Yahya Haqqi
Encyclopedia
Yahya Haqqi
(7 January 1905-9 December 1992) (or Yehia Hakki, Yehia Haqqi) was an Egypt
ian writer and novelist. Born to a middle-class family in Cairo
, he was trained as a lawyer
at the Cairo School of Law, graduating in 1925. Like many other Egyptian writers, such as Naguib Mahfouz
and Yusuf Idris
, he spent most of his life as a civil servant, supplementing his literary income; he eventually rose to become adviser to the National Library of Egypt
.
In his literary career, he published four collections of short stories, one novel (Umm Hashem's Lamp), and many articles and other short stories besides. He was editor of the literary magazine Al-Majalla from 1961 to 1971, when that publication was banned in Egypt. He has experimented with the various literary norms: the short story
, the novel
, literary criticism
, essay
s, meditation
s, and literary translation
.
neighborhood of Zainab to a middle-class Turkish
Muslim
family. His ancestors had emigrated from Turkey
to Greece
, and one of the sons of that family, Ibrahim Haqqi (d. 1890), Yahya's grandfather, moved to Egypt in the early nineteenth century. Ibrahim Haqqi worked in Damietta
for a period of time, and had three sons: Muhammad Ibrahim (Yahya's father), Mahmoud Taher, and Kamal. Muhammad Ibrahim's wife, Yahya's mother, was also of Turkish origin. Both of his parents enjoyed literature. Yahya Haqqi was the third son of six, and had two sisters. His oldest brother was Ibrahim, followed by Ishmael. His younger siblings, in birth order, were Zachariah, Musa, Fatima, Hamza, and Miriam. Hamza and Miriam both died when they were only months old.
He graduated from the Faculty of Law and practiced as a lawyer in Alexandria
. In 1929 he joined the diplomatic corps and served in Jeddah
, Rome
, Paris
, and Ankara
. In 1952 he was appointed ambassador
to Libya
.
In 1953 he was appointed Director of the Arts Department and then a Literary Advisor to the Egyptian Generd Book Organization in 1958.
In 1959, he resigned his post and became editor
of one of a Cairo-based magazine.
In 1970, he was appointed Member of the Supreme Council for Radio and Television.
. During that period and even before Haqqi championed budding Egyptian authors whose works he admired and believed in. In the 1960s also Haqqi took the very courageous step of retiring from writing short stories and novels, but he continued to write articles that critics described as artistic sketches.
His first short story appeared in 1925, and he established himself as one of the greatest pioneers of contemporary short story writing in the Arab world
.
His short stories convey attempts to express a certain philosophy on life, a certain stand or viewpoint and advocate human will which he considered the fountain-spring of all virtues. He believes that language is not merely a tool of expression or of conveying ideas but rather an integral part of the writing process in all literary norms. His study of law has had its impact on his writings which are characterized by objectivity.
Haqqi also translated world famous literary works such as "The Chess Player" aka The Royal Game
by Stefan Zweig
, Baltagul (The Hatchet) by Mihail Sadoveanu
, and "The Prodigal Father" by Edith Saunders, he also participated in translating the famous Russian Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak
.
a number of essays included in his "Complete Works".
(7 January 1905-9 December 1992) (or Yehia Hakki, Yehia Haqqi) was an Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian writer and novelist. Born to a middle-class family in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, he was trained as a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
at the Cairo School of Law, graduating in 1925. Like many other Egyptian writers, such as Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published over 50 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie...
and Yusuf Idris
Yusuf Idris
Yusuf Idris, also Yusif Idris was an Egyptian writer of plays, short stories, and novels. Idris originally trained to be a doctor, studying at the University of Cairo...
, he spent most of his life as a civil servant, supplementing his literary income; he eventually rose to become adviser to the National Library of Egypt
Egyptian National Library and Archives
The Egyptian National Library and Archives in Cairo is the largest library in Egypt. The second largest are the libraries of Al-Azhar University and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina ....
.
In his literary career, he published four collections of short stories, one novel (Umm Hashem's Lamp), and many articles and other short stories besides. He was editor of the literary magazine Al-Majalla from 1961 to 1971, when that publication was banned in Egypt. He has experimented with the various literary norms: the short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
, the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, literary criticism
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
, essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
s, meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
s, and literary translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
.
Early life and family
Haqqi was born on January 7, 1905 in the CairoCairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
neighborhood of Zainab to a middle-class Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
family. His ancestors had emigrated from Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
to Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, and one of the sons of that family, Ibrahim Haqqi (d. 1890), Yahya's grandfather, moved to Egypt in the early nineteenth century. Ibrahim Haqqi worked in Damietta
Damietta
Damietta , also known as Damiata, or Domyat, is a port and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about north of Cairo.-History:...
for a period of time, and had three sons: Muhammad Ibrahim (Yahya's father), Mahmoud Taher, and Kamal. Muhammad Ibrahim's wife, Yahya's mother, was also of Turkish origin. Both of his parents enjoyed literature. Yahya Haqqi was the third son of six, and had two sisters. His oldest brother was Ibrahim, followed by Ishmael. His younger siblings, in birth order, were Zachariah, Musa, Fatima, Hamza, and Miriam. Hamza and Miriam both died when they were only months old.
He graduated from the Faculty of Law and practiced as a lawyer in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
. In 1929 he joined the diplomatic corps and served in Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
. In 1952 he was appointed ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
.
In 1953 he was appointed Director of the Arts Department and then a Literary Advisor to the Egyptian Generd Book Organization in 1958.
In 1959, he resigned his post and became editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of one of a Cairo-based magazine.
In 1970, he was appointed Member of the Supreme Council for Radio and Television.
Literary career
In his literary career, he published four collections of short stories, one novel, ("Good Morning", translated from Arabic by Miriam Cooke), a novella (Umm Hashem's Lamp, twice translated from Arabic, by M.M.Badawi and Denys Johnson-Davies), and many articles some of which involved literary criticism of writers works, and other short stories besides. Sabri Hafez regards Haqqi as a pioneer in the writing of short stories, and experimenter in both form and style. Most literary critics commend Haqqi's style of writing and his language precision. He was editor of the literary magazine Al-Majalla from 1961 to 1971; this was a dangerous position, as the publication had been banned in Egypt by order of the government of Gamal Abdel NasserGamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
. During that period and even before Haqqi championed budding Egyptian authors whose works he admired and believed in. In the 1960s also Haqqi took the very courageous step of retiring from writing short stories and novels, but he continued to write articles that critics described as artistic sketches.
Work
His work at the Book Organization offered him an opportunity to read a lot. He is considered the father of short story and novel in Egypt.His first short story appeared in 1925, and he established himself as one of the greatest pioneers of contemporary short story writing in the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
.
His short stories convey attempts to express a certain philosophy on life, a certain stand or viewpoint and advocate human will which he considered the fountain-spring of all virtues. He believes that language is not merely a tool of expression or of conveying ideas but rather an integral part of the writing process in all literary norms. His study of law has had its impact on his writings which are characterized by objectivity.
Haqqi also translated world famous literary works such as "The Chess Player" aka The Royal Game
The Royal Game
The Royal Game is a novella by Austrian author Stefan Zweig first published in 1942, after the author's death by suicide...
by Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.- Biography :...
, Baltagul (The Hatchet) by Mihail Sadoveanu
Mihail Sadoveanu
Mihail Sadoveanu was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and political figure, who twice served as acting republican head of state under the communist regime . One of the most prolific Romanian-language writers, he is remembered mostly for his historical and adventure novels, as...
, and "The Prodigal Father" by Edith Saunders, he also participated in translating the famous Russian Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago (novel)
Doctor Zhivago is a 20th century novel by Boris Pasternak, first published in 1957. The novel is named after its protagonist, Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet...
by Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language...
.
Awards
- Haqqi was awarded the Recognition Award in 1967.
- In 1968, he won first prize for his novel "The Postman" in which he portrays means of inculcating Egyptian values and principles.
- He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Al Minya University, Egypt.
Non-fiction
- "The Dawn of the Egyptian Novel"
- "Antar and Juliet"
- "Steps in Criticism"
- "A Song of Simplicity"
a number of essays included in his "Complete Works".
Literary works
His novel "Qandeel Om Hashem" (Om Hashem's Lantern) 1943, had its positive impact on the course of the Arabic novel for it was a precious work in both language and technique. In it he reviews the customs prevailing in the Egyptian countryside and the means of rectifying them through education so as to attain progress.- "Om Al'awagiz" (The Mother of the Helpless)
- "Dima' Wa Teen" (Blood and Mud)
- "Antar and Juliet"
- "Sah El Nome: (Wake-up)
- "I htigag" (Protest)
- "Aqrab Affandi" (Mr. Scorpion)
- "Tanawa'at Al Asbab" (Means Vary)
- "Qessa Fi Ard'hal "(A Story in a Petition)
- "Iflass Khatibah" (The Bankruptcy of a Matchmaker)
- "Al Firash Al Shaghir" (The Empty Bed)
- "Al Bostagi" (The Postman).