A Man Without a Soul

Description

This play is one of Tawfiq al-Hakim’s many posthumous works, presented to us on the centenary of his birth. Tawfiq al-Hakim was a master of many such works, from the beret and the cane to “The Enmity of Women,” “The Sage’s Donkey,” “The Masrawiya,” and “The Return of Consciousness.” Today, we present him with an unknown play, or rather, a new, yet old, work, one that people have only read very rarely, and which he never included in the published works of his plays and books. This intriguing text was discovered by the great playwright Alfred Farag, who submitted it to Al-Hilal Novels for publication to commemorate the centenary of al-Hakim’s birth. He included his fond memories of their time together under the title “Al-Hakim Told Me.” It is a perplexing play; its author could not have written it and then forgotten it. Therefore, its publication today in this form could alter the landscape of al-Hakim’s writing, as critics have generally focused only on his published works, despite this text existing in the margins of history.