Al-Ahram: A Diwan of contemporary life (538)

Variety fare

Al-Ahram's Literature, Science and Arts page, introduced in 1934, was an amalgamation of religious, scientific and biographical accounts that, as Professor Yunan Labib Rizk* discovered, made the section truly potpourri

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Ahmed El-Sawi Mohamed

In a previous instalment of the Chronicle, we nicknamed the Literature, Science and Arts page, introduced in Al-Ahram in the summer of 1934, the "miscellany page". Although the column was primarily dedicated to covering recent publications, in effect it was a potpourri of new and sometimes controversial ideas. However, before proceeding further, a few observations are in order.

The page was not the responsibility of a single editor, as is evident from the diversity in the choices of articles, publications and translations it featured. That this responsibility rotated between several senior staff members was also apparent from the different initials that would sometimes appear on the page. One set of initials was "ASM" who was obviously Ahmed El-Sawi Mohamed noted for his column "Short but Significant".

But whoever's turn it was to edit the page, it was clear that variety was the key word in the selection of publications featured in any single issue. Thus, reviews of recently released anthologies of poetry and other literary works would appear side by side with biographies and other historical works and books on law, politics or sociology. The page editors also paid considerable attention to selecting works not only from relatively unknown authors but also from promising young talents.

At the same time, it was not unusual for the advertising department to intervene. Not only would it encroach on the space allocated to the "miscellany" column but would also insert articles that were nothing less than indirect advertisements.

For example, under the headline "The essence of biology", the miscellany page of 12 November 1934 announces, "The Ministry of Education has decided to introduce the principles of this science in the secondary school curriculum. Science professors Abdel-Aziz Mahmoud, El-Sayed Omar El- Sharqawi and Ahmed Labib Hegazi have compiled a book on this subject using the latest pedagogical techniques and have succeeded in condensing the subject matter and presenting it in a concise manner that can be easily grasped by students. The owner of the Fagala Bookstore took considerable pains to produce this work in an elegant edition, complete with explanatory illustrations. The book can be obtained from this bookstore at a mere four piastres per copy."

Another example, appearing in Al-Ahram of 8 June promotes "The Actor, an analytical play in three acts". Assuming the guise of a review, the article opens with the following quote from the introduction to the play: "In view of the current plight of Egyptian theatre, I was moved to portray the developments that led to this condition from an insider's perspective in the theatrical milieu." The article wastes no further time in announcing, "This play costs five piastres and may be ordered at Al-Ahram Bookstore on Mohamed Ali Street, from the author and from other bookstores."

The brevity of a third advertisement leads one to conclude that the author was on a shoestring budget. "Professor Mahmoud Ahmed Khalil, licentiate in education and science, has recently produced Roentgen Ray and Their Uses in Medicine, Surgery and Industry. This 37-page illustrated manual is written easy enough to be understood by even those not fully versed in electromagnetic principles. Printed by Al-Rashad Publishers, Alexandria."

We turn now to an overview of some of the many new publications in Egypt of 70 years ago. In biographies, we note that the selections for the Literature, Science and the Arts page tended towards prominent contemporary eastern political leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Ibn Saud and Mustafa Kamal.

The first was the subject of an extensive work by Fathi Radwan covering the full span of the life of this unique figure starting from childhood, "and the many and diverse events interspersed throughout this period". The review continues, "The book also speaks of Gandhi, the battles he waged in the defence of the outcast and the resistance and persecution he encountered as a result of his principles."

A review of Ibn Saud: His Policies and Wars occupied a goodly portion of the new publications page on 18 September, not surprisingly given that this intriguing leader had only recently been the subject of headline news. Although an employee in the Ministry of Agriculture, the author, Mustafa El- Hefnawi, was "a great admirer of eastern leaders, especially King Ibn Saud". The review went on to inform readers that the biography, which opened with a map of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula, "records the rise of the king, his domestic and foreign wars and the treaties he concluded". At least El-Hefnawi had the integrity to acknowledge, in his introduction, that his work depended primarily on two foreign sources, one by a Mr Williams and the second by a Mr Armstrong.

Mustafa Kamal: The Paragon was a translation by Kamel Samuel Masiha from a German biography of this Turkish leader who, as the introduction of the book relates, "swept the foreigners out of his country and eliminated many social customs with an unprecedented violence in his attempt to build a national state in conformance with the standards of European civilisation on the ruins of the former Turkish state". The review writer took the occasion to note that he had remarked upon the similarity between the modernising spirit of Mustafa Kamal and that of Napoleon I whose genius the Turkish leader sought to emulate.

An exception to the general rule of focussing on eastern leaders was a work on Adolph Hitler, "who commands an absolute power never before wielded by even a king or emperor". The author, Ahmed Mahmoud El-Sadati, may in fact have been a relative of former President Anwar El-Sadat. Firstly, the family name of the late president was originally El-Sadati. Secondly, Sadat was a known admirer of the Nazi order, an outlook he had expressed through his contacts with the Germans during WWII and, much later after becoming president, through the Nazi-style uniform he enjoyed wearing until the end of his life. The 1934 Hitler biography cost six piastres, a tidy sum for a book by the standards of the time.

When it came to religion and heritage, the Literature, Science and the Arts page sometimes broke its unofficial policy on variety. On 19 May, for example, the entire column was devoted to three works in this category. The first, The Position of Man Beneath the Power of Fate, by "eminent theologian and reputed authority, the venerable Sheikh Mustafa Sabri, former Grand Mufti of the Ottoman Empire", was a "lucid, average sized work of some 300 pages that Al-Salafiya Publishers took great care to garb with an elegance commensurate to its substance". The primary purpose of the book, according to the author, was "to refute those who regard the creed of divine ordinance as the cause of the backwardness, apathy and lassitude of the Muslim people". Towards this end, the author expounded on the concept of "partial will" and the differentiation between "moderate" and "pure" compulsion.

The second, The Supreme Truth and the Establishment of the Shazliah Order, by Galaleddin Al-Siouti in 1505, was edited and reproduced with commentary by Abdallah Bin Mohamed Bin Sadiq El-Ghamari El-Hosni, a noted scholar at Al- Azhar University. The "science of Sufism," the author writes, "is the ultimate path towards the refinement of the soul and its purification from corrupt and sinful morals because it constantly urges its practitioners to mould themselves upon every virtue and to relinquish every vice." After lauding this invaluable text and its commentary, the Al-Ahram reviewer writes, "Students of Sufism will undoubtedly rejoice when they hold between their hands this compelling work in this new elegant and refined edition."

The Chronicles and Monuments of Mecca was "a highly valuable and worthy work in two large volumes of 300 or more pages each on folio paper". The newspaper added, "When it came to the attention of Orientalists they held it in such high regard that they had it published in Berlin and priced it at the equivalent of LE50." The subject of the book: "The Hijaz, one of the most ancient lands whose very name people throughout the ages utter with the greatest reverence and respect and whose history, densely packed with events as it is, should be a subject of precise scholastic inquiry". At the heart of the Hijaz resides Mecca, the history and development of which was the focal point of the book, "as the history of this city, in effect, occupies a significant portion of the history of Islam and the history of Islamic civilisation".

Also in this category, the Literature, Science and Arts page featured original works by contemporary religious scholars. One was Sheikh Mohamed Abduh's The Message of Monotheism, edited and republished by Sheikh El-Sayed Rashid Rida . In his introduction to this work, Rida wrote, "The Message did not leave any obscurity in the faith without shedding light on it or an intricacy without unravelling it."

Another, The Divine Guidance of the Qur'an, by Sheikh Hussein Sami, was an extensive work on the revelation and later compilation of the Qur'an. Following a general introduction on the process of the revelation and the authenticity of the revelation, the author discusses the Qur'an in the age of the Prophet, the compilation of the Qur'an in the age of Abu Bakr; the supervision by Othman and the Companions of the Prophet over the copies of the Qur'an; the number of copies sent to Muslim capitals and in the custody of the Prophet's wife Hafsah; the difference between the Abu Bakr and Othman compilations, the sequence of Qur'anic chapters and verse; the importance of maintaining this sequence in the reproduction of the Qur'an; the purpose of the revelation; and the ways the Qur'an offers guidance. The book concludes with "a general appeal to the Muslim people".

A third contemporary religious work was the 312-page-long Rules and Innovations Pertaining to Recitation and Prayer by Sheikh Mohamed Bin Abdel-Salam El-Shaqiri El-Hawamdi. Containing some 700 Sayings of the Prophet, "this book does a great service to the reputation of the Islamic religion for without a doubt the innovations that have been thrust upon the practice of Islam are frequently a source of distortion and confusion for not all people are aware of the true facts of the religion so as to be able to discern the authentic from the deviation."

As was often the case at the time, discussion of heritage directly or indirectly invoked discussion of the West, for which reason it comes as little surprise that books on the West and Westernisation also occupied a considerable amount of space on the Literature, Science and Arts page.

Why Westerners Have Progressed was a typical expression of the concerns of the time. Its author, Ali Ibrahim Loqmani, "an Adani by birth and Somali by nationality", as the newspaper described him, had written this work "after a lifelong association with Europeans, specifically British, French and Italians". He was commended by the Al-Ahram reviewer for having "comprehended facts that have eluded Egyptians and Syrians who are in closer contact with Europeans and Americans and who have attacked Western civilisation and cautioned easterners to avoid it".

London, by Ahmed Atiyallah, offered a pioneering Egyptian perspective on one of the major capitals of the West. The introduction was written by no less than the Egyptian ambassador to London, Hafez Afifi, who described the British capital as "a great metropolis, not only in terms of the size of its population but also in terms of its vast artistic, intellectual and material wealth". He continues, "It is great by virtue of the progress that has conferred upon it the mantel of power and glory, great because of its political history, great by dint of its present efforts to preserve its lofty international status."

Curiously, the ambassador also referred to the book he was introducing as a "modest" work, a judgement that the author would never have dared make before the book went to the printers. Evidently, the "miscellany" page editor sought to compensate, for he remarks, "How can this grand and enormous tome, packed as it is with valuable information and of a scale never before undertaken by its author, possibly be described as modest? I have read every single travelogue written in Arabic from the time of Mohamed Ali to the present and I am willing to testify that London is one of the finest, most original and most intelligent of these works."

Perhaps works on women's issues would have been listed as a subcategory under Westernisation, or modernisation, if you will. The wearing or discarding of the veil, female education and the participation of women in public life were among the topics of current concern, as was "domestic sciences" and particularly the arts of cooking.

Female Education by Al-Sayed Abdallah Al-Saqqaf, "Sheikh of the Alawis in Egypt", as he was introduced, fell neatly into this category even if Al-Ahram took issue with some of his views. Al-Saqqaf was clearly a proponent of the veil, for the review preceded its presentation of the book with the observation that "Egypt has profited, not so much by the efforts of the advocates of banning the veil, but by the much needed process of development." It was quick to point out, "The proponents of lifting the veil have produced many worthy studies on behalf of their cause and in defence of their views, but the proponents of the veil, too, have their share of these valuable works." It listed among the former Qasem Amin and Walieddin Yakan and among the latter Al- Manfaluti and Al-Saqqaf, the author of the work under review. Qasem Amin, it added, described the veil as a form of "confinement and cruelty". Still, the writer of the article expressed his respect for the "open-mindedness and intelligence" with which Al-Saqqaf supported the education and progress of women "within the scope of religious strictures".

Of a more popular nature was Nourishment, the Kitchen and the Dining Table, by Basima Zaki Ibrahim "who has a diploma in Education and Literature." By way of an overview, the review summarised the book's three chapters. The first, on the preparation of food, "explains in graceful style the types and quantities of food the body requires and cautions against excess consumption". The second "introduces the housewife to the essentials of domestic sciences and counsels her to leave formal entertainment to the wealthy and to strike a balance between needs and budget. It also offers instruction on how to lay the dining table, complete with flower decorations." In the third chapter, the author provides recipes for various types of baked goods, with illustrations to clarify instructions. It is not unlikely that this early work of Basima Zaki Ibrahim inspired a range of similar works, culminating in The Theoretical and Practical Fundamentals of Cooking by Nazira Niqola, graduate of Gloucester College, Britain, and Bahiya Othman, graduate of Bridge House, also in Britain. Soon after its publication in 1950, the Ministry of Education added it to its list of required readings in schools for girls.

Women's issues naturally led to broader social issues and the editors of the Literature, Science and Arts page just as naturally kept track of recent publications on the social problems that most concerned the Egyptian public at the time.

One bestseller, one imagines without statistics, was The Triangle of Home Destruction: Alcohol, Adultery and Gambling by Asaad Khalil Dagher. The many chapters of this book, writes the reviewer, "explains the habit of alcoholism and its material, physical and moral consequences; the victims of adultery and how the perpetrators of this crime escape justice; and the evils of gambling and the cupidity, deceit and thievery of the gambler". After expounding further on the contents of the book, which was only 72 pages long, the review concludes: "This is an excellent collection of lessons and morals for those who wish enlightenment. It is a work of literature through which the young can refine their sense of style and discourse. It is a fine gift for parents to give their children and for teachers to give their students."

Problems in the Modern Age by Mohamed Attiya El- Gidawi covered a variety of problems, from unemployment and the "crisis in education" to the "marriage crisis" and prostitution, "all of which have drawn the concern of intellectuals in our day, in Egypt and elsewhere". The reviewer goes on to comment that El-Gidawi's work was written in the tone of an ardent reformer who refuses to bow to reality and who criticises officials for not doing enough to change it. To illustrate, he cites the following excerpt from El-Gidawi's introduction: "Governments that are truly desirous of reform and seek to resolve these problems must be extremely bold, so assiduously so as not to fear anyone in the pursuit of right and not to tremor at censure or at any foreign threat." On the other hand, he faults El-Gidawi for his excessive youthful ardour and reminds him that "solutions are never so easy and rapidly effected as one imagines, for were they so they would not elude us."

The Literature, Science and Arts page editors were clearly attuned to the public's thirst for creative literature, which is why such works also occupied a considerable portion of the space on that page. Indeed, on 3 February 1934, the column dedicated itself to only two books, but there is no overestimating their importance.

Dr Taha Hussein's seminal Marginalia was a pioneering effort to render ancient Arabic literature more accessible to modern readers. As Al-Ahram put it, the author "succeeded in transcending the difficulty of handling ancient texts whose lengthy chains of authority and substantiating accounts lead readers astray from the discourse and whose unfamiliar ancient language obstructs easy comprehension and appreciation which, in effect, do not demand great strain". But not all scholars could have accomplished Taha Hussein's task with such apparent ease because of his infinite patience and vast erudition. "Some scholars might attain the goal of reviving the old, but when they come to conveying this to others it would die again at their hands. Not so Taha Hussein who portrays ancient literature as though it were alive, teeming with colour and light, full of spirit and life."

The second work was by Ibrahim El-Masri whom Al-Ahram described as the most talented, innovative and cultivated young writer of his times and the one that most revered the powers of the intellect. As for The Voice of the Generation, the publication under review, "it is not merely a glowing ember but a bright flame." The reviewer went on to praise the book for its almost mystical power as well as for the humanity, compassion and affection it breathed between every line. "In short, The Voice of the Generation is the model upon which youth of today can hone, an audible voice if they are able to absorb its deeper lessons."

Al-Ahram also established the tradition of honouring the contributions of its own writers to the world of literature. One of the many examples of this is to be found in its edition of 16 March 1934 under the headline, " Tartuffe on the Egyptian stage". The Ministry of Education, the article reports, had commissioned the columnist Ahmed El-Sawi Mohamed to translate this famous play by Molière into Arabic. The Arabic version had drawn large audiences since it was first produced on the stage in the College of Girls in Giza the previous month. "The students proved highly competent actresses and performed their roles to perfection," the newspaper added.

Al-Ahram has sustained this tradition to the present. One reason it has excelled in this domain has been the newspaper's policy of bringing on board its staff many of the most talented writers in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world.

* The author The author is a professor of history and head of Al-Ahram History Studies Centre.