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Mahfuz's “Zaʿbalāwī”: Six Stations of a Quest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Ami Elad
Ami Elad
Affiliation:
Beit Berl College, 44905 Kfar Saba, Israel.
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Extract

The writings of the Egyptian novelist Najib Mahfuz (b. 1911) in the 1960s illustrate the new literary trends that were then emerging in Arabic fiction. Among his works, the volume of short stories, Dunyā Allāh (God's World, 1963), was the first and perhaps the most important collection within the corpus of his creative works. These short stories are striking for the themes they pursue and the poetic universe they depict, and they reveal in particular his and the Egyptian reaction to progress. In this essay only one of these short stories, “Zaʿbalāwī,” will be discussed. My aim is to show Mahfuz's adept manipulation of mythic themes together with specific Egyptian cultural and Islamic elements in his exploration of the dilemma modernity poses for Egyptian society. “Zaʿbalāwī” was published at the beginning of a new period in his creative development when Mahfuz had begun to pursue his concerns using new and innovative literary techniques.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , November 1994 , pp. 631 - 644
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

NOTES

Author's note: I thank Professor Irene Eber of the Hebrew University for her useful comments. I am also extremely grateful to the anonymous readers who have helped me improve the text. Naturally I alone am responsible for any shortcomings.

1 For more details on Najib Mahfuz and his works, see in English Somekh, Sasson, The Changing Rhythm: A Study of Najib Maḥfūẓ's Novels (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973)Google Scholar; idem, “Zaʿbalāwī—Author, Theme and Technique,” Journal of Arabic Literature 1 (1970): 24–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Allen, Roger, The Arabic Novel, An Historical and Critical Introduction (Manchester: University of Manchester, 1982)Google Scholar; Milson, Menachem, “Najīb Maḥfūẓ and the Quest for Meaning,” Arabica 17 (1970): 155–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mahmoud, Fatma Moussa, The Arabic Novel in Egypt, 1914–1970 (Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization, 1973)Google Scholar; Boullata, Issa J., ed., Critical Perspectives on Modern Arabic Literature (Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Jad, Ali B., Form and Technique in the Egyptian Novel 1912–1971 (London: Ithaca Press, 1983)Google Scholar. In Arabic, see Badr, ʿAbd al-Muḥsin Ṭāha, Najīb Maḥfūẓ: al-Ruʾyā wa-al-adāt (Cairo: Dār al-thaqāfa lil-ṭibāʿa wa-al-nashr, 1978)Google Scholar; Rāghib, Nabīl, Qaḍiyyat al-shakl al-fannī ʿinda Najib Maḥfḥẓ (Cairo: al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿ āmma lil-kitāb, 1975)Google Scholar; Shukrī, Ghālī, al-Muntamī, dirāsafi adab Najib Maḥfūẓ, 3rd ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīda, 1982)Google Scholar; idem, ed., Najīb Maḥfūẓ: lbdāʿ niṣf qarn (Cairo: Dār al-shurūq, 1989)Google Scholar; Qāsim, Ceza, Bināʾ al-riwāya, dirāsa muqārana li-thulāthiyyat Najīb Maḥfūẓ (Cairo: al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿ āmma lil-kitāb, 1984)Google Scholar; al-Bandārī, Ḥasan, Fann al-qiṣṣa al-qaṣīra ʿinda Najīb Maḥfūẓ (Cairo: Maktabat al-Anglo al-Miṣriyya, 1988)Google Scholar; al-Aswad, Fāḍil, ed., al-Rajul wa-alqimma, buḥūth wa-diāsāt (Cairo: al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿ āmma lil-kitāb, 1989)Google Scholar; ʿAwf, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Abū, al-Ruwā al-mutaghayyira li-riwāyāt Najīb Maḥfūẓ (Cairo: al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-āʿāmma lil-kitāb, 1991)Google Scholar.

2 “Zaʿbalāwī, ” first appeared in al-Ahrām on 12 05 1961, 12Google Scholar, and was reprinted in a collection of short stories, Dunyā Allāh (Cairo: Maktabat Miṣr, 1963), 135–50Google Scholar. I used the 1978 edition, and references within thext are to this edition.

3 See my introductions to two of my works Writer, Culture, Text: Studies in Modern Arabic Literature (Fredericton, B.C.: York Press, 1993)Google Scholar and The Village Novel in Modern Egyptian Literature (Berlin: Klaus, Schwarz Verlag, 1994)Google Scholar.

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5 English translation, Children of Gebelawi, trans. Stewart, Philip (London: Heinemann, 1981)Google Scholar.

6 Maḥfūẓ, Najīb, al-Liṣṣ wa-al-Kilāb (Cairo: Maktabat Miṣr, 1977; first published in 1961)Google Scholar. For an English translation, see Majhfuz, Najib, The Thief and the Dogs, trans. Gassick, Trevor Le (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1984)Google Scholar.

7 See interview with Mahfuz, in al-Qiṣṣa 59 (01 1989): 65Google Scholar.

8 I use the English translation in Modern Arabic Short Stories, selected and translated by Johnson-Davis, Denys (London: Heinemann, 1981), 135–45Google Scholar.

9 Maḥfūẓ, Najīb, Tharthara fawq al-Nīl (Cairo: Maktabat Miṣr, n.d.), 164Google Scholar.

10 Maḥfūẓ, Najīb, al-Ṭarīq (Cairo: Maktabat Miṣr, 1974; first published in 1964)Google Scholar. For an English translation, see Mahfuz, Najib, The Search, trans. Islam, Muhamed (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

11 Maḥfūẓ, Najīb, al-Shaḥḥādh (Cairo: Maktabat Miṣr, 1977; first published in 1965)Google Scholar. For an English translation, see Mahfuz, Najib, The Beggar, trans. Henrey, Kristin Walker and al-Warraq, Nariman Khales Nuili (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

12 Maḥfūẓ, , The Thief and the Dogs, 61Google Scholar.

13 Maḥfūẓ, , Tharthara Fawq al-Nīl, 63, 73, 86Google Scholar.

14 Maḥfūẓ, Najīb, Awlād ḥāratinā, 5th ed. (Beirut: Dār al-ādāb, 1986; first published in 1967)Google Scholar. The novel appeared as a serial between 21 09 and 25 12, 1959 in al-AhrāmGoogle Scholar.

15 “Zaʿbalāwī, ” was published in Dunyā Allāh in 1963Google Scholar, and al-Liṣṣ wa-al-kilāb appeared at the end of 1961Google Scholar, but “Zaʿbalāwī, ” was written earlier. It was first printed on 12 05 1961Google Scholar (See n. 2). Al- Liṣṣ waal-kilāb was first reviewed by al-Naqqāsh, Rajāʾ, in “Mufājaʿat Najīb Maḥfūẓ al-jadīda,” al-Akhbār, 02 1962Google Scholar, cited in al-Hawārī, Aḥmad Ibrāhīm, Maṣādir naqd a-riwāyafi al-adab al-ʿArabī al-ḥadīth fī Miṣr (Cairo: Dār al-maʿ ārif, 1979), 281Google Scholar. This was its first review and appeared not long after the book's publication.

16 Idris, Yusuf, Alaysa kadhālik? (Cairo: Maktabat Miṣr, 1985), 34–38Google Scholar.

17 Maḥfūẓ, , al-Ṭarīq, 54Google Scholar.

18 Maḥfūẓ, , al-Shaḥḥādh, 25, 64, 81Google Scholar.

19 For an English translation of this novel, see Ghanem, Fathi, The Man Who Lost His Shadow, trans. Stewart, Desmond (London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1980)Google Scholar.

20 Maḥfūẓ, , al-Liṣṣ wa-al-kilāb, 12, 50, 77Google Scholar. Maḥfūẓ, Najīb, al-Summān wa-al-kharīf, 100–101Google Scholar.

21 Maḥfūẓ, , al-Shaḥḥādh, 25–26, 185–86Google Scholar.

22 Maḥfūẓ, , Dunyā Allāh, 185–96Google Scholar.

23 Ṣāliḥ, al-Ṭayyib, Dawmat Wad Ḥāmid sabʿ qiṣaṣ, 3rd ed. (Beirut: Dār al-ʿawda, 1970), 27Google Scholar.

24 See Elad, Ami, “Fiction and Reality in Al-Ṭayyib Ṣāliḥ's ‘Dawmat Wad Ḥāmid,’ in Writer, Culture, Text, ed. Elad, Ami, 62–73Google Scholar.

25 For an English translation, see The Seven Days of Man, trans. Bell, Joseph Norment (Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization, 1989)Google Scholar.

26 See Eber, Irene, “The Critique of Western Judaism in Kafka's Castle and Its Transposition in Two Chinese Translations” (forthcoming)Google Scholar.