The Religious Other

Abstract

This chapter identifies religion as a key problematic in early examples of the Arabic novel in Egypt before embarking on an in-depth discussion of the religious/secular opposition in seminal words by Haykal, Taha Husayn and Tawfiq al-Hakim. It examines how texts like Zaynab (1914), Al-Ayyam (vols 1 and 2; 1929, 1933), ‘Awdat al-Ruh (1933) and ‘Usfur min al-Sharq (1938) promote national and secular values on the level of story and character yet undermine these same values through self-contradiction and slippage, and how religious patterns remain deeply embedded in characters’ thought and behaviour even as formal religion is subjected to harsh critique on the surface of the plot and theocentrism is displaced as ideology.