European International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research
and Management Studies
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TYPE
Original Research
PAGE NO.
16-18
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
SUBMITED
14 March 2025
ACCEPTED
10 April 2025
PUBLISHED
12 May 2025
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue05 2025
COPYRIGHT
© 2025 Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the creative commons attributes 4.0 License.
The Diary Genre in The
Works of The Modern
Arab Writer Jamal Al-
Gitani
Shakhnoza Berdieva
PhD, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian Language and
Literature, TerSPI, Uzbekistan
Abstract:
Jamal al-Gitani (1945
–
2015) is an
outstanding Egyptian writer whose work marks an
important stage in the development of modern Arabic
literature. A special place in his legacy is occupied by
the genre of diaries and memoirs, which he developed
from the very beginning of his writing career. His works,
such as "Diary", "Book of Revelations" and "Notebooks
of Essays", are a synthesis of personal memories,
historical reflections and artistic imagination, which
makes them unique in Arabic literature.
Keywords:
Development of modern Arabic literature,
oral folklore, used historical sources.
Introduction:
Al-Gitani sought to modernize the folk
heritage of Egypt, recreating the features of oral
folklore in his works. He actively used historical sources,
diaries, documents, and the works of Islamic Sufis to
describe modern times and reveal the relationship
between the individual and society, human feelings and
fantasies.
In his diary entries, he syncretized historical events of
the past with contemporary realities, which allowed
him to create a new literary style that reflects the
influence of the "new wave" movement in Arabic
literature. This approach is manifested, for example, in
his novel "Az-Zayni Barakat", where he uses historical
events of the 16th century as an allegory for analyzing
the political situation in Egypt in the 20th century.
Thus, the diary genre in the work of Jamal al-Ghitani
serves not only as a means of personal reflection, but
also as a tool for deep analysis of historical and social
processes, which makes his contribution to Arabic
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European International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Management Studies
literature especially significant. In Uzbekistan, the
impressions received by the Egyptian intellectual, his
spiritual crisis and overcoming of this crisis during the
trip are captured. The writer sought to modernize the
folk heritage of Egypt, in his works he re-created the
features of oral folklore, used historical sources, diaries,
documents, as well as the works of Islamic Sufis.
However, all this served only as material for describing
the time, revealing the relationship between the
individual and society, human feelings and thoughts. In
the work of Jamal al-Gitani, the diary genre is present
from the very beginning of his literary activity. Of
course, in these diaries, modern events are intertwined
with historical events of the past, and under the
influence of the "new wave" he looked for new topics,
thereby creating his own style. It is these features of
personal diaries that determine the possibility of their
use in fiction. The diary as a form of narration is
primarily distinguished by the complete frankness of
the author, the sincerity of thoughts and the diversity
of feelings. These features give the diary an intimate
tone, lyricism, emotional expressiveness, which makes
it difficult to compare with other literary genres.
The literary significance of the diary goes far beyond
the work written in this form. The diary usually
preserves the author's sincerity in relation to the world
around him and to himself, describing recent events.
According to the writer, the diary of "az-Zaynil Barakat"
by Jamal al-Ghitani was written 25 years after the
publication of the novel of the same name, that is, in
1996 or 1997. The writer writes about this as follows:
"Thus, I began to sow the first seeds of the story,
written between 1969 and 1970. I first published it in
the Cairo magazine "Ruz Yusuf", the publication
continued for about 25 years. The writer goes through
many stages, like a son growing up in stages. He
becomes a young man, grows up, communicates with
people, he has a life different from the life of his
parents, and his own special inner world." From these
words, we can understand that the novel "az-Zaynil
Barakat" was reprinted many times. Why the author
called the diary this way remains unknown, since only
the first part of the diary talks about Zayni and it begins
like this: "At the end of the story written by Sheikh
Muhammad Ahmad ibn Iyas al-Hanafi al-Misri, the
states changed, and the situation completely changed.
Egypt, which encompassed two seas (the Red and the
Mediterranean) and two holy cities (Kaaba and al-
Aqsa), turned from an independent sultanate into a
province subordinate to the Ottoman Empire with its
capital in Istanbul. The history of Egypt fades into
obscurity, and at the end of a detailed five-year account
of it, we read the following in the book of Sheikh Ibn
Iyas: “Then on Wednesday (in the month of Dhul
-Hijjah
922 AH), as Qadi Baroqat ibn Musa wrote, an
announcement was made in Cairo in the afternoon that
everyone, from the common people to the merchants,
should come in the morning to the house of Qadi
Baroqat ibn Musa, who was then in Khasab. Many
people rejoiced at this....” Suddenly, “Badai az
-
Zuhur”
(“Rare Flowers”) is interrupted, and it seems that death
overtook Ibn Iyas at the moment of writing the history.”
Al-Ghitani, expressing warm words about the Egyptian
hero az-Zaynil Barakat, calls him "the first man in the
era of the Sultanate, as well as the first man in various
new states." According to the author, the novel "az-
Zaynil Barakat" was given by the artist Yahya al-Ilmi to
scriptwriters, and conclusions were made about the
plot of the novel. In addition, the writer and critic
Muhammad Sayyid Id, who knew the Mamluk era well,
wrote a textbook about Zaynil Barakat. He worked on
the script for three years, and Yahya al-Ilmi and
Mamdouh al-Laythi managed to turn it into a television
series. Of course, this was not easy to accomplish.
Ghitani writes about this:
"Over the past year, Yahya al-Ilmi and his partner spent
considerable funds. Also, artists with great experience
and fame, such as Nabiy al-Khalfawi, Ahmad Badiy,
Rushwan Tawfik, Farouk al-Rashidi, Atif Tantani and
others, played a major role. I do not expect Egyptian
television to present this as a model of literary text in
Egyptian and Arabic literature. Although the work has
been done orally over the years, including the story, the
script, the spoken language and the theme as a whole,
such talents who are capable of realizing this can be
counted on the fingers of one hand ... " Jamal al-
Ghitani, speaking about the fact that Egyptian
television is approaching world standards and the
culture is developing, returns to Zaini again and says
that he has been studying his fate for a long time. He
emphasizes that Ibn Iyas does not mention how his
story ended, and that the novel had been translated
into 14 languages by the time the diary was written. He
also says that in November 1984 he purchased a book
entitled “The Role of Said in the Ottoman Era in Egypt,”
written by Dr. Salah Haridi of the University of
Alexandria. After reading it, he came across the
following lines: “Suddenly I came across lines in the
second chapter, containing the end of the story of Zaini,
quoted from the book of the historian Muhammad ibn
Abi al-Sarura al-
Bakri “Divine Gifts” (“al
-Lataif ar-
Rabb
aniyya”): “Said witnessed another uprising against
the Ottomans. The first to speak out were local rulers,
among them Janim al-Saifi, the liberator of Bahna and
Fayyum, Iynal, the liberator of the western part. In 929
AH, after the death of Khair Beg, Mustafa Pasha came
to power. After the death of Sultan Selim, a young boy
ascended the throne. Both took advantage of the
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European International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Management Studies
situation, went to the East, and communication
between Cairo and Syria was interrupted. Before
Mustafa Pasha, az-Zaynil Barakat was sent as an
intermediary, but after his Iynal's betrayal was
revealed, he was avenged...”
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