ABSTRACT
Those among us who have followed Ibrahim’s publishing history know that this development had been unthinkable. It was unthinkable that Ibrahim’s work would appear on the pages of a state-run paper, given what he writes and the history of its reception (or lack thereof) by the state apparatus.3 Whereas his first novel Tilka l-raiha (1966; English translation The Smell of It, 1971) was published with a small publisher, requiring his financial collaboration, and was subsequently banned, his last novel, Dhat (English translation, Zaat, 2001) appeared through Dar al-Mustaqbal al-Arabi, an established leftist, Nasserist, private Egyptian publisher, with acknowledgements by the author to three lawyers “who graciously provided advice and guidance”4 concerning the lethally critical manuscript. All the first editions of his other works have been published outside Egypt, by Arab publishers, with the exception of Bayrut Bayrut (1984), which marked the beginning of his collaboration with Dar al-Mustaqbal. With the publication of Sharaf, first in serialized form (a few opening chapters in Akhbar alAdab) and subsequently the publication of the complete manuscript (March 1997) by Egypt’s reputedly liberal, state-run Dar al-Hilal, an establishment of considerable history and intellectual weight, the impossible marriage indeed occurred. It is important to note that Ibrahim was courted by both Akhbar alAdab and Dar al-Hilal and that he was initially wary of their commitment. But, they both took the risk and delivered. How is it then that this new alliance is made possible? Why is it so important that we attend to it? How does it bespeak the cultural politics that govern the cultural field in Egypt today? And how does it impact on Ibrahim’s position within it?
