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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009
The loss of Palestine and the resulting dispersal of Palestinian refugees has had a profound impact on the development of Arabic literature. If independence and revolution in most Arab lands served to catapult poets and writers into new literary themes and forms, the psychological jolt of defeat combined with the sudden physical presence of refugees who could not help but witness that defeat helped decisively to move writers away from earlier romantic themes and flowery language in favor of themes and styles considered to be more realistic. The 1950s and 1960s in particular were times of concern for social realism, and among the educated class there was a growing impatience with art that did not treat the important changes that shook the Arabs at the time.
1 For a good English synopsis of the “committedness” (al-iltizām) urged on artists of this time period, seeJabra, Jabra Ibrahim, “Modern Arabic Literature and the West,” Journal of Arabic Literature, 2 (1971), 88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar A good summary of criticism of “committed” art in Arabic can be found in⊂Abd al-Mu⊂īn Mulūhī, al-A dab fī khidmat al-mujtama⊂ wa-dirāsāt ukhrā (Damascus, 1980), pp. 5–40.Google Scholar
2 I have chosen to dispense with the repetition of diacritical marks for the author's name, for which the correct transliteration is Samīra ⊂Azzām.
3 Similar accounts of these details of her life, unless separately footnoted, are found inHamad, ⊂lrfān Abū, al-A⊂lām min ard al-salām (Haifa, 1979), pp. 198–99;Google Scholaral-Sarrāj, Nādira J., “Samīra ⊂Azzām fī dhikrāhā al-khāmisa,” Shu⊃ūn Filastiniyya, 14 (10 1972), 70–71;Google Scholaral-Sawāfīrī, Kāmil, al-Adab al-⊂;arabī al-mu⊂āsir fī Filastīn, 1860–1960 (Beirut, 1979), pp. 198–99;Google Scholar and Asmā Tūbī, ⊂Abīr wa-majd (n.p., [1966]?), pp. 222–23.
4 NEABS (in Arabic Mahattat al-Sharq al-Adnā lil-ldhā ⊂al-⊂;Arabiyya) was begun by the British government in Palestine just before the 1948 war, then moved to Limassol, Cyprus, with the British. Azzam worked with the station in Cyprus and Beirut, first as a broadcaster and later as director of its Women's Programme. Most production and announcing staff were Palestinians. For an interesting history of the demise of NEABS in 1956–1957, seeBoyd, Douglas A., Broadcasting in the Arab World: A Survey of Radio and Television in the Middle East (Philadelphia, 1982), p. 264.Google Scholar
5 Azzam was ultimately expelled from Iraq for political reasons. For an account seeAhmad, Jamāl, “Dhikrayāt ma';a Samīra ⊂Azzām,” al-Ādāb, 16 (01 1968), 44.Google Scholar
6 Azzam translated East Wind, West Wind and Pavilion of Women by Pearl Buck, Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis, Collected Short Stories by Somerset Maugham, Candida by Bernard Shaw, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Short Story in America 1900–1950 by Ray West, and Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Listed in Tūbī and al-Sawāfīrī, op. cit.
7 Beirut, 1963. Awarded jointly with Yūsuf Habashī al-Ashqar for his short-story collection al-Ard al-qadīma (Beirut, 1962). Azzam's other published collections are: Ashyā'; saghīra (Little Things, Beirut, 1954), al-Zill al-kabīr (The Great Shadow, Beirut, 1956), Wa-qisas ukhrā (And Other Stories, Beirut, 1960), and al-⊂Īd min al-nāfidha al-gharbiyya (The Feast Day From the Western Window, Beirut, 1971). Al-⊂Sā⊂a wal-insān was reprinted by the Dār al-Aswār (Acre) in 1978 and all five collections by the Dār al-⊂Awda (Beirut) in 1982. All story page references contained in these notes cite the first edition of these collections.
8 Azzam's political activities are detailed in al-Sarrāj, op. cit., and inal-Hūt, Shafīq, “Samīra ⊂Azzām al-munādila,” al-Ādab, 16 (01 1968), 34.Google Scholar
9 al-Idilbī, Ulfat, “Liqā⊃ akhīr,” al-Ādāb, 16 (01 1968), 47.Google Scholar
10 Ibid.
11 Tūbī states that Azzam wrote over 300 stories.
12 al-Naqqāsh, Rajā⊃, “Samīra ⊂Azzām wal-adab al-nisā'ī,” al-Ādāb, 16 (01 1968), 40.Google Scholar
13 O'Connor, Frank, The Lonely Voice (London, 1963), p. 18.Google Scholar
14 “Bank al-Dam,” Wa-qisas ukhrā, p. 71.
15 Farrāj, ⊂Afīf, al-Hurriya fī adab al-mar⊃a, 2nd ed. (Beirut, 1980), p. 170.Google Scholar
16 O' Connor, p. 18.
17 A1-Farrāj, p. 183.
18 al-Charif, Maher, ed., Lepatrimoine culsurelpalestinien (n.p., 1980), p. 15.Google Scholar
19 Darrāj, Faysal, “Samīra ⊂Azzām: al-bahth ⊂an al-insān wal-akhlāq wal-watan,” Shu⊃ūn Filastīniyya, 120 (11 1981), 120.Google Scholar
20 Her use of the colloquial dialect was rare, however. Colloquial Iraqi and Lebanese do occur in a few stories. Azzam always preserved typical figures of speech in her dialogues, but in standard Arabic.
21 Surūr, Najīb, “al-Zill al-kabTī,” al-Ādāb, 4 (05 1956), 34.Google Scholar
22 “Zaghārīd” first appeared in al-Ādāb, 3 (August 1955), 31, and thereafter in al-Zill al-kabīr, pp. 35–41. “⊂Ām ākhar” first appeared in al-Zill al-kabīr, pp. 53–61.
23 “Fī al-tariq ilā Birak Sulaymān” first appeared in a al-Ādāb, 5 (September 1957), 24–25, and thereafter in Wa-qisas ukhrā, pp. 23–32.
24 The radio broadcast is the Family Programme of NEABS, by which divided Palestinian families could communicate across borders. In both “Zaghārīd” and ⊂Ām ākhar,” the main characters learn of births, weddings, and deaths via this program.
25 “Zaghārīd,” al-Zill al-kabīr, p. 39.
26 ”Fī al-tarīqilā Birak Sulaymān,” Wa-qsas ukhrā, p. 31.
27 Ibid., p. 32.
28 “Filastīnī” first appeared in al-Sā⊂a wal-insān, pp. 70–79.
29 Sālih, Fakhrī, al-Qissat al-filastīniyya al-qassīra fī al-arādī al-muhtalla (Beirut, 1982), p. 39.Google Scholar
30 The almond tree was one of many symbols evoking the lost land—others included certain flowers, a waterwheel or thresher, and the orange. The gun became a symbol of resistance and pride.
31 “Li-annahu yuhibbuhum” first appeared in al-Ādāb, 9 (February 1961), 18–21, later in al-Sā⊂a wal-insān, pp. 5–23, and was reprinted in al-Ādāb, 12 (March 1964), 29–30.
32 “Khubz al-fidā⊃” first appeared in al-Ādāb, 8 (January 1960), 66–69, and thereafter in Wa-qisas ukhrā, pp. 73–93.
33 “Khubz al-fidā⊃,” pp. 83–84.
34 Ibid., p. 93.
35 “Al-Sā⊂a wal-insān” first appeared in al-Ādāb, 9 (August 1961), 15–16, and thereafter in al-Sā⊂a wal-insān, pp. 24–35.
36 “Al-Hājj Muhammad bā⊂a hijjatah,” al-Ādāb, 14 (June 1966), 18. There have been several suggestions for translating the pun contained in the title of this story by native Arabic speakers. The Hājj “sold his hājj,” or pilgrimage, literally by spending his money on weapons rather than another hājj. “Sold his soul” has also been suggested as a way of conveying the Hājj's supposed dereliction of his duty to religion. Finally, “lost his mind” has been suggested as an idiomatic meaning of “bā⊂a hujjatah,” as the villagers in the story fear the Hājj has gone crazy.
37 Darraj, p. 127.
38 Ibid., p. 121.
39 “Al-⊂īd min al-nāfidha al-gharbiyya” first appeared in al-⊂Īd min al-nāfidha al-gharbiyya (Beirut, 1971), pp. 43–49.
40 “Al-⊂īd min al-nāfidha al-gharbiyya,” p. 50.
41 Ibid., p. 54.
42 “Wijdāniyyāt filastīniyya,” al-⊂Īd min al-nāfidha al-gharbiyya (Beirut, 1982), p. 111. First appearing as a seven-page story entitled “Filastīniyyāt” in the first printing of al-⊂Īd min al-nāfidha al-gharbiyya (1971), the version contained in the later reprinting of this book (1982) has 51 pages. All page references to “Wijdāniyyāt” are taken from the 1982 edition.
43 “Wijdāniyyāt,” p. 111. Until Israel opened this border following its takeover of the West Bank in the June 1967 war, the Mandelbaum Gate was the focal point for temporary reunions of divided Palestinian families and friends.
44 Ghassān Kanafānī (1936–1972) was, like Azzam, from the city of Acre. A teacher and journalist, he founded the Beirut newspaper al-Hadaf in 1969, but was best known for his novels and short stories, which dealt with the situation of Palestinian refugees, particularly those living in refugee camps. “These [Palestinian refugee] camps were first created in 1950 in order to provide temporary shelter and sustenance for those people who were obliged to flee their homes in Palestine in 1948. They were further populated by another generation of refugees in 1967. … Life in the camps has thus acquired a significance over time and a history which has become crucial to the Palestinian experience.”Harlow, Barbara, Palestine⊂s Children: Short Stories by Ghassan Kanafani (London and Cairo, 1984), p. vi.Google Scholar
45 In addition to utilizing the fact that this rout of the French occurred in the spring, Azzam is comparing the siege of Acre in 1799 with its siege in 1948. For a discussion of the use of this sort of comparative image seeSivan, Emmanuel, “Modern Arab Historiography,” Interpretations of Islam Past and Present (Princeton, N.J., 1985), pp. 3–43.Google Scholar
46 “Wijdāniyyāt,” p. 99.
47 Salmā, Abū, “Samīra ⊂Azzām,” al-Ādāb, 16 (01 1968), 43.Google Scholar
48 “Wijdāniyyāt,” p. 139.
49 Ibid., pp. 103–5.
50 A⊂yād al-Nabī Mūsā (Prophet Moses Holidays), a spring celebration during which the traditional tomb of Moses was visited in procession amidst festivities. For a description of this, one of many such Muslim holidays honoring Hebrew and ancient Arab prophets in Palestine before 1948, seeGraham-Brown, Sarah, Palestinians and Their Society, 1880–1946 (New York, 1980), pp. 138 and 140.Google Scholar
51 “Wijdāniyyāt,” p. 125.
52 Ibid., pp. 129–30.
53 Ibid., p. 129.
54 Ibid., pp. 111 and 143.
55 In her earlier dedication for the story “al-Hājj Muhammad bā⊂a hijjatah” Azzam confronted the issue of whether or not it was those who had stayed behind in Palestine who were “imprisoned”: “to her, that Arab woman in Bayt Safāfa beyond the armistice line, whom I asked “How do you feel in your prison?”, and to which she replied, “But tell me how you feel in your ‘freedom’!”—by this, she made me swallow a stone”; “al-Hājj Muhammad,” p. 18.
56 ”Wijdāniyyāt,” p. 117.
57 Ibid., p. 118.
58 Ibid., p. 122.
59 Ibid., pp. 96 and 99.
60 Darrāj, p. 137.
61 ”Wijdāniyyāt,” pp. 124–25.
62 Ibid., p. 127.
63 a1-Sarrāj, p. 69.
64 Darrāj, p. 137.
