the Internet. Safinaz Kazim reviews the recent Conference of Intellectuals organised by the Supreme Council of Culture, Asem El-Desouqi recounts the history of the Hashemite dynasty in Iraq, and Abdel-Azim Anis illuminates the career of Iraqi economist Esam Khafaji, who returned recently to Baghdad following an extended period in exile, only to resign from the governing council instituted following the invasion.
A cluster of articles included in the latest issue of this Cairo literary magazine deals with a play by Abdalla El-Nadim, Al- Watan (Nation), first published in 1901 and republished here with numerous commentaries. Introduced by Girgis Shoukri, the play is presented together with testimonies by present-day writers Sherine Abul-Naga, Yasser Abdel-Hafez and Somaya Ramadan. Other commentators include Salah Eisa and scholar Mohamed El-Beriri, who undertakes a comparative study of the concept of the nation as understood by Tawfik El-Hakim and Mohamed El-Mansi Qandil, as well as by other less celebrated provincial and urban citizens. Another cluster of articles, edited by Magdi Abdel-Hafez, celebrates the achievements of the late French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Articles here include Darwish El-Halwagi on neo-liberalism, Ahmed Zayed on culture and power, Ashraf Abdel-Wahab on cultural capital and Ahmed El-Sherif on masculine domination.
The central theme of this issue of the literary magazine is "Liars", a reference to the innumerable faces and masks of lying in the present world. Many writers broach as many topics, with Edward Said, Ezzat El-Qamhawi, Fouad Fawwaz, Yehya El-Rakhawi, Ahmed Mohamed Saleh and others dealing with the politics of falsehood, Egyptian "levels of lying" and the various forms of brainwashing. Saad El- Tawil offers a translation of an article by two Israeli scholars, Joseph Al-Ghazi and Dovenik Fedal, on the "great lie" embodied in the notion of Arabs voluntarily abandoning their land, whether in 1948 or afterwards. Saleh Soliman takes on the enormous task of identifying lies in the international media, while Akram El- Qassass enumerates the 10 "essential lies" of the Egyptian government and its media apparatus. The rest of the magazine provides the usual stock of articles, translations, reviews and literary texts.
This is the first installment of an occasional book series entitled "Socialist Horizons", which according to the editors constitutes an attempt to provide objective, scientific answers to persistent questions of economic and political reality. The series seems to be an informed attempt at integrating the various shades of the Egyptian left into a persuasive discourse, one that keeps up with the social, economic and political realities of present-day society. The principal topic of this issue is American-Zionist aggression and possible methods of countering it, and the proceedings of a seminar on the role of the left in this struggle, with contributions by Ahmed Nabil El-Hilali, Rifaat El-Said, Shahenda Meqled, Eryan Nasif, Mohamed El-Guindi and others, is published in full. Farida El-Naqqash explains why socialism remains both a possibility and a necessity, while Sherif Hatata discusses the progression from economic to human development and Salah Adli takes stock of popular opposition in Egypt in recent times. A host of similar articles are juxtaposed with reports on political developments in the Sudan and on US policy in the Arab world.
The US-led invasion of Iraq continues to reverberate on the pages of this issue of the Cairo women's magazine, which includes a detailed assessment of the role of women in war by Bahiga Hussein. Elsewhere in the issue, Hala Kamal translates a piece by Indian writer Arundhati Roy on confronting empire, Samar Nour discusses a Red Cross report on violence against women, Ahmed Zaki comments on the 20-21 March demonstrations in Cairo against the US-led war, in which women played a crucial part, and Alia Sameh profiles Zaha Hadid, a London-based Iraqi architect whose designs reflect her Babylonian heritage. Other highlights include Nadia Abdel-Wahab on the healthcare system's endorsement of violence against women, Amal Abdel-Hadi on the last Arab Woman's League conference and Inji Badran on the events that took place to mark International Woman's Day in Cairo.
The author of this book is among the greatest scholars of the fourth century of the Hijra, the century of Ibn Hatta and Al- Jawhari, author of the well-known dictionary Mokhtar Al- Sahhah, Al-Marzabani, Al-Askari and Al-Baqilani, among others. Ibn Faris wrote on grammar and syntax, as well as on philology, discussing the reasons for favouring one poetic diwan or dictionary over another. This tome is named after the dignitary to whom it was addressed, as was the literary custom of the time, Al-Sahib Ibn Abbad, a minister as well as a scientist and man of letters. It is a remarkable book in that unlike the majority of scholarly works on language written at the time it almost exclusively concentrates on the origins of words, for the most part eschewing the study of grammar and syntax. The book also makes a very persuasive case for the link between the Arabic language and Islam, going so far as to say that learning Arabic is the duty of every Muslim. The book can be divided into two main sections, the first of which deals with general aspects of the language, including its origins, its various forms and its transformation over time. The second section tackles linguistic performance, discussing the alphabet, semantics and the rules of rhetoric. The present-day reader of Al-Sahibi will incur an enormous benefit, becoming acquainted not only with unfamiliar modes of discourse, but also with the close links between the arts of the Arabic language and Islam.
On 15 February 2001 humanity succeeded in one of its most difficult and remarkable projects, the deciphering of the code of life, or human genome. For the first time, men and women really knew themselves, coming up with a map of human nature in the shape of a map of human DNA in the human genome. The subject of the present book is the implications of this achievement for the age in which we live. Many, for example, believe that the mapping of the human genome will enable people to control their genes. Yet, the importance of the book derives not from a detailed exposition of the science of genome but from the author's ability to translate that science into day-to- day possibilities for the ordinary reader. The author concentrates on the future, discussing the future of medicine, which he says will rely largely on genetics. In this and other ways, however, the book sounds an alarm, warning of the enormous social and moral developments of the age to come, and the possible horrors of genetic control.
An established artist who has lived and worked in the US for some 25 years, Ahmed Morsi is also a poet who has contributed to the modernisation of Arab poetry since the early 1950s. The poems included in this, his last diwan, were written between 1999 and 2000, and they amount to a single polyphonic text dealing with the experience of expatriation of an Egyptian in the cities and towns of the United States. Hell is a theme that recurs in many poems: is this the hell on earth, to whose existence the alienated and the isolated have contributed? "Whose voice is this that howls/" the poet writes, "In the corners of Hell's stations/Calling on him with absurd insistence/To listen to muted sounds/However much they hide their features?"
Now in her eighth decade, Egyptian writer and feminist Nawal El-Saadawi continues to live and write like a young woman, as capable of opposition and dissent as she is of being stimulating and provocative. In the past, El-Saadawi has been subjected to attacks and critique, even abuse, as a result of her argumentative prowess. However, this has not stopped her from expressing and defending her opinions through literature and activism alike. This book is an example of such self expression, and it brings together old documents and new essays. Despite the remarkable variety of what the book has to offer, its material has at least one common denominator: it embodies the author's striving to go beyond the limits of her historical situation, to reach and transcend the breaking point of every issue, whether her subject is domestic violence or legal double standards.
Thousands of books have been written about Cairo since it was founded by Al-Mu'iz Lidinallah Al-Fatimi some 10 centuries ago. No major historian seems to have escaped its charm, hence the availability of extensive historical texts on Fatimid and Mamluke Cairo as well as on the Cairo of Mohamed Ali's progeny. This elegant book comprises a long and absorbing tour of the city's neighbourhoods, and unlike most books on Cairo it concentrates not on the Fatimid city but on the various suburbs that have been integrated into it. It includes four sections, each of which seeks to cover one part of the city. The first section deals with the period during which the city centre was located outside the old Fatimid city, following Mohamed Ali Pasha's decision to reconstruct the metropolis. The second tackles those parts of the city that used to be villages or Nile islands, such as Boulaq, Roda and Shubra. The third broaches former parts of the eastern desert, like Abbasiyya and Ataba. And the fourth section goes from Husseiniyya (the area of the fetewwa, or strongman) to Heliopolis and back, discussing the great markets of Cairo on the way.
