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ABSTRACT
Following critiques of secularism, feminist theory and literary analysis, this article revisits the much interpreted yet never exhausted Arabic masterpiece, the Cairo Trilogy (1956–1957), by Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006). The Cairo Trilogy depicts the lives of the middle-class ʿAbd al-Jawād family in colonial Cairo during the interwar period amidst the process of modernization and national uprising against British colonial domination. Scholars have considered the relations in the Jawādī family through a patriarchal lens via the perspective of the son Kamāl, the protagonist who represents the secular Arab intellectual. This study, instead, follows Amīna, the mother of the family, and her relationship to her two sons, Kamāl and Fahmy, to explore the different options and various relations between the religious and the secular in this colonial context. By reading the Jawādī family this way, this article uncovers the orientalist-secular construction of religion and religious ways of resistance despite colonial disruptions.
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Notes
1 Naguib Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy. I thank the reviewers of my article, as well as the dedicated editors of this issue, Karma Ben Johanan and Brandy Daniels. My warmest thanks go to Karma for her patience and encouragement in helping me refine and articulate my arguments. I also want to express my appreciation to Roni Tsoref and Carmen Dege, with whom I had the privilege of participating in a workshop in Berlin during the summer of 2022 to discuss our respective articles. I extend my gratitude to Yehouda Shenhav Shaharbani and Orly Lubin, who generously supervised and provided significant insights on the MA thesis related to the Trilogy. Additionally, I would like to thank Galili Shahar, Georges Khalil, Gideon Kunda, Almog Behar, Rivka Feldhay, and Menachem Fisch, for engaging discussions that enriched my understanding of the Trilogy. I extend my gratitude to my colleagues who assisted me in accessing materials on Mahfouz when public libraries in Berlin were inaccessible due to pandemic restrictions. Thank you, Or Pitusi, Rim Naguib, and Muhammad Shuʿir. A special mention goes to Mirjam Hadar for her sensitive editing work and Islam Dayeh and Jacques Linder for their thorough review of the final version of the article. Additionally, I would like to thank Orit Bashkin and Meir Hatina for their valuable comments on a Hebrew version of this study. Ultimately, I’m indebted to Israel Gershoni. Ustaz Gershoni is the one who opened my heart by interpreting the Trilogy with sympathy, pushing me gently to excavate layers beyond what was apparent to my eyes. I dedicate this article to you, ustaz.
2 For the colonization of Egypt see Mitchell, Colonizing Egypt. For a detailed synopsis of the Trilogy see the introduction Sabri Hafiz wrote for the publication of the Trilogy in Everyman’s Library, vii–xxiv; and Somekh, The Changing Rhythm, 210–16.
3 For historiography on the ʿUrābī revolution, see, Scholch, Egypt for the Egyptians; Reid, “The Urabi Revolution and the British Conquest, 1879–1822”, 217–38; and Cole, Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East.
4 The 1952 revolution signals Mahfouz’s shift from realism to symbolism. For a good survey of Mahfouz’s literary style see El-Enany, Naguib Mahfouz and The Pursuit of Meaning, xi–xv; and Ṭarābīshī, Allāh fī riḥlat Najīb Maḥfūz al-ramziyyah, 7–31.
5 The reference is to Mahfouz’s serialized novel Awlād ḥaritna (Children of Geblelawi), published in 1959. Note that with the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988), Awlād ḥaritna was revived and both authors were swept up in one drama, when they were accused of offending Islam and harming its public image. Mahfouz was miraculously saved after a failed assassination attempt by a religious fundamentalist in 1994 acting on the fatwa issued against him. See Shuʿir, Awlād ḥāritina; and Stagh, The Limits of Freedom of Speech, 157–67.
6 Bardawil, “The Solitary Analyst of Doxas, An Interview with Talal Asad”, 170.
7 Notably, Mahfouz did not publish an autobiography, but scholarship tends to treat the Trilogy as semi-autobiographical, relating to Kamāl as Mahfouz. See for instance Somekh, The Changing Rhythm, 122; and ʿAṣfūr, Najīb Maḥfūz: al-ramz wa al-qimmah, 205. Mahfouz himself was partly responsible for this when he said that of all the characters he constructed throughout his long career, Kamāl came closest to representing him. See al-Ghiṭānī, Najīb Maḥfūz yatadhakkar, 68. Indeed, there are various overlaps between Kamāl and the author throughout the plot. Sometimes Kamāl happens to know details only the author could have had access to. Still the novel does not seem to be semi-autobiographical. Kamāl’s parents, as Mahfouz said, do not represent Mahfouz’ own parents, nor did Mahfouz’s own nuclear family face a tragic death as described in the Trilogy. See al-Ghīṭānī, Najīb Maḥfūz yatadhakkar, 10–15. For those interested in Mahfouz portrait of his own youth, see Shuʿir, Aʿwām Najīb Maḥfūz.
8 Allan, In the Shadow of World Literature, 94–114, 111.
9 For an organized timeline which includes the authors’ life, his literary production and relevant historical events, see Hafez, The Cairo Trilogy, xxvi–xliii. For the Egyptian reception of Mahfouz’ work in general, see Enani, ed., Egyptian Perspectives on Naguib Mahfouz.
10 For the intellectuals to whom Mahfouz said he was indebted, see al-Naqqāsh, Ṣafaḥāt, 62–71. In this list Mahfouz referred to Qasim Amīn (1963–1908), reformer and advocate for women’s rights; Saʿd Zaghlūl (1857–1927), the future premier of Egypt and the leader of the 1919 revolution; intellectuals such as Muṣṭafa ʿAbd al-Rāziq (1885–1947), and writers such as Tawfīq al-Hakīm (1898–1987). Moreover, Mahfouz related to “the generation of enlightenment” (jīl al-ʾistinārah), as students of the religious reformer Muhammad ʿAbduh (1849–1905). See al-Naqqāsh, Safaḥāt, 196.
11 Hafez, The Cairo Trilogy, ix.
12 El-Enany, quoted at Allan, In the Shadow of World Literature, 109.
13 M. Tageldin, Disarming Words; and al-Musāwī, Islam on the Street.
14 Indeed, as Edward Said has commented, “[…] the Orientalist makes it his work to be always converting the Orient from something to something else; he does this for himself, for the sake of his culture, in some cases for what he believes is the sake of the oriental”. See Said, Orientalism, 67. For an illuminating reading of Said’s Orientalism see Anidjar, Semites, 39–67.
15 Muhammad ʿAbduh is mentioned only twice in the Trilogy. I argue, nevertheless, that the affinity between Fahmy and ʿAbduh suggests the latter’s enduring influence on the students who among others sacrificed their lives to the revolution. In other words, we can consider this as Mahfouz’s recognition of ʿAbduh’s contribution to anti-colonial resistance, and his impact on the revolution. As far as I know, only Israel Gershoni noticed the affinity between Fahmy and ʿAbduh, see, Gershoni “Between Ottomanism and Egyptianism”, 227–63, 237. For selected studies on ʿAbduh, see Riḍā, Tārīkh al-ustādh al-imam; Amīn, Muhammad ʿAbduh; C. Smith, Islam in Modern History; Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age; and Sedgwick, Muhammad ʿAbduh.
16 The secular Coptic writer Riyad Qaldas, a friend of Kamāl, is described as having an affinity towards Christianity. See the English version Ch. 138: 1128–9 (Arabic Ch. 23: 179–180). Furthermore, Amīna has two daughters, Khadīja and ʿĀʾisha, who, upon their marriages, move to the Sugar Street neighborhood where they join the household of their husbands, the Shawkat brothers. Amīna’s grandsons from her daughter Khadīja are affiliated with two new, rising ideologies and political movements, with ʿAbd al-Minʿim Shawkat as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, and Ahmad Shawkat, representing the leftist Marxist secular movement. Ahmad Shawkat, incidentally, does not seem to have changed his relation to his mother, who was devoted to tradition, much like Amīna.
17 Abu-Lughod, “The Romance of Resistance”, 41–55, 47.
18 Note that ʿĀʾisha, Amīna’s second daughter, has an even more tragic fate than her mother’s. She first loses her two young sons and husband to a pandemic and then moves back to her parents’ household with her surviving daughter, Naʿīma. However, when Naʿīma marries her cousin ʿAbd al-Minʿim she dies giving birth, leaving her mother on the verge of insanity.
19 Mahmood, Politics of Piety.
20 Skipping momentarily ahead to the Trilogy’s third generation, ʿAbd al-Minʿim, who is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood movement, marries good-looking and uneducated women, thereby entrenching the patriarchy. His brother Ahmad, a Marxist, marries a woman who is a working-class activist, Sawsan Hammād, who is liberated in the political, sexual, as well as social sense. The Trilogy does not render the position of religious feminism.
21 Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 10.
22 For studies which shortly discuss Amīna’s character see Bayyūmī, al-maskūt ʿanhu fi ʿālam Najīb Maḥfūẓ, 402–6; Somekh, The Changing Rhythm, 126–27.
23 The Hadith is narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim. See https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:316
24 For foundational elements of realism in literature see Dingut et al., Basic Principles of the Nineteenth Century Novel, 13–48. See also Azim, The Colonial Rise of the Novel; and Watt, The Rise of the Novel.
25 Mahfouz responded that the Trilogy was an artwork, inspired by historical events, but decidedly not a work of history. See Naqqāsh, Ṣafaḥāt, 188–99.
26 Dingut et al., Basic Principles of the Nineteenth Century Novel, 18.
27 Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy, Vol 1, Ch. 1: 7.
28 Ibid., Ch. 2: 12.
29 Ibid., Ch. 2: 14.
30 Ibid., Ch. 11: 70.
31 Ibid., Ch. 8: 53–54.
32 Ibid., Ch. 11: 70.
33 Ibid., Ch. 61: 440.
34 See al-Naqqāsh, Safaḥāt, 196.
35 For ʿAbduh’s autobiography, see Riḍā, Tārīkh al-ustādh al-imam, 8–27.
36 Ibid., Ch. 30.
37 El-Enany, Naguib Mahfouz and the Pursuit of Meaning, 80–84. The image of the expulsion from paradise is deployed by Amīna’s mother “[…] well, he [Satan] was the one who got our father Adam and our mother Eve expelled from paradise” (Ch. 33: 218).
38 Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy, Vol 1, Ch. 33, 34, 37.
39 Ibid., Ch 33:225.
40 Ibid., Ch. 34: 228.
41 Ibid., Ch. 34: 234.
42 Ibid., Ch. 53.
43 Ibid., Ch. 54.
44 Gershoni, “Between Ottomanism and Egyptianism”, 227–63.
45 Behar, 1414–1428, 1421.
46 Vol 2, Ch. 3:582.
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid., Ch. 4: 589.
49 Ibid., Ch. 4:593.
50 Ibid., Ch. 4: 591.
51 Ibid., Ch. 17: 739.
52 Ibid., Ch. 17: 727.
53 Ibid., Vol 2, Ch. 86, 707–8.
54 Ibid., Ch. 86:708.
55 See for instance the Qurʾān, 2:10.
56 Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy, Vol 2, Ch. 86:708.
57 Riyaḍ Qaldas comments to Kamāl that his language even after his secularization stayed full of religious rhetoric. See Vol 3, Ch. 130: 1087.
58 Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy, Vol 2, Ch. 85:687.
59 Ibid., Ch. 86:709.
60 Ibid.
61 Ibid., Ch 86: 707.
62 Ibid., Ch 4:589.
63 The sequence of the chapters in the English are: 86, 102, 103, 104.
64 For a general analysis of Darwin’s theory in Arabic see Elshakry. Reading Darwin in Arabic; and Allan, In the Shadow of World Literature, 94–112.
65 For an interesting reading of this interrogation in which it sheds light on Amīna’s intervention see Allan, In the Shadow of World Literature, 102–5.
66 Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy, Vol 2, Ch. 104: 889.
67 Ibid., 891.
68 Vol 3, Ch. 130, 1085.
69 Anidjar, Semites, 39–67.
70 Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 10.
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Zahiye Kundos
Zahiye Kundos is a research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture, Simon Dubnow. She is a literary scholar, specializing in modern Arabic literature, Islamic reform movements, and Arab intellectual history.