Shoair, Mohamed. The Story of the Banned Book: Naguib Mahfouz’s Children of the Alley.
Translated from the Arabic by Humphrey Davies. Cairo: The University in Cairo Press, 2022. 222 pages. $35.00. Originally published in Arabic as Awlad Haratina: Sirat al-Riwaya al-Muharrama. 3rd ed., Cairo: Dar al-ʿAyn li-l-Nashr, 2018.
The Story of the Banned Book is highly researched investigative journalism at its best. The controversial context behind the banning of the book’s publication in Cairo is meticulously detailed by award-winning journalist Mohamed Shoair. Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz had been serialized in Cairo’s prestigious daily, al-Ahram, in 1959. The serialization caused a controversial debate among Islamists and conservative and liberal writers regarding the freedom of expression, the role of the writer, and the objective of literary criticism in the making of the nation. The novel evokes a symbolic rendition of the history of humanity in one of Cairo’s poor neighborhoods, by representing some characters who could be interpreted as prophets or historical figures. The content and form provoked private and public ire whereby letters by writers and readers, some anonymous, flooded al-Ahram. The letters requested the editor to cease the novel’s publication for blasphemy and atheism. Shoair reveals that conservative writers had incited the religious leaders of al-Azhar to initiate the ban. The study illuminates the dynamic intellectual atmosphere of Egypt’s cultural life in the post-revolution of 1952. After the new, secular republic had been proclaimed by the Free Officers’ coup, Cairo experienced lively controversial debates among writers, politicians, religious leaders, journalists, and other intellectuals, regarding nationalism, secularism, censorship, the public good, and the role of literature. Mohammad Hasanayn Haykal, al-Ahram’s editor, who was President Jamal Abdel Nasser’s confidant, insisted on continuing the novel’s serialization to protect the “freedom to discuss” in Egypt’s cultural life (17). Haykal had also commissioned the artist al-Husayn Fawzi to illustrate the serialized novel, a modernist act that combined words with visual illustrations. The visuals, according to Shoair, inspired many high school students to enroll in the faculty of fine arts at the university (18). Ultimately, the novel was not to be published in book form until 1968 by Dar al-Adab in Beirut, whose editor-in-chief Suhayl Idris undertook a publicity campaign to promote “the Novel We Have Been Awaiting So Long” (60).
This is a fascinating study of the intricate dynamics of the intersectionality of the political, religious, social, and cultural life in modern Egypt. It would be appealing to students of journalism, literature, history, religion, and education, as well as cultural studies.
Gelvin, James L. Editor. The Contemporary Middle East in an Age of Upheaval.
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2021. 368 pages. Paperback $28.00
The Contemporary Middle East is a much-needed interdisciplinary study about the state of the Middle East in the early decades of the twenty-first century. It covers the history of the region from the aftermath of the 2003 American invasion of Iraq through the 2010–2011 uprisings into the present. The book comprises four parts, an introduction, and a conclusion. A total of 15 well-researched essays by prominent scholars shed light on the changes the region has been undergoing. The array of essays offers specific analysis about Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and North Africa, discussing a range of complex topics, such as Islamism, authoritarianism, security, civil and proxy wars, state building, and education. Other themes covered include the role of Turkish foreign policy, the Syrian diaspora and disengagement with the homeland, change or lack of it in Saudi Arabia, the Iran conflict, and the restructuring of the new Middle East. This brief review will highlight a few findings of the study.
Joel Beinin questions the validity of the label “new” Middle East, noting that the protesters’ demands have not been met, given that the structural issues of the political economy issues have not been addressed (39). Similarly, F. Gregory Gause III emphasizes that the Saudi planned changes in Vision 2030 by crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) for Arabia remain projects on paper. The authoritarian regime remains in place, though the economic and social changes to women and some aspects of social life are real. Laurie A. Brand acknowledges the general poor quality of education and human security across the region. Since independence, the authoritarian regimes have not only suppressed personal and political freedoms, but they have rendered knowledge as merely expedient to their power consolidation. Additionally, civil wars, insurgencies, military interventions, and occupation have threatened the educational domain in the whole region, compromising “development, security, and peace” (74). Finally, Peter Mandaville fleshes out the divisive intricacies of political Islam across the Middle East. He assesses the short- and long-term trends regarding Islamist ideology, asserting that the specificity, diversity, and complexity of the ideology had emerged before the Arab Spring. He also notes that while several countries favor political Islam, municipal elections, and limited local governmentality (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar), other countries, such as Jordan, Morocco, and Turkey have coopted Islamists to contain them within the existing regime. Mandaville affirms that although sociopolitical conditions in the Middle East are fluid and unsettled, political Islam is a fixture in the region that needs to be accounted for (108).
The Contemporary Middle East is set to become required reading for policymakers and for students at the undergraduate and graduate levels in Middle East studies, history, international politics, and economics.
Shaw, Tony, and Giora Goodman. Hollywood and Israel: A History.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2022. 368 pages. Paperback $30.00
As the contemporary scene of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have demonstrated, the role of the media in shaping culture is substantial. Specifically, Hollywood and Israel: A History is an excellent testimony about the role of the entertainment industry in American culture. The book is an extensively documented study about the special relationship between Hollywood and Israel. Studios and scriptwriters, directors and producers, stars and American Jews and rabbis, and Christians and lay people have sympathized and supported Israel to promote and bolster the Jewish state before the founding of the state in 1948. The study brings to light new findings from American, Arab, and Israeli archives, as well as testimonies of Hollywood moguls, stars, and television networks and personalities. It chronologically traces the beginnings and developments in thematic foci and genres, from the silent film era through the 1940s and 1950s into the 1990s and the early decades of the twenty-first century. We learn that although Hollywood’s early films of the 1920s were not ideologically centered, from the mid-1930s onward Hollywood’s engagement with the Jewish question and Zionism rose to the task of fundraising for the resettlement of Jewish migrants and the Zionist state. Hollywood’s support was most notable with the rise of anti-Semitism and German Nazism and beyond, though not without contentions at times.
The overarching goal of film-making for both Hollywood and Israel was always business profits and propaganda notwithstanding, the book seeks to answer a few major questions about Hollywood’s “special relationship” with Israel. When, why, and how has Hollywood begun its propaganda for Zionism and the Israeli state? What roles and influences have Hollywood, studio moguls, and showbiz activism played, on and off screen, in the Arab-Israeli conflict and/or peace efforts? What images of Israel attracted “creative” Hollywood and stars’ activism to promote pro-Israel or pro-Arab activism in the United States and around the world? What is Hollywood’s relationship with Jewish, non-Jewish, and Arab communities in the US? And finally, what does the book reveal about American culture, politics, and diplomacy? (4). Writers Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman attempt to answer these questions in ten chapters, with an introduction and a good number of photographs. The writers demonstrate the “exceptionally deep and meaningful” relationship between Hollywood and Israel and the significant role actors can play in selling ideas. The power of celebrity activism “offer[s] insights into the role of media and propaganda in international politics in general and in the Arab-Israeli conflict in particular” (5).
Biblical themes have been popular; some became blockbusters. For example, the short documentary The Magnetic Ties (1949) and The Land of the Bible (1956) deployed the Judeo-Christian connection. Both films were shot in Israel. They educated the general public about the plight of Jews in Europe, raised funds for the support of Zionist work in Palestine, and “trumpeted the vitality of the modern state of Israel” (67). The Ten Commandments (1956) with Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharoah has been commonly acknowledged worldwide as one of the most popular and profitable films. It was nominated for seven academy awards, winning the award for Best Visual Effects and other special awards. The film continues to be re-released and aired on major television networks worldwide. The authors also reveal Hollywood’s celebrations of the birth of the nation at various points in its history – major fundraising events – as recently as 2018.
Given the recent media encounters with Israeli violence against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and the incursions against Gaza, some stars such as pro-Palestinian British actress Vanessa Redgrave, among other liberal actors, opted to criticize Israel, though some kept it private. Additionally, the Palestinian NGO Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) have had some success in having a few stars withdraw from performing or visiting Israel. The authors conclude that Hollywood’s “special relationship” with Israel and its stars continues to be crafted and promoted, and the private 2018 celebration of Israel’s 70th birthday is testimony that “In Hollywood, Israel was, still, unique” (273).
Hollywood and Israel is an excellent source for Middle East and media and cultural studies, history and interdisciplinary studies, and political science and the role of soft power in international relations.
Lemire, Vincent (Editor), Katell Berthelot, Julien Loiseau, and Yann Potin (Contributors). Jerusalem: History of a Global City.
Translated from the French by Juliana Froggatt. Oakland: CA: University of California Press, 2022. Originally published as Jérusalem: Histoire d’une Ville-Monde. Paris: Flammarion, 2016. 360 pages. Hardcover $34.95
This new study about Jerusalem sheds new light on the city’s long history from its birth in 4000 BCE through the early decades of the twenty-first century. A collaboration of four historians, the writers consider the geography and diachronic history, to provide a “human and social science” survey of the city of Jerusalem as “a store of memory, not a place of history” (2). By rejecting “crude identities” that flatten the “ambivalences and ambiguities” (2), their approach challenges conventional sources that have reduced inhabitants to being mere Jews, Christians, and Muslims. We learn about the chronological history that focuses on the interaction, hybridization, exchanges, and transfers among traditions of ancient empires and regional powers. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Hellenistic and Roman, and Biblical and Muslim periods have left material findings that must be considered when dealing with the history of the global city. This is history that focuses on daily life while it contextualizes and situates the political from within the “geostrategic, urban, economic, and social aspects” (11).
Jerusalem comprises seven chapters with an introduction, conclusion, ten original maps, and the first time to be assembled timeline of the city. Chapter 1, titled, “The Birth of a Holy City,” covers the period from 4000 BCE to the second century CE. Chapters 2 and 4 relate the history under the Roman Empire (second–seventh centuries) and the Frankish Kingdom (1099–1187). During these periods, not only did the city change dramatically, its name changed from Yerushalayim to Aelia Capitolina to al-Quds (60). We learn about the mosaic map in Madaba (in today’s Jordan), which was constructed for Christian pilgrims, is the oldest cartographic representation of Jerusalem. Discovered toward the end of the nineteenth century, the late sixth-century map of Jerusalem shows the city’s five gates, but the old Jewish Temple or its esplanade cannot be distinguished. The Madaba Map testifies to the city’s “all-Roman and all-Christian topography,” one that had symbolically effaced the old Jewish Temple (85). Chapters 5 and 6 explore the Islamization of the Holy City under Muslim conquest (1187–1566) through Ottoman Rule (sixteenth–nineteenth centuries). This brief review will highlight the contentious debate over the historicity of the biblical story vis-à-vis recent archeological findings.
Juxtaposing the biblical history with the findings of archeological excavations, that have been conducted since the nineteenth century, contests the accuracy of the biblical and postbiblical tales, according to the writers. While Israel’s state identity relies on the biblical reigns of David and Solomon, the ancestors of the Israelite and Judean monarchies, the authors state that David’s period represents a continuation of the Canaanite occupation of the urban city rather than a break with it. So that conflicting points of view are confronted, they add, the historians opt not to reject the biblical narrative but dialogue with sources critically. Biblical and other sources must be read critically to free historical interpretations from theological perspectives, in addition to taking archeological findings from the wider region into consideration (10–11). For example, the 2008 excavation of a fortified city outside Jerusalem’s southwestern border was identified by the main archeologist as the Kingdom of Judah, at Khirbet Qeiyafa. This finding may corroborate the biblical narrative. But the pottery fragment with undecipherable “traces of writing” found at Khirbet Qeiyafa does not ascertain that the writing is Hebrew. The fortified city could be linked to the Philistines rather than the Israelites. Similarly, the two portable altars found at the same site, whose decorative columns recall the description of Solomon’s Temple, are not unique to the Israelite sites. Other similar portable altars with columns have been found at non-Israelite, such as in Samaria [the West Bank]. The authors conclude: “no piece of evidence taken in isolation is entirely conclusive,” though their joint presence seems to substantiate the “theory of the politico-military organization of the Kingdom of Judah beginning at the end the eleventh century BCE” (20–21). The chapter continues to tackle the complex debates, and quarrels, among historians and archeologists, regarding the date of David’s kingdom. The conclusion refutes the certainty of the exact location of buildings in the Second Temple. To assess their architectural importance, the authors add, remains hypothetical because “no trace of the first Temple of Solomon’s palace can be found” (23).
Jerusalem: History of a Global City is a valuable contribution to the scientific approach to learning about the true history of Jerusalem, the center of all three monotheistic religions. It is an excellent, accessible read for the non-specialist, despite the meticulous details of the chronological history and archeological findings. Contending politicians would benefit from understanding the complexity of the urban city of Jerusalem that anticipates globalization as we know it.