What ?Isa ibn Hisham Told Us : Or, A Period of Time Paperback / softback
by Muhammad Al-Muwaylihi
Part of the Library of Arabic Literature series
Paperback / softback
Description
Trenchant and witty critiques of life in Cairo under British ruleWhat ʿĪsÄ ibn HishÄm Told Us is a masterpiece of early twentieth-century Arabic prose.
Penned by the Egyptian journalist Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī, this highly original work was first introduced in serialized form in his family’s pioneering newspaper Miá¹£bÄḥ al-Sharq (Light of the East) and later published in book form in 1907.
Widely hailed for its erudition and mordant wit, What ʿĪsÄ ibn HishÄm Told Us was embraced by Egypt’s burgeoning reading public and soon became required reading for generations of school students. Bridging classical genres and modern Arabic fiction, What ʿĪsÄ ibn HishÄm Told Us is divided into two parts.
Sarcastic in tone and critical in outlook, the first part of the book relates the excursions of its narrator, ʿĪsÄ ibn HishÄm, and his companion, the Pasha, through a rapidly westernizing Cairo and provides vivid commentary on a society negotiating—however imperfectly—the clash between traditional norms and imported cultural values.
The second half takes the narrator to Paris to visit the Exposition Universelle of 1900, where al-Muwaylihi casts a critical eye on European society, modernity, and the role of Western imperialism as it ripples across the globe. Paving the way for the modern Arabic novel, What ʿĪsÄ ibn HishÄm Told Us is invaluable both for its insight into colonial Egypt and its pioneering role in Arabic literary history. An English-only edition.
Information
-
Out of stock
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:524 pages
- Publisher:New York University Press
- Publication Date:10/04/2018
- Category:
- ISBN:9781479840915
Other Formats
- EPUB from £29.52
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Information
-
Out of stock
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:524 pages
- Publisher:New York University Press
- Publication Date:10/04/2018
- Category:
- ISBN:9781479840915
