The Culture of Fighting Words

Najeeb Mahfuz, Awlad Haretna (The Sons of Our ’Hood). This Nobel Prize winner knew how to anger the traditional religious establishment. Awlad Haretna first appeared in 1959 in al-Ahram, which remains Egypt’s leading newspaper. By December of the same year, protestors—mainly religious figures and conservatives—stopped al-Ahram from publishing parts of the novel. Not until 1962 was the first edition published in Beirut, Lebanon by Dar al-Adab, the foremost Arabic publishing company of the time. Dar al-Adab had more freedom to print controversial texts, offering refuge to many Arabic literary figures whose works were banned by their own states.

Awlad Haretna was not published in Egypt until 2006, by Dar al-Shuruq. Mahfuz’s first written works, published articles dealing mostly with philosophy—his main area of study—and God, date from as early as 1930. He never stopped airing his anger at the religious establishment, even after he was nearly assassinated by religious fundamentalists in 1994.

Muhammad Shukri, al-Khubz al-Hafi. This novel did not first appear in Arabic. An English version, translated in 1973 by Shukri’s friend, the author Paul Bowles, was published under the title For Bread Alone. The playwright Tennessee Williams wrote great things about this distinguished novel. Nearly a decade later, it finally appeared in Arabic. There are few novels from 20th century Arabic literature more read than al-Khubz al-Hafi, an autobiography from a trilogy detailing Shukri’s life after leaving his family at 11 to become a homeless prostitute among Tangier’s infamous criminal underworld. This book was banned in most Arabic countries for “street” language and explicit scenes of drug use and sex. When Shukri died in 2003, however, his native Morocco commemorated him with a state funeral. His works have since been widely revisited there.

Haydar Haydar, Waleema li-A’shab al-Bahr (A Banquet for the Seaweeds). Written by the Syrian Haydar, Waleema li-A’shab al-Bahr is about an Iraqi communist fighting his own government. He escapes and finds refuge in post-Independence / post-Revolution Algeria where his love affair angers the locals.

The first edition appeared in 1982. The novel received immediate attention thanks to its style, language, and originality. Initially, protests against Waleema li-A’shab al-Bahr were mild. Not until the year 2000, when the Egyptian Ministry of Culture printed the novel, did a religious cleric protest its language, putting it at the center of a vehement debate regarding religion and freedom of speech.

Al-Tayyeb Saleh, Mawsem al-hijra ila al-Shimal (The Season of Migration to the North). This Sudanese writer first published Mawsem al-hijra ila al-Shimal in 1966 in a magazine. Later the same year, it was printed as a book by Dar al-Awdeh in Beirut, Lebanon. Dealing with the East-West relationship, the story is told through the life of two characters. One marries an English woman and returns to Sudan as a lecturer. While in Sudan, he meets the novel’s other principal character, who reveals stories similar to his own.

Although banned in several countries for its sex scenes, Mawsem al-hijra ila al-Shimal is considered by many to be the best novel of 20th century
Arabic literature.