The Lamp of Um Hashim (قنديل ام هاشم) by Yahya Haqqi

Review by Alyssa Kristeller

The short:

Yahya Haqqi artfully depicts the clashing of traditional Middle Eastern religious values and the more cosmopolitan and scientific European influence on Egyptian society in the 20th century.

The long:

This book is a collection of 4 short stories, the most popular and longest of which gives the work its name: “The Lamp of Um Hashim”. In this story, Haqqi follows the transformations in the life and worldview of the main character Isma’il, a young man brought up in a traditional Muslim household in Egypt and then sent to England to study ophthalmology. In England, he meets Mary, a character with a lust for life, who, to Isma’il, represents attractive values of European society - freedom from tradition, individuality, science, and humanism - which he pledges to bring back to his country and people. Upon his return to Egypt, however, he becomes ostracized by his family and community for trying to impose his new ‘enlightened’ perspective on them, forcing Isma’il to reconcile values of both cultures. 

The read or not to read:

Read! These short stories are full of cultural and linguistic symbolism and reading this book in Arabic is a great way to practice reading the language. However, it is also available in English as translated by Denys Johnson-Davies, an acclaimed Arabic-English translator of major works of modern Arabic literature.