''Al-Madrasa al-Ḥadītha'' ( or 'The New School') was a

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

movement in

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Adab (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquett ...

that began in 1917 in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. The movement is associated with the development of the

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

in the earlier periods of

modern Arabic literature The instance that marked the shift in Arabic literature towards modern Arabic literature can be attributed to the contact between Arab world and the West during the 19th and early 20th century. This contact resulted in the gradual replacement of ...

. Driven by the concept of concept of ''al-hadam wal-binā''' ( ), the members of ''Al-Madrasa al-Ḥadītha'' were interested in searching for a specifically

Egyptian literature Egyptian literature traces its beginnings to ancient Egypt and is some of the earliest known literature. Ancient Egyptians were the first to develop written literature, as inscriptions or in collections of papyrus, precursors to the modern boo ...

and for the Egyptian identity, and in "establishing fiction as serious literature." Ahmed Khairi Sa'id edited the movement's journal: ''Al-Fajr: Sahifat al-Hadam wal-Bina ( ), published 1925–1927.

Historical context

In the aftermath of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and the dissolution and partition of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, European imperial powers—particularly

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

—moved in to the region under the

mandate system A League of Nations mandate represented a legal status under international law for specific territories following World War I, involving the transfer of control from one nation to another. These mandates served as legal documents establishing th ...

of the

Covenant Covenant may refer to: Religion * Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general ** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible ** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...

of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

. Egypt, which was already occupied by the British, was made a

British protectorate British protectorates were protectorates under the jurisdiction of the British government. Many territories which became British protectorates already had local rulers with whom the Crown negotiated through treaty, acknowledging their status wh ...

in 1914, leading to

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

feeling among the Egyptians that erupted in the Revolution of 1919. The movement of ''Al-Madrasa al-Ḥadītha'' is situated in the context of this historical moment: when Arab countries were trying to liberate themselves from colonialism and foreign domination and attain statehood. There were also movements toward achieving "progress and modernity"—or, as some saw it,

westernization Westernization (or Westernisation, see spelling differences), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt what is considered to be Western culture, in areas such as industr ...

—which "entailed a critical and at times rejectionist stance to traditional values."

Members

Its members included Ahmed Khairi Sa'id, , Muhammad Taymur, and . Other figures associated with ''Al-Madrasa al-Ḥadītha'' include Ibrahim al-Masri, , Hassan Mahmud, Yahya Haqqi, Muhammad Kamil Hajjaj, Zakaria Mahran,

Sayed Darwish Sayed Darwish (, ; 17 March 1892 – 14 September 1923) was an Egyptian singer and composer who was considered the father of Egyptian popular music and one of Egypt's greatest musicians and seen by some as its single greatest composer. Ear ...

, , Muhammad Rashid, and Fa'iq Riad.

Influences

The writers of ''Al-Madrasa al-Ḥadītha'' were profoundly influenced by pre-

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia, its Russian diaspora, émigrés, and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. Major contributors to Russian literature, as well as English for instance, are authors of different e ...

, especially the works of

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the Grotesque#In literature, grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works "The Nose (Gogol short story), ...

Mikhail Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov ( , ; rus, Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, , mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲerməntəf, links=yes; – ) was a Russian Romanticism, Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called ...

Ivan Turgenev Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev ( ; rus, links=no, Иван Сергеевич ТургеневIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; – ) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poe ...

Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influent ...

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

, and

Boris Artzybasheff Boris Mikhailovich Artzybasheff (, 25 May 1899; Kharkov, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire – 16 July 1965) was a Russian and American illustrator notable for his strongly worked and often surreal designs. Life and career Artzybasheff was bor ...

Characteristics

The movement of ''Al-Madrasa al-Ḥadītha'' focused on the

as the medium of choice. Its members tended to create stories with very few main characters, single plots, and simple situations. They sought to create realistic literature expressive of the Egyptian personality. Ahmed Khairi Sa'id coined the slogan of ''Al-Madrasa al-Ḥadītha'': "Long live authenticity, long live innovation. Long live renewal and reform." ().{{Cite web , last=جبريل , first=محمد , title=قصة عربية - المنتدى , url=https://arabicstory.ltechpro.com/forum.aspx?fpage=3&forumid=76&threadid=215349&subscribeto=290804 , access-date=2022-09-22 , website=للشمس سبعة ألوان: التراث .. لماذا نستلهم منـه قصصنا؟ , language=ar , archive-date=2022-09-27 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220927062235/https://arabicstory.ltechpro.com/forum.aspx?fpage=3&forumid=76&threadid=215349&subscribeto=290804 , url-status=dead Associated with this movement and literature of the period were calls to use Egyptian vernacular Arabic, at least in dialogue.

Legacy

Having established of a register of literary themes and developed

characterization Characterization or characterisation is the representation of characters (persons, creatures, or other beings) in narrative and dramatic works. The term character development is sometimes used as a synonym. This representation may include dire ...

and

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

, ''Al-Madrasa al-Ḥadītha'' made important contributions toward a tradition of modern fiction in

References

Arabic literature Modernist literature Egyptian literature