Modern Egyptian Literature

In this article, I argue that Mīrāl al-Ṭaḥāwī's Brooklyn Heights (Brūklīn Hāyts, 2010) and Salmān Nāṭūr's She, the Autumn and Me (Hiya, Anā, wa-l-Kharīf, 2011) call into question the very fixedness of the concepts of "homeland" and "diaspora/abroad," and obscure the distinction between the indigene and the relocated diasporic subject. She, the Autumn and Me (Hiya, Anā, wa-l-Kharīf, 2011) is the most recent novel by Palestinian Israeli writer Salmān Nāṭūr (b. 1949), a seasoned writer of short stories, novels and critical writings. Brooklyn Heights is the fourth and most recent novel of the Egyptian Bedouin Mīrāl al-Ṭaḥāwī (b. 1969), who stands out as the first Egyptian Bedouin woman to publish modern Arabic prose. Through their portrayal of characters who are outcasts or loners, these contemporary novels complicate and deconstruct axioms which imply a reciprocal association between homeland and belonging, on the one hand, and exile/diaspora and foreignness or estrangement, on the other. In this study, I interrogate portrayals of the homeland in both texts, as it is conceived through shades of belonging and foreignness; and how "abroad" is portrayed vis-à-vis an originary homeland, in layered diasporic terms, and yet also conflated with home and homeland.

The generation of Egyptian writers and other culture makers whose creative work started to come out during the transformative 1990s produced new distinct discourses on identity, including those related to gender. This article closely examines Miral al-Tahawy's novel Blue Aubergine (1998) as representative of the New Age feminist writing of Jil al-Tisʾinaat. This antiestablishment form of feminism rebelled against the ideologies of previous movements. It distorted the conventional binaries, such as secular versus Islamic, and promoted hybridity. Finally, it prioritized individual constructions of female identity and plurality of representation. The article investigates the novel's narrative aspects—hybridity, polyphony, intertextuality— which illustrate the quest for a new Egyptian female identity.

This paper discusses the strong influence of Ancient Egyptian literature on both World Literature and Scripture. It inspects the uncanny similarity between between “The Instruction of Amenemope” written by ancient Egyptian scribe Amenemope sometime between 1300-1075 BC and the Book of Proverb, as well as the influence of "The Teaching of Amenemhat" and The Tale of Sinuhe on two of Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz's short stories titled "King Userkaf's Forgiveness" and "The Return of Sinuhe", respectively.

A decolonial reading presupposes provincializing the Eurocentric modernity/coloniality, which evaluates non-European cultural traditions exclusively in light of the European model, and from within the European tradition, instead of perceiving these traditions from the outside, and from an external position. As a result, non-European cultures are recognized and framed as subordinate not for being unfamiliarly different to their Western counterpart, but for being a deformed aberration to the universalized monolithic norm. Under such coloniality of imagination, the particular complexities of the non-European imaginaire are devalued by the rhetoric of modernity. A decolonial reading of Khayri Shalabi’s imaginary travelogue Rehālāt al- Torshagi al-Halwagi fi al-Zamān (1983)1 embarks from exploring the poetics of deconstructing “the colonization of the imagination” (Quijano 23). The paper examines the revalidation of the local cultural heritage, and the restitution of narrative traditions as manifestations of alterity to modernity.

MODERN TÜRK VE MISIR EDEBİYATININ DOĞUŞ VE GELİŞİM EVRELERİNDEKİ BENZERLİKLER VE FRANSIZ EDEBİYATININ BU İKİ EDEBİYATA TESİRİ Öz Osmanlı Devleti ve Mısır'ın askeri alanda güç kazanmak maksadıyla genel an-lamda Batı, özel anlamda Fransa ile teması, zamanla kültürel etkilenmeyi de be-raberinde getirmiş, ilim adamları arasında yaşanan bu hareketlilik, gazete ve derginin sosyal hayatta yerini almasıyla toplumun geneline yayılmıştır. Fransız edebiyatından yapılan çevirilerle gündeme gelen dilin sadeleşmesi ve söz konusu iki toplumun muhafazakâr yapısından kaynaklanan çeviri üslubu, Türk ve Mısır edebiyatında ortak iki sorunsal olarak karşımıza çıkarken, tercüme eserlere benzer telif eserler üretme ve milli edebiyat oluşturma süreci de iki ülkede aynı çizgide seyretmiştir. Edebi tekamülüne 16. yüzyılda İtalyan Rönesans'ını takip ederek başlayan Fransa, 18.yüzyılda dünya düşünce ve siyasi hayatını da etkileyen ihtilal ile değişimi çok önce tamamlamış, böylece Türk ve Mısır edebiyatının modern çiz-gilere kavuşmasında belirleyici unsur olmuştur. Esasen Türk ve Mısır edebiyatının doğuş ve gelişim sürecinde ortak noktaları tespit etmek için yapılan bu çalışma Fransız edebiyatının da söz konusu bu iki edebiyata benzer süreçler geçirdiğini göstermiştir.

The work provides discussion of the novel „Records of Provincial Investigator” by Egyptian writer Tawfik al-Hakim and story „Marita” by Georgian writer Giorgi Leonidze in one and the same context. The main characters of these works, beautiful young women, Rim and Marita have numerous similarities, facing the rough life – both of them die. The works clearly demonstrate how the cruel world, emptied of any spirituality, kills the beauty… The article is focused on the specific negative phenomena characteristic for Egypt and Georgia that have caused death of such individuals.

This article deals with the latest novel of the contemporary Egyptian writer 'Alā' al-Aswānī which is called Jumhūrīya Ka'an (2018) (The So-Called Republic,). The novel depicts how the lives of various characters from different socioeconomic and religious backgrounds were shaped by the outbreak of the Egyptian revolution of 2011, with special emphasis on the darker side of the Egyptian struggle for democracy. In his novel, the author speculates about the reasons for the failure of the revolution and tries to identify the main culprits. The article aims to provide a thorough analysis of al-Aswānī's novel with the main focus on how his portrayal of the revolutionary events and the fates of individual characters reflect his own disillusionment with the outcome of the revolution and his shift from sceptical optimism to pessimism.

This essay provides an alternative reading of modern Alexandria’s social and cultural history as a basis for a better contextualization of Cavafy’s poetry. It revisits the watershed year 1882, which marks the city’s destruction after its bombardment by the British fleet, using new evidence from a little-known diary by the nineteen-year-old Cavafy. It then examines the overlooked context of Alexandria’s late Ottoman cosmopolitanism and shows its decisive contribution to the city’s modern culture, including Cavafy’s own diasporic ethnic group, the Egyptian Greeks. Finally, the argument reassesses some prevalent misconceptions about the impact of British rule in Egypt, including the problematic view that it purportedly enhanced the city’s cosmopolitan life. Instead, the article shows that British colonialism sought to constrain Alexandrian cosmopolitanism, whereas Cavafy, and a circle of radical intellectuals around him, actively defended it through nuanced expressions of opposition to the injustices of colonial oppression.

Vedecká monografia Súčasná egyptská literatúra: Dystópia, cenzúra a Arabská jar sa venuje vybraným dielam súčasnej egyptskej literatúry a spôsobom, akými reflektujú aktuálnu spoločenskú, politickú a kultúrnu situáciu, predovšetkým revolučné udalosti známe ako Arabská jar. Okrem analýzy literárnych textov sa do popredia dostávajú špecifické témy objavujúce sa v súčasnej tvorbe, ako generačná priepasť, odcudzenie, kolektívna trauma, cenzúra a nové literárne žánre. Pozornosť zameriava predovšetkým na literárne vyobrazenie životných skúseností a problémov mladej egyptskej generácie, ktorá mala zásadný podiel na vypuknutí protestov v roku 2011. Usiluje sa tiež o zobrazenie mechanizmov literárnej cenzúry a analyzuje jej vplyv na vývoj a charakter súčasnej literárnej tvorby. Osobitný priestor je venovaný pomerne novému žánru v egyptskej literatúre – dystópii. Práve tá sa pre vykreslenie temnej budúcnosti zvykne v arabskom prostredí často spájať s udalosťami Arabskej jari. Súčasťou publikácie je aj malá antológia tvorby súčasných egyptských autorov a autoriek, ktorých úryvky z diel sa v slovenskom preklade objavujú po prvý raz.

In the article we support the view, according to which, the main issue of Naguib Mahfouz’s novel “The Way” (الطريق, English-speaking readers know it as “The Search”) is search of God; and make attempt to clarify, what, in the writer’s opinion, is required for returning of the human to God.
    Saber Rehaimi, the main character of the novel searches his father, about whom he knew nothing and about whom his mother told him before she died. Mother told him that Sayed Sayed Al-Rahaimi (Saber’s father) is very rich and Saber desires to find him mainly to improve his heavy financial situation. In the novel there is said about Sayed Sayed Al-Rahaimi that no one knows his whereabouts, as he travels permanently. They say that he is eternally young man that he has many children in different countries from different women and that he has abandoned them to their fate. Saber, arrived to Cairo from Alexandria, to find his father, sled into sin – he became a murderer and for this he was sentenced to death by hanging.
    While in the prison, in Saber’s life there occurred some events that seem encouraging in the novel. From the conversation with his attorney, Saber learnt that Sayed Sayed Al-Rehaimi had some human qualities (Al-Reihami has sympathy to his father’s old blind friend and supports him) and soon it becomes clear that he is interested in this man as his father. It is not clearly said in the novel but there is expectation that fraternal feelings can come to Sayed Sayed Al-Rehaimi and he will find his son. Mahfouz describes also the other events that give trust to the humans in Saber and give sense of being spiritually close to them…
    Search for God is undoubtedly one of the main themes of Naguib Mahfouz’s novel. Though, we should not regard Sayed Sayed Al-Rehaimi as the allegory of God. The author describes him as “eternally young man” and gives him the name similar to the God’s epithet, to remind that an individual should fulfill his obligations… God loves the humans whom he has created and similarly, the humans should attempt to love their children. And the child should desire his parents for not only financial interests but also he should have human feeling of love. If such love exists between people, those, whose soul is frozen, will warm up and the lonely ones will find their peace and hence, all will feel that they are close to God.

The writings of Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff (1917–1979) offer a refreshing reassessment of Arab-Jewish relations in the Middle East. A member of the bourgeois Jewish community in Cairo, Kahanoff grew up in a time of coexistence. She spent the years of World War II in New York City, where she launched her writing career with publications in prominent American journals. Kahanoff later settled in Israel, where she became a noted cultural and literary critic.

Mongrels or Marvels offers Kahanoff's most influential and engaging writings, selected from essays and works of fiction that anticipate contemporary concerns about cultural integration in immigrant societies. Confronted with the breakdown of cosmopolitan Egyptian society, and the stereotypes she encountered as a Jew from the Arab world, she developed a social model, Levantinism, that embraces the idea of a pluralist, multicultural society and counters the prevailing attitudes and identity politics in the Middle East with the possibility of mutual respect and acceptance.

By writing The Committee (1981) Sonallah Ibrahim constructs a short novel in which the theme of “secret” is crucial. Step by step he portrays the protagonist’s society adding elements to a story that appears out of the ordinary and ends in the absurd. The relationship between writer and reader is in fact based on a gradual and incomplete disclosure of the knowledge that the former seems to want to reveal to the latter. The fundamental mechanism in the texture of the story is keeping identities and purposes secret, concealing possible truths but at the same time launching the protagonist in an exhausting search of clues and traces which are key issues in the modern Middle East history. The effects that certain events and situations have had and continue to have on the lives of Egyptians are associated with the enigmatic trials that a mysterious committee prescribes for an ordinary citizen. While the protagonist performs these tasks, images of a convulsive urban reality, marked by the policies undertaken in the Egypt of the seventies, run through the eyes of the reader, and an oppressive space takes shape. My contribution offers an interpretation of the novel which highlights the concept of secrecy in relation to the possible existence of a second reality, alongside the more obvious one (Simmel 1906), the maieutic strategy employed to arrive at the unveiling of the meaning, and the narrative structure regulated by a double direction process, on one hand the concealment and on the other the fragmentary revelation of information that apparently leads to the mystery’s solution, advancing and retreating with respect to the “essential secret” (Todorov 1971).

Remembering Cosmopolitan Egypt examines the link between cosmopolitanism in Egypt, from the nineteenth century through to the mid-twentieth century, and colonialism. While it has been widely noted that such a relationship exists, the nature and impact of this dynamic is often overlooked. Taking a theoretical, literary and historical approach, the author argues that the notion of the cosmopolitan is inseparable from, and indebted to, its foundation in empire.

Since the late 1970s a number of artistic works have appeared that represent the diversity of ethnic, national, and religious communities present in Egypt in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During this period of direct and indirect European domination, the cosmopolitan society evident in these texts thrived. Through detailed analysis of these texts, which include contemporary novels written in Arabic and Hebrew as well as Egyptian films, the implications of the close relationship between colonialism and cosmopolitanism are explored.

This comparative study of the contemporary literary and cultural revival of interest in Egypt’s cosmopolitan past will be of interest to students of Middle Eastern Studies, Literary and Cultural Studies and Jewish Studies.

Il testo si propone di trattare l’evolversi del genere autobiografico nella letteratura araba moderna, concentrandosi sulla peculiarità del caso egiziano, il paese dell’opera autobiografica canone per eccellenza, al-Ayyām di Ṭāhā Ḥusayn, dove con l’arrivo della spedizione francese di Napoleone Bonaparte nel 1798 gli egiziani e con loro tutto il mondo arabo vissero un nuovo scontro/incontro cruciale con l’Occidente, l’Altro per antonomasia. A partire da quella data, vari intellettuali egiziani, anche nei loro testi auto-biografici avviarono un lungo percorso di riscoperta del sé nello specchio e in luce della scoperta dell’altro, prima in Egitto come nel caso di ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ǧabartī (1753-1825), e poi a Parigi come nel caso di Rifāʿa Rāfiʿ al-Ṭahṭāwī (1801-1873), nel suo Taḫlīṣ al-ibrīz fī talḫīṣ Bārīz del 1834. Questa relazione complicata di amore e odio tra gli intellettuali egiziani e l’Occidente continuò anche dopo la morte di Muḥammad ʿAlī e la distruzione del suo progetto di modernizzazione, specialmente con l’arrivo di Ismāʿīl Pascià (1830-1895). In questa prospettiva si può leggere l’opera autobiografica di ‘Alī Mubārak (1824–1893), sia quella tradizionale nel suo al-Ḫiṭaṭ al-Tawfīqiyya, che quella romanzata in ‘Alam al-Dīn (1882). Ultimo, ma non meno interessante ed importante, merita maggiore approfondimento l’autobiografia di Muḥammad ‘Abduh (1849-1905). Il tutto in base ad un approccio analitico storico-comparatistico che s’impegna a leggere le varie forme di scrittura auto-biografica nel suo contesto storico, e in quanto un ponte tra il mondo delle idee e delle teorie e quello intimo e più vicino ai sentimenti e alle emozioni di una intellighenzia che con il suo impegno ha spianato la strada alla nahḍah, e alla generazione di Ṭāhā Ḥusayn ed i suoi compagni.

Ahmed Muharram is one of the modern Arab poets. In his poetry, he followed the neo-classical school pioneered by Barudi. Expressing both current events and personal experiences through his poems, Muharram believed that poetry should have a function in general. This functionality is directly related to the awareness that the poet raises in his own society. In this context, Muharram focused on the poetry of political and social themes. He was known in Arabic literature with this feature. However, the poet did not neglect to verse poems only related to his personal experiences and emotions. The diversity of the themes he deals with in his poetry and the many of his poems in almost every genre are important in terms of reflecting the period in which Muharram lived in all aspects.

Öz Bu çalıĢma, modern Mısır edebiyatında roman sanatının, dönemin sosyal ve siyasal hareketliliğiyle birlikte, kendi iç dinamiğinden kaynaklanan sebeplerle etkisinde kaldığı toplumcu gerçekçi akım yazarlarından Abdurrahmân eĢ-ġarkâvî'nin romanlarında toplumsal eleĢtiri unsurlarını ele alacaktır. Roman, kısa hikâye, Ģiir, inceleme ve araĢtırma yazarı Abdurrahmân eĢ-ġarkâvî (1920-1987), el-Ard (Toprak, 1954), eş-Şevâriu"l-Halfiyye (Arka Sokaklar, 1958), Kulûb Hâliye (Boş Kalpler, 1956), el-Fellâh (Çiftçi, 1967) adlı dört romanıyla, Mısır sosyal ve siyasî hayatının yaklaĢık otuz yılına ayna tutmuĢtur. Makalede, yazarın romanlarına yansıyan eleĢtiri unsurları romanların yazıldıkları dönem göz önüne alınarak incelenirken karakter tahlili, zaman, mekân ve anlatıcı gibi roman öğeleri dikkate alınmadan, eleĢtiri hedefleri ilgili baĢlıklar altında değerlendirilerek, eserlerin toplumcu gerçekçi unsurlarla uygunluğu incelenmiĢtir. Abstract This study will research elements of social criticism in the novels of Abdurraḥmān Al-Sharqawi, one of the authors of the socialist realist movement in the novel art of contemporary Egyptian literature which is influenced by the social and political conditions of Egypt. The novel, short story, poetry and study author Abdurraḥman Al-Sharqawi has demonstrated the social and political life of Egypt in the novels of al-Ard, (Earth, 1954), al-Shevari al-Halfiyye (Back Streets, 1958), Kulub Haliye (Blank Hearts, 1956), al-Fallah (Farmer, 1967). The aim of this article is to propound the social and political issues of Al-Sharqawi's novels, therefore his novels not to be considered in terms of novel art.

A Z Abushady was the founder of the Apis Club at Benson in Oxfordshire. He was the first editor of its journal which was first published in June 1919. That journal is this journal, Bee World. Here, from a manuscript in progress, his granddaughter gives some insight into the life of this interesting man.

У приповеткама Тумач жеља (Просвета, 2003, превео с арапског С. Лештарић), Селва Бакр (1949), друштвено и феминистички врло ангажована египатска књижевница, бави се маргинализованим житељима Каира и његових предграђа и њиховом свакодневном борбом с егзистенцијалним проблемима и изазовима, не само економске, већ и друштвене природе.
Због таквог књижевноуметничког усмерења Селву Бакр можемо сврстати у водећи пример ауторки које припадају такозваној генерацији седамдесетих египатске књижевности, а која је размеђу модернистичког и постмодернистичког израза искористила да се посвети проницљивој критици друштва која је и данас више него актуелна.
Кроз дескриптивно-аналитички приступ, у раду се бавимо начинима на које су представљени женски ликови у приповеткама у збирци Тумач жеља.

This paper, though unfinished, connects the Nubian Diaspora to the Nubian literature, in a way that illustrates how literature plays the role of the Nubian archive. How the forced and arranged obliteration of any trace of the Nubian heritage happened and is happening through out the years, and how this is also reflected through means of language, mobilization, and other cultural and political forms.

AGAINST (MISUSING) TRADITION: NAWAL EL SAADAWI’S NOVEL THE FALL OF THE IMAM

In her 1987 novel Suqut al-Imam (The Fall of the Imam) Nawal El Saadawi presents and criticizes the reality in an unnamed theocratic state which has many similarities to Egypt.
She deals with the problem of misusing tradition to oppress women. The sources of tradition, which usually are texts, can be divided into three layers: religious, secular (AraboIslamic) and Egyptian pre-Islamic. Intertextual references to these old texts and traditions show constant sources of women’s oppression which has various changing forms. Tradition is fixed as constant, but is challenged by at least two factors: the passage of time and Bint Allah, the novel’s main character. The opposition constant vs. changing is shown in the author’s literary technique: some events are repeated and assume various anifestations,
some characters change into others, both evil and God have more than one face.

Dr El-Qalamwai was a prominent literary figures in Egypt who influenced modern Arabic letters writers and critics in and out of the Middle East and Africa 50 years. was the lat of a generation of suffragettes of easy 20th century. A politician and tinker but was criticised for accepting Colonel Naser  dictatorial regime posts which she saw as an opportunity to improve the lot of women .

Öz Bu makalede, Mısır edebiyatında romantizm ve realizm yazarları için vazgeçilmez bir unsur olan köy insanının, toprak reformunun yapıldığı 1952 yılına kadar hikâye ve romanlardaki görüntüsü ele alınacaktır. Mısır halkının % 82'sini oluşturan çiftçi karakterinin toprak tutkusu, yaşam tarzı başta olmak üzere; Mısır'ın geçirdiği siyasî ve ekonomik şartların sonucu olarak ortaya çıkan fakirlik olgusunun ana temayı oluşturduğu bu romanlar, kullanılan dekor açısından da roman sanatının bütününde farklı bir yere sahiptir. Abstract Village Novels in Egyptian Literature This article concerns the literary image of Egyptian village people. Until 1952, when land reform was implemented, this image was an indispensable fact for authors of romance and realism in Egyptian literature. Novels and stories were based on farming people's way of life and ambition to have farmland, that is, on a group that comprised 82% of the Egypt populace. Poverty, along with Egypt's economic and political conditions, is the main theme of these novels. Thus the novels of Egypt have a unique place among literary novels.

"Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction", Volume 47.3, number 131, 2018 - a study of the evolving nature of Egyptian science fiction through a case study of the director of the Egyptian society for Science fiction, Dr. Hosam el-Zembely, and his three novels

Over the past ten years a multitude of Egyptian writers have produced a variety of fictional novels relating to the 2011-13 Egyptian uprisings, more commonly referred to as the Arab Spring. In this essay I primarily look into Mohamed Rabie's dystopian novel "Otared".

Öz Arap şiirinin kadim temalarından biri olan "medih", Cahiliye' den Modern' e tüm zamanlarda değişmez bir konu olarak şiirde yerini almıştır. Kimi zaman bir kabile reisinin, kimi zaman da bir şehrin övüldüğü bu "medhiye"lerden modern dönemde "Arap dili" de payını almıştır. Özellikle Mısır entelektü-elleri arasında 19. yüzyılın son çeyreğinden itibaren süregelen ve zaman-la kızışan "edebiyatta fasih-avam" tartışması Arap şiirine konu olmuştur. Napolyon'un 1798 yılında Mısır'ı işgali sonrası Arap modernizminin ortaya çıkışı ile halkçı ve reformist eğilimler bazı Arap aydınları arasında etkili olmuş ve halk dili olan Avamcanın yazı dili olarak kullanılmasına dair çağ-rılar yükselmeye başlamıştır. "Eski-yeni" ya da "fasih-avam" tartışmalarının gölgesinde bazı Arap şairleri teknolojik ve kültürel gelişmeler karşısında Arapçanın meziyetlerine ve yeniliklere uyum sağlayabilecek kapasitesine dair şiirler söylemişlerdir. Bu makalede, Arap şiirinde her ne kadar içerik olarak yeni bir konu olsa da aslında kadim bir tema olan "medih"in tezahürü * Dr. Öğr. Üyess, BBlecck Şeyh Edeball Ünnversstess, İslamm İllmler Fakültess, Temel İslam BB-llmlerr, Arap DDll ve Belâgatt Ana BBllm Dalı, adnan.arslan@bblecck.edu.tr orccd.org/0000-0002-3989-6612.

This talk visits four contrasting perspectives on the urban space of Downtown Cairo by the Greek poet George Seferis, the Palestinian scholar Edward Said, the Egyptian-Greek novelist Stratis Tsirkas and the Egyptian writer Radwa 'Ashour.  The talk was given at the book launch of Vittoria Capresi and Barbara Pampe, 'Discovering Downtown Cairo: Architecture and Stories, Berlin, Jovis, 2015', organized by Royal Holloway, University of London and the British Society of Modern Greek Studies.

In den 1990ern dominierte in Ägypten eine Literaturströmung, die sich radikal gegen jede politische und
ideologische Vereinnahmungwehrte. IhrThema war
das Ich, dem sie sich fiktional und autobiographisch
näherte, ihr Impetus lag auf der Freiheit der Kunst
und ihrer Macht. Mit den «neuen arabischen Bestsellern
» kehrte in den 2oooern die flguren- und ereignisreiche
Geschichte zurück. In unterhaltsamem
Tonfall bricht diese Strömung gesellschaftliche Tabus
und erobert sich so ein großes neues Lesepublikum.
Die junge ägyptische Schriftstellerirr Mansoura Ezz
Eid in hat unlängst mit ihrem zweiten Roman Jenseits
von Eden (2009, Wara'al-firdaus) ein bemerkenswertes
Werk vorgelegt, das beiden Strömungengleichermagen
verpflichtet ist: Jenseits von Eden ist ein breiter
Generationenroman über die (Un)Tiefen der Innerlichkeit
und die Suche nach sich selbst.

İsmail Sabri Paşa (1854-1923), Mısırlı bir neo-klasik şair ve devlet adamıdır. On dokuzuncu yüzyılın sonlarında, Mısır’da ulusal bir bilincin doğmasına katkı sağlamıştır. Ne var ki Sabri’nin neo-klasik şairler arasındaki önemi, ilk başlarda genellikle göz ardı edilmiştir. Mamafih ilerleyen süreçte hak ettiği ilgiyi yeniden görmeye başlamıştır. İsmail Sabri, çağdaşları tarafından Şeyhu’ş-Şu‘arâ’ yani Şairlerin Üstadı unvanıyla taltif edilmiştir. Karakteri, fıtratı ve şiirleri dikkate alındığında, onun özü itibariyle gerçek bir vatan şairi olduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Ülkesindeki işgal günlerine tanık olmuş ve bu deneyimi onun şairlik güdüsünü alevlendirmiştir. Mamafih Sabri, diğer birçok neo-klasik şairin aksine, siyasî düşüncelerini ifade etme hususunda yeterince açık sözlü olmayı başaramamıştır. Muhtemelen bu durum, kamu hizmetindeki yüksek pozisyonunun getirdiği sınırlamalardan kaynaklanmaktadır. İsmail Sabri’nin ılımlı bir milliyetçi olduğunu öne sürmek daha doğru olacaktır. Yahut başka bir deyişle, İsmail Sabri, Mısır’da gerçekleşecek olan Panislamizm’den Mısır milliyetçiliğine geçişte karşımıza çıkan tipik figürlerden birisidir. Sabri, modern Arap edebiyatının gerçek anlamda kültür sahibi olan ilk şairleri arasındadır. Ayrıca onun Mahmut Sami el-Bârûdî’den sonra siyasî şiirle ilgilenen ikinci kişi olduğu söylenmektedir. Keza o, Arap şiirine metafizik bir nitelik kazandıran ilk modern şairdir. Sabri’nin dikkate değer bireysel şiirleri, modern lirizmin başlangıcını temsil etmektedir. Fransız edebiyatıyla tanışmasının ardından, şiirin şairin hayatını ve fikirlerini yansıtması gerektiğini düşünmeye başlamıştır. Sabri, şairin birkaç beyitle yetinerek, anlatmak istediğini ifade edebilmesi gerektiğini savunmaktadır. Onun bu anlayışı, bir yenilik olarak değerlendirilebilir. İsmail Sabri, bu nedenle genellikle şiirlerini kısa tutmuştur. Sabri’nin şairliği, itiraf etmek gerekirse, oldukça uzun bir süre boyunca Ahmet Şevki’nin popülaritesinin gölgesinde kalmıştır. Öte yandan Sabri, Şevki kadar dikkat çekmeyi başaramasa da şairlik hususunda ona ilham vermeye muvaffak olmuştur. İsmail Sabri, Arap neo-klasik şiirinde çok önemli bir isimdir. Bu çalışmada, İsmail Sabri’nin hayatına uzunca değinmekten ziyade, onun neo-klasik şairliğinin tetkik edilmesi hedeflenmektedir.

Ismā‘īl Sabrī Pasha (1854-1923) was an Egyptian neo-classical poet and statesman. In the late nineteenth century, he contributed to the emergence of a national consciousness in Egypt. However, Sabrī’s importance among neo-classical poets was often overlooked at first. Nevertheless, he has started to receive the attention he deserves in the following period. Ismā‘īl Sabrī was honored by his contemporaries with the epithet of Shaykh al-Shu‘arā’, which means the Master of Poets. Considering his character, and poetry, it is understood that he was a real patriotic poet. He witnessed the days of occupation in his country and this experience motivated him to compose poetry. However, unlike many other neo-classical poets, Sabrī failed to be frank enough in expressing his political views. Presumably this was due to the limitations imposed by his high position in the public service. It would be more accurate to suggest that Ismā‘īl Sabrī was a moderate nationalist. Or in other words, Ismā‘īl Sabrī was one of the typical figures that we encounter in the transition process of Egypt from Pan-Islamism to Egyptian nationalism. Sabrī was among the first truly cultured poets of modern Arabic literature. It is also said that he was the second person interested in political poetry after Mahmūd Sāmī al-Bārūdī. He was also the first modern poet to give a metaphysical character to Arabic poetry. And we must say that, Sabrī’s remarkable individual poems represent the beginning of modern lyricism. After becoming acquainted with French literature, he began to think that poetry should reflect the poet’s life and ideas. He argued that the poet should be able to express what he wants to tell by being content with a few couplets. His aforementioned thought can be considered as an innovation. For this reason, Ismā‘īl Sabrī generally kept his poems short. Sabrī’s poetry was overshadowed by the popularity of Ahmad Shawqī for quite some time. On the other hand, although Sabrī did not manage to attract as much attention as Shawqī, he succeeded in inspiring him with his poetry. Ismā‘īl Sabrī was a very important figure in the neo-classical Arabic poetry. Therefore this study aimed to examine Ismā‘īl Sabrī’s neo-classical poetry rather than to dwell on his biography.

سلّطت أخيراً الضوء على ’مدينة «منف»  القديمة في «الخطط التوفيقيّة» لـ «علي ﭙـاشا مبارك»: «دراسة مقارنة بين المصادر التاريخيّة والمُكتشفات الأثريّة»‘، 
أما العدد الحالي فسأتناول فيه بالدراسة ما ورد في كتابات أبي الآثاريّين المصريّين، ’أحمد ﭙـاشا كمال‘ -حسب أقدمية صدورها- عن منف القديمة:
سكانها وأوجه عظمتها،
إداراتها وموظفيها،
معبوداتها وما يُمكن أن نستشفه -مما أورده- عن الدور الفلكيّ لكهنة معابدها؛
وذلك من واقع مقارنته بنتائج الدراسات الحديثة المتخصِّصة.