1. THE EGYPTIAN SHORT STORY
With the fewest words and the simplest usages, the Egyptian short story starts with a gripping
opening line. That line extends into the first paragraph; the part that either makes a story or
breaks it. The paragraphs are put together, one after the other, until the perfect story is formed;
much like individual pearls on a flawless necklace. Each paragraph after that adds detail with
such precision that leaves no word unnecessary, no expression out of place. It's exact and
inspired with no room for improvement. How can it be improved upon? The Egyptian short story
writer is a dexterous magician. Although instead of a wand and an empty black hat, he's armed
with pen and paper - the most powerful tools of any creative trade.
The short story first appeared in history, ironically enough, in Egyptian writings that date back
almost 7,000 years. Another form of the short story appears with the Greek slave Aesop and his
moral-entrenched fables. Yet the most famous collection of enchanted short stories dates back to
medieval Arabic literature and can be found in one magical book which has been read worldwide,
Arabian Nights.
Every short story is flexible which is why it's hard to assign it a definition. However, its adaptability
is the reason behind its diversity and vibrancy. The Egyptian short story is a young art which
boomed at the onset of the 20th century. It is akin to the art of cinematography because they
prefer telling tales through a series of related events, intelligent scenes, inspired moments; both
find the use of much explanation redundant and tiresome.
One of the earliest Egyptian writers was Mahmoud Taymour. Born on June 6, 1894 at "Darb
Saada" in "Moski" an old district in Cairo, he was brought up in a well-off family interested in
literature and arts. In his early youth, Taymour read Maupassant and Checkov who greatly
influenced his work. He believed that " Maupassant was the leader of short story. With
Taymour's first short story "In the Train" (1925), the modern Arab short story was born. Taymour
called for an Egyptian literature that truly expresses Egyptian traditions, sentiments and
environment. He derived his material from the Egyptian life; urban and rural. He drew his
characters from the working class (farmers, civil servants, craftsmen and traders) and from the
nobility.
Another influential writer is Bahaa Taher (b. 1935) who published his first short story collection in
1964 Alkhotouba (The Engagement). In 1998, Taher received the highest honor the Egyptian
establishment can confer on a writer; the State's Award of Merit in Literature.
Yehia Haqqi was born in 1905 and he published his first short story in 1925; Kandeel Om
Hasehm (Om Hashem's Lantern,1954). This story became one of the most important stories in
Egyptian literature for more than of its touching plotline. Kandeel Om Hashem is approximately
fifty pages, nevertheless it is one of the elaborate stories ever written. The metaphors, symbols
and underlying messages in the story make it as close to perfect as any story can get. It has no
redundant phrase, no unnecessary word, no expression out of place.
Yet it is Youssef Idris who is most renowned for his expressionistic works of art. Born in 1927, he
published his first collection of short stories Arkhas Layali (Cheapest Nights) in 1954 which won
him accolade from all over the Arab world. He has published thirteen collections of short stories in
all, and in each, his brilliancy as a writer gains weight and prominence. To this day, Idris remains
the uncontested overlord of the Arabic short story. "A few writers were born as if with an
appointment with destiny," critic and professor of modern Arabic literature at London University,
Sabri Hafez, states, identifying Idris as the second of the two accepted protagonists of
contemporary Arabic literature. "Naguib Mahfouz, was destined to put the Arabic novel on the
international map, and Idris was destined to establish the short story as a major literary genre in
Arabic."

2. Through this literary genius' works came an overflow of talented, new writers with a new vision for
the Egyptian short story. From their works burgeoned hope for a better future. They came from
every city, town and village to write about the hardships of Egyptian life; urban and rural.
The year 1967, the year of the Egyptian's defeat against Israel, was an important year for creating
writers in general. They rose out of the rubble and despair with stories that kept the people of
Egypt alive with hope. What happened between 1967 until 1973 was specifically a turning point
for the Egyptian short story. The year 1973 – the year of Egypt's victory against Israel - brought
back poise and dignity to the Egyptians, and it was the writers' job to portray those feelings in
stories seeped in optimism and triumph. After the 1970s came a new wave of writers with many
voices and expressions that take the short story a step further than previous generation of writers.
Their writing became more provocative, more goal-oriented. It is during this time that women
writers stood up and made their voices heard. Their heroines represented the true Egyptian
female; a strong, ill-advised individual. And through their stories, they attempted to free this
female from false hypocrisy and male dominion. The most prominent are Nawal Elsaadawy and
Ihsan Kamal.
Another extremely influential writer is Mohamed El-Bisatie. If the only pleasure to be had from a
short story is that derived from following the development of the opening line, El-Bisatie's stories
more than provide. Stories like "Alkibar wa al-sighar" (Adults and Children, 1967), Hadith min al-
Tabik al-Thalith wa kissas ukhra (Conversation from the Third Floor and Other Stories, 1970),
Ahlam Rijal Kissar al-‘Umr (Dreams of Men Shortlived, 1979 and 1984) give the reader a sense of
urgency write from the very first words written.
Among the ways of understanding the art of the short story is to review the astonishing range of
types of stories. The ancient form of the tale can retain its power when used for the modern short
story. Another short story type is the humor story, intended to delight and entertain. Humor gave
birth to a related type of story, the satire, is designed to attack the ills of society, as in Mageed
Tobia's stories which deal with the hardships of failing love affairs in a rotten reality. Some short
stories are character studies like in Yehia Taher's stories which discuss the hardships of life with
no chance for an individual to prove his worth. Still other stories fall under biography or history
types, in which a life story or historical event is used for a work of fiction as in the myriad of
stories set in the town of Port Saed during the War of 1973 as a kind of 'artistic recording' of the
time, akin to stream of consciousness. Local color stories examine the mores and customs of
rural and small-town life. The latter is by far the most common in Egyptian short stories.
Recently, however, the publication of short stories has been eclipsed by other art forms such as
novels and poetry. Gone are the days of the exceptional, mind-grabbing writing of Yehia Haqqi
and Youssef Idris. Nowadays, publishers abstain from working with short stories because they
believe they are no longer in demand. Newspapers and magazines – the major media for
publishing short stories – cannot distinguish the good from the bad. There are two important
reasons behind this failing. The first being the poor cultural background of literary supervisors,
while the second is the pressing need to fill up space with poor material; a fact of modern-day life
which, needles to say, discourages potential readers. Last but not least, there are the literary
critics who seem to have no eye for distinguishing the good from the bad; the bad goes with no
censure, the good with no praise.
All in all there is a sense of maturity about these stories that represent accomplishments of all
who came before. They represent the basic building blocks of Arab literature. They represent a
country dealing with the most turbulent of political and economic problems. Yet these writers
manage to dig their way through the darkness into the light, from anonymity to fame, to embody a
new way of bringing together more than one kind of storytelling into a genre of their own. They
also do more than that; they bring together a nation who have fought since the onset of history to
make something of themselves and their motherland. May they continue to do that years into the
future.
-- Dalia AbdelMegeed