Description

This "masterpiece of early twentieth-century Arabic prose, penned by the Egyptian journalist Muòhammad al-Muwayliòhåi, ... was first introduced in serialized form in his family's pioneering newspaper ... and later published in book form in 1907. Widely hailed for its erudition and mordant wit, [it] was embraced by Egypt's burgeoning reading public and soon became required reading for generations of school students. Bridging classical genres and modern Arabic fiction, [it's] divided into two parts. Sarcastic in tone and critical in outlook, the first part of the book relates the excursions of its narrator ... and his companion ... through a rapidly westernizing Cairo and provides vivid commentary on a society negotiating--however imperfectly--the clash between traditional norms and imported cultural values. The second half takes the narrator to Paris to visit the Exposition Universelle of 1900, where al-Muwayliòhåi casts a critical eye on European society, modernity, and the role of Western imperialism as it ripples across the globe.

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