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When Upper Egypt Spoke: Dramatized Rebellion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2021

Zeinab Abul-Magd
Zeinab Abul-Magd*
Affiliation:
History Department, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, USA
*
[email protected]
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Extract

Every Ramadan, when Egyptian TV shows enjoy their prime season, at least one series about Upper Egypt is produced and millions of viewers across the country get hooked on it. Those popular dramas usually include a southern hero who is a good-hearted yet poor young man, and his reluctant turn to crime to stand up against corruption and oppression. With romantic depictions of dark and handsome outlaws, the protagonists of these shows always win the deep sympathy of their fans as they rebel against unfortunate conditions and resist local officials, rich elites, and/or corrupt police officers. One of the most iconic and memorable shows, which came out in 1992, was titled Dhiʾab al-Jabal (Wolves of the Mountain, Fig. 1). It narrated the story of Badri, a young man from Qena province, who faced police injustice and escaped to the mountains on the west bank of the Nile River to hide, and then joined a gang of bandits. The honest and kind mountain fugitives aided him until he proved his innocence, reunited with his lost sister, and married his sweetheart. For many viewers across the country, Badri and other lawless idols embody the only glimpse of resistance they experience in their repressed lives—albeit virtually on a TV screen.

Type
Roundtable
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 125 - 131
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 This TV series was written by an Upper Egyptian scriptwriter, Muhammad Safaʾ ʿAmir, who has penned many similar popular drama series which take place in the south. Dhiʾab al-Jabal also included songs by the esteemed Upper Egyptian poet ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Abnudi. See Abu-Lughod, Lila, Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 248Google Scholar.

2 For a book-length history of this province, see Abul-Magd, Zeinab, Imagined Empires: A History of Revolt in Egypt (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Gran, Peter, “Upper Egypt in Modern History: ‘A Southern Question’?” in Upper Egypt: Identity and Change, ed. Hopkins, Nicholas and Saad, Reem (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2004)Google Scholar; Martina Rieker, “The Sa‘id and the City: Subaltern Spaces in the Making of Modern Egypt” (PhD diss., Temple University, 1997).

4 See al-Idfawi, Abu al-Fadl, al-Tali‘ al-Sa‘id al-Jami‘ li-Asma‘ Nujaba‘ al-Sa‘id (Cairo: al-Dar al-Misriyya li-l-Ta‘lif wa-l-Tarjama, 1966)Google Scholar.

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6 See al-Jirjawi, Muhammad al-Maraghi, Tarikh Wilayyat al-Sa‘id fi al-‘Asrayn al-Mamluki wa-l-‘Uthmani al-Musamma bi-Nur al-‘Uyun bi-Dhikr Jirja fi ‘Ahd Thalathat Qurun (Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahda, 1997)Google Scholar.

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9 Haddad, “Project,” 174.

10 Ahmad, al-Sa‘id, 21.

11 al-Jabarti, ‘Abd al-Rahman, ‘Aja'ib al-Athar fi-l-Tarajim wa-l-Akhbar (Cairo: Lajnatal-Bayan al-‘Arabi, 1958–), vol. 7, 234–35Google Scholar.

12 See Abul-Magd, Imagined Empires, ch. 3.

13 See Abul-Magd, Imagined Empires, ch. 4.

14 This group of authors included Mubarak, ‘Ali, al-Khitat al-Tawfiqiyya al-Jadida li-Misr al-Qahira, Vol. 14 (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-‘Amma lil-Kitab, 1994), 95Google Scholar.

15 Duff-Gordon, Lucie Austin, Letters from Egypt (London: Macmillan, 1865), 341–42Google Scholar.

16 See Abul-Magd, Imagined Empires, ch. 4.

17 See Abul-Magd, Imagined Empires, ch. 5.

18 “Khutt al-Sa‘id,” al-Ahram, 31 October 2010.

19 Al-Shirbini al-ʿAttar, “Min al-Nahar da Mafish Hakuma . . . Ana al-Hakuma . . . ʿIzzat Hanafi Shamshoun al-Saʿid,” Saout al-Omma, 23 May 2018.

20 Facebook, accessed 9 March 2010, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8412576147.