Ibrahim Abdel Meguid

Ibrahim Abdel Meguid (Arabic: إبراهيم عبد المجيد, romanized: Ibrāhīm ʻAbd al-Majīd; born 2 December 1946) is an Egyptian novelist and author.[1] His best-known works form the "Alexandria Trilogy": No One Sleeps in Alexandria, Birds of Amber, and Clouds Over Alexandria.[2] These have been translated into English and French.[3] Some of his works have also been adapted for films and movies.[4]

Early life and education

Ibrahim Abdel Meguid was born in Alexandria. He studied philosophy at Alexandria University. He obtained his BA in 1973 and moved to Cairo in 1975.[5]

Literary Themes

Literary critics have drawn thematic comparisons between Abdel Meguid's work The Other Place and T.S. Eliot's 1922 poem The Waste Land.[6]

His book, Birds of Amber (2005) evokes Alexandria's cosmopolitanism with a sense of nostalgia combined with a desire for freedom from western colonial influence and for a kind of Arab cultural inclusiveness that could accommodate a mixture of foreign cultures.[7]

In No One Sleeps in Alexandria (1996), he details the struggles of the inhabitants during World War II and reimagines Egypt through the “trauma of modernization”.[8]

Works

  • المسافات [Al-Masafât] (1983). Distant Train, translated by Hosam M. Aboul-Ela (2007)
  • بيت الياسمين [Bayt al-yasâmin] (1987). The House of Jasmine, trans. Noha Radwan (2012)
  • البلدة الأخرى [Al Balda al-ukhrâ] (1991). The Other Place, trans. Farouk Abdel Wahab (1997)
  • لا أحد ينام في الإسكندرية [La Ahad yanam fil Iskandariya] (1996). No One Sleeps in Alexandria, trans. Farouk Abdel Wahab (2004)
  • طيور العنبر [Toyour al-anbar] (2000). Birds of Amber, trans. Farouk Abdel Wahab (2005)
  •   عتبة المتعة [Eatabat almutea] (2007). The Threshold of Pleasure
  • في كل أسبوع يوم جمعة [Fi koulli ousbou yawmou joumoua] (2009). Every Week Has a Friday
  • أيام التحرير ['Ayaam altahrir] (2011). Days of Tahrir
  • الإسكندرية في غيمة [Iskandriya fi ghayma] (2012). Clouds Over Alexandria, trans. Kay Heikkinen (2019)
  • القاهرة هنا [alqahirat huna] (2014). Cairo is Here

Awards and honors

  • 1996 Naguib Mahfouz Medal, inaugural winner for The Other Place[9]
  • 1996 Cairo International Book Fair, novel of the year, for No One Sleeps in Alexandria
  • 2004 Egyptian State Prize for Excellence in Literature from the Supreme Council of Culture[10]
  • 2011 Sawiris Cultural Award, for Every Week Has a Friday
  • 2015 Katara Prize for Arabic Novel, inaugural co-winner for Adagio[11]
  • 2016 The Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Beyond Writing[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Banipal (UK) Magazine of Modern Arab Literature – Contributors – Ibrahim Abdel Meguid". www.banipal.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  2. ^ "CIBF: Ibrahim Abdel Meguid Talks about Writing, Pandemic Literature - Sada El balad". 2021-07-13. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  3. ^ Gikandi, Simon (2003). Encyclopedia of African Literature. Taylor & Francis. pp. 2–3. ISBN 978-1-134-58223-5. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  4. ^ العربي, Arab World Books منتدى الكتاب. "Ibrahim Abdel Meguid". www.arabworldbooks.com. Retrieved 2025-11-03.
  5. ^ العربي, Arab World Books منتدى الكتاب. "Ibrahim Abdel Meguid". www.arabworldbooks.com. Retrieved 2025-11-03.
  6. ^ Said, Aleya (2004). "An Arabian Waste Land: Ibrahim Abdel Meguid's Al-Baldah Al-Ukhra [The Other Place]". Al-'Arabiyya. 37: 1–20. ISSN 0889-8731. JSTOR 43195528.
  7. ^ Starr, Deborah A. (June 2005). "Recuperating Cosmopolitan Alexandria: Circulation of Narratives and Narratives of Circulation". Cities. 22 (3): 217–28. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2005.03.009.
  8. ^ Nasr, Rania Reda (2017). "The City as Represented in Teju Cole's Open City and Ibrahim Abdel Meguid's No One Sleeps in Alexandria" (PDF). Majallat al-baḥth al-ʻilmī fī al-ādāb. 18 (5).
  9. ^ "The Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature". The American University in Cairo Press. Archived from the original on March 20, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 2013.
  10. ^ a b "Ibrahim Abdelmeguid". Promoting Arabic Literature in Europe. 2023-03-08. Retrieved 2025-11-03.
  11. ^ Mlynxqualey (May 21, 2015). "Qatar's New $650K Arabic Novel Prize Gets Relatively Quiet Launch". Arabic Literature (in English). Retrieved June 5, 2015.


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