Youssef Rakha

Youssef Rakha discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Youssef Rakha is an Egyptian author working in Arabic and English. He is the author of The Book of the Sultan’s Seal; The Crocodiles; Paulo, which was longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and won a Sawiris Cultural Award; and The Dissenters, which was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award. His new book is Postmuslim, which is available at https://peninsulapress.co.uk/products/postmuslim

1. Beer in the Snooker Club (1964) by Waguih Ghali. Evidently the first Egyptian novel to be written in English, a massive early influence, and an occasion to revisit the normalization debate. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/dec/05/beer-in-snooker-club-ghali-review
2. The 1977 song Zahma by the legendary singer Ahmad Adaweya. Composed by the equally legendary Hany Shenouda and the unrecognized bard Hassan Abu Etman. A landmark song that massively influenced urban folk and pop music and, for me at least, defines the sound of Cairo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djqFU71juWM
3. The Mummy, aka The Night of Counting the Years (1969) by Shadi Abdel Salam. A one-of-a-kind film on which I wrote a whole monograph. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064703/
4. Samir Rafi’s 1949 painting Life’s Tragedy, and Cairo’s Surrealist/Marxist Art et Liberte movement (1938–1948). https://www.barjeelartfoundation.org/collection/lifes-tragedy-samir-rafi/
5. The Egyptian tradition of melodic Quran recitation as exemplified by the one-man opera known as Mustafa Ismail. One very short example of what he can do, from Surat Fatir: Verse 22. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LvOH_D0CTI0
6. Egypt’s cultural Golden Age in the Life magazine-like photography of Farouk Ibrahim. https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/egypt/2023/03/21/farouk-ibrahim-the-most-famous-egyptian-photographer-youve-never-heard-of/

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