Mohamed Abdel-Hamid Degheidi has been carrying out research on the artistic elements of the poetic dramas of Salah Abdel-Sabour (1930 – 1981), the pioneer of the Egyptian movement of free verse in Arabic poetry. Degheidi’s study, published by the General Egyptian Book Organisation under the title Lughat al-Hiwar fi Ma’sat al-Hallag (The Language of Dialogue in al-Hallag Tragedy), analyses the rhetoric used by Abdel-Sabbour in his exceptional poetic drama Al-Hallag Tragedy in 1966. The tragedy draws heavily on the life and crucifixion of Jesus, and is divided into two parts Al-Kalima (The Word) and Al-Mawt (The Death).
Justice long ago
Throughout some 5,000 years Egyptians have taken their complaints and problems to the most senior person in the government possible, because they are totally confident that he is the fount of truth and justice. Justice in modern Egypt is reviewed in a new book edited by Professor Mohamed Saber Arab and prefaced by Ahmed Zakariya Shalaq. Al-Sulta wa Ard Halat al-Mazlumeen min Asr Mohamed Ali (1820 – 1823) (Authority and Case Reviews of the Oppressed in the Era of Mohamed Ali (1820 – 1823) is published by the National Archives of Egypt. When Mohamed Ali became ruler of Egypt in 1805, he said: “Egypt is a paradise on Earth. If God lets me live longer I will use that new life to reform Egypt’s regime.” The new book deals with ‘case reviewing’ by the ardhalgi (case reviewer) and how Mohamed Ali was careful to listen to every single case and follow it up himself. Ardhalgi is a word divided into three syllables: ard (review), hal (case) and gi (‘the person who does’, in other words ‘the person who reviews one’s case’). That person is professional at writing petitions, requests, legal protests and similar documents related to people’s cases to be presented to judges and lawmen. The book includes real situations, complaints and reports reviewed by the ardhalgi and presented to Mohamed Ali. It mainly aims to show the effective role played by the ardhalgi in honestly reviewing and transferring the cases of the underdog, and to register the exceptional system created by Mohamed Ali.
Ambergris Birds
Dar al-Shorouk has published a new novel by the novelist Ibrahim Abdel-Maguid. Toyour Anbar (Ambergris Birds) is the second of his planned three-part series on the various changes which have been taking place in Alexandria after the nationalisation of the Suez Canal in 1956. At the time thousands of long-term foreign residents were forced to leave the city; it was a turning point in the spirit and cosmopolitan atmosphere that were the city’s hallmarks. The first book in the trilogy was the well-received La Ahad Yanam Fil-Iskandariya (No One Sleeps in Alexandria).
The present Arab community
Sarkhat al-Ar (Cry of Shame) and Nawafith al-Eshtehaa’ (Windows of Desire) are two new books by the journalist Khairi Ramadan, dealing with some of the issues that have affected the Arab world over the past few decades. Both books are published by al-Dar al-Misriya al-Lebnaniya.
Palestinian papers
Nahdit Misr has published a new book entitled Al-Mawtu Fi Qamis al-Nawm, Awraq Falastinia fil-Siyaasa wal-Adab wal-Fann (Death in the Nightgown, Palestinian Papers in Politics, Literature and Art). Here writer and literary critic Ragaa’ al-Naqash looks at different points of view of the never-ending Palestinian struggle.
Democracy and dictatorship
The Arab Organisation for Translation has issued an Arabic translation of Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy by Barrington Moore. The author explores the political, social and economic change in Great Britain, France, the United States, China, Japan, and India, and tries to explain the history of the six countries and their social structures, some determining factors that laid the basis for their development and path to modernisation. He looks especially at how ready and open are these societies to develop and change and be willing to incorporate technology into their lives, and what factors in a society foster democracy, capitalism, fascism or communism.
In the first part of the book Moore travels back in time to as far as the 14th century. However, he focuses mostly on the history of the past 200 years. His emphasis is on the importance of a country’s history to understand in order to explain the shift and changes of power in society. In the second part, he concludes that the development of modernisation can be reached by three different paths. One road is democratic capitalism; Moore calls it the “bourgeois revolution”, which was the road that England took through the Puritan Revolution, the French through the French Revolution, and the United Stated through the Civil War. The second route is the capitalist route, which was the development that took place in Japan and Germany. Moore points out “in the absence of a strong revolutionary surge, it passed through reactionary political forms to culminate in fascism”. The last and third road is communism, were the main driving force of the revolution are the peasants, as in China for example. The book was translated by Ahmed Mahmoud.