the many and varied book editions of the work—is not only a wonderfully trenchant survey of turn-of-the-century Egypt under British occupation as it was involved in a complex process of cultural assimilation and transition, but also a conscious attempt to link developments in Arabic language and its literary forms during the nineteenth century (a movement generally known as the nahḍah [revival]) to the Arabic heritage of the pre-modern centuries. For that reason I have already characterized here it as being a genuine “bridge-work,” one that adopts a kind of Janus-like posture, looking in two directions simultaneously. It can be argued, and indeed several Egyptian scholars have argued, that the editorial process al-Muwayliḥī undertook before the publication of Ḥadīth ʿĪsā ibn Hishām in 1907 may have been an attempt to turn the text into a kind of “proto-novel.” However, as I have also endeavored to show previously (especially in A Period of Time, 1992, Section III), the revised text is less than successful in meeting even the minimal goals of such a designation. While one may be able to offer different views within that critical generic context, there can be little doubt that the original newspaper articles, published here for the first time in their original format and sequence, are the clearest possible reflection of the political, social, and cultural concerns that were the central focus of both al-Muwayliḥīs in their newspaper. That is, it seems to me, their enduring value, added to which is the fact that the vast majority of the text that was eventually to be published as Ḥadīth ʿĪsā ibn Hishām—with either its “first journey” only (1907, 1912, and 1923) or both journeys (1927 and thereafter)—is present in the current text, albeit in a different sequence.
Given the multiple cultural and cross-cultural references in the text, I have provided both a Glossary of Names and Places and a series of detailed endnotes. The latter includes references to the equivalent chapters of the book version of Ḥadīth ʿĪsā ibn Hishām, as well as citations of as many of the sources of the copious amount of poetry in the text as I have been able to find. In that context, I have to express particular gratitude to Professors Geert Jan van Gelder, James Montgomery, Maurice Pomerantz, Bilal Orfali, and Philip Kennedy, all of whom have allowed me to tap their knowledge of the Arabic poetic tradition in quest of the identities of the many unidentified poets whose lines are cited in this text. I would also like to thank my colleague, Professor Joseph E. Lowry, for his assistance with the identification of the legal sources that are cited in the text.
In conclusion, I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to express particular thanks to Professor Philip Kennedy, the General Editor of the Library of Arabic Literary series (and also editor of the project that consists of these two volumes) and the other members of the project’s Editorial Board.
Roger Allen
NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION
1 Ibrāhīm’s dealings with al-Afghānī are fully covered in Keddie, Sayyid Jamāl ad-Dīn “al-Afghānī,” 235ff. and 246ff.
2 Al-Bishrī, Al-Mukhtār, 1:246.
3 The al-Muwayliḥī newspaper Miṣbāḥ al-sharq is full of articles concerning the perils involved in speculation on the Stock Exchange and the wiles of brokers in tricking the unwary. The topic of speculation is also a major theme of Ibrāhīm al-Muwayliḥī’s Mirʾāt al-ʿĀlam discussed below.
4 It should be pointed out that the most detailed source of information on the lives of Ibrāhīm and Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥī is Ibrāhīm al-Muwayliḥī the younger, and that, although the family anecdotes do throw considerable light on various aspects of the lives of the two men—and particularly the atmosphere of political intrigue which is further illuminated by al-ʿAqqād in “Mā warāʾ al-tarājim”—many of these stories may have been embellished to some degree in order to amplify the influence which Ibrāhīm al-Muwayliḥī is alleged to have had.
5 Ibrāhīm al-Muwayliḥī the younger quotes a letter written by Ibrāhīm to Muḥammad on March 15, 1880 asking for junior grammar books to be sent to Italy. See al-Risālah 6 (1938): 617ff.
6 Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “Arabi Pasha”; Landau, Parliaments and Parties in Egypt, 94ff.
7 Le Figaro (Paris) 331, November 26, 1884.
8 “Ihdāʾ al-Kitāb,” in all editions of Ḥadīth ʿĪsā ibn Hishām. Al-Shinqīṭī died in Cairo in 1904.
9 Tarrāzī, Taʾrīkh al-ṣiḥāfah al-ʿarabiyyah, 4:165. ʿĀrif Bey later rose in the Ottoman administration and became governor of Sūriyā (Damascus).
10 These articles appeared irregularly in Al-Muqaṭṭam between December 8, 1887 and November 19, 1894.
11 Muḥammad Farīd comments in his unpublished memoirs that the Princess had a penchant for British officers. The setting for these meetings is well described by Sir Ronald Storrs in his Orientations, 87ff. The circle is discussed in greater detail in my “Writings of Members of the Nazli Circle.”
12 Blunt, My Diaries, 1:14.
13 Ibid., 1:106. See also Lord Cromer, Abbas II, 7ff.
14 Published in al-Muqaṭṭam, August 18, 1893.
15 The Arabic text of this work was (re-)published in Ibrāhīm al-Muwayliḥī, Al-Muʾallafāt al-kāmilah in 2007. My English translation of this work is published as Spies, Scandals, and Sultans.
16 The former of these two appointments was announced in Le proche Egyptien, December 3, 1895.
17 The articles are reprinted in al-Manfalūṭī, Mukhtārāt al-Manfalūṭī, 139ff. I discuss both the articles and the accompanying furor in “Poetry and Poetic Criticism at the Turn of the Century.”
18 Kurd ʿAlī, Memoirs, 89; Mūsā, The Education of Salāma Mūsā, 38.
19 Miṣbāḥ al-sharq 112, July 12, 1900.
20 Miṣbāḥ al-sharq beginning August 17, 1900.
21 Al-Muwayliḥī’s version of the incident is given in “Ḥādithat Darāktūs,” Miṣbāḥ al-sharq 229, November 8, 1902.
22 Miṣbāḥ al-sharq 230, November 15, 1902.
23 Ismāʿīl Ṣabrī, Dīwān, 94ff.
24 Al-Muʾayyad, November 9–30, 1902.
25 The last issue of the newspaper to appear (August 15, 1903) contains the following announcement: “Apology: the editor of this newspaper has fallen ill and must have a change of air and some relaxation for a while. He asks the esteemed readers of the newspaper to accept his apologies for being away from work for a period of thirty days so that he may recover, God willing.” No formal announcement of permanent closure was made, and there was no comment on the subject from the rest of the press.
26 Tarrāzī, Taʾrīkh al-ṣiḥāfah, 4:185.
27 For further details of the case, see Al-Kātib 28 (July 1963, 74). For one of the poems on this subject, see Ḥāfiẓ Ibrāhīm, Dīwān, 1:256.
28 Al-Ẓāhir, August 2–October 3, 1904.
29 Al-Bishrī, Al-Mukhtār, 1:244ff.; al-ʿAqqād, Rijāl ʿaraftuhum, 79ff.
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