In 1923, Tawfiq al-Hakim would visit the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab once a month, immediately after delivering his new novel to the late Zaki Okasha, director of the Azbakia Theater. Zaki would tell him, “If the children are asleep, I won’t buy the novel; if they’re awake, I will!” Zaki would read each novel to his children at night; if they slept, the novel was trivial, and if they stayed awake, it was brilliant. Zaki considered his children to be his audience! And after delivering the novel, Tawfiq al-Hakim would go to the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab and say to her, “O Sayyida Zeinab… wake the children up.” The boys woke up… and Tawfiq al-Hakim sold all his plays. Tawfiq al-Hakim was a creative genius ahead of his time. His plays had a unique character that distinguished them from others at the time of their creation. However, his fame and talent were not fully appreciated until the publication of his play “The People of the Cave,” written in 1928 and published in 1933. This play caused a major literary sensation, and with it, Tawfiq al-Hakim became famous and his star shone brightly. He then moved from the academic field to the realm of ministerial and literary positions, and was nominated for the most important awards, most notably the Nobel Prize, by many entities, including publishing houses in France. Al-Hakim’s works are often associated with his cane and his donkey, which might seem like solid tools for dialogue. However, al-Hakim says otherwise. The cane was his constant companion for many years, so it was the first thing he would talk about, as it had witnessed and experienced many people and events during that time. The donkey, on the other hand, has been used by many writers for its distinctive qualities in conversation. But for al-Hakim, the donkey was a constant presence in his life from childhood until his later years (1940), when he became a civil servant. It was the donkey that inspired him to write “Al-Hakim’s Donkey…” As for al-Hakim’s plays, they can be divided into two categories: The first includes realistic plays that address life’s problems in a style devoid of symbolism or abstraction. This category includes his early short plays, published in two volumes, such as “A Bullet in the Heart,” “The Belt,” and “Before the Ticket Window,” as well as his numerous social plays published in his monumental work, “The Theater of Society.” His last production in this genre was “The Deal,” which was performed by the National Theater. The second category of al-Hakim’s plays is… Critics have termed it “intellectual theater,” a genre that deals with abstract ideas or symbols and manages the conflict between opposing viewpoints.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This comprehensive collection includes prominent literary, intellectual, and theatrical works, reflecting the evolution of human, social, and philosophical perspectives through diverse texts that have left a significant mark on modern Arabic literature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_cat":[940,939,911,915,919,923,921],"product_tag":[2728,1082,1359,1132],"class_list":["post-28009","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-arabic-literature","product_cat-the-complete-works","product_cat-novels","product_cat-stories","product_cat-literary-plays","product_cat-literary-articles","product_cat-literary-texts","product_tag-literature","product_tag-novels","product_tag-philosophy","product_tag-stories","pa_book-author-tawfiq-al-hakim","first","onbackorder","sale","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/28009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=28009"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=28009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}