(Re-)Configurations of Islam in the Development of the Arabic Novel. Case studies from Egypt and Kuwait

The existence of Islam in the Arabic novel is bound within epistemological constrains inscribed in the very form of the genre, and therefore transcends the contents of specific works. As one of the most distinctive expressions of modernity in the Arab world, the novel constitutes a meaningful locus to study the way Islam has been re-configured in relationship to some of the major intellectual debates that have swept over the Arab territories during the twentieth and the beginning of the twentieth-first century. This chapter examines the synchronic, diachronic and translocal dimensions of this process of reconfiguration with a particular focus on the relationship between Islam and nationalism in Egypt and Kuwait. With this aim, the chapter makes reference to a limited range of exemplary literary works such as the neo-maqama Hadith ‘Isa Ibn Hisham (1907) by Muhammad al-Muwaylihi and the novels ‘Awdat al-ruh (1933) by Tawfiq al-Hakim, Zuqaq al-midaqq (1947) by Najib Mahfuz and Fi’ran Ummi Hissa (2015) by Sa‘ud al-San‘usi.