Bridging classical genres and the emerging tradition of modern Arabic fiction, What ¿Isa ibn Hisham Told Us is divided into two parts, the second of which was only added to the text with the fourth edition of 1927. Sarcastic in tone and critical in outlook, the book relates the excursions of its narrator ¿Isa ibn Hisham
and his companion, the Pasha, through a rapidly Westernized Cairo at the height of British occupation, providing vivid commentary of a society negotiating-however imperfectly-the clash of imported cultural values and traditional norms of conduct, law, and education. The "Second Journey" takes the narrator to Paris to visit the Exposition Universelle of 1900, where al-Muwayli¿i casts the same relentlessly 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 ¿Isa ibn Hisham Told Us is invaluable both for its sociological insight into colonial Egypt and its pioneering role in Arabic literary history.
A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
Dieser Download kann aus rechtlichen Gründen nur mit Rechnungsadresse in A, D ausgeliefert werden.