Plain Talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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Following Al-Afghani, Mohamed Abdu and Qassim Amin came Mohamed Al-Muwailihi, who can be regarded as a pioneer in the field of literature. His book Hadith Issa Ibn Hisham is certainly a landmark in the history of modern Egyptian literature.

A fascinating blend of the traditional maqam and the modern novel, the book was first published in 1907 and was followed by at least three editions. In his short preface to the third edition, Al-Muwailihi explains that his book is at one and the same time a flight of fantasy and imagination, and a reflection of reality. As he puts it, the book presents "reality clad in the dress of fancy, or it is fancy in the form of reality, in which we tried to describe the character and whims of the people. We also tried to explain the state of the people, with their different classes, the evil that they should discard and the good that they should adopt."

The book is an eloquent example of the dilemma of Egyptian intellectuals in the face of western influence. It adopts the traditional genre of the maqam, using the figure of Issa Ibn Hisham, the narrator of the Maqamat of Al-Hamadhani (the first known author of maqamat ), to tell the story. And it is a story about the dilemmas of tradition versus modernity, in this case a western modernity.

Hadith Issa Ibn Hisham begins with the narrator loitering among the graves, and remembering the famous elegy by Abul Ala'a Al-Ma'ari (973- 1057) in which he says, "Tread lightly, for I think that this soil is these corpses." Suddenly, one of the graves opens up and out comes a tall and impressive man who has about him an air of authority and nobility. The resurrected man turns out to be Ahmed Pasha Al-Menekly, who was in charge of the army of during the reign of Muhammad Ali.

Ibn Hisham acts as a guide to the Pasha and takes him around, explaining what they see. The time of the story being the end of the 19th century, a century that witnessed great changes in Egyptian life, the comments that the Pasha makes reflect the transformation over an entire century.

The changes that surprise the Pasha are first topographical, reflecting what Cairo looks like now, with the disappearance of the city gates, the naming of the streets, and the numbers on the houses, the gardens and public parks and the impressive buildings like the Opera House, the wide squares with their statues which are covered with electric lights.

Ibn Hisham takes the Pasha from one institution to another, reviewing the structure of the administration in the country: the police station, courts, palaces, lawyers, offices, doctors' clinics, museums, and so on.

Through this long tour in a city that is altogether alien to him, the Pasha gets to know the legal and social changes that, including ones that mirror the increase in foreign intervention in the country. There are complicated legal measures that increase the authority of foreigners and also Egyptians' efforts to imitate them. He observes with much amazement Egyptians in European dress and the mixing of sexes, and watches the foreign productions at the Opera House. He is shocked to see women smoking and sharing men's society.

The changes that have swept the educational system, with modern, secular schools having been introduced, give the Pasha much pause for thought. Cultural institutions like the Ahram and the Muqattam newspapers, and the emergence of an Egyptian theatre are also registered with astonishment.

The book, with its two characters reflecting on these changes, is, of course, a mask for the dilemmas that preoccupied Al-Muwailihi. Inspite of his criticism of certain aspects of Egyptian life, expressed through the mouthpiece of the Pasha, Al-Muwailihi is also appreciative of a number of changes. Hence he has Ibn Hisham answer the Pasha's harsh criticism of legal changes by saying that the law cannot be static and that the legal system should accord with the changes in society. Likewise, Al-Muwailihi praises the press and the theatre as a means to spread good habits and combat evil.

It comes as no surprise that Al-Afghani sent the author a letter praising the book, which the author printed in the third edition. The book undoubtedly earns Al-Muwailihi the title of reformer, a member of the enlightenment brigade.