The National – Dec 13 2008

Arabic literature, both classical and popular, has always abounded in forms of prose narrative. In the classical tradition, one can cite genres such as Ayyam al-Arab (the Battle-Days of the Pre-Islamic Arabs); the eighth-century animal fables of Kalila and Dimna, which Ibn al Muqaffac translated from Pahlavi, and the maqamat, or picaresque adventures, written by al Hamadhani and al Hariri.

In the popular tradition, the unparalleled Thousand and One Nights, or the Arabian Nights, immediately springs to mind, as do the many medieval works of sira – epic prose accounts of heroic exploits – which continued to be narrated by able rawis or storytellers to spellbound villagers and city dwellers alike in cafes until the early decades of the 20th century, when the advent of radio, then cinema and television put an end to that popular entertainment.

All these genres are very different literary moulds which evolved over centuries; some represented classical high literature, others were media for folk literature of oral origin; some were written by known authors, others composed by anonymous ones over many generations, as happened with the Arabian Nights.

One element is common to all, however: the episodic quality of their form. Some of these works, like the allegorical fables of Kalila and Dimna and the Arabian Nights, are held together by a frame story, while others, such as the maqamat, enjoy no more semblance of unity than the fact that all the adventures feature the same picaroon, or rogue, as hero.

Evidently, none of these Arabic narrative forms conforms to the traditional western definition of plot as laid down by Aristotle in his Poetics, and which has largely governed the structure of the western novel since its evolution in the 18th century.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during the nascent days of modern Arabic fiction, which lagged 200 years behind European fiction, attempts were made to revive and adapt to the modes of the modern Arabic language, one of these indigenous narrative forms, namely the maqama. Those attempts proved out of step with the times and were quickly ousted by the growing trend to evolve modes of fiction in Arabic along the lines of the European novel.

Thus when Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt’s illustrious novelist and Nobel laureate, arrived on the scene in the late 1930s, the novel as a literary genre cast in a borrowed western mould had already been established in the body of Arabic creative writing for more than 60 years, since the Syrian Salim al Bustani published in serial form in 1870 what later came to be labelled the first novel in Arabic: Love in Damascene Gardens.

Before Al Bustani’s novel, an ever-increasing movement of translation of European fiction into Arabic had been in place for a few decades, serving a growing, if modest, readership and helping to pave the way for a new genre of Arabic literature, hitherto biased towards verse rather than prose.

If it is the case that the novel came into Arabic through interaction with Europe, it is no surprise that this interaction has continued in multifarious ways, the latest of which is the establishment of the prestigious International Prize for Arabic Fiction, along the lines of the British Man Booker, which has recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Already nicknamed “the Arabic Booker”, the prize is indeed modelled on and administered in association with the Booker Prize Foundation, with financial support from the Emirates Foundation in Abu Dhabi.

The inaugural prize was awarded earlier this year to Sunset Oasis, by Baha Taher, the veteran Egyptian novelist, while the 2009 award process is well under way with the shortlist of six titles announced in London last Wednesday.

Having just emerged from under the “fictional” waters of 121 Arabic novels written in the past 12 or so months by scores of novelists from a geographical expanse extending from Morocco in the West to Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula in the East, it is perhaps not out of order for me, as one of the five judges who did the reading and produced the shortlist, to be followed in March by the absolute winner, to pontificate a little on the state of the Arabic novel nowadays.

In this respect, there is perhaps no better perspective from which to form a view of the matter but the Arabic Booker prize itself, which appears to have almost instantaneously rooted itself in the scene as an indispensable, indeed the only, yardstick.

This mountain of the best of Arabic fiction, the crop of only one year, and the doubly agonising process of reducing it to a list of 16 and then a shortlist of six, is a resounding statement of the good health of the Arabic novel, showing an amazing array of technical versatility deployed to tackle some of the most pressing issues of Arab life today, in structures and metaphors that transcend the particular to the universal and ultimately speak of the human condition, as all great art does.

But my heart goes out to Arab novelists. They are unknown soldiers, toilers in the sea, shouters in the wilderness. They largely write to a non-existent readership and experiment and excel to the appreciation of non-existent critics and literary reviewers.

Most publishers “boast” a print run of 1,000 copies. Even the mighty Nagiub Mahfouz, who died two years ago, normally printed no more than 10,000 copies. This is for an Arabic-speaking population of some 300 million. And the vast majority of those 121 novels published in the past year will have been like stillborns, with no birth certificate in the form of even a solitary review. It is as if Arab novelists wrote for family and friends, if those. As if they wrote, against their better judgement, only in response to the irrepressible creative impulse without hope of repayment, moral or material. No Arab author can earn a living from royalties, however famed and prolific. Again, even Mahfouz could support his family only by remaining in the civil service until compulsory retirement age.

Arab novelists deserve better than this, both from their fellow Arabic-speakers and from the international audience who can read them only in translation. And they do not deserve it as a charity, but because it is a delight and an edification to read them.

More specifically, in consideration of the fraught relations between East and West and the misunderstanding and intolerance of recent years, I can think of fewer better mediums than Arabic fiction, widely read through good translations, to underscore the ultimate humanity and similarity of the other.

Mahfouz once highlighted the irony of how, in his youth, during the peak of the Egyptian struggle against British occupation, he would vent his hatred of the English through taking part in demonstrations during the day, while at night he would sit in his study and read admiringly the works of their novelists and thinkers. This is what translation can do. A wider exposure in the West to the humanist soul of Arab culture, not least as expressed by its contemporary novelists, can do a great deal to dispel the horror images of the mass media that tend to concentrate on the gory and the abominable.

The past couple of decades, particularly since the award of the Nobel prize to Naguib Mahfouz in 1988, have seen a healthy increase in the translation of Arabic fiction into English. They have also seen an encouraging tendency among mainstream western publishers to adopt such translations which in the past used to be the domain only of academic and small-circulation specialists. A few Arab titles have even made it to book-club lists. All this is good and can only become better with the sensation now caused by the Arabic Booker, on which much hope is pinned. It is expected to do for the Arabic novel, its authors and publishers what the Man Booker has done for the novel written in English: to make them more widely read in their own language as well as in other languages.

Let us not kid ourselves: the Arabic Booker has a more arduous task than its older British model ever had to contend with. But a start has already been made.

* Rasheed El-Enany is a professor of modern Arabic literature at the University of Exeter. He is also on the judging panel for the 2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR
ARABIC FICTION 2009

Shortlist Announced

Mohammad Al-Bisatie, Fawwaz Haddad, Inaam Kachachi, Ibrahim Nasrallah, Habib Selmi and Yusuf Zaydan are the six authors shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2009, the prestigious literary prize which aims to recognise and reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage wider readership of such Arabic literature internationally through translation. The prize was launched in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in April 2007 in association with the Booker Prize Foundation and with the support of the Emirates Foundation.

The shortlist was announced by the chair of judges, Youmna el Eid, at a press conference at the Southbank Centre in London today (Wednesday 10 December 2008).

The prestigious panel of judges, who were also revealed today, come from Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE and Germany - all specialists in the field of Arabic literature - met in London this week to decide the list of six books.

The six shortlisted books were chosen from over 121 titles and are as follows (in alphabetical order);

Youmna el Eid, the chair of judges, said: “This shortlist was chosen following open discussion amongst the judges. We chose these titles because they contain all the creative characteristics which make Arabic fiction unique.”

The judging panel for the 2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction is: Youmna el Eid (chair of judges), Lebanese academic and literary critic; Rasheed El-Enany, Egyptian Professor of modern Arabic literature and Director of Arab Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter; Hartmut Faehndrich, German translator of Arabic literature; Mohammad al Murr, Emirati writer, journalist and Head of Dubai Cultural Council; Fakhri Saleh, Jordanian critic, journalist and authority on contemporary Arabic literature.
                                                                                                                      
At today’s press conference, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Jonathan Taylor, commented: “Although only in its second year, the prize is well and firmly established. The winner and shortlist from the first year are now being translated into many languages and we are thus succeeding in a major objective to bring the best of contemporary Arabic fiction to a wider public. I am sure this shortlist will be equally successful.”

The Managing Director of the Emirates Foundation, Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, commented: "The Foundation is delighted to see this particularly noteworthy shortlist for the 2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, following the competitive longlist issued by the judges last month. We are proud to continue our support for IPAF in 2009, especially after its successful launch earlier this year."

The 2009 prize has received a total of 131 submissions from 16 countries, as follows: Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Algeria, Oman, Eritria and Kuwait. 104 of the novels submitted were by male authors and 17 entries by female writers. The longlist of 16 titles was announced this November and included authors from 10 countries across the Arab World, and included the two female authors Renée Hayek and Inaam Kachachi.

Joumana Haddad, the Prize’s Administrator, commented: “The remarkable success of the 2008 shortlist, with many translation deals secured for all 6 authors, is yet another stimulus for IPAF to develop new ways to promote Arabic literature, and to provide its longlisted, shortlisted and winning writers with more publishing and publicity opportunities worldwide”.

Not only can writers shortlisted for the prize look forward to reaching wider audiences and potentially securing publishing deals – both within the Arab World and internationally – but they will also each receive $10,000. The final winner will receive an additional $50,000.

The winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2009 will be announced at an awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Monday 16 March 2009, immediately prior to the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. Plans for the translation of the 2009 winner and shortlist are currently in discussion.

Hunger - Muhammad Al-Bisatie
Al Adab, Beirut, 2008

Hunger is a detailed account of the ordinary lives of those at the very bottom of society, sufferers of continuous hunger. Through a detached yet intimate portrait of the day-to-day lives, Egyptian author Mohamed El-Bisatie explores how, despite their sufferings, these neglected people are still able to reflect on human existence and ask questions about their surroundings.

The Unfaithful Translator - Fawwaz Haddad
Riad el Rayyes, Beirut, 2008

The Unfaithful Translator, by Syrian author Fawaz Haddad, tells the story of a translator accused of betrayal due to his non-conformist views on the purpose of translation and the importance of creativity, thought, culture and civilisation. As a result, the translator builds a broad network of literary figures, journalists and critics in a campaign to establish that the art of writing – in its many forms – is essentially human and associated with freedom and life, and therefore rejects submission or subjection to exploitation, negotiation, opportunism or extortion.

The American Granddaughter - Inaam Kachachi
Dar Al-Jadid, Beirut, 2008

The American Granddaughter, by Iraqi author Inaam Kachachi, depicts the American occupation of Iraq through the eyes of a young American-Iraqi woman, who returns to her country as an interpreter for the US Army. Through the narrator’s conflicting emotions, we see the tragedy of a country which, having battled to emerge from dictatorship, then finds itself under foreign occupation.

Time of White Horses - Ibrahim Nasrallah
Arab Scientific Publishers, Beirut and Algiers, 2007

Charting the history of three generations of a Palestinian family in a small village, Jordanian author Ibrahim Nasrallah’s saga novel is a descendant of a genre introduced in Arabic fiction by Naguib Mahfouz’s famous Cairo Trilogy. Through the lives of the members of this family, Nasrallah depicts the tragedy of a whole nation under changing historical circumstances: the Ottoman rule, the British Mandate and the Nakba (the catastrophe of the Jewish occupation of Palestinian land in 1948) to the expulsion of the Palestinians and finally the post-Nakba era.

The Scents of Marie-Claire - Habib Selmi
Dar El-Adab, Beirut, 2008

Following a well-established tradition in modern Arabic fiction, Tunisian author Al-Habib Al-Salmi’s novel explores the cultural encounter/clash between East and West. Al-Salmi explores this theme through the relationship between an Arab man and a Western woman, each embodying the value system of their respective cultures.

Beelzebub - Yusuf Zaydan
Dar al Shorouk, Cairo, 2008

Set in fifth century Upper Egypt, Alexandria and northern Syria, Egyptian author Yussef Zeydan’s story unfolds during a critical point in Christian history. Focusing on the period following the Roman Empire’s adoption of the 'new' religion, the novel highlights the subsequent internal doctrinal conflicts rising amongst the fathers of the Church on the one hand, and between the 'new' believers and receding paganism on the other.

Notes to Editors

• Sunset Oasis, by Egyptian author Bahaa Taher, won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2008. Sunset Oasis is currently being translated into English by acclaimed translator of Arab literature Humphrey Davies. Funded by Sigrid Rausing, the translation of Sunset Oasis will be published in the UK by Sceptre (an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd) in late summer 2009.

• The 2009 longlist of 16 books is as follows:

• All works submitted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction must be prose fiction in Arabic. The shortlist of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction consists of six books

• Spokespeople for the Prize are: Jonathan Taylor CBE, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Joumana Haddad, Prize Administrator. To arrange an interview, please contact: Katy MacMillan-Scott at Colman Getty on 020 7631 2666 or katy@colmangetty.co.uk

• This is the second year of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. For a full history of the prize visit the website: www.arabicfiction.org. The site features the rules of entry, background information and breaking news and is the quickest way for the prize’s worldwide audience to access information

• The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is funded by the Emirates Foundation, one of the leading philanthropic organisations in the UAE

• An independent Board of Trustees, drawn from across the Arab world and beyond, is responsible for the overall management of the prize. The trustees are, in alphabetical order: Marie-Thérèse Abdul-Messih, Professor of English & Comparative Literature, University of Cairo, Egypt; Dr. Peter Clark OBE, Independent Consultant and Writer, Middle East Cultural Advisory Services, UK; Riad El-Rayyes, Publisher, Riad El-Rayyes Books, Lebanon; Omar Saif Ghobash, Cultural Activist and Ambassador, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Sasha Havlicek, Executive Director, Trialogue Educational Trust; Khaled Hroub, Palestinian writer and academic based in the UK; Farouk Mardam-Bey, Cultural Advisor, Institut du Monde Arabe, France; Hisham Matar, Novelist, Libya/UK; Ibrahim El Moallem, Publisher, ex-Head of Arab Publisher’s Union, Egypt; Zaki Nusseibeh, Advisor, Ministry of Presidential Affairs – Vice-Chairman, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage; Margaret Obank, Publisher and Editor, Banipal magazine of Modern Arab Literature, UK; William Sieghart Chairman & Founder, Forward Publishing, National Poetry Day, UK; Yasir Suleiman, Professor of Arabic, University of Cambridge, UK; Evelyn Smith, Company Secretary, Booker Prize Foundation, UK; Jonathan Taylor CBE, Chairman, Booker Prize Foundation, UK

For further information and press enquiries please contact
Katy MacMillan-Scott or Veronique Norton at Colman Getty
Tel: 020 7631 2666
E-mail: katy@colmangetty.co.uk / veronique@colmangetty.co.uk
Out of Office Hours: Katy MacMillan-Scott, +44 (0)7786567887

Joumana Haddad, administrator of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, can be contacted at: info@arabicfiction.com

Colman Getty
December 2008