At a glance A shorthand guide to the month compiled by Mahmoud El-Wardani Magazines and periodicals Al-Kotob: Wughat Nazar, monthly review of books, issue 27, April 2001, Cairo: Egyptian Company for Arab and International Publishing This issue of the well-respected monthly opens, as usual, with Mohamed Hassanin Heikal's summary of the political spring season: Arab visits to Washington. The veteran political analyst typically draws on personal experience as well as well-publicised events and more exclusive documents. Scientific writer Ahmed Mustagir reviews Stephen Braun's The Science of Happiness (John Wiley & Sons Inc. 2000), a commentary on the psychological and social implications of the brave new world of genetic engineering. Sabri Hafiz reviews Julie Scott Meisemi and Paul Starkey's Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature (Routledge, 1998), pointing out many a failure of this important work of scholarship, while the well-known writer Ahmed Osman reviews Bob Prier's The Murder of Tutankhamen (Wiendfield & Nicolson, 1998), an interesting addition to the existing body of literature reinterpreting ancient Egyptian themes.
Al-Hilal, cultural monthly, April 2001, Cairo: Dar Al-Hilal In a display of top-notch erudition, the current issue of this prestigious Cairo monthly includes a content-analysis by Mohamed Ragab El-Bayoumi of contributions to the Egyptian press by well-known columnists, as well as historical articles by Mustafa Sweif on the 1960s in Egypt and Abdel-Azim Anis on his years as a graduate student in London in the early 1950s. Other features of interest include Amani Abdel-Hamid on Coptic Cairo, historian Tareq El-Bishri writing on the religious scholar Youssef El-Qardawi and economist Galal Amin discussing the current economic crisis. From the US, Salah El-Marakbi writes on American tendencies to over-legislate, while Mohamed Haqqi follows recent articles by the British journalist Christopher Hitchens on Kissinger's position on the Israelis and Arabs. This issue's critics section hosts Ezzeddin Naguib, Mustafa Darwish and Maha Salah on contemporary art and theatre.
Nizwa, cultural quarterly, issue 25, January 2001, Oman: Oman Institution for Journalism, News, Publication and Communication The principal topic of the current issue of this Omani quarterly is "transformations in the concept and practice of political engagement in Arab literature," with contributions from Mohamed Berrada on Morocco, Suhail Edris on Lebanon, Georges Tarabishi on Syria, Edwar El-Kharrat on Egypt and Faisal Darrag on Palestine. Khalil Al-Sheikh discusses Mahmoud Darwish's Jidariya, a long poem that explores the Arab tradition of the wall-poem -- a poem written to be read in the public space and pasted up on walls. Other highlights include an interview with Egyptian film-maker Youssef Chahine, as well as poems by Saadi Youssef and Mohamed El-Assad and short stories by Mohamed Khudeir and Mahmoud Al-Rimawi.
Al-Yasar, left-wing monthly, issue 118, April 2001, Cairo: Tagammu' Party After months of stumbling, this left-wing Cairo monthly seems to be back on track in its current issue. This includes an extensive interview with Khalid Mohyieddin, general secretary of the Tagamu' Party, as well as a report by Khalid El-Belshi on allegations of torture in detention over the past 20 years. Medhat El-Zahid discusses the controversy over recent data-protection legislation. Corruption and the history of left-wing students' and workers' organizations are the subjects of articles by Ahmed Mohamed Saleh and Walid Abdel-Nasser, and the issue also includes reports from Haifa and Jerusalem.
Al-Thaqafa Al-Alamiya,bimonthly, issue 105, March-April 2001, Kuwait: National Council for Culture, Arts and Literatures The most recent edition of this Kuwaiti cultural monthly focuses on the large topic of human memory, with contributions from all over the world selected and translated by Yassir Mansour. These tackle the notion of memory from a wide variety of perspectives, discussing its workings in diverse contexts such as in education, under the influence of mind-altering drugs and in the popular media. It also includes excellent translations of recent articles that have appeared elsewhere on topics ranging from literary modernism and globalization to the future of war and the theory of relativity.
Sotour, cultural monthly, issue 53, April 2001, Cairo: Sotour The main theme of this issue of the Cairo monthly magazine is the world in 2050, contributors including Mohamed Raouf Hamid, Ahmed Mohamed Saleh, Walid Madfa'i, Rabab El-Husseini, Diaa Zahir, Mohamed El-Sayed Said, Hazim Hosni, Ahmed Omar Shahin and Fathi Abdel-Sami' on aspects of the future ranging from the idea of perpetual revolution to developments in education and the future of the State of Israel. In the arts department, Abdel-Raziq Okasha writes on Eskimo masks, El-Sayed El-Qammash writes on Goya and Magdi Youssef gives an overview of the career of the late artist Mahmoud Baqshish.
Al-Masalla, Iraqi cultural bimonthly, issue 2, January-February 2001, London:General Union of Iraqi Writers and Juniors The current edition of this magazine, which is the journal of the London-based Iraqi opposition, includes, along with its usual array of stories and poems, articles by Karim El-Waeili on the aesthetics of place in literature, Mohamed El-Jazairi reviewing a work by Faisal Al-Samir on "black revolution" and Abdel-Khaliq Kitan interviewing the Iraqi writer Abdel-Rahman Al-Rubiei, who is based in Amman. Other highlights include an interview with the Iraqi musician Asaad Mohamed, conducted just before he died, and a study of Iraqi poetry in the 1970s.
Books Azmat Al-Himaya Al-Dinia (The Crisis of Religious Protection), Hani Labib, with an introduction by Mohamed El-Awwa, Cairo: Dar Al-Shorouq, 2001. pp211 In this salutory study of the international concept and practice of the protection of religious minorities, the author, a Copt, argues that Egypt's Christian population is not in need of foreign protection, whether religiously motivated or otherwise. Recognizing that the topic is not relevant to Egypt, the author nevertheless goes on to trace the history of the idea, showing how it emerged from Western thought and played a part in imperialism. In developing his theme, the author looks in detail at particular events, probing collective (Muslim and Christian) national memory as he does so and studying the relation of the Church in Egypt to Egyptian civil society. The book includes testimonies by Pope Shenouda and Anba Mousa, as well as a collection of primary sources, including the 1924 document "Ten conditions for the Building of Churches", national manifestos written by Muslims and Copts during periods of inter-religious tension and the American Congress' 1998 report on "individuals subjected to oppression abroad".
Awraq Al-Narjis (Narcissus Papers), Somaya Ramadan, Cairo: Dar Sharqiyat, 2001. pp. 170 While Somaya Ramadan has previously published two collections of stories and many translations, this is her first novel. Though it is impossible to summarize The Narcissus Papers, it is probably safe to say that the novel stages the (narcissistic) mirror in which a politically and socially conscious Egyptian woman, Kima, sees herself and her identity. Where will Kima's newly found self-consciousness, apparently trapped in contradictions, lead her? The destination is not what matters here, as it is the journey that makes this novel a grabbing read.
Egyptiens et Francais au Caire 1798-1801, André Raymond, translated into Arabic by Bashir El-Seba'i, Cairo: Eid Centre for Research and Studies, 2001. pp352 In this book a respected French scholar of Islamic civilization turns his attention to the brief period during which French forces occupied Egypt between 1798 and 1801, initially under Bonaparte. He focuses on the events of what came to be known as the "French Campaign," on which hundreds of articles and books have been written, giving an informed and interesting rereading of a well-researched topic. His most remarkable contribution to historical debate is to be found in chapter five of the book, in which the author discusses the victims of the occupation and the oppression they faced.
Sokhour Al-Samaa (The Rocks of Heaven), Edouar El-Kharrat, Cairo: Centre for Arab Civilisation, 2001. pp487 The prolific Egyptian novelist Edouar El-Kharrat has published his 13th novel, in which he sets out to answer the question of what the rocks of heaven might be: are they stable, unchanging masses floating in the skies of the imagination; or are they rugged questions to which no answer exists? "The rocks of heaven lie elevated in the depths of Upper Egypt, in Akhmim (the author's birth place), the home of the ancient Egyptian god Min, the god of fertility, lust and renewal, who is himself the offspring of the Greek god Pan, the god of music, prophecy and love." The Rocks of Heaven turns out to be the author's formula for "roughness and tenderness, violence and delicacy, brutal invasion and gushing affection," an expression of "the tendency to freeze human and divine, a longing for the absolute and the infinite" to which the author feels present conflicts aspire. The novel breaks new ground for El-Kharrat, and it is particularly valuable in its exploration of Coptic and Upper Egyptian concerns.
Portrait abstrait, oil on wood, 1962	Salah Abdel-Kerim, bilingual edition, Salah Abdel-Kerim et al., Cairo: Foreign Affairs Division of the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the French Centre for Culture and Cooperation, 2000. pp228
High-quality art books are few and far between this side of the Mediterranean, partly due to the kind of budget they require. The contribution of the French Centre for Cultural Cooperation to the production of this book, summing up the achievement of the late artist Salah Abdel-Kerim, is therefore a welcome initiative. Alongside pages of impeccable reproductions of the artist's interior decoration, sets and costumes, pottery, drawings, paintings and sculpture, the book contains a short autobiography by Abdel-Kerim, an introduction by veteran artist Hussein Bikar and a record of the sculptor's career at the College of Fine Arts and the Arts' Syndicate by artist and critic Ibrahim Abdel-Malak. Article’s Link: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/529/bo7.htm Posted by: Sarah Shalaby