PUBLISHER / EDITOR Margaret Obank ASSISTANT EDITOR Samuel Shimon COVER ARTIST Feryel CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Khaled Mattawa Saadi Youssef Peter Clark Fadhil al-Azzawi Mona Zaki Sargon Boulus CONSULTING EDITORS Naguib Mahfouz Etel Adnan Mohammed Bennis Herbert Mason Gamal el-Ghitani Hilmy Salem Marilyn Hacker Erdmute Heller Roger Allen Yasir Suleiman Hisham Sharabi Khaled al-Karaki Saif al-Rahbi Mohamed Ali Farhat EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jackie Haig COPY EDITOR Deborah Horton LAYOUT Ben Branagan
BANIPAL PO Box 22300 LONDON W13 8ZQ, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 8568 9747 Fax: +44 (0)20 8568 8509 e-mail: editor@banipal.co.uk website: http://www.banipal.co.uk PRINTED BY Short Run Press Ltd Bittern Road, Sowton Ind. Est. EXETER EX2 7LW ISSN: 1461-5363 Photographs not accredited have been donated, photographers unknown © All material: Banipal, authors, translators and artists. All rights reserved.
Banipal takes its name from Ashurbanipal, last great king of Assyria and patron of the arts, whose outstanding achievement was to assemble in Nineveh, from all over his empire, the first systematically organised library in the ancient Middle East. The thousands of clay tablets of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian writings included the famous Mesopotamian epics of the Creation, the Flood, and Gilgamesh, many folk tales, fables, proverbs, prayers and omen texts. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
CONTENTS No 20, Summer 2004
002 Saadi Youssef in conversation with Banipal
15 EDITORIAL 0 16 Mahmoud Shukair Two short stories
Shakira’s Picture and Mordechai’s Moustaches and his Wife’s Cats 030 Mohammed Al-Harthi Six Poems
Introduced by Saadi Youssef 35 Rabia’a al-Ossaimi A poem Family Photo 36 Ahmed El-Madini short story The Laws of Absence 46 BANIPAL LIVE tour of Arab authors Autumn 2004 48 Ibrahim Saadi Confessions of a Man Coming from the Dark 58 Ali Bader Excerpt from the novel The Naked Feast 66 Aziz Azrhai Seven Poems 068 Samuel Shimon Chapter from a novel The Hedgehog
77 Feature on THE NOVEL IN SAUDI ARABIA 78 Abdu Khal Establishing an Aesthetic 0 82 Ali Zalah The Progress of the Novel in Saudi Arabia 0 87 Turki al-Hamad Two chapters from Shumaisi
92 Laila al-Juhni Jeddah is Sinking, an excerpt from The Waste Paradise 100 Youssef al-Mohaimeed Two chapters from Traps of Scent 110 Abdu Khal Memoirs of a Chief Constable –
Three Chapters from Times Spares No One
116 Khalid Kishtainy: Ghazi Algosaibi A MAN OF MANY PARTS 118 Zainab Hifni Excerpt from No More Tears 124 Abdullah al-Taezi A Note on the Saudi Novel 126 Abdullah al-Taezi Excerpt from Al-Hafa’ir still Lives
BOOK REVIEWS 134 Peter Clark The first three novels of Naguib Mahfouz
Khufu’s Wisdom, Rhapodis of Nubia and Thebes at War
138 James Kirkup Poems of Chawki Abdelamir L’Obélisque d’Anaïl
Winner of Max Jacob International Poetry Prize, 2004
144 Mona Zaki Yawm al-Din [Judgement Day] by Rasha al-Ameer 148 Emad Fouad on Paravion by Hafid Bouazza
Winner of Belgium’s 2004 Golden Owl Prize
LITERARY INFLUENCES 151 Mahmoud Shukair Hemingway in Palestine
EVENTS 154 Book Launch: Tomorrow is Another Day by Khalid Kishtainy 155 London Launch of Without an Alphabet, Without a Face by Saadi Youssef and Miracle Maker by Fadhil al-Azzawi 156 Cairo Conference: Translation and Interaction of Cultures 158 Book Launch: Transit Beirut ed: Roseann Khalaf & Malu Halasa 160 CONTRIBUTORS AND TRANSLATORS
Subscribe today! Become a Banipal Friend or Hero!
See page 77
BANIPAL NO 20, SUMMER 2004 1
