Elias Khoury’s Little Mountain

In the foreword to the translation of Little Mountain, Edward Said argues that Khoury's novel “in equal measure...derives and departs” from the Arabic novel, breaking with Naguib Mahfouz's realist style. As Said puts it “from this perspective Khoury’s work bids Mahfouz an inevitable and yet profoundly respectful farewell.” Said notes that in societies such as …

Zayni Barakat

Zayni Barakat, probably Jamal al-Ghitani's most famous novel, first published in serial form in the magazine Rose al-Yusif in 1971 and then in book form four years later in 1974, is set in Egypt in the 16th century, between the years 1516-17, when Ottoman armies defeated the forces of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultan Al Ghuri at the …

Hadith Isa Ibn Hisham

The Narrative of Isa Ibn Hisham or A Period of Time by Muhammad Muwaylihi which was first serialized and then published in book form in 1907 is often one of the texts referred to when it comes to the origins of the Arabic novel because of its narrative quality and (semi)realism when it comes to …