Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery: A Novel / Edition 1

by Bahaa' Taher, Barbara Romaine

Overview

This brief, beautifically crafted novel introduces one of the finest contemporary Arab novelists to English-speaking audiences. In it, Bahaa' Taher, one of a group of Egyptian writers—including the Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz—noted for their revealing portraits of Egyptian life and society, tells the dramatic story of a young Muslim who, when his life is threatened, finds sanctuary in a community of Coptic monks. It is a tale of honor and of the terrible demands of blood vengeance; it probes the question of how a people or nation can become divided against itself.

Taher has a magical gift for evoking the village life of Upper Egypt—a vastly different setting than urban Cairo and a landscape that tourists usually glimpse only from the windows of trains and buses taking them to the Pharaonic sites. Here, where Christians and Muslims have coexisted peacefully for centuries, where the traditions of the Coptic Church are as powerful as those of the Muslims, Taher crafts an intricate and compelling tale of far-reaching implications. With a powerful narrative voice and a genius for capturing the complex nuances of human interaction, Taher brilliantly depicts the poignant drama of a traditional society caught up in the process of change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520200753
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	06/27/1996
Series:	Literature of the Middle East
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	116
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Bahaa' Taher, who lives in Geneva, has written three novels and several collections of short stories. This novel, his most recent, is the first to appear in English. Barbara Romaine teaches Arabic at the College of William and Mary.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration and Pronunciation
Glossary
Introduction

Chapter One: The Miqaddis Bishai

Chapter Two: Aunt Safiyya

Chapter Three: The Outlaws

Chapter Four: Al-naksa

Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

As the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin proved, the schisms within nations can be as dangerous as those between nations. It is in this realm of internal, individual conflicts that Taher, an Egyptian, sets his novel. Egypt in the years surrounding the 1967 Arab-Israeli war is a nation increasingly divided between Muslims and Coptic Christians, and between those who look to the past and those who look to the future. Championing the ancient practices of vendettas and blood feuds is Aunt Safiyya, who swears that she will not rest until her son kills the man who murdered her husband. Opposing her and the old traditions are the narrator's father, a Muslim, and Bishai, a Coptic monk. Filled with details of village life in Egypt and smartly translated to integrate Arabic words that have no direct English equivalent, the style is clear, beautiful and exotic. As a humane story of individuals striving for tolerance against traditions of violence, it is one that should appeal not only to those interested in Egyptian history and literature, but also to those interested in the foundations and possibilities of peace. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly