Arabic Literature by Iraqi Jews in the Twentieth Century: The Case of Ishaq Bar-Moshe (1927–2003)
2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 41; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/0026320042000322699
ISSN1743-7881
Autores Tópico(s)Middle East Politics and Society
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes S.D. Goitein, Jews and Arabs: Their Contacts Through the Ages (New York: Schocken Books, 1955), p.130. According to Bernard Lewis, to speak about a Judeo–Muslim heritage is undoubtedly historically no less justified than to speak about a Judeo–Christian one (‘The Judeo–Islamic Heritage’ [Hebrew], Pe'amim – Studies in Oriental Jewry 20 (1984), pp.3–13). Bat Ye'or, Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide (Lancaster: Gazelle Book Services, 2002), pp.316–7. See also N.A. Stillman, ‘The Judeo–Islamic Historical Encounter: Vision and Revision’, in T. Parfitt (ed.), Israel and Ishmael: Studies in Muslim–Jewish Relations (Richmond: Curzon, 2000), pp.5–6, which is a summary of the contributions towards establishing the myth of harmonious Muslim–Jewish relations prior to the rise of Zionism, as well as the counter myth emphasizing the darker side of Jewish history under Islam. Ishaq Bar-Moshe, Baytun fi Baghdad (A House in Baghdad) (Jerusalem: Rabitat al-Jami‘iyyin al-Yahud al-Nazihin min al-‘Iraq, 1983), p.231. Salman Darwish, Kull Shay’ Hadi’ fi al-'Iyada (All is Quiet in the Surgery) (Jerusalem: Rabitat al-Jami‘iyyin al-Yahud al-Nazihin min al-‘Iraq, 1981), p.200. ‘Abd al-Ilah Ahmad, Nash'at al-Qissa wa-Tatawwuruha fi al-‘Iraq 1908–1939 (The Rise of the Short Story and its Development in Iraq 1908–1939) (Baghdad: Matba‘at Shafiq, 1969), p.242. Cf. Shmuel Moreh, ‘The Intellectual Production of Iraqi Jews in the Arabic Language’ [Hebrew], in Jacob Mansour (ed.), Mehqarim be-‘Aravit uve-Islam (Arabic and Islamic Studies) (Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University, 1978), II, p.61. In the 1940s, prominent intellectuals and educators from various Arab countries were teaching in educational institutions in Baghdad including Jewish schools, cf. D. Semah, ‘Mir Basri and the Resurgence of Modern Iraqi Literature’ [Arabic], al-Karmil 10 (1989), p.86. See al-Sharq al-Awsat (London), 24 May 1984, p.10. Cf. a similar case in Syria in which a Muslim journalist is stunned that Jewish students excel in Arabic exams; Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times (Philadelphia and New York: The Jewish Publication Society, 1991), p.280. About a similar phenomenon in Egypt, see Sasson Somekh, ‘Lost Voices: Jewish Authors in Modern Arabic Literature’, in Mark R. Cohen and Abraham L. Udovitch (eds.), Jews Among Arabs: Contacts and Boundaries (Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1989), p.14. Anwar Sha'ul, Qissat Hayati fi Wadi al-Rafidayn (The Story of My life in Mesopotamia) (Jerusalem: Rabitat al-Jami'iyyin al-Yahud al-Nazihin min al-‘Iraq, 1980), pp.119, 223; Darwish, Kull Shay’, p.202. Semah, ‘Mir Basri’, pp.88–9. The original text was first published in al-‘Iraq, 19 July 1921. The translation is based on the version which appears in Mir Basri, A‘lam al-Yahud fi al-‘Iraq al-Hadith (Eminent Jewish Personalities in the New Iraq) (Jerusalem: Rabitat al-Jami‘iyyin al-Yahud al-Nazihin min al-‘Iraq, 1993), II, p.9. For a slightly different version, see Philip Willard Ireland, Iraq: A Study in Political Development (New York: Russell and Russell, 1970 [1937]), p.466. Cf. D.B.E. Bell, The Letters of Gertrude Bell (London: Ernest Benn, 1930), p.495; M.H. Mudhi, ‘The Origin and Development of the Iraqi–Jewish Short Story from 1922–1972’, Ph.D Thesis (University of Exeter, 1988), p.21; Stillman, The Jews, 1991, pp.55–6, 260. On Arabic press by Jews, see ‘Press, Arabic’, in G. Abramson (ed.), Companion to Modern Jewish Culture (London and New York: Routledge) (in press). On various aspects of the Arabic literature of Iraqi Jews, see my articles ‘Cultural Changes as Reflected in Literature – The Beginning of the Arabic Short Story by Jewish Authors in Iraq’ [Hebrew], Pe'amim – Studies in Oriental Jewry, 36 (1988), pp.108–29; “Under the Patronage of Muhammad’: Islamic Motifs in the Poetry of Jewish Writers from Iraq’ [Hebrew], in T. Alexander et al. (eds.), History and Creativity in the Sephardi and Oriental Jewish Communities [Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Misgav Yerushalayim, 1994), pp.161–93; ‘Arabic Literature of Iraqi Jews – The Dynamics of the Jewish Cultural System and the Relationship with the Arabic Cultural System’ [Hebrew], Miqqedem Umiyyam, 6 (1995), pp.255–88; ‘Women in the Arabic Belles Lettres of Iraqi Jewry in the twentieth Century’ [Hebrew], Pe'amim – Studies in Oriental Jewry, 82, Winter (2000), pp.119–49; ‘Iraqi Jewry after 1945 – Literature, History and Historiography’ [Hebrew], Miqqedem Umiyyam, 7 (2000), pp.245–271; ‘My Heart Beats with Love of the Arabs: Iraqi Jews Writing in Arabic in the Twentieth Century’, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies I, 2 (2002), pp.182–203. Abbas Shiblak, The Lure of Zion – The Case of the Iraqi Jews (London: Al Saqi Books, 1986), p.28. See Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Maydani, Majma‘al-Amthal (The Assembly of Proverbs) (ed. Na‘im Husayn Zarzur) (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1988), II, pp.441–2. On the poet and his loyalty, see also Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey (eds.), Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), II, pp.685–6. On Sa‘adia Gaon and his attitude to Arabic poetics, see Y. Tobi, ‘Sa‘adia Gaon, Poet-Paytan: The Connecting Link between the Ancient Piyyut and Hebrew Arabicised Poetry in Spain’, in T. Parfitt (ed.), Israel and Ishmael, pp.59–77; Y. Tobi, ‘The Reaction of Rav Sa‘adia Gaon to Arabic Poetry and Poetics’, Hebrew Studies, 36 (1995), pp.35–53. On Maimonides and his connection with Arab culture, see, Meisami and Starkey, II, pp.494–5. See M. Perlmann, Ibn Kammuna's Examination of the Three Faiths (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971). On Ibn Kammunah, see L. Nemoy, ‘New Data for the Biography of Sa'd ibn Kammunah’, Revue des Études Juives CXXII (1964), pp.507–10. On Ibn Sahl and the issue of his conversion, see the introduction by Ihsan ‘Abbas, in Ibn Sahl al-Andalusi, Diwan (Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1967), especially pp.33–7. See also Meisami and Starkey, I, p.367; A. Schippers, ‘Humorous Approach of the Divine in the Poetry of al-Andalus: The Case of Ibn Sahl’, in G. Borg and E. de Moor (eds.), Representations of the Divine in Arabic Poetry (Amsterdam and Atlanata, GA: Rodopi, 2001), pp.119–135. On Anwar Sha'ul and his work, see E. Marmorstein, ‘Two Iraqi Jewish Short Story Writers: A Suggestion for Social Research’, The Jewish Journal of Sociology I, 2 (1959), pp.187–200; Ahmad, Nash'at al-Qissa wa-Tatawwuruha, pp.237–56; Abraham Ben-Yaacob, Yehude Bavel be-Eretz Yisrael me-ha-Aliyot ha-Rishonot ‘ad ha-Yom (The Jews of Iraq in the Land of Israel from the First Emigrations till Today) (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 1980), pp.381–2; Shmuel Moreh, Short Stories by Jewish Writers from Iraq, Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1981), pp.81–7; Itzhak Bezalel, Kitve Sofrim Yehudim Sfaradiyim bi-Lshonot Yehudiyot ve-Zarot (The Writings of Sephardic and Oriental Jewish Authors in Languages Other than Hebrew) (Tel-Aviv: Tel-Aviv University and The Ministry of Education and Culture, 1982), I, pp.307–8; Shmuel Moreh and Mahnmud ‘Abbasi, Tarajim wa-Athar fi al-Adab al-‘Arabi fi Isra'il 1948–1986 (Biographies and Bibliographies in Arabic Literature in Israel 1948–86) (Jerusalem and Shfaram: Dar al-Mashriq, 1987), pp.113–15; Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.191–30; The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn, IX (1997), p.370 (by S. Moreh). For a list of Sha'ul's short stories published in newspapers and magazines, see Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.497–501. On al-Misbah, see Sha'ul, Qissat Hayati, 76–9; Orit Bashkin, al-Misbah (1924–1929) – Iton Yehudi ‘Iraqi (al-Misbah [1924–29] – A Jewish Iraqi Newspaper), MA Thesis (Tel-Aviv University, 1998). On al-Hasid, see Sha'ul, Qissat Hayati, 148–73. On Jewish press in Iraq in general, see ‘Isam Jum'a Ahmad al-Ma‘adidi, al-Sihafa al-Yahudiyya fi al-‘Iraq (Jewish Journalism in Iraq) (Cairo: Dar al-Dawliyya li-l-Ithtithmarat al-Thaqafiyya, 2001). On Shina, see Mir Basri, A‘lam al-Yahud fi al-‘Iraq al-Hadith (Eminent Jewish Men of Modern Iraq) (Jerusalem: Rabitat al-Jami‘iyyin al-Yahud al-Nazihin min al-‘Iraq, 1983), I, p.76; The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn, IX (1997), pp.442–3 (by S. Moreh). Abu Tammam, al-Hamasa (Cairo: Muhammad ‘Ali Sabih, n.d.), I, p.36. See al-Misbah I,1 (10 April 1924), p.2. Sha'ul, Qissat Hayati, 119–24. On Murad Mikha'il and his work, see Moreh, Short Stories, pp.73–5; Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.105–11. On Basri and his work, see Moreh, Short Stories, pp.155–9; Bezalel, Kitve Sofrim Yehudim, I, pp.285–6; Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.157–72; Semah, ‘Mir Basri’, pp.83–122. On Darwish and his work, see E. Marmorstein, ‘An Iraqi Jewish Writer in the Holy Land’, The Jewish Journal of Sociology VI, 1 (July 1964), pp.91–102; Moreh, Short Stories, pp.111–18; Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.231–312; Shimon Ballas, ‘The Realistic Orientation in Shalom Darwish's Stories’ [Arabic], al-Karmil – Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 10 (1989), pp.27–60. For a list of Darwish's short stories published in newspapers and magazines, see Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.502–6. On Balbul and his work, see Moreh, Short Stories, pp.97–103; Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.145–53. Balbul published the first Iraqi–Jewish story which used colloquial (Islamic!) language, that is, ‘Sura Tibqa al-Asl’ (True Copy), in Ya'qub Balbul, al-Jamra al-Ula (The First Live Coal) (Baghdad: Matba‘at al-Ma‘arif, 1938), pp.97–103. On Obadya and his work, see Ben-Yaacob, Yehude Bavel, p.436; Moreh and ‘Abbasi, Tarajim wa-Athar, pp.161–3. The Iraqi critic Hamza al-Hasan refers to Obadya as ‘The greatest Iraqi poet still living, the last giant of poetry in Mesopotamia, the only Iraqi living poet who has lived and participated and recorded all the uprisings of the Iraqi people’ (al-Hiwar al-Mutamaddin, electronic journal, N. 534, 5 July 2003 [www.rezgor.com]). Cf. Dafna Zimhoni, ‘The Beginnings of Modernization among the Jews of Iraq in the Nineteenth Century until 1914’ [Hebrew], Pe'amim - Studies in Oriental Jewry 36 (1988), p.8. Shalom Darwish, ‘Relations Between Communal Institutions and the he-Halutz Underground Movement in Baghdad’ [Hebrew], in Zvi Yehuda (ed.), Mi-Bavel li-Yrushalayim (From Babylon to Jerusalem) (Tel Aviv: Iraqi Jews' Traditional Cultural Center, 1980), p.83. Cf. Sami Michael, Hofen shel ‘Arafel (A Handful of Fog) (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1979), p.77. On the Farhud, see H. Cohen, ‘The Anti-Jewish Farhud in Baghdad’, The Middle Eastern Studies 3.1 (Oct. 1966), pp.2–17; H.J. Cohen, The Jews of the Middle East 1860–1972 (Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press, 1973), pp.28–32; E. Kedourie, Arabic Political Memoirs and Other Studies (London: Frank Cass, 1974), pp.283–304; N. Rejwan, The Jews of Iraq, 3000 Years of History and Culture (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1985), pp.217–44; D. Silverfarb, Britain's Informal Empire in the Middle East: A Case Study of Iraq, 1929–1941 (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp.118–41. See D. Semah's letter in Ma'ariv, 26 Jan. 1989. Fadil al-Barak, al-Madaris al-Yahudiyya wa-l-Iraniyya fi al-'Iraq (Jewish and Iranian Schools in Iraq) (Baghdad: al-Dar al-‘Arabiyya, 1985), pp.245–52. According to Sami Michael (Ba-Mamahane, 22 March 1989, p.23). On Jewish Communist activity in Iraq, see Hanna Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements in Iraq (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), pp.650–1, 699–701, 1190–2; Shiblak, The Lure of Zion, p.59. On al-‘Usba, see Shmuel Moreh, Hibure Yehudim ba-Lashon ha-‘Aravit (Arabic Works by Jewish Writers) (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 1973), p.111; al-Ma‘adidi, al-Sihafa al-Yahudiyya fi al-‘Iraq, pp.64–6. On the League in general, see Usuki Akira, ‘The Anti-Zionist Movement Among the Iraqi Jews: Zionism, Arab Nationalism, and Communism in Iraq Immediately After the Second World War’, Journal of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Saga University 21 (March 1989), pp.1–26. On the Jewish–Iraqi emigration to Israel, its causes and motives, see Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.58–91; M. Gat, The Jewish Exodus from Iraq 1948–1951 (London: Frank Cass, 1997). On Kedourie, see Sylvia Kedourie (ed.), Elie Kedourie CBE, FBA 1926–1992: History, Philosophy, Politics (London and Portland: Frank Cass, 1998); Nissim Rejwan, The Last Jews in Baghdad: Remembering a Lost Homeland (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004), pp.122–3, 150–68. Kattan published an autobiographical novel on his life in Iraq, Adieu Babylone (Montréal: Julliard, 1975), also published in English and Arabic: Farewell, Babylon (tr. S. Fischman) (New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1980); Wada'an Babil (tr. Adam Fathi) (Köln: Al-Kamel Verlag, 1999). On Kattan and his work, see al-Hayat (London), 11 Nov. 1994, p.16; The Scribe 66 (Sept. 1996), p.34; Sami Mahdi, al-Majallat al-'Iraqiyya al-Riyadiyya wa-Dawruha fi Tahdith al-Adab wa-l-Fann 1945–1958 (The Iraqi Avant-Garde Periodicals and their Role in the Modernization of the Literature and the Art) (Baghdad: Dar al-Shu'un al-Thaqafiyya al-‘Amma, 1955), pp.14–37; E. Benson and W. Toye, The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp.588–9. Zionists have been accused of bombing Jewish gatherings in Baghdad, such as the Mas‘uda Shem–Tov Synagogue on 15 Jan. 1951, in the hope of urging the Jews to leave Iraq. Referring to that accusation Elie Kedourie says that it ‘must remain an open question’ (The Chatham House Version and Other Middle Eastern Studies [London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970], p.449, n.72). On this subject, see Gat (note 40), The Jewish Exodus, pp.175–91. See Anwar Sha'ul, Fi Ziham al-Madina (In the Turmoil of the City) (Baghdad: Sharikat al-Tijara wa-l-Tiba'a al-Mahduda, 1955); Mir Basri, Rijal wa-Zilal - Qisas wa-Suwar Qalamiyya (Men and Shadows: Stories and Written Pictures) (Baghdad: Sharikat al-Tijara li-l-Tiba‘a, 1955); Mir Basri, Nufus Zami'a (Thirsty Souls) (Baghdad: Sharikat al-Tijara li-l-Tiba'a, 1966). Al-Zaman, 1 June 1959. Sha'ul, Qissat Hayati, pp.120–4, 270–4, 335–7; Mir Basri, Rihlat al-‘Umr min Difaf Dijla ila Wadi al-Tims (Life's Journey from the Bank of the Tigris to the Valley of the Thames) (Jerusalem: Rabitat al-Jami‘iyyin al-Yahud al-Nazihin min al-‘Iraq, 1991), pp.145–6. Al-Samaw'al's fortress in Tayma’, north of al-Madina. Sha'ul, Qissat Hayati, pp.335–6. Phebe A. Marr, Yasin al-Hashimi: ‘The Rise and Fall of a Nationalist’, Ph.D. Thesis (Harvard University, 1966). Phebe Marr, The Modern History of Iraq (Boulder and London: Westview, 1985). For the entire poem, which was written in 20 April 1969, see Mir Basri, Aghani al-Hubb wa-l-Khulud (Songs of Love and Eternity) (Jerusalem: Rabitat al-Jami‘iyyin al-Yahud al-Nazihin min al-‘Iraq, 1991), pp.149–52. On the events that prompted the writing of these verses, see Basri, Rihlat al-`Umr, pp.139–44; M.S. Basri, ‘A Young American Lady and I’, The Scribe 62 (Sept. 1994), p.16. Cf. Sha'ul, Qissat Hayati, pp.329–33. Iton 77, Jan.–Feb. 1988, p.32. I use ‘Establishment’ advisedly. As much as a political establishment is based not on merit but on power, so cultural and literary establishment refers not just to literary and cultural elements within the community but to the power relations that structure it. It is that hegemonic group in a society's culture that has succeeded in establishing its interpretative authority over all other cultural groups, that is, a minority group of individuals within society, such as major critics and scholars, editors of literary periodicals, publishers, major educators, etc., who from the socio-cultural point of view are acknowledged as superior in some sense and who influence or control most segments of culture. Although the people-in-the-culture share in the process of defining the socio-cultural distinctions, it is the above cultural, literary and critical elite which has the decisive role in that process (cf. R. Snir, ‘Synchronic and Diachronic Dynamics in Modern Arabic Literature’ in S. Ballas and R. Snir, Studies in Canonical and Popular Arabic Literature (Toronto: York Press, 1998), p.93). In Israel, the cultural and literary establishment closely parallels the hegemonic Zionist structure of the state itself in that the canonical centre which ‘dictates' the prevailing features of Israeli culture is predominantly Ashkenazi western-oriented. On the literary activities of Iraq Jews in Israel during the 1950s, see my article “We Were Like Those Who Dream’: Iraqi–Jewish Writers in Israel in the 1950s', Prooftexts 11 (1991), pp.153–73. On Michael and his work, see Ben-Yaacob, Yehude Bavel, p.411; Moreh, Short Stories, pp.221–32; Bezalel, Kitve Sofrim Yehudim, p.294; Moreh and ‘Abbasi, Tarajim wa-Athar, pp.226–7; Gila Ramras-Rauch, The Arab in Israeli Literature (Bloomington, Indianapolis and London: Indiana University Press, 1989, 179–83); Sorrel Kerbel (ed.), Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century (New York and London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2003), pp.373–4. On the general issue of the interactions of Hebrew and Arabic literature and the involvement of Iraqi Jewish writers in these interactions, see R. Snir, ‘Intersecting Circles between Hebrew and Arabic Literature’ [Hebrew], in Y. Tobi (ed.), Ben ‘Ever and le-‘Arav: Ha-maga‘im ben ha-Sifrut ha-‘Arvit le-ben ha-Sifrut ha-Yehudit bi-Yme ha-Benayim uba-Zman he-Hadash (Between Hebrew and Arabic: Contacts between Arabic Literature and Jewish Literature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times) (Tel-Aviv: Afikim, 1998), pp.177–210. On Samir Naqqash and his work, see Ben-Yaacob, Yehude Bavel, p.410; Bezalel, Kitve Sofrim Yehudim, pp.296–98; Moreh, Short Stories, pp.251–4; Moreh and ‘Abbasi, Tarajim wa-Athar, pp.236–7; Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.404–58; David Semah, ‘The Iraqi Novel of Samir Naqqash’ [Hebrew], Naharde‘a 7 (1989), pp.21–2; R. Snir, ‘Jewish–Muslim Relations in the Literature and Periodicals of Iraqi Jewry’ [Hebrew], Pe‘amim - Studies in Oriental Jewry 63 (Spring 1995), pp.32–3; ‘Izz al-Din Sarmad, ‘The Period I Lived in Baghdad was All My Life: An Interview with Samir Naqqash’ [Arabic], al-Thaqafa al-Jadida (Cairo), May–June 2000, pp.134–42; Lital Levy, ‘Exchanging Words: Thematization of Translation in Arabic Writing in Israel’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 23.1 and 2 (2003), pp.93–114. The Lebanese writer and critic Ilyas Khuri (Elias Khoury) (b. 1948) considers the ‘Jewish–Arab voice’ a central voice in Arab culture, therefore, its loss has been a great loss for that culture (interview with Anton Shammas in Yediot Ahronoth, 7 Days, 15 March 2002, p.60). It is ironical that about six years before, Ilyas Khuri himself threatened to walk out of the hall during a conference on Arabic literature in Carthage (Tunis) when the Israeli writer Sami Michael (b. 1926), himself an Arab Jew in origin, was prepared to come up on the stage to give his lecture. Michael's anger was expressed in an essay with the title: ‘Shylock in Carthage’, The Jewish Quarterly, Winter 1994/5, pp.71–2. Under the title ‘The Experience of Oriental Jews in Israel: Have We Lost for Ever the Jews of Iraq?’ The Jordanian writer Ibrahim Gharayiba laments the failure of the Arabs to have the Arab Jews, especially the Iraqis, as an integral part of Arab society and culture (al-Hayat, 25 July 2002, p.25. The article appeared in English translation in The Scribe, the journal of Babylonian Jewry published by the Jewish Exilarch's Foundation in London, Vol.72 (Sept. 1999), p.25. However, the translation omits some sentences in which the writer argues that the above failure has only served Israeli and Zionist aggression against the Arabs). Nancy E. Berg, Exile from Exile – Israeli Writers from Iraq (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), p.3. Ishaq Bar-Moshe, Ayyam al-‘Iraq (Shfaram: Dar al-Mashriq, 1988), pp.94–7, 138–9, 223. See his article ‘Historic Freemasonry in the Middle East’, in www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/9991/mideast.html (23 Aug. 2003). Shmuel Moreh, ‘The Individual Nature of Ishaq Bar-Moshe's Stories’ [Arabic], al-Sharq, April–May 1975, p.43 (for the Hebrew version, see Shevet ve-`Am 3 [8] 1978, p.426). On the collection, see ‘Abd al-Rahman ‘Abbad, ‘Some Words on ‘Behind the Fence and Other Stories’, ‘al-Anba’, 18 Aug. 1972, p.4; Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.369–403. E.g., the short story Minzar Ha-Shatkanim (The Trappist Monastery) by Amos Oz (born 1939) whose translation was published in al-Sharq, June–Aug. 1973, pp.75–82. See R. Snir, ‘Virginia Woolf in Arabic Literature: Translations, Influence, and Reception’, Virginia Woolf Miscellany 54 (Fall 1999), pp.6–7. See, for example, the story Dar Sa‘id (Sa`id's House) (Wara’ al-Sur wa-Qisas Ukhra [Jerusalem: Majallat al-Sharq, 1972], pp.21–30. On the story, see Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.389–91). On the ways modern Arab writers were inspired by Kafka's works, see R. Snir, ‘Human Existence According to Kafka and Salah ‘Abd al-Sabur’, Jusur 5 (1989), pp.31–43. See, for example, the story Infisam (Schizophrenia) (Wara’ al-Sur wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.73–84. On the story, see Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.393–5). See, for example, the stories al-Haris (The Guardian) and ‘Awdat Mahbub (The Return of Mahbub) (Wara’ al-Sur wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.85–98, 113–32. On the stories, see Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.385–9, 395–7). Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.365–6. Wara’ al-Sur wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.31–50. Mudhi translated the title as ‘The Suffering of a Story’ (Mudhi, The Origin and Development, p.369). In reply to Plato's view that art arouses and fans dangerous emotions, Aristotle considers art as beneficial as it cleanses and purifies the souls of people by wisely regulating the emotions and preventing anarchy in them (Aristotle, Poetics [introduction, commentary and appendixes by D.W. Lucas] (Oxford: Clarendon Press), 1968], p.10; Aristotle, Poetics [tr. with an introduction and notes by G.F. Else] [Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1967], p.25). See R. Snir, ‘The Poetic Creative Process according to Salah ‘Abd al-Sabur’, in Ami Elad (ed.), Writer, Culture, Text: Studies in Modern Arabic Literature (Fredericton: York Press, 1993), pp.74–88. Though Aristotle himself does not deal with the catharsis of the poet, the philosophy of art has produced theories maintaining that poetry is a catharsis for the author himself. Edmund Wilson (1895–1972), for example, suggests the metaphors of the ‘wound’ and the ‘bow’, where the first refers to the artist's neurosis, and the second to the art which is its compensation: E. Wilson, The Wound and the Bow: Seven Studies in Literature (Cambridge, MA.: Houghton Mifflin, 1941), pp.272–95. Translation is according to Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.370–1. Wara’ al-Sur wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.57–72. Gerald Prince, A Dictionary of Narratology (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), pp.42–3. Wara’ al-Sur wa-Qisas Ukhra, p.64. Wara’ al-Sur wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.5–20. Wara’ al-Sur wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.151–66. Cf. Meister Eckhart's concept of time: ‘The person who lives in the light of God is conscious neither of time past nor of time to come but only of one eternity […] Therefore he gets nothing new of future events, nor from chance, for he lives in the Now-moment that is, unfailingly, “in verdure newly clad”’ (Ben-Ami Scharfstein, Mystical Experience [Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1973], p.151). Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983), pp.129–30. Cf. Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi, Maqamat al-Sufiyya (ed. Emile Maalouf) (Beirut: Dar el-Machreq Sarl Éditeurs, 1993), pp.79–80. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p.220. Wara’ al-Sur wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.187–99. The story was also published in al-Sharq, June–July 1972, pp.107–10. On the story, see also Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.400–3. Al-Dubb al-Qutbi wa-Qisas Ukhra (Jerusalem: Majallat al-Sharq, 1973), pp.155–68. Al-Dubb al-Qutbi wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.79–92. Al-Dubb al-Qutbi wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.123–38. The story was also published in al-Sharq, Sept. 1973, pp.39–44. Raqsat al-Matar wa-Qisas Ukhra (Jerusalem: Majallat al-Sharq, 1974), pp.7–28. E.g., Shimon Ballas' article in Ha'aretz, 25 July 1975. Aswar al-Quds wa-Qisas Ukhra (Jerusalem: Majallat al-Sharq, 1976), pp.7–22. Aswar al-Quds wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.23–40. Aswar al-Quds wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.41–59. The story was also published in al-Sharq, Oct.–Dec. 1975, pp.49–59. Aswar al-Quds wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.103–19. Aswar al-Quds wa-Qisas Ukhra, pp.135–49. The story was also published in al-Sharq, Aug.–Oct. 1974, pp.33–8. On the collection see S. Somekh's essay in Iton 77, April–May 1977, pp.12–13. On the role of Egypt in the life of Jewish intellectuals in Iraq, see Bar-Moshe's own testimony in Bar-Moshe, Ayyam al-‘Iraq, pp.107–8, 223–4. In the 1990s Bar-Moshe published Misr fi Qalbi (Egypt in My Heart) (Nazareth: The Ministry of Education and Culture, 1994), a memoir on the years he had spent in Egypt during his diplomatic mission. The book describes his feelings and impressions of the Egyptian culture which, while living in Baghdad in the 1940s, like all Iraqi intellectuals of his generation, he was greatly inspired by its cultural leadership in the Arab world. Written before the revolution of 1952 and published only in 1956–7. Ishaq Bar-Moshe, al-Khuruj min al-‘Iraq: Dhikrayat 1945–1950 (Jerusalem: Manshurat Majlis al-Tawa'if al-Sfaradiyya, 1975), p.20. Bar-Moshe, al-Khuruj min al-‘Iraq, p.45. For reviews of the book, see N.R. in Jewish Observer and Middle East Review, 27 June 1975; Nir Shohet in Ba-Ma‘racha, 174 (July 1975), pp.16–17; Muhammad Abu Shalabiyya, ‘Some Observations and Notions about the Book ‘Exodus from Iraq”, al-Anba’, 20–7 July 1975; Shimon Khayyat, ‘The Persecution of the Iraqi Jews on the Eve of their Emigration to Israel’ (Hebrew), Ba-Ma‘racha, 177 (Oct. 1975), p.20; Sylvia G. Haim, ‘Anatomy of an Exodus’, The Times Literary Supplement, 12 March 1976, p.296; The book was also published in Hebrew: Yitzhak Bar-Moshe, Yetzi‘at Iraq (tr. Nir Shohet) (Jerusalem: The Sephardi Council, 1977). For reviews of the Hebrew version, see Moshe-Giyora Elimelekh in Ha'aretz, 29 May 1977, p.14; Sasson Somekh in Iton 77, June–July 1977, pp.12–13; Ian Black in Jerusalem Post, 11 Nov. 1977; as well as a review in ‘Al Ha-Mishmar, 12 May 1978. Bar-Moshe, al-Khuruj min al-’Iraq, pp.287–295. This chapter is not numbered within the 123 chapters of the book and appears after chapter 56 and before chapter 57, as if to give the impression of stopping the serial time. Against the background of the above discussion of the Sufi waqt and the mystical experience as breaking through created serial time, one can think of the author as ascribing ‘metaphysical roots’ to the historical events. The novel was published in Hebrew a year before its publication in Arabic: Yitzhak Bar-Moshe, Bayit be-Baghdad (tr. Hanita Brand) (Jerusalem: The Sephardi Council and The Center for the Integration of Oriental Jewish Heritage, Ministry of Education and Culture, 1982). On Rejwan and his work, see Ben-Yaacob, Yehude Bavel, p.404; A. Alcalay (ed.), Keys to the Garden: New Israeli Writing (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1996), pp.46–60. Rejwan published essays on films in The Iraq Times between June 1946 and Aug. 1948, and between May 1947 and August 1948 served also as the literary critic of the newspaper after the regular critic, Elie Kedourie, left for England to study. The Jerusalem Post Magazine, 26 Sept. 1984, p.26. See al-Jumhuriyya, 19 Oct. 1983, p.6. See also al-Wirdani's column in the same daily in 23 Sept. 1983, p.6; as well as Muhammad al-’Azabi's essay in al-Jumhuriyya, 21 Nov. 1983. For reviews on the Hebrew version, see Ehud Ben-Ezer in Ha‘aretz, 1 July 1983, p.23; M. Piamenta in Ma’ariv, 6 May 1983; M. Avi-Shlomo in ‘Al Ha-Mishmar, 17 Dec. 1982. Bar-Moshe, Ayyam al-’Iraq, pp.265–6. The phrases are by the Syrian poet Adunis (’Ali Ahmad Sa’id) (born 1930), who speaks in favour of the rejection of clarity and the pre-eminence of ambiguity and obscurity; Adunis, al-Shi’riyya al-’Arabiyya (Beirut: Dar al-Adab, 2000 [1985]), p.54; English translation: Adonis, An Introduction for Arab Poetics (tr. C. Cobham) (London: Saqi Books. 1990), p.52. Although Adunis speaks about the writing of poetry, since the 1960s the transgenric phenomena in Arabic literature has been so outstanding that many characteristics of poetry have become integral components of Arabic prose. For a review of the trilogy, see M.J.L. Young's essay in Middle Eastern Studies, 27,3, July (1991), pp.528–33. In addition to the above references, for more on Bar-Moshe life and works, see Ben-Yaacob, Yehude Bavel, pp.400–1; Berg, Exile from Exile, pp.112–120; Moreh, Short Stories, pp.233–6; Moreh and ‘Abbasi, Tarajim wa-Athar, pp.26–28. M.H. Mudhi deals with Bar-Moshe's literary works of the early 1970s only, therefore his discussion is devoid of an overall perspective (Mudhi, The Origin and Development, pp.365–403). Bar-Moshe, Misr fi Qalbi, p.7. For an attempt to locate the roots of the westernization identity project undergone by the emerging Israeli society in the earlier history of the Jewish encounter with orientalism and western colonialism, see Aziza Khazzoom, ‘The Great Chain of Orientalism: Jewish Identity, Stigma Management, and Ethnic Exclusion in Israel’, American Sociological Review, 68 (2003), pp.481–510. A film written and directed by an Iraqi Shiite exile film-maker, nicknamed Samir (produced by Dschoint Ventschr, Zurich, 2002). G. Piterberg ‘Domestic Orientalism: The Representation of ‘Oriental’ Jews in Zionist/Israeli Historiography’, British Journal of Middle East Studies 23.2 (1996), p.135. R. Snir, ‘“Postcards in the Morning”: Palestinians Writing in Hebrew’, Hebrew Studies XLII (2001), pp.197–224. On ‘Amir and his work, see Berg, Exile from Exile, pp.391–4; R. Snir, ‘Baghdad My Beloved City’ [Hebrew], Ha‘aretz, 23 April 1993, p.B9; R. Snir, ‘Zionism as Reflected in Arabic and Hebrew Belles Lettres of Iraqi Jewry’ [Hebrew], Pe‘amim – Studies in Oriental Jewry 73 (Autumn 1997), pp.128–146; Kerbel, Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century, pp.42–3. See S. Moreh and Z. Yehuda (eds.), Sin'at Yehudim u-Fra’ot be-Iraq (English title: Hatred of Jews and the Farhud in Iraq) (Or-Yehuda: The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, 1992), pp.7–10. For Shenhav's views, see his book Ha-Yehudim ha-aravim: leumiyut, dat ve-etniyut [The Arab–Jews: Nationalism, Religion and Ethnicity] (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2003), as well as his articles: ‘The Jews of Iraq, Zionist Ideology and the Property of the Palestinian Refugees of 1948: An Anatomy of National Accounting’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 31 (1999), pp.605–30; ‘Ethnicity and National memory: the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC) in the Context of the Palestinian National Struggle’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 29 (2002), pp.27–56; ‘The Phenomenology of Colonialism and the Politics of ‘Difference’: European Zionist Emissaries and Arab Jews in Colonial Abadan’, Social Identities, 8 (2002), pp.521–44. See also his lecture at the School for Peace Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, Israel, March 2000; School for Peace Annual Review 1999–2001, Jan. 2001. See, for example, Yehushua Ben Hananya ‘Jewish Writers and Poets in Iraq’ [Hebrew], Hed Ha-Mizrah, 29 Sept. 1943, p.12; 13 Oct. 1943, pp.6–7; 29 Oct. 1943, p.7; 12 Nov. 1943, pp.6–7. Marmorstein, ‘Two Iraqi Jewish Short Story Writers', p.199.
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