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Muhammad Husayn Haykal Mohammed Hussein Heikal ( ar, محمد حسين هيكل ; August 20, 1888 – December 8, 1956) was an Egyptian writer, journalist, politician. He held several cabinet posts, including minister of education. Life Haekal was born in Kafr Ghan ...
's novel ''Zaynab'' ( ), published in 1913, is often considered to be the "first" Arabic novel. The full title is ''Zaynab: Country Scenes and Morals'' (). The book depicts life in the Egyptian countryside and delves into the traditional romantic and marital relationships between men and women and the interactions between the laboring cotton worker and plantation owner classes. Haykal, son of rural land owners himself, had spent considerable time in France, where he was studying to be a lawyer, and it was actually at this point that he wrote ''Zaynab'' in 1911. Notably in the first publication, the author chose the pseudonym ''Masri Fallah'' ("An Egyptian Rustic"), which perhaps underlines the lack of prestige attached to the genre at the time of his writing.


Plot introduction

Originally intended to be a short story, Haykal found that his work had more mileage than he had first appreciated, becoming a full novel in three parts. The story deals with a beautiful young peasant girl named Zaynab and the three men who strive for her affections: Hamid, the plantation owner's oldest son; Ibrahim, the young peasant foreman with whom she falls in love; and Hassan, a slightly more well-to-do peasant who enters into an unhappy arranged marriage with her. An early liberal critique of arranged marriage, the veil and enforced seclusion of women, the novel ends tragically with the heroine's psychological deterioration and death by "consumption."


Literary significance & criticism

Despite the structural flaws of the novel (its unrestricted
romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, its poor division of the focus on Zaynab and Hamid, and a letter by Hamid which is unashamedly Haykal's own recapitulation of all the events that have transpired thus far), the novel is hugely important as the beginning point of the era of the modern Egyptian novel, infused with vernacular language, local characters, and a liberal politico-social dimension.


Film, TV, or theatrical adaptations

The novel became the basis for Egypt's first (silent) film, ''Zaynab'', which was produced in 1925.


References

Egyptian novels 1913 novels Egyptian novels adapted into films Arabic-language novels Novels set in Egypt {{1910s-novel-stub