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English edition
Oct
2008
136 pp.
Paperback
12.5X20 cm
$14.95
LE 75.00
ISBN
978 977 416 216 9
For sale worldwide
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Nights of Musk
Stories from Old Nubia
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Haggag Hassan Oddoul
Translated by
Anthony Calderbank
Colorful short stories from Nubia about life in the old homeland along the Nile before its inundation behind the Aswan High Dam
This collection of short stories, both poignant and skillfully crafted, bring to life the tragic demise of traditional Nubian life and culture. If the earlier dams that were built across the Nile during the first half of the twentieth century caused increasing numbers of the men-folk to migrate north to Cairo and Alexandria to work as servants, waiters, and doormen, the completion of the High Dam in 1964 sounded the death knell. While the temples of Abu Simbel were meticulously relocated at great expense, the drowning of the ancient heartland of the Nubian people along the banks of the Nile went largely unnoticed.
Haggag Oddoul’s work, as well as documenting the personal tragedy of individuals caught up in massive social transformation, also casts a nostalgic light on the heritage and way of life of the Nubians: their rhythmic dancing, their beautiful women, the lively humor of their elders, and the enormous centrality of their traditions and the spirits with which they shared the environment. Two stories in this collection, ‘’Zeinab Uburty’’ and ‘’Nights of Musk,’’ offer a bucolic and dream-like insight into the world that has disappeared for ever under the water behind the dam. Meanwhile, two other stories, ‘’Adila, Grandmother’’ and ‘’The River People,’’ document the departure of the men, while the women are left behind to go fallow, and the second and third generations born in the cities of the north have only their grandmother’s tales and her pigeon Arabic to remind them of their heritage.
Haggag Hassan Oddoul was born in Alexandria in 1944 to parents who had left their native village in the Nubian region of southern Egypt. He was a construction worker on the Aswan High Dam, then served in the Egyptian armed forces during the War of Attrition and the October 1973 War. He began writing at the age of forty, and has written short stories, novels, and plays. Nights of Musk was awarded the State Prize for Short Stories in 1990.
Anthony Calderbank, who lived in Egypt for many years, has had a long interest in Arabic language and literature. His most recent translation is Rhadopis of Nubia by Naguib Mahfouz (AUC Press, 2003).
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Reviews
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“…a very moving book”—Arab News
“The author finely weaves his delightful yarn that affords the reader an inkling of the rich Nubian culture.” —CSA, September 05
“a lovely work that is implicitly political yet deeply personal” —Richard Woffenden, Cairo Magazine, August 05
“Haggag Hassan Oddoul’s recreation of the humanity, love and magic of a lost Nubian world is deeply moving even without considering that most of his homeland (and the setting for the stories) is now underwater.” —Richard Woffenden, Cairo Magazine, August 05
“His beautiful stories gently illustrate the internal conflicts that arise from displacement and subtly describe the depths of tradition and culture.” —Richard Woffenden, Cairo Magazine, August 05
“In his stories, Oddoul captures – in astounding detail – the ways of the Nubian people and the tragedy of their demise through the course of history” —Sarah Ali, Egypt Today, August 2005
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