Novel
The Saint's Lamp
قنديل أم هاشم
Yahya Haqqi · 1944
Synopsis
Ismail grows up in Cairo in the Umm Hashim district, around the shrine whose lamp is said to heal. A brilliant pupil, he goes to study ophthalmology in England, for seven years according to The Complete Review, and there abandons faith for scientific reason. On his return, he finds his cousin Fatima, who is promised to him, suffering from an eye disease, and his family treating her with oil from the lamp. His imported knowledge collides with the beliefs of the household and the district.
Context
The story appeared in 1944 according to the Ca' Foscari editions, in 1943 according to Arab World Books; it opens a collection that the author expanded in 1975 with his autobiography. ArabLit sees in it the confrontation of a Western education and the beliefs of Egypt; Kamal Attiya adapted it for the cinema in 1968, with Samira Ahmed. In English, it was translated by M. M. Badawi, in Leiden in 1973, then by Denys Johnson-Davies in 2004. In French, it appeared in 1991 in Choc, a collection translated by Charles Vial and Sayyed Abul Naga and prefaced by Sabry Hafez.
Who it is for
A short narrative in classical Arabic, centred on a single conflict; translated into French in a story collection and twice into English.
Prizes and reception
A narrative whose lasting effect on the development of the Arabic novel is attested by two reference works on the author.
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