The story of Egyptian literature is nothing short of incredible! The kind of stuff we should be taught in school as part of the decolonization of education project.
The ancient Egyptians are considered to be the first culture to develop modern literature as we know it today. Texts from this period of African history were divided into two broad categories: religious texts like hymns, mythological texts, magical texts and mortuary texts; and areligious texts like instructive literature (known as "wisdom texts"), poems, what we might consider scientific treatises (like mathematical and medical texts), historical as well as biographical texts.
It's clear that the culture of reading and writing was well established (for the educated elite, anyway) much earlier than the era of the famous library of Alexandria. In fact, many of the texts that ended up in the great library were originally written during the Old and Middle Kingdom (2134 - 1668 BC).
With the rise of Christianity, many of these texts were destroyed as they were seen to teach and promote heresy. However, some important ancient texts were preserved in Egypt by some scholars.
After Egypt was conquered by Arab Muslims, the literature (and libraries) of Egypt thrived and saw a shift almost entirely to Arabic. The concept of a "blurb" dates back to this time and was known as a "taqriz" in medieval Arabic literature.
In fact, literary devices like similes, metaphors and alliteration can be traced back to ancient Egyptian literature.
Modern Egyptian literature is quite expansive and has seen a lot of development over the years. Recently, the shift as been towards writings about the expanding and ever changing Arab culture with a focus on the individual dealing with poverty as a result of rural-urban migration.
I have found three books from Egypt that I would like to read and I need some help deciding which to choose.
1. "Brooklyn Heights" by Miral al-Tahawy
This book tells the story of Hend and her eight-year-old son. They move to Brooklyn in New York City to escape a failed marriage and her family's restrictiveness.
While trying to build a new life for herself and her son, Hend has to deal with poverty, a job she does not like, relationships with men and following her dream of becoming an artist.
1. "Palace Walk" by Egypt's first Nobel laureate in literature, Naguib Mahfouz
This book is the first of Mahfouz's celebrated Cairo Trilogy. These three novels tell the story of a Cairo patriarch and his family over three generation. It represents three eras of socio-political life in Cairo.
Mahfouz examines issues of religion, education, women empowerment and plays a lot with the theme of "social progress being the inevitable result of the evolutionary spirit of humankind."
3. "Zeina" by Nawal el Saadawi
I was drawn to this book because of the beliefs and politics of the author, eighty-three-year-old feminist, activist, physician and psychiatrist Nawal el Saadawi. She has written numerous books on women in Islam, is a life-long activist for gender equality in Islam and has been critical of the Egyptian government as well the effect that American foreign policies and wars have on the rest of the world.
Zeina is her most recent novel. Published in 2011, it tells the story of a distinguished literary critic in Cairo who abandoned her illegitimate daughter, Zeina, when she was a university student. Zeina grows up to be one of Egypt's most beloved entertainers, while her biological mother is stuck in a loveless marriage and plagued with guilt.
