A CRITICAL STUDY OF TRADITIONAL THEMES IN MODERN EGYPTIAN DRAMA
by
A b d e l -H am i d I b rahim A bd e l - H a m i d SHIHA
In f u lf i l m e n t of the r e q u i r e m e nt s for the degree of
D octor of Philosophy
School of O r i ental and African Studies, U ni v e r s i t y of London
1 9 8 1 /1 9 8 2
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To the memory of my parents, who both departed while I was absent from them, striving to fulfil one of their greatest wishes*
A C R I T I C A L ST U D Y OF T R A D I T I O N A L THEMES IN M ODERN EGY P T I A N DRAMA
AB S T RA CT
There is a growing r ea li za t i o n that drama, since it first a p pe a r e d In the m i d - n i n e te en th ce n t u r y in Ar a b i c l i t e r a t u r e as an imported genre from the West, has come a long way to identify itself with the p a s t cultural t r a d ition of the Arabs. The aim of this t hesis is to examine the rise of t r a d i t i o n a l themes which over the years have come to c o n s t i t u t e an i m p o rtant part of
modern Egy p t i a n drama. In order to exp l a i n this process and its m a n i f o l d phases of d ev el op m e n t the study has
been p r o j e c t e d in eight chapters.
The first two c h a pters provide the general backgr o u n d to this thesis. Firstly, I deal with the. d r amatic e l ement in the l i t erary t r a dition to be found in the m a q a m a t and shadow plays in the h e r itage of Ara b i c drama in Egypt.
Secondly, I p r es e n t a general view of M odern A rabic litera t u r e , •d uring the r e v i v a l i s t m o v e m e n t that was m o ti v a t e d by p o li t i c a l and national c o n s i d e r a t i o n s .
A g a i ns t this setting, I have dealt with the app e a r a n c of drama and the p i o n e e r i n g efforts made to est a b l i s h it on the firm ground of tra d i t i o n as well as the r e asons for doing so. This early phase reached its c li m a x in
the poetic drarna of the important poet Ahmad Shawql,
«
whose c o n t r i b u t i o n as a ' d r a m a t i s t has been evaluated through a critical analysis of one of his best dra m a t i c works. It emerges from this study that Shawqi r e p r e s e n t s the natural m i d-way link between the early a t t empts and later phase of the full flowering of A ra b i c drama.
In the fourth chapter I have f o cussed my a t t ention on Tawfiq a l -H a k i m as the dom i n a n t figure in Ar a b i c drama up to now. Three major plays have been examined
t h o r o u g h l y in order to trace the i n f l u e n c e of the Arab- Islamic tradition upon his drama, and to stress the
n atural and ar t i s t i c fusion of certain el e m e n t s blended from two s e e mingly i n c o m p a t i b l e cultures: the O c c i d e n t a l and the Oriental.
The fifth chapter is concerned with an e v a l u a t i o n of the changes that occ u r r e d in modern A r a b i c poetry in order to meet the needs of drama, This Is followed by two ch a p t e r s which trace the impact of t r a d i t i o n on the themes of Ar a b i c verse drama. The first deals with the Sufi tra d i t i o n as revealed in one of the plays of Salah cAbd al-Sabur, a pro m i n e n t poet of the new mov e m e n t of A r a b i c poetry. The second shows how a t r a d i t i o n a l
h i s t o r i c a l n a r r ative serves the theme of reb e l l i o n In one of the plays of cAbd al-Rahman a l -Sharqawi, a writer
* with soc i a l i s t a f f iliations.
Finally, Chapter Eight provides a cri t i c a l ass e s s m e n t of the works studied above, and a d i s c u s s i o n of some of
the major ^.problems f acing A rabic drama in Egypt today.
To this has been added an A p p endix c o n t a i n i ng the r es o lu t io n s and r ec om m e n d a t i o n s of The A r a b i c Theatre C onference, held in Damascus in 1973, under the au s p i c e s of the O rg an i z a t i o n of Education, Culture and Sciences, of The Arab League,
6
TABLE OF C O N TENTS
A b s t r a c t
Table of Con t e n t s A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s
C h a p t e r I I ;
C h a p t e r I I I : C h apter IV:
Ch a p t e r V:
Chapter V I : I n t r o d u c ti o n
C h apter I: E l ements, of D rama in C l a ssical Tradition;
The Role of Maqamat and S ha d o w Plays in the H e r itage of Egyptian Drama
A General V i e w of M o de r n A r a b i c L i t e r a t u r e The B e g i n n i n g of Arabic Drama
ShawgT as a D r a matist
Tr a d i t i o n in Tawfiq al-tjak i m fs Drama A p l a y w r i g h t in the making
*Ahl a l - Kahf
Su l a y m a n al-Hakxm
«
al- S u l t a n a l - H a ’ir
• *
M o dern A rabic Poetry^ and Drama
Sufi Tradition and the I n t e l l e c t ual*s Pile mma
Chapter VII: Tradition ‘as a M e a ns of R e b e l l i o n in the Drama of cAbd al- R a h m a n al- S h a rqawi
C ha p t e r VIII: C r i tical A s s e s s m e n t
O r i g i n a l i t y and the D r a m a t i c Form Stages of Dev e l o p m e n t of the Relation between Drama and Tradition
Page
6 8
9 19
31 3 A 42 62 62 70 88
103 125 139'
171
206 212
The First Stage: T ra d i t i o n for A ss er ti ng Drama and Nat i o n a l Identity
The Second Stage: The Use of Tradition for C o m m u n i c a t i n g P h i l o s o p h i c a l and P ol i t i c a l C o ncepts The Third Stage: Tra d i t i o n and Verse
Drama
T r a d ition and the L a n guage of Ar a b i c Drama
Page 213
216
220
227
C o n c 1 u s i o n Append ix B ib l i o q ra ph y
238 242
244
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
I w ould like to express my d e epest g r a t i t u d e to the E g y ptian p eople for having g a l l antly and pa t i e n t l y
e ndured so much f in a n c i a l hardship in order to give stu d e n t s like my s e l f the p r i v i l e g e of studying abroad.
No words can a d e q u a t e l y d e s cribe my g r a t i t ud e to my s u p e r v i s o r Dr. M.A.S, cAbd a l « H a l e e m for his kindness,
4
wise guidance and e n c o uragement.
I N TR O D U C T I O N
As Ar a b i c drama is one of the most r e c e n t literary genres, as well as one of W e stern origin, one would not have expected the A r a b - I s l a m i c cultural h er i t a g e to have c on t r i b u t e d so much to its formation and evolution.
But as this study seeks to show, the A r a b - I s l a m i c tradition has been a major factor in e s t a b l i s h i n g and e n r i ching drama in Egypt right from the b eginning. This d e v e l o p m e n t is now con s i d e r e d not only a g reat a c h i e v e m e n t in modern Arabic literature, but in the h i st or y of Ar a b i c lit e r a t u r e as a whole.
What pro m p t e d me, in the first place, to choose this topic was the fact that my Masters Degree, which I did
ftfO-bic at Cairo U n i v e rsity, was on • A n d a l u s i a n ^ p o e t r y .
Studying this and other similar aspects of Ar a b i c cultural tradition since I was an unde r g r a d u a t e , led me to see
the wealth, div e r s i t y and potential role such tradition would play in m o dern A r a b i c literature.
My r e s earch has been concerned only with the study of the i n f l u e n c e of the formal, classical t r a d ition on modern Ar a b i c drama in Egypt. By the formal tradition I mean all c l a s sical works written in A ra b i c that r ep r e s e n t p a r t i c u l a r l i t erary aspects of the A r a b - I s l a m i c heritage.
These include, for instance, historical, m y s tical, l i t erary and r e l i g i o u s themes and nar r a t i v e s that form a u n i f y i n g force in this culture.
By d e f i n ition, therefore, Alf Layla wa Layla lies■■ BUH hi IIS'1111 beyond the scope of this study even though it has had an important impact on Ar a b i c drama from the very beginning, M o r e o v e r ,,Alf Layla wa Layla is g en e r a l l y con s i d e r e d part of popular tradition, and the influence of popular
t r a dition on A r a b i c prose drama in Egypt has already been the s u bject of research in the form of a Ph.D. t h esis by Dr. F a ’iq Mustafa Ahmad (published in Baghdad, 1980}.
* • •
A n o t h e r reason for confining my study to the impact of the formal t r a d ition on modern A r a b i c drama in
Egypt, is bec a u s e e x isting works which deal with drama in Egypt do not e m p h a s i z e a d e q u a t e l y the i m p o r t a n c e of this. These include o t h e r w i s e e xc e l l e n t st u d i e s such as Dr. Ahmad Shams al-Din a l - H a j j a j i ’s A l - U s t u r a fl al-
• • •
masrah a l- m i s r i al-mu asir (Myth in C o n t e m po ra ry Egyptian
I * i ^
Drama, Cairo 1975), and Dr. Ahmad Etm a n ' s A l - M a s a d i r al- K i la sl k i y y a l i - m asrah a 1 - Hakim (Classical So u r c e s of
■ «
Hakim's Drama, Cairo 1978).
There are several reasons why c o n t em po ra ry scholars have not paid s u f f i ci en t attention to s t u dy in g in depth the i n f l uence of the A r a b - I s l a m i c t ra d i t i o n on modern A r a b i c drama. This could be due to their lack of sp e c i a l i za t i on and deep u n d e r s t an di ng of the classical Arabic tradition. On the other hand, it may have been
due to a l o n g s t a n d i n g m i s c o n c e p t i o n of the relation between Arabic t r a d ition and drama. They p r o b a b ly considered that a We s t e r n form such as drama could not be r e c o n c i l e d with a t r a dition from which it was absent.
Furt h e r m o r e , it should also be pointed out that there are w e l l -k no wn E g y ptian p l aywrights, such as
Yusuf Idris and N u cman cAshur, who have not been i n f l uenced by formal, tradition in their plays. Their main p r e
o c c u p a ti o n so far, has been with wr i t i n g plays and c o m edies on social and r e a listic subjects which are
c o m m er c ia l l y s uccessful. In addition, they have adhered to the use of Egy p t i a n c olloquial in their plays which c on f l i c t s with t r a d i t i o n a l themes and n a rratives. By a d o pting this a p proach their works have become dated and c o n fined only to the social e n v i r o n m e n t in which they were written. In contrast, those p l a y w r i g h t s who have been i n f l u e n c e d by and ass o c i a t e d t h e ms e l v e s with the formal tradition, have produced works that were topical, timeless and more end u r i n g in the hi s t o r y of modern
Arabic literature.
A l t h o u gh many d r a ma ti c works by CA.A. B a k athir have been greatly inf l u e n c e d by the A r a b - I s l a m i c tradition, these have been a d e q u a t e l y studied by M.A. Tawfiq in his Ph.D. Thesis entitled cAli Ahmad Bakathir: a Study of
I siamic C o m m i t m e n t in Modern A rabic L i t e r ature (Manchester University, 1980). Instead I have f o c ussed my attention on the drama of Tawfiq al- H a k l m as he is not only the
*
most o ut s t a n d i n g p l a y w r i g h t ever in A ra b i c drama, but also b e cause of both his acute a w a r e n e s s of the Arab- Islamic t r ad i t i o n and his great k n o wledge of European drama. Moreover, he is the most i n f l u e n t i a l figure in
the d e v el o p i n g and shaping of the various trends in modern Arabic drama through his tre m e n d o u s creative works.
With regard to the method of study emp l o y e d in this thesis, I have chosen to concen t r a t e in depth on a few, r e pr es e nt a t iv e works rather than tackle broadly
a larger number. In the plays I have selected, I have traced the i n f l uence of the classical tradition in detail and
have c on s u l t e d many c l a ssical sources r a nging from religious and mystical, to histor i c a l and literary.
This task has long been neglected and I c o n sider myself f o r t unate to have made this modest c o n t r i b u ti on . One of the most exc i t i n g parts of my r e s earch was i n ve st ig at in g the fusion of A r a b - I s l a m i c classical t r ad it io ns on the one hand, and modern W e stern drama on the other.
This fusion is app a r e n t in the i n t e g r a t i o n of classical m a terial with W es te r n d r a m a t i c forms. However, I would also like to stress that this process oc c u r r e d naturally, thus showing the rel e v a n c e and a d a p t a b i li ty of the
classical tra d i t i o n to modern r e q uirements. This may
seem unusual given the fact that drama - as we know it now - did not exist in Arabic lit e r a t u r e until the m i d - n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y .
The plan I have adopted consists of d e aling (in the first chapter) with the dra m a t i c el e m e n t s contained in the C l a ssical tradition, w h ether formal or popular, in order to show that these e l e ments- namely the maqamat and shadow plays - paved the way for the g ra f t i n g of W e stern
d ra m a t i c forms onto Ara b i c literature. The chapter also e m ph a s i z e s that drama is a We s t e r n genre which was
adopted b e cause e x i sting e l e ments were i n s u f f ic ie nt on their own,,to p r oduce a major literary genre of this nature.
In the second chapter I have given an overall view of m o de rn A r ab ic lit e r a t u r e and the b e g i n n i n g of the revival movement. This covers the r e vival of modern Arabic poetry led by al - B a r u d l and the p u b l i c a t i o n of classical works which coincided with the app e a r a n c e of drama. Thus we find that the pi o n e e r s of Ar a b i c drama came into direct contact with these c l a s s i c a l sources.
F u r thermore, b e cause of the desire to e s t a b l i s h the new genre in an Arab milieu and to win pub l i c acceptance,
early Ar a b i c drama had to rely on f am i l i a r ma t e r i a l from Ar a b ic culture. So far as national feeling is concerned, wr iting h i st o r i c a l plays w h i c h deal with the heroes of the Islamic past was an answer to the p o l i t i c a l challenge of the t u r b u le n t age.
The third c h apter deals with S ha wq l as a clear e m b o d i me nt of this new o r i e n t a t i o n not only in poetry but also in drama. I have studied t h o r o u g h l y M a jnun L ayla in order to show Shawql as a d r a m a t i s t and to assess his c on tr i b u t i o n to Ar a b i c verse drama. It b ecame clear
that, alt h o u g h this trend r e f lected a s u p er fi ci al relation between Arab p l a yw ri gh ts and their c la s s i c a l tradition, the fact remains that their c o n t r i b u t i o n cannot be ignored as they dee p e n e d the f o l lowing g en er at io n' s a wa r e n e s s of their own culture, and how they could b en e f i t from it,
With regard to Shawql it is not s u r p r i s i n g that he should have been p r e o cc u p i e d by tradition, as he was
himself a talented t r aditionalist. But wh a t is unusual is that p l a y w r i g h t s such as Tawfiq al-Hakim, Salah
• t i
C ** C -t n
Abd al-Sabur'.and Abd al-Rahman a l - S h a r qa wi should have
• «
e n d ea v o u r ed to make full use of t r a d ition in drama.
Hakim, in spite of abs o r p t i o n of W e stern culture, has
«
managed to r e co n c i l e Western and Eastern m e n ta li ti es through the c h a nnels of drama. Sabur, in spite of being one of the main leaders of the revolt a ga i n s t A r abic t r a d ition in prosody, and.of having been st r o n g l y
i nf l u e n c e d by T.S. Eliot in his works, s t r e n g t h e ne d his ties with t r a d ition in his poetry and his drama, Finally
Sharqawi, a w riter of soc i a l i s t a f f i l i a t io ns who adopted r ev o l u t i o n a r y ideas in his works, s u c c e e d e d in linking these ideas with c o rr es po nd in g aspects of Isl a m i c tradition.
In the light of these unusual phenomena, the f ol l o w i n g c h a pters invest i g a t e the impact of tradition upon the works of these three playwrights.
The fourth chapter is devoted e x c l u s i v e l y to a di s c u s si on of three works by Tawfiq a l - Ha ki m which
«
re p r e se nt three dis t i n c t themes entirely d e p e n d en t on the classical A r a b - I s l a m i c tradition. His use of such sources in these works reflects the d i v e r s it y of his reading and his a wa r e n e s s of the p o t e n t i a l i t i e s of the Islamic i n t e ll ec tu al heritage. In addition, the chapter brings out the fusion of his p h i lo so ph ic al concepts with
t r a di ti o n al themes, and also provides a c ri t i c a l ana l y s i s of them from a d r a m a ti c point of view. The result is a ref l e c t i o n of H a k i m ' s steady develop m e n t , as well as the major impact he had made on his c on t e m p o r a r i e s and s u c c e s s o r s .
Ch a p t e r Five c o n c e n t r a t e s on the ef f o r t s made to reform A r a b ic p oetry in order to fulfil the r e q u i r e m e n t s of drama. In this con n e c t i o n the A r a b i c t r a d i t i o n has been a major source of ins p i r a t i o n for b r i n g i n g about these changes. Again, B ak a t h i r ' s p i o n e e r i n g e x p e r i m e n t s in
Ara b i c p r osody and verse drama were an im p o r t a n t factor in d i re ct in g the new m ov e m e n t of A r a b i c poetry. The chapter c o ns id er s this m o v e m e nt as an a d d it io n to the poetic tra d i t i o n of the Arabs rather than as a revolt a g ainst it.
Cha p t e r s Six and Seven deal with two important
verse drams by Salah c Abd al-Sabur and cAbd al-Rahman al-
« < « •
Sharqawl. These two works draw upon m y s ti ca l and
h i s t o r ic al sources resp e c t i v e l y , to show the dilemma and p light of the modern artist. T r a d i t i o n has provided the d r a matic theme for both plays so as to reflect the p ol i t i c a l p r e o c c u p a t i on of the E g y p t i a n people in general, and of the i n te l le ct ua ls in p ar t i c u l a r . The use of tra d i t i o n as a mask for launching a p ol i t i c a l a s sault against an o p p re ss i ve regime, and as an e x p r e s s i o n of d is sa t i s f a c t i o n with p r e v a i l i n g p o l i t i c a l and social c ir c u m s t a n c e s in Egypt, has proved its r e l e v a n c e to
modern needs. The i n v e s t i g a t io n of c on te m p o r a r y verse drama d e m o n st r a te s that - while being a p p e a l i n g to the general pu b l i c - it is also up to the s t a n d a r d s of high quality theatre. Further m o r e , drawing on the A r a b - I s l a m i c tr a d ition has given it a new and d i s t i n c t i v e dimension both ar t i st ic al l y and nationally.
In the a b o v e - m e n t i o n e d chapters I have presented a brief ac c o u n t of each p l a y w r i g h t concerned, how his works developed, and his approach to tradition. The con c l u s i o n that may be drawn from these accounts is that the w r iters share a common view reg a r d i n g the i m p o r t a n c e and re l e v a n c e of tra d i t i o n to the mat u r i t y of modern A r a b i c literature.
The final chapter c o n tains a c ri t i c a l a s se ss me nt of the art i s t i c use of t r a d i t i o n a l m a terial in c o n t e m p o r a r y drama, and its m a n i f o l d phases of d e v e l o p m e n t over the years. The chapter also provides a d i s c us si on of the calls for cre a t i n g a purely Egyptian d r a m at ic form, in contrast to the imported one. This study tries to prove that there is no need to have an e nt i r e l y local form, so long as the existing one Is s u i tably adapted to meet our literary requirements. Nor is there any c o n t r a d i ct io n in using a Western fo r m of drama so long as the o r i g i na li t y of the A r a b - I s l a m i c cu l t u r a l heritage prevails. I have also considered in this chapter the p r o blems of st a g i n g some of these works, and have shown that the reasons for these d i f f i c u l t i e s were neither inherent in the plays t hemselves nor in tradition, but
lay In the general c i r c u m s t a n c e s of the the a t r e world in Egypt.
There is also the c o n t r o v e rs ia l q u e st io n of whether Classical 'or c o l l o q u i a l Ar a b i c should be used. This has been a d eq ua t el y resolved in the works s t udied here. By insisting on the use of Classical A r a b ic In their plays, the wri t e r s under d i s c u s s i o n have a c h ieved an overall orig i n a l i t y . This has been done through tre a t i n g an original c o ntent in an o r i ginal language, which in this case is sound l it e r a r y Arabic.
In 1973 a c on f e r e n c e was held in D a m a s c u s to r e view the a ch ie v e m e n t s of the A r a b i c theatre. It put forward plans and r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s that closely c o nf or m with most of the c o n cl u si on s reached In this study. A copy of these r e s o lu ti on s can be found at the end of my thesis,
I hope my r es e a r c h will contribute, at least in part, to the p r o gr es s and pr o m o t i o n of A r a b i c drama.
I also hope that it will prove to be a s t a r t i ng point for further pe r s o n a l i n v e s t i g a t i o n into the r e l a ti on between the modern Arab p la yw r i g h t and the C l a s s i c a l tradition.
CHAPTER I
ELEMENTS OF DRAMA IN CLASSICAL TRADITION;
The Role of Maqamat and Shadow Plays in the H e ri t a g e of Egyptian Drama
1 9
Many s c h o l a r s have come to the c o n c l u s i o n that
classical Ar a b i c lit e r a t u r e contains some d r a m a t i c elements, These el e m e n t s can be found in c l a s sical works like the m aq a m a t Of a l - H a m a d h a n x (358-98, 967-1008) and al-Hariri
(4-46-516, 1054-1122) and in shadow plays.
The s i g n if i ca nc e of the m a qamat in this respect is that they are based on two main cha r a c t e r s from b e g i nning to end. Firstly, there is the hero wh o s e a d v e n t u r e s and tricks are due to his eloquence, quick wit, and deceit.
These c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s e nable him to free h i mself from
u n pl ea s an t situations. Secondly, there is the nar r a t o r who follows the hero e v er yw h e re in order to reveal his tricks and relate a n e c d o t e s about him.
O bviously, e n t e r t a i n m e n t was the main aim in c om p o s i n g the maqamat, but the fact r e m a i n s that they
contain a c on si d e r a b l e amount of social criticism. Moreover, some of the m aq a m a t are skilfully c o m posed in a way which includes "em b r y o n i c plays that could have been dev e l o p e d into the a t r i c a l p e r f o r ma nc es once acting had been allowed." (2 )
(1) See for example:
CA1I al-Ra'I: funun al-K u m i d i y a min Khayal al-Zill ila
, *
Najlb al-Rlhanl, Cairo, 1971; passim;
M. Rushdi Hasan: athar a l - m a q am ah fi n a s h ’at a l- q i s s a h
* * ' ^
a l -m i s r i y a h a l- ha di t h a h , Cairo, 1974;
p a s s i m ;
M. Yusuf Najm: a l - q issah fi al-adab a l - c arabi a l - Hadith 1870-1914, Beirut, 1966, passim,
(2) a l - R a c x: op . p i t ., p . 48,
T h e |?*^hifc»tionof acting on r e l i g i o u s g r ounds could
not have been the case because the Ar a b s have p e r p e t r a t ed things that are en t i r e l y forbidden and have openly spoken of them 'in their poetry. F u r t h e r m o r e there is evidence that the Arabs became a c q u ainted with ac t i n g as early as the third century of the Hijra, when the Shiites re- enacted the tragic death of al-Husayn. f 1)
%
But since the Arabs lacked any k n o w l e d g e of Greek drama and showed no d ra m a t i c awareness, and since they had been i n f a tu at e d by lyrical poetry one would not have
ex p e c t e d further develop m e n t . Even w h e n ' t h e y t r a n slated A r i s t o tl e ' s book P o e t i c s , which an a l y s e s the function and struct u r a l p r i n c i p l e s of tragedy and comedy, they were misled by the title to the extent that they c o r r e l a t e d its
( 2 )
c o n tents to A r a b i c p o et r y . Had they u n d e r s t o o d the book, as they did other works, it might have r a d i cally c hanged the course of A r abic literature.
In this respect one would agree with T.S. Eliot that the th e a t r e is "a gift which has not been vou c h s a f e d to every race, even of the highest culture. It has been given
—rn —---¥• Tf - t r ra——ni n— ~ n —ir>— r*i—riiiri i ' n i t~*i—r i n r r T~r~—n* i~rn ri ’>~ —i~ra~~rr — r it <“Tifm—n i n T im ii‘"ri ---n~i-~r~ ht~h~ • ri f i —r—vt~ rrr~ir-~ — i - —
(1) For details see:
cAlI a l -Zubaydi: a l - ma sr a h i y a h a l - c ar a b i y a h fi al-Iraq,
m
Cairo, 1967, p p . 11-12.
c Umar al-Dusuqi: a l - m a s r a h i y a h , 3rd edition, Cairo,
, _ _• _
n , d ., p p .15-1^.
(2) c A b d u l - R a h m a n Badawi: Aristufca-lIS,fann a l - 5 h i c r, Cairo, 1953, pp , 5 5 -<S.
M uh a m m a d S. Salim: talkhis kitab A r i s t o t l e fi a 1- S h 1 r .
^ n-rr rr-i-nv-.i jrn i"i i «- v— , i
Cairo, 1971, p. 5 6 , p . 73.
to the Hindus, the Japanese, the Greeks, the English, the French, and the Spanish at moments; in less measure to the T e utons and S c a n d i n a v i a n s " . ^ ^ Indeed it was not given tp the Arabs at the height of their culture.
The m a q a m a t failed to lead to any dra m a t i c d e v e l op me n t but this was not because of "religious
o b je c t i o n to the por t r a y a l or r e a l i s t i c r e p r e s e n t a t i o n of
(2)
life or the human form"j such an e x p l a na ti on has been suggested b e ca u s e of the fact that P oe t i c s s t ressed that drama was the i m i t ation of human action and not merely a r ea l i s ti c r ep r e s e n t a t i o n of it.
Instead there are two other I m p o r t an t reasons behind the a b se n c e of dra m a t i c development. Firstly, within the maqamat itself, an ornate and elevated style and rhymed prose are e s s e n t i a l features. This p o m p o u s l a n guage casts doubts on the m a q a m a t ’s ability to p e n e t r at e deeply in e ve r y - d a y life or to be c o m p r e h e n s i b le to all. Secondly, the p eriod fol l o w i n g the creation of the m a q a m a t is marked in Ar a b i c l i t e r a r y history as a period of decline in cultural a ctivities. If it had emerged in the second century of the Hijra for instance, as a critic rightly p oints out, "it would indeed have made the desired p r o gress
(1) T.S. Eliot: S e l ected E s s a y s , London, 1976, p . 70.
(2) W.3. Prender g a s t : The Maqamat of B a d i c a l - Zaman al- Hamadhani, London, 1973, p . 15.
given an a p p r o p ri a t e environment".
One is inclined to admit here that the maqamat, as a new genre, r e p r e s e n t s a turning point in c l a s sical A rabic lit e r a t u r e for one reason that the A r a b i c h e r i t a g e which had r e ached it was full of casual tales and stories wit h o u t any s i g n i fi ca n t technique, "yet they are not lacking in
( o )
simplicity, realism, and vitality". ' But it is in the maqamat i tself that such tales and stories show a higher technique, a tec h n i q u e which adapts some d r a m a t i c elements in de a l i n g with a unified .subject and in e m p l oy in g a degree of c h a r a c t e r - a n a l y s i s through the whole work.
A l t ho ug h i m i t a t i o n s of the maq a m a t have been numerous, nev e r t h e l e s s , they have c o n t inued in the same way, e m p l o y i n g the same method, and using the same h i gh -f lo wn language
which was c o m po se d to be read by a c e r t a i n class of society and which held no interest for o r d inary people. These points, in a d d ition to the decline in cul t u r a l activities, as m e n t io ne d above, seem to have made the people seek
other means of e n t e r t a i n m e n t . This was p a r t i c u l a r l y so when one bears in mind that the social climate was less r e s t r i c t e d than it had been before or at least the time was ripe to
(1)
(2 )
F. Abu ,1 - S u cu d : ^al-qasas/f I aJ.-adabayn a l - carabi wa$l-
’ ingllzi I al - R i s a l a , Vol. I, 198, 1937, p p . 651-4*.
M. damil Sultan: Fann a l - q issah wa 1.1 - m a q a m a h , Beirut,
* *
1967, p . 18. Even in the Q u r ’an it s e l f there are many h i s t o r i c a l events related in s t o r y - s t y l e , besides the sura called "al-Qasas" (The Story).
concede to some kind of foreign influence, as we shall see with the s h ad o w theatre.
The shadow t h eatre had long been a tr a d i t i o n in the Far East, n a m e l y in China and.Java. However, in spite of the close links bet w e e n the West, and East of the Mus l i m world, it is d i f f i c ul t to explain the ab s e n c e of this art in the Middle East. The M o ngols "if not the very first to pass it on from the Far East to the I s l a m i c world were, at any rate, i m p o rt an t t r a n s m i t t e r s " , ^ ^
It seems that a good balance had been m a i n t a i n e d in Egypt b e tween the r e l i g i o u s r e q u i re me nt s and the new ideas which oc c u r r e d in ^cultural movements. For Egypt was the first to acc e p t the shadow theatre as a p r a c t i c a l me d i u m which was a c c e p t a b l e to all modes of tho u g h t w i thout
u p s e t t in g the balance. It was in m e d ia ev al E gypt that the s hadow the a t r e was dev e l o p e d and given a local touch and the fl a v o u r of her people's nature. In general, the shadow t h eatre was known during the M a m e lu ke period and
"it had a w i d e s p r e a d effect among the people, who took it as a means of e n t e r t a i n m e n t and mo c k e r y as well as a s atirical way of r e l i e v i n g their worries". (2 )
(1) J.M, Landau: 'Shadow Play in The Near East', from E D O T H , Vol. Ill, n o . 1-2, Jerusalem, p . 172.
(2) M. Zag h l u l Sallam: al-Adab fi a l - c asr al-mamluki,
*
Cairo, 1971, I, p . 291.
E n c o u ra g e d by these c i r c u ms ta nc es Shams al-Din M u h ammad ibn Danyal (646-711^ I248-1311), an Iraqi who lived in Egypt, was the first to a p p ro ac h the field of real drama .
W hile «bn Danyal himself was a great admirer of the m a qamat in general and a l - H a riri's in p a r t i cular, he was
m m m m m *
also a man of c o n s i d e r a b l e a r t istic sensiti v i t y . He was a poet who d e voted most of his ability to d e p i c ti ng the daily life of his time, as it was lived by ordinary people. ^ ^ He i n t e l l i g en tl y n o ticed the fai l u r e of the m a q a m a t to be t r a n s p o s e d as live shows and the need felt by the m a s s e s for a p o p u l a r kind of e n t e r t a i n m en t. Therefore
- - (2)
he set hi m s e l f to write his b a bat or plays.
Three plays were the ou t c o m e of his attempt: the first play "Tayf a l - K h a y a l " is about a p e n n i l e s s soldier called P r i n c e Wisal who wishes to get m a r r i e d since he has
*
become fed up with the o u t r ageous and sinful life he has been leading. So he asks his companion, Tayf al-Khayal, to help him find the right woman through *Umm Rashid, the m a t c h - m a k e r (and a p ander in the mea n t i m e ) . The latter s uggests a di v o r c e d woman whom she d e s c r i b e s as "the
b r i g h t e s t sun". Wisal agrees and the c e r e m o n y takes place When he lifts the veil from his bride's face he is
(1) I b i d . , II, p . 168.
(2) P u b l i s h e d by Ibrahim Hamadah under the title:
Khayal al-Zill w a - t a m t h i l i y a t Ibn D a n y a i , Cairo, 1963
3 5'
con f r o n t e d by a monster, Wisal faints from the u n e x pected d i s aster and t h r e at e ns to take his r e v e n g e on the m a t c h maker, But when he learns of her death, he decides to atone for his sins by making the Pilgri m a g e ,
The second play n Ajib wa-*Gharib" starts in a m a r k e t c place with Gharlb, a d e s c e n da nt of a n oble Persian family known to the Ar a b s as Banu Sasan, Gharib r e calls the good old days of his past family, showing t ricks he uses in order to make his living. Other t ra d e s m e n also appear to di s p l a y their exotic wares.
The play re v i e w s quite a number of f i g u r e s derived from life, r e p r e s e n t i n g various types of p r o fe ss io ns in a way that r e minds us of the m a q a m a t ’s heroes. There is no a ction in this play and the author f reely a p p r o a c h es life from a br o a d e r per s p e c t i v e .
The third play " a l - M u t a y y a m " deals with the l o v e - a f f a i r of the man in the title-role. It is not p l a to ni c love
as we know in some cla s s i c a l works, but v ulgar e xp er ie n c e s of illicit love rel a t e d in erotic songs. Again this play i l l u s t r a t e s p o p u l a r e n t e r t a i n m e n t s such as c o c k - f ig ht s and r am-fights, be s i d e s the social vices which were p r e v a l e n t at the time.
To i n d icate the i m p o r t a n c e of Ibn Da n y a l ' s plays, it is n e c e s s a r y to sum up their d r a ma ti c f ea t u r e s as can be seen from the summary above.
The shadow plays are based e n t irely on scenes taken from real life in order to be p e r f o r m e d before an audience, a fact that is s t r essed by the author h i m s e l f in the
p r o l o g u e . T o serve this p u rpose he took "the e l a bo ra te ly
(2)
pi c tured l i f e MV of the market, for instance, as a setting for his second play. What makes Ibn D an y a l ' s plays so highly d i s t i n g u i s h e d in classical l i te ra tu re is their abi l i t y to c o m m un i c a t e easily with the lower classes in society, while o ther works, such as maqamat, were unable to do so. They are, by any account, a p r o d u c t of their time, where we can catch a glimpse of the way of life in med i a e v a l Egypt just as we can still see some of its r e f l e c t i o n s
in mo d e r n Egypt.
In a dd i t i o n to this, there are p o l i t i c a l und e r t o n e s and s a t irical remarks made to p r otest a g a i n s t the
a d mi ni s t r a t i o n of S ultan Baybars (659-76, .1260-77) . In spite of their e xc es si v e n e s s or, as a scholar puts it, their " un in hi b i t e d bawdiness", the plays, nonetheless, are "very lively and colourful pieces and, for their time,
(5)
rather daring social and p o l itical satire". 1
In order to p e rform the plays before an audience, the lan g u a g e must not be as lofty as that of the maqamat,
(1) I b i d . , p . 144.
(2) Landau, op . c i t . , p.169.
(3) A. R ushdl Salih: al-Masrah a l - cArabi, Cairo, 1972, p,31.
(4-) Farouk Abdel -Wahab: Modern Egy p t i a n Drama, Chicago,
^miiiiM nn n ■ m |i III n T 11 V n w t t i ii ■!> rrr~ 1 i f i ~ 1 l
197*1-, p . 1 6 . (5) Ibid., p . 16.
2 7
and di a l o g u e should vetry from character to c ha r a c t e r a c c o rd in g to his social and cultural status. In this
c o n n e ct io n Ibn D a n y a 1 turned skilfully to popular sources so as t o ^ bring out their rich e xp r e s s i o n s and folk-songs, and w rite his plays in a language c o m p o u n d e d of cla s s i c a l and c ol l o q u i a l Arabic.
However, he could not resist the t e mp ta ti on of using rhymed prose which was common in all inh e r i t e d wri t i n g s at that time and which must have r e s t r i c t e d his ability to tackle the si t u a t i o n deeply or to take full a d v a n ta ge of the popular sources. In the m e a ntime his l a n guage had u n f o r t u n a t e l y d e c lined in many parts c o n n e c t e d with erotic and vulgar scenes and these had to be om i t t e d by the
p u b l isher. ^ ^
Having e s ta bl is he d its roots in E g y p t i an soil, the shadow theatre spread wes t w a r d s to North A frica and
n o rt hw ar ds to Syria and Turkey. Sultan Salim I, who
i n c o r p or at ed Egypt into the Ottoman e mpire in 1517, wa t c h e d a p er f o r m a n c e of a shadow play r e p r e s en ti ng the ha n g i n g of the last M a m el uk e sultan and took so much de l i g h t in the p e rf or m a n c e that he asked a troupe of p l a y e rs to come to
( 2
)
Istanbul, so his son could watch it. It was, in fact,
(1) I. Hamadah: op . c i t . , p . 129.
(2) Ibn ’Iyas: bada°i a l - Z u h u r , Cairo, 1312 AH, III, p . 125;
Landau: o p .c i t ., p . l 6^;
Metin And: A History o f Theatre and Popular E n t e r t a i n m e n t in Turkey, ftrfkara , 19 6^, p. 3 4-;
Hamadah: op . c i t . , p .62,
*>
one of many i n c i d e n t s that have been m en ti on ed in his t o r i c a l r e f e r e n c es about the Egyptian b ra in -d r a i n to Turkey.
It is not w ithin the scope of this study to trace the way by wh i c h the shadow theatre took the form of K ar a g d z in Turkey, ^ ^ Nor are we able to search for its origin. The K ar a g d z is simply a Turkish version of the shadow theatre, no more no less. (2 ) However, e v i dence of mutual c u l tural e x c hange would explain the a p p e a r a n c e of the Turkish K a ragdz in Egypt which later became a c o m p l e t e l y d i f f e r e n t Eg y p t i a n type of mime known as Araguz.
Finally, the shadow theatre has become a part of Arabic cul t u r e in general, and of E g y ptian c o n s c i o u s n e s s in part i c u l a r . It can also be c o n s i d e r e d as a mere link between c l a s s i c a l A rabic lit e r a t u r e and m o d e r n drama. But, h o wever i m p o r t a n t this link may be, the b e g i n n i ng of
modern Egy p t i a n drama, as we know it now, is due to W e s t e r n influence.'
N e v e r t h e l e s s the tradition d eeply rooted in the E g y ptian c o n s c i o u s n e s s had paved the way for t r a n sition
to the W e s t e r n theatre. This may have been what Yusuf ’Idris (1927- ), a p r o m i n e n t Egyptian short story wr i t e r and
playwr i g h t , had in mind when he p u b l i s h e d a series of three a r t i c l e s entitled 'Towards an Eg y p t i a n T h e a t r e ’ in
(1) For det a i l s see: Me t i n And, op . ci t . , p. 35; Landau, op . c i t ., pp. 164--161.
(2) Hamacfah , o p . c i t . , pp. 62, 77.
2 9
the Cairo m o nt h l y A 1 - K a t i b ^ ^ and in an i n t r o du ct io n to
- * (2 )
his play A 1 - F a r a f i r . In these articles,
"he blasted those who r e c o gnised only the European forms of drama or who believed that those were the u n i y e r s a l forms, and that for an E g y p t i a n or a Kenyan or a V i et n a m e s e to write a play, all he had to do was to take .the r e a d y - m a d e moulds f as h i o n e d in Eu r o p e and pour into them an E g y ptian or a Kenyan or a V i e t n a m e s e content.
All people, he argued, have always had one d r a m a t i c form or another, and he called for e x p l o ri n g those forms and e x p e r i m e n t i n g with them in order to arrive at a g e nuine national
theatre. In Egypt, Yusuf Idris called p ar ti cu l a r l y for exp l o r i n g such popular forms of drama as
mimicry, araguz, the shadow play, and dervish dances, which he believed to be the genuine
e x p r e s si o n of the dr a m a t i c impulse of the people."
Later, we shall di s c u s s the impact of such calls on the c r e ation of local d r amatic forms. But it suffices here to point out that since its u n e x p e c t e d i n t r o d u c t i o n to
A rabic l i terature, through t r a n s l a t i o n in 1847, drama has taken a s i g n i f i c a n t and curious course. This shall be the subject of the fo l l o w i n g chapters.
(1) Issues 34, 35, 36, 1964.
(2) P u bl i s h e d in Cairo, 1964.
(3) F. Abdel Wahah, op . c i t . , p .3 6,
CHAPTER 11
A GENERAL VIEW OF MODERN ARABIC LITERATURE
IN EGYPT
31
Arab l i t erary h i s t o r i a n s usually speak of Mahmud Sami al- B a r u d l (1838-1904) as the man who started a new phase in m odern Ar a b i c poetry. Poetry, for long c o n s i d e r e d
'the reco,rd of the Arabs' and the genre w hich c o n s ti tu te s the la r g e s t por t i o n of their literary heritage, had been in decline for a c o n s i d e r a b l e length of time. Barudi, as a poet of o u ts ta nd in g per s o n a l qualities, r e f r a i n e d from fol l o w i n g the way to which poetry had been diverted, and instead r ec a l l e d the cla s s i c a l lit e r a t u r e in its heyday during the A b basid era as a means of p r o v i d i n g a
l ib e r a t i n g m o v e m e n t in A rabic poetry. By imitating some of the o u t s t an di n g poems in classical poetry, and by
com p i l i n g a vast a n t h o l o g y from it, he drew attention to the imp o r t a n c e of the A rabic literary h e r i ta ge and "Arabic poetry once more bro u g h t to bear upon the serious b u s iness of l i f e " . * 1 *
These efforts might now seem to us naive and s u p e r ficial, but they were at the time cr u c i a l in ini t i a t i n g the n e c e ss ar y impetus to modern A r abic poetry, setting it on the right path. F u r thermore, the growing national
feeling, in search of identity and ori g i n a l i t y , took refuge in the g l o rious period of the Arab and I s l a m i c past against fierce at t e m p t s to alienate the Arab world, as "in such periods of deep d e p e nd en c e and surging hope, all men search
(1) M.M. Badawi: A C ritical I n t r o d u c t ion to Modern A r a b i c P o e t r y , CUP, London, 1975, p . 25.
3 2
the past^of their p e ople or their r e l i g i o n for inspiration"^
and this in i tself is enough to justify Bar u d i ' s attempt.
This new pre s e n t a t i o n of modern A r a b i c poetry was, in fact, a ch i e v e d within a c o m p r e h e n s iv e c u l tural revival led by M u ha m m a d cA bduh (184-5-1905) and his disciples. And once the e xa m p l e was set, the new g e n e r a t i o n s of poets and writers, in r e t u rn in g to the classical A r a b ic heritage
"di s c o v e r e d afresh an Arabic literary style which was
simple and direct."' (2) Moreover, they laid their hands on a b u ndant sources co n t a i n e d in their h e r i t a g e that could p r ovide them with mat e r i a l s for an e n t irely new literature.
Among these writers, Ahmad Shawqi (1868-1932) was the dom i n a n t figure not only because of his c o n t r i b u t i o n to modern A rabic poetry, but also because of his int r o d u c t i o n of po e t i c drama based on genuine A r abic and histor i c a l
themes.
If we move to the field of the novel - the e m e r gence of which was one of the results of W e s t e r n impact - we come to the a n o n ym ou s p u blication, in 1914, of the novel Z a y n a b . A l th ou gh c o n s idered the first novel in the A rabic lit e r a t u r e of Egypt, the a ppearance of this book did not hide the fact that its author, Muhammad Husayn Haykal
(1) 3.M. Landau: Studies in the Arab Theatre and C i n e m a, P hi l a d e l p h i a , 1958, p . 115: also Ahmad Haykal:
Tatawwur a l -adab al-hadith fI MisrJ Cairo, 1971, p . 141.
• • *
(2) H.A.R. Gibb: Studies on the C i v i l i z a t i o n of I s l a m , London , 1962, p .26.
3 3
{1888-1956) a c k n ow le d ge d the i m p o r t a n ce of c l a s sical Ar a b i c literature, the vigour of which, he said, is to be found in i m a g i n a t i ve stories and n a r r a t i v e heroic poems that would only be written by art i s t i c men of letters.
A l t ho ug h Haykal did not combine his t heory with practice in this respect, we still see the e n o r m o u s effect of A r a b ic Islamic history upon 3urji Zaydan (1861-1914) for instance, in his series (Stories of the H is t o r y of Islam). (2) With the spread of Arab n a t i o n a li sm later on, the h istorical trend of the E g yptian novel f l o u rished cons i d e r a b l y . (3 )
The result of these a c t iv it ie s is seen in the large number of h i st or ic al novels d e rived either from A ra bi c and
Is l a m i c themes or from themes in n a t ional history. It could be argued here that the s ub j e c t - m a t t e r is not s u f f i c ie nt in itself to create a new l i t erary genre, or even to develop a bo r r o w e d one, but one should take into c on s i d e r a t i o n the tur b u l e n t nature of that period and the good q u ality of some of these works before making final judgement. Even at the worst, if the A r a bs had lacked the W e st e r n c o ncept of novel, one is inc l i n e d to agree with Mahmud Taymur (1894-197$), a wel l - k n o w n Egy p t i a n novelist, that they "would not have failed to i n i t i a t e one based on the t ra d i t i o n of the A ra bi c litera t u r e w ho s e rich stores
(1) M.H, Haykal: Thawrat al-;a d a b , Cairo, 1933 , p p . 80-1, (2) R i wayat tarlkh a 1 -i s 1 ished by Dar al-Hilal,
C a i r o .
(3) H. Sakkut: The E g y p tian Novel and its Main T r e n d s , Cairo , 1971, p .47.
3 4
of tales „and m y t hs could make a path for a new A rabic novel to e m e rge."
(1)
In the early phase of A rabic theatre t ra ns la ti on s and a d a p ta ti o ns do m i n a t e d the scene be c a u s e of the novelty of this art in Ar a b i c l i t e rature on the one hand, and
the lack of ori g i n a l p l a y w r i t i n g on the other, T r a ns la t i o n s c overed a wide range of European drama i nc l u d i n g the
works of Moliere, Corneille, Racine, Victor Hugo and Dumas
( Z )
from French; and S h a ke sp ea re and B e rnard Shaw from English, a face which may i n d icate that these t r a n s l a t i o n s did not follow any p a rt ic ul ar planned course, but that, on the contrary, they were only guided "by the fame of an author or a play p ro v i d e d with an a pp r o p r i a t e a t m o s p h e r e to
the Ara b i c taste." (3) However, in spite of being
s c ru pu lo us ly chosen, the p er fo rm an ce s failed to attract audiences, either be c a u s e of the s h allow k n o w ledge of the audience, or the u n fa m i l i a r i t y of the settings, names and e v e n t s .
(1) M. Taymur: 'al-qasas fi adab al-^arab', in a
« *
c o l l ec ti o n of essays by d i f f erent authors, entitled, fi ?l-adab a l - carabl ’l-hadith, Beirut, 1957, p . 20.
*
(2) S a fd H. Daghman: a l - ’u^ul a l - t a r l k h i y y a h l i - n a s h ’at a l - d r a ma fi a l - a d a b a l - ca r a b l , Beirut, 19 73, pp. 211 - 4- 7 . (3) M.Y. Najm: a l - ma sr ah iy ya h fi al - a d a b a l - c arabi
al-hadrth, B e T r u F p T 9 T T r ~ p T l ^ 5 .
♦
The next phase was the a d a p tation of plays to a more familiar e n v i r o n m e n t by moving the scene from its original setting to, say, an Egyptian one in order to bridge the gap bet w e e n drama and the public. The a d a pt or s also used c o l l o q u i al lan g u a g e and c olloquial verse (Zajal) to give
the adapted works local flavour and please their audiences.
There is no doubt that these a d a p t a t i o n s gained immensely in p o p u la r it y by being tra n s f e r r e d into the lilting and e x p r e s s i ve E g y ptian dialect rather than that of the o r i g inals. They were in general "well-done, and a t o l e r a b ly E g y p t i an atm o s p h e r e was often s u c c e s s f u l l y s u b s t i t u t e d for that of the o r i g i n a l ^ ^ Am o n g the
a d a p t o r s one who r e p r e s e n t e d an exc e p t i o n in this respect,
Q ^ ^
was the E g y p t i a n M u h ammad Uthman Dalai (1829-98), whose a d a p t a t i o n s of French comddies and t ra g e d i e s were so
r e m a r k a b l e that his versions of M o l i e r e ’s Les F emmes S a v antes and Tar t u f f e (titled Shaykh Matluf), though in Egyptian
l_i ..itt-‘tun i* *' -mi iimir m -i i niiiTmifiTi miiMBinnnTi ii nmi i'ii ~ 'i I 'lf^'irimi *
v e rnacular, are still i n t e r m i t t e n t l y p e r f o r m e d on stage,
A l t h o u g h it has been sug g e s t e d by var i o u s a u t h o r i t i e s that M arun a l - N a q q a s h (1817-55) the pi o n e e r of the Arabic theatre, a d apted his play Abu al-Hasan a l- mu g h a f f a l from
*
M o l i e r e ’s L ’ E t o u r d i , there are scholars who think otherwise.
D.M, L andau a rgues that " a l - N a q q a s h 's c omedy employs
m a t e r i a l from The Ara b i a n Nights and is set in their spirit, Its theme is the jolly story of Abu al-Hasan, who became
«
I nm1 ir Wt !■ ll II Irt ■! i'm I rfll ■ iIm 1ll MlT m ll If llll " I '' ~ ' ' T 'I ~l IT r |T~~~mT~TT I I' ' i— i ■ » ■' '« '« ■'J I i u r .. JL _
(1) Nevill Barbour: 'The A rabic T h eatre in Egypt',
B u l letin of S.O.S., London, 1935-7, Vol. Ill, p . 992 .
3 6
c a l i p h - f o r - a - d a y by Harun al- R a s h l d ' s order and then started a series of m is a d v e n t u r e s when he was unable to re a d j u s t hi m s e l f to his lowly status. This play should be c o ns id er ed as the fi r s t o r i ginal Ar a b i c drama in modern t i m e . 11^ ^ I r r e sp ec ti v e of w h e t h e r a l - N a q q a s h derived the s u bj ec t - m a t t e r or m e rely the material from The Arabian Nights, the fact cannot be denied that we have here an early exa m p l e of p l a y w r i t i n g which takes the classical A ra b i c h e r i t a g e into account, embodied, in this case, in the f ol k - t a l e s . In their attempt to e s t a b l i s h the theatre traditions, the p io n e e r s of Ar a b i c drama drew their
m a te ri al s from p op u l a r sources a p p a r e n t l y for the f o l lowing reasons. Firstly, other literary works were not available at that time, and even if they had been it mi g h t well have been a long time before they were e x p l o r e d and used.
Secondly, m a te ri a ls from popular sources were, and still are, easy to handle in a light play and t h e r e f or e would c o m m un ic at e the m s e l v e s to the public, whose k n o w l e d g e of the o u tline of the content might help in u n d e r s t a n d i n g and e nj o y i n g the perform a n c e . Thirdly, in a l - N a q q a s h ' s case, the fact that he was a Maronite might have deterred him from p o r t r a y i n g t h e m e ® or c h a r acters of a sacred and sensitive nature that would upset the maj o r i t y of his audience.
Un l i k e al- N a q q a s h , the Syrian Ahmad A b u - K h a l i l al- Qabbani (184-2-1903) derived most of his plays from A rabic
(1) S t udies in the Arab T h e a t r e ,, p p . 58-9; also Najm, o p . c i t . , p . 36 7.
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and I s lamic history as well as The A r a b i an Nights. As a m u s i c i a n he c o m po u nd ed songs and musical i n t e r l u de s with the a c tions of his plays. Yet he, like his pred e c e s s o r s , built his plays in the same pattern as those of the West,
"and the only i n n o v a t i o n he made was the c r e ation of the A r a b i c h i s t o r i c a l play based on past A r a b i c and I s lamic h i story as well as the O p e r e t t a . " ^ ^ It may be worth m e n t i o n i ng here that a l t hough he was an educated Sheikh, he n o n et he l es s u t i lized a l a n guage that was a blend of c la ss ic al and c olloquial "in o rder to gain the
( Z )
a c c e p t a nc e of all social classes and p lease every taste."
While t r a n s l a t i on s and a da pt at i o n s ha r d l y met the p u b l i c ’s need, a stream of p l a y w r i t i n g began to appear in the arena, thanks to these p i o n e e r i n g efforts. So far as the nat i o n a l fe e l i n g is concerned, w r i t i n g h i s t o r i c a l plays was the elo q u e n t answer to the issues that had arisen at the b e g i n n i ng of the t w e n t i e t h century.
Equally, the playwright, like the poet, was con f r o n t e d
by a strong c u l tural and political c h a l l e n g e to his ability to survive, but u nlike him he had a means of r e a ching a
wider public. Further m o r e , the Eg y p t i a n p u b l i c ' s interest in their his t o r y created an o pportunity for the f lo u r i s h i n g of h i s t o r i c a l plays dealing with the h eroes of the Islamic past. (3 ) Thus the p la yw r i g h t sought past p e r i o d s of
(1) Zaki Tulaymat: 'al-masrah a l c arabi fi al-qarn al-
• *
cishrin', al-Hilal, Cairo, Vol. 63, No. 1, p . 181.
(2) N. Barbour, op . c i t ., p. 186.
(3) Ibid ,
g lamour and s p l e ndour where tension and nos t a l g i a could fully serve the actions and the plots, and t he r e f o r e played on the public s e n t iment stirring up its feeling against any a t t empts at alienation. For instance, a theme such as S a l a d i n w hich deals with his struggle to liberate J e r u sa le m from the Crusades, was f a v oured by authors and a u d ience alike. A play first written in 1905 by Najlb
a l- H a d d a d was p e r f o r m e d many times by d i f fe re nt theatrical
*
troupes. It was so popular that Farah Antun wrote
• •
another v e rsion of it in 1914 e n t itled Salah al-Din wa M am l a k a t U r s h a l l m (Saladin and the K in g d o m of Jerusalem) which was variously put on stage with le a d i n g actors like Salamah Hijazi and Jurj Abyad in the t i t l e -role. The play
• *
aimed at e x p osing the conflict between the a g g r e s s i ve West and the p e a c ea bl e East dis p l a y i n g the t h r e a t e n i n g danger of the West to such an extent that " g o v e r n m e n t censorship forced its author to make a lt e r a t i o n s in some parts of
it#.r(2)
A r ab ic drama, being firmly e n t r e n c h e d in the classical Ar a b i c m i lieu seems to have already a t t r a c t e d even
co n s e rv at i ve poets like, for instance, M u h a m m ad Abd
*
a l- Mu tt a l ib (1870-1931) who in c o l l a b o ra ti on with his
• «
friend M u h a m ma d M a r c I wrote several h i s t o r i c a l plays.
As expected, the p ur p o s e of these plays was o b v i o u s l y
(1) cA bd ~R a h m a n Sidqi: "al-masrah a l - ’arabi", a l - H i l a l , Cairo, Vol. 67, No. 4, p p . 75-6.
(2) Najm, op . ci t . , p . 329, and the f o o tnote (34).
d id a c t i c and aimed at t e aching students of p re pa ra t o r y schools the literary history of the Arabs as a part of their c u r r i c u l u m ^ ^ These plays t h e r ef or e do not pay any a t te n t i o n to the a t r i c a l technique; nor do they make any a lt er at i on s of the h i s t o r i c a l content and m at e r i a l used, but only c o n ce nt ra te on the merits of h i g h - f l o w n
l a n guage i n t e r w o v e n with rhymed prose. However, the fact remains that the a r t i s t ' s a w a r eness of his past was there, and all it needed was a p e n e t r a t i n g u n d e r s t a n d i n g of the r eq ui r e m e n t s of the dra m a t i c art.
From this i n t r od u c ti on we may sum up the main
features of Ar a b i c drama in Egypt d uring its early stage as follows:
Firstly, the past history of the A ra b s has been the focus of a t t e ntion of many p l a y w r i g h t s not only because of national i n t erest but also because of the r i c hness and f a mi li a r i t y of the past. This was made p os s i b l e by the pu b li c at io n of cla s s i c a l works and the m o v em en t of poetry which has already been mentioned.
Secondly, since the be g i n n i n g of d ra m a t i c w r iting the question of which l a n guage the play should be written in has raised a p r ob l e m which as yet has r e m a i n e d unsolved, and with which we shall be dealing in the course of this s t u d y .
(1) N a j m , op . c i t p . 321; also Dusuqi, o p .ci t , , p .2 9.
4 0
Thirdly, due to p ub l i c demand and taste, the theatre of that period was dom i n a t e d by a mu s i c a l e l ement to the extent that, in order to gain success and p opularity, the theatr i c a l troupes em p l o y e d singers and m u s i c i a n s and
imposed s p u rious scenes on plays for the sake of singing.
I r o n i c a l l y when, after the d e p a rture of the famous Egy p t i a n singer Sal a m a h HijazI, an attempt was made in 1904--5 by
Iskandar Farah to rid plays of their mu s i c a l element and int r o d u c e plays purely for their own sake, "the inn o v a t i o n found little favour with the public.
(X) N. B a rbour p . 176.
CHAPTER III
SHAWQI AS A DRAMATIST
4 2
Many critics b e l i e v e d that Ahmad S hawql (1868-1932) was not a natural dramatist; it cannot be denied* however, that many of those who have grown up with his poetry, cannot shake off their ass u m p t i o n that he was a great poet. In the opinion of these critics, who c o n sider him a great poet,
"the most striking feature of his style is his cunning use of the m u sical p o t e n t i a l i t i es of the A r a b i c language...
He was, in fact, greatly endowed with what C ol e r i d g e called 'the sense of mus i c a l d e l i g h t 1 ^ ^ When he came to
write verse drama, as the most c e l e b r a t e d Arab poet of his time, and in a l a n guage which had not been c o m p l e t e l y adapted to that kind of writing, he was c r i t i c i s e d for being
too lyrical and not dra m a t i c enough. Taha Husaj/n was the first to pass this ju d g e m e n t on his a b i l i t y to write
verse drama. He says "Shawql was u n d o u b t e d l y an o u t s t a n d i n g lyrical poet, who used lyricism in his drama to e n t e rtain and cheer the heart. Yet he d r a m atised n o t h i n g because d r a matic art is not to be taken on the spur of the moment.
It rather demands youth, study and e x t e n s i v e reading.
Shawql had w asted his effort and acute mind before he
devoted himself to studying. His r e ading was i n s i gnificant, and therefore his drama was lifeless images, despite the fact that they were f a v oured by the p ublic because of its
(2 )
w o n d erful lyricism." Much of this c r i t i c i s m is
(1) Badawi, op . ci t . , p.^1; and Shawql Dayf, Shawql S h ac i r a l - c asr al-badlth, Cairo, 1952, p . 48.
9 9
(2) Taha Husayn, Hafiz wa Shawql, Cairo, 1933, p p . 221-2.
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