Essays and Features

Heads nodded in agreement, but the mood was somber. Halim Barakat had just kicked off a two-day conference on the Arab novel by noting that more than 100 Arabic novels had been translated into English. Alas, he said, they were seldom reviewed in literary journals, nor could you easily find them in your neighborhood bookstore.

Mahfouz wrote 45 books throughout his life, containing diverse artistic and cultural wealth within those works. Mahfouz’s writings displayed certain characteristic features which distinguish this comprehensive intellectual, observer, and visionary who expressed in his books an intellectual, modernist, and progressive position -- sometimes firm, sometimes flexible.

Al-Kharrat was born in 1926 in Alexandria to a Coptic Christian family.  At age 17 he became the household’s sole breadwinner following the death of his father, who was the owner of a small business. Despite his heavy responsibilities, al-Kharrat successfully completed a degree in law from Alexandria University in 1946. Two years later he was thrown in jail for belonging to a left-wing political group. He was released in 1950. 

Assia Djebar has broken new ground as she is the first Muslim North African woman to become an "immortal" or life-long member of the prestigious French Academy, founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu during the reign of King Louis XIII "to protect and monitor the French Language."