What 'Isa ibn Hisham Told Us. Muhammad al-Muwaylihi

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СКАЧАТЬ insertion of this article into the sequence of episodes involving ʿĪsā ibn Hishām’s narration of the Pāshā’s encounter with the Egyptian legal system is certainly a symptom of the vagaries of serialized publication—as the careers of earlier generations of novelists in Europe can readily illustrate. But the insertion also shows that the situation in the Sudan was a preoccupation of the Egyptian press at the time when Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī began to publish his narrative, and that it is clearly reflected in the original sequence of articles.

      This concern with the Sudan is also responsible for another break in the publication sequence, but this time for a different reason. In ʿĪsā ibn Hishām’s Fatrah min al-Zaman narrative, the Pāshā is both emotionally and physically exhausted after his experiences with the law. A period of rest and contemplation is recommended, and it coincides with an actual occurrence of the plague in Egypt. Several episodes are thus concerned with medicine, the plague, and a resort to literature as a source of relaxation and contemplation. This brings the publication sequence of episodes to June 1899, at which point Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī pauses. The gap is filled by his father, Ibrāhīm, who publishes three episodes of a narrative of his own, Mirʾāt al-ʿĀlam (Mirror of the World), where there is also an intense focus on the poor conditions under which the Egyptian army is laboring in the Sudan and, as experienced by Ibrāhīm directly, on the perils of speculation on the Stock Exchange.⁴¹

      When Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī resumes his narrative (Miṣbāḥ al-sharq 63, July 13, 1899), it is with a visit to a wedding hall, as part of which there is a section devoted to a lengthy history of singing. At the conclusion of an episode, the protagonists encounter a number of different social groups who have gathered at the wedding celebration—al-Azhar shaykhs, merchants, royal princes, and civil servants. Each of these categories subsequently becomes the topic of a later episode in Fatrah min al-Zaman. These shifts in narrative focus, each one involving a gap of varying duration in the publication of the articles, give us a hint as to how al-Muwayliḥī’s responded to reader interest in the way he composed and sequenced episodes, again a replication of the circumstances under which novelists like Charles Dickens frequently functioned in composing and publishing novels. It is in the episodes that follow the description of these “meetings” (majālis) that al-Muwayliḥī comes up with his most inspired creation, the provincial ʿumdah (village headman) who comes to the rapidly Westernizing capital city from the countryside in search of fun and is mercilessly exploited by a duly Westernized fop (Khalīʿ, which I have translated as “Playboy”) and his accomplice, a Merchant. The juxtaposition and confrontation of traditional mores and Western fashions is explored through a number of different venues and situations: restaurants and food, bars, tourism, money borrowing, and the theater. After a visit to the Pyramids, ʿĪsā ibn Hishām, the Pāshā, and their “Friend” (ṣadīq) leave the other group to their own devices and return home (Miṣbāḥ al-sharq 107, June 8, 1900). Given that Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī was leaving almost immediately for Paris and the Exposition universelle, it is not surprising that, in what was at the time a final episode in the series, the Pāshā expresses to ʿĪsā his desire to see Western civilization firsthand. Plans are made to travel to France.

      As already noted, Ibrāhīm al-Muwayliḥī made use of his son’s journey to France to publish further episodes of his own narrative. Not only that, but Miṣbāḥ al-sharq 107 also contains the following announcement:

      ʿĪsā ibn Hishām: Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī is traveling to the Paris Exposition this coming Sunday. Once he has gathered his impressions of the entire scenario and its details, Miṣbāḥ al-sharq will be publishing his description of its marvels and curiosities.

      Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī traveled first to London in order to write about the Khedive’s visit to England,⁴² but he then traveled to Paris. The first Parisian episode of Fatrah min al-Zaman was published in Miṣbāḥ al-sharq 116, August 17, 1900, with the following preface:

      This is the first episode of Ḥadīth ʿĪsā ibn Hishām concerning the visit to the Paris Exhibition. It has been sent to us by Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī following his previous report on the visit of the Khedive of Egypt to Her Majesty the Queen of England.

      Among the things to note from this introduction is that the series of episodes, originally (and still) called Fatrah min al-Zaman, has now acquired another title, Ḥadīth ʿĪsā ibn Hishām, which had been used on a few occasions in announcements before, but seems to have become the preferred title—indeed the one under which the eventual book was to be published in 1907. This trend is further emphasized by the fact that Ibrāhīm al-Muwayliḥī’s narrative is assigned the subtitle Ḥadīth Mūsā ibn ʿIṣām, invoking the name of his own narrator and at the same time echoing in the clearest possible way the emerging title of his son’s work.

      Eight episodes describing (and, more often than not, harshly criticizing) the Exposition universelle in Paris were published between August and December 1900.⁴³ The last of them finishes with the usual statement, “To be continued,” followed by the letter “M.” Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī had used this formula at the end of his articles ever since his father had begun publishing them. And yet the articles didn’t continue. Or, at least, nothing followed until February 1902 (in other words, long after his return to Cairo) when, without any further explanation, three further episodes of Fatrah min al-Zaman were added. The first simply opens with the following statement:

      ʿIsa ibn Hisham said: Our coverage of the visit we paid to the mother of all European capitals and our stay in the hub of civilization finished with a description of the Great Exhibition: the different people we met there, the strange happenings day and night, the variety of exotic items, the precious and creative objects of every conceivable kind of craft that were on display, the nightclubs and music halls scattered across the grounds, the splendid views it afforded visitors, and the undesirable subtext out of sight. The Pasha, our Friend, and I had emerged from it with a mixture of feelings: praise, criticism, and outright condemnation. We were still in the company of the sage Frenchman, his temples whitened by his willingness to share with us his culture and learning.⁴⁴

      These three articles, which form an uninterrupted continuum and only the first of which contains an example of their author’s virtuoso use of sajʿ, offer a detailed description of the French system of government—its presidency, election processes, senate, and chamber of deputies. The third of these episodes ends again with the usual “To be continued,” and yet nothing followed. And this time it was indeed the end of the Fatrah min al-Zaman series the author had initiated four years earlier.

      For whatever combination of reasons, al-Muwayliḥī was to take his time in converting his series of newspaper articles into book form. It seems clear that he had already been receiving encouragement to do so from the enthusiastic response of readers of the newspaper, not to mention many of his literary colleagues, including the renowned nationalist poet, Ḥāfiẓ Ibrāhīm (1871–1932). Indeed the latter’s own contribution to the neoclassical revival of the maqāmah narrative Layālī Saṭīḥ, first published in 1906, contains an extract from al-Muwayliḥī’s as yet unpublished book (and incidentally concentrates heavily on the situation in the Sudan, not surprising in view of the fact that the poet served as an Egyptian army officer there).⁴⁵

      The first edition of Ḥadīth ʿĪsā ibn Hishām was published in 1907, Fatrah min al-Zaman becoming its subtitle. In the introduction to this (and only this) edition, al-Muwayliḥī explains his method and rationale:

      After reviewing the articles carefully—a process that has demanded revisions and corrections, as well as alterations, substitutions, omissions and additions, I have now converted the story into book form. After all, the contents of newspapers are by definition ephemeral, СКАЧАТЬ