JOIN USThe first Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize, Naguib Mahfouz started writing during a time of social ferment and hope.
As the chronicler of middle-class Cairo, he mirrored the times with his characters’ personal struggles, echoing the social, political, religious, and cultural concerns of the milieu. Mahfouz joined the long list of Egyptian writers and intellectuals caught between the state and the religion. After graduating from Cairo University in 1934, he made a career out of writing.
It was considered the golden age of liberal thoughts in Egypt when writers and intellectuals drew inspiration from Western political philosophers. At that time, a conflict over Egypt’s soul was raging between the votaries of modernity, inspired by European thoughts, and backward-looking revivalist forces as represented by Muslim Brotherhood. The battle for Egypt’s hearts still continues in the aftermath of Arab Spring. Some of Mahfouz’s works enraged Islamic fundamentalists, who targeted him in 1994, leaving him partially paralysed. Mahfouz never hid his sympathies. He had opposed the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.
Naguib Mahfouz On Art, Literature and History is a collection of essays penned by the acclaimed writer in his formative years. These essays, long-forgotten and scattered over many publications, got published much later. These pieces on their own have little literary value now. This nascent Mahfouz as historical documents offer insights into the mind of a budding writer and the influences that shaped his consciousness.
The essays also offer fascinating glimpses of the changing face of Egypt torn between tradition, modernity and influence of the West.
Mostly written in the 1930s, it covers a gamut of subjects including social ills, women’s status, and the role of science and religion in modern society. These also show Mahfouz’s deep interest in art, literature, history and philosophy. Many of the essays deal with the origins and development of philosophy. He also discusses various schools of thought right from Pre-Socratic era. The essays on philosophy are mostly instructive academic pieces that explain in simple terms great philosophers and their complex systems of thought. There are sweeping summaries of philosophical schools. A general reader may find it too taxing, but students of philosophy may find the volume handy. Despite his deep interest in philosophy, the essays are silent on the contribution of Islamic philosophy.
On the relevance of philosophy, this is what Mahfouz has to say, “Despite the success of science, and its ability to attain the most perfect results, it cannot cure the human soul of its yearning for knowledge.” A few chapters deal with the evolution of psychology as a science, various trends and methods, different schools, and correlations of science and philosophy.
Instead of harking back to Egypt’s Arab-Islamic past, Mahfouz turned his primary focus on the country’s ancient civilisation. Many of his early works are historical ones set in ancient Egypt. He believed that embracing the European model was the best option for Egypt. The secular-minded Mahfouz was fascinated by the burgeoning socialist movement of his time, and pinned great hopes on the ideology as a panacea for social evils.
Mahfouz firmly believed that women should get their rightful place in the society. The best way, he says, is to encourage them to take up government jobs that will give them a share of power. He says, when more women become writers, doctors, engineers and lawyers, more parliamentarians will also emerge from them.
In the 1930 essay Women and Public office, Mahfouz visualises a scenario where women are treated equal to men. “Status of a young woman who is employed would change: she would become a valued member of her family. A young working woman would gain complete independence to determine the course of her life.” These are far-sighted observations in a deeply conservative society.
Contrary to the contents indicated by the title, only a few pieces are devoted to literature. There is one on Anton Chekhov, whom Mahfouz admired. The Russian writer whose life was a saga of struggle against poverty and illness fascinated Mahfouz. Art and Culture addresses the question of what constitutes the proper subject matter of art. “Should art remain pure for the sake of art, free from anything except emotion and instinct?” he asks. Or, should it include intellectual issues and fruits of scientific knowledge? Though he argues in favour of pure art, in later years he reconciles the opposing views in his works.
Non-fiction works are least known among Mahfouz’s readers. Readers may notice that there is very little original content in the volume. More articles on Egypt of those days would have interested readers more than the scholarly pieces on philosophy. However, the essays provide the rationale for the philosophical questions that permeate his novels and short stories.
Naguib Mahfouz
On Art, Literature
and History
Speaking Tiger
2016, pp 154, Rs 499