From ALQ: ‘How Moroccans Laugh’
“Jokes are the salt of social life.”
From ArabLit Quarterly
Online Extra: Arabic & English from ‘Solace for the Traveler and Entertainment for the Conversationalist’
“Such compilations were common. At a time when people could not entertain themselves with TV and thumb-wrecking scrolling on myriad social media platforms, compilations kept them company. These works tended to be written in small notebooks easy to carry in one’s pocket or satchel.”
IN ON THE JOKE: The Launch of the Summer 2022 Issue of ArabLit Quarterly
Today we’re launching the Summer 2022 JOKE themed issue of ArabLit Quarterly, guest edited by Anam Zafar.
New Short Fiction: Mariam Qahtani’s ‘Heavensent Huriyya’
“Suspicion’s bite trailed her gaze as the lazy air played across her vision. She straightened her back as she inspected the grim and miserable faces before her. For those who watched, her matted hair, ragged clothes, and very long fingernails foretold no good will.”
From the ‘Mirrors’ Issue: Hilal Badr’s ‘Ash-sha’b Yurid Isqat an-Nizam’
A shout awakens me; someone is yelling, “Ash-sha’b yurid isqat an-nizam [The People want to bring down the regime].” Does anyone believe this? I don’t.
Short Fiction: Maheera Migdadi’s ‘Sad Woman’s Mirrors’
She wipes her hand over the mirror like she’s waving goodbye; her drowsy face looks back at her from the blurry glass, reminding her of all the hours she hasn’t slept. It warns of the long day ahead. She’ll be holding her breath for the next twenty-four hours.
Launching the MIRRORS Issue: Recovering Their Medieval Magic
In the pieces included here, men seem more likely to link mirrors to a past, while for women they are part of an encircling present.
(Re)collecting Egyptian Folk Songs
In 1958, the Egyptian folk-song collector Bahiga Sidqi Rashid published a small anthology entitled Aghanin misriyya sha‘abiyya (Egyptian Folk Songs). It contained lyrics and melodies to 56 songs and was the first in a series of books she would publish over the next two decades to “preserve for my dear country” a “great and eternal heritage that is surely on its way to being lost.”
Songs from My Father: A Journey through Children’s Folk Songs of Makkah
This essay appears in our Winter 2021 FOLK-themed special issue, edited by Ali Al-Jamri. You can also hear author-translator Eman Quotah talk about her essay on YouTube, where she reads […]