Wednesday, June 14, 2017

West can't tell Arabs who their best writers are

I just observed in Arabic: Ghassan Kanafani is far more present on Arab social media among the young than Naguib Mahfouz.  Mahfouz is certainly not the best contemporary Arab writer--and I don't think that Kanafani necessarily is.  I think that people like Tawfiq Al-Hakim, Taha Husayn, Abbas Al-`Aqqad, Mikha'il Nu`aymah, and even Amin Rihani are all head and shoulders above Mahfouz.