This episode of Bulaq looks at the Fall 2020 issue of ArabLit Quarterly, with its focus on cats: in contemporary Arabic stories, in erotic poetry, in medieval scholarship, in Egyptian art, in Palestinian politics, and more:
We read from:
Ghada Samman’s “Beheading the Cat,” translated by Issa Boullata.
The poetry of Rasha Omran, in the issue in Arabic, French, and English.
Al-Jawbari’s advice on avoiding criminals with cats, translated for the issue by Dima El-Mouallem.
We also focus on:
Karim Zidan’s essay on cats in Egyptian art, “Felines, Fellahin, and Fortune Tellers.”
Hoda Marmar’s essay-interview with Muna Nasrallah, the daughter of Emily Nasrallah and previous owner of the cat from Nasrallah’s classic YA novel, What Happened to Zeeko?
The fifteenth-century encyclopedic text “Merits of the Housecat,” translated by David Larsen.
Layla Baalbaki’s classic story “The Cat,” translated by Tom Abi Samra.
