Cover not available
Article published In:
Babel
Vol. 69:5 (2023) ► pp.581–597

Power dynamics in Egypt’s censorship of Gibran’s The Prophet

| KU Leuven
After more than seventy years, when Kahlil Gibran’s 1923 masterpiece The Prophet had circulated freely in Egypt, censorship authorities banned the book in 1999 and 2011. This article explores the sociopolitical context surrounding the censorship of The Prophet and its Arabic translations, with a particular focus on the power play between censors and different agents and the strategies employed by the latter to revoke the ban on the book. The extent and intensity of power intervention speak to this case study’s significance. Qualitative analysis of English and Arabic press material is utilized to gain insights into the censors’ reports and the responses of different sociopolitical agents. This is paired with compiling and analyzing a dataset of bibliographical information on the editions of The Prophet’s Arabic translations published in Egypt between 1999 and 2022. The findings point to a decentralized system of censorship exercised by several ministries and religious institutions with competing interests. It is argued that the survival of The Prophet in the face of multiple bans can be attributed to shifting sociopolitical conditions, discordant politics of powerful agents, and international pressure.
Keywords: censorship, Kahlil Gibran, power dynamics, translation, The Prophet
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.Dynamics of censorship in Egypt: Setting the scene
  • 4.The 1999 ban on The Prophet: Colliding interests and discordant politics
    • 4.1Writers Union’s censorship powers
  • 5.Post-Arab spring censorship
  • 6.Survival of The Prophet in a changing political climate
  • 7.Conclusions
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 18 September 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00339.ali
References (42)
References
‘Abd al-Salam, Fātiḥ. 2004. al-Fikr Mihna [Thinking is a profession]. Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing.Google Scholar
Abū Dahab, Ibtisām. 2016. “Kitāb Al-Nabī Li-Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān Yūʾkid Tarābuṭ Alʿillqa Bayn al-Muslimīn Wa al-Masīḥiyyn [The book The Prophet by Gibran Khalil Gibran emphasizes the strong ties between Muslims and Christians].” Youm7, 5 January 2016. Accessed 23 September 2022. [URL]
Agrama, Hussein A. 2012. Questioning Secularism: Islam, Sovereignty, and the Rule of Law in Modern Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Al-Bayan. 1999a. “Aṣdiqāʾ Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān Yastankirūn Manʿ Kitāb Al-Nabī Fi Maṣr” [Friends of Gibran Kahlil Gibran denounce the ban on the book (The Prophet) in Egypt]. Al-Bayan, 21 July 1999. Accessed 20 September 2022. [URL]
. 1999b. “Maṣr Tanfī Muṣādarat Kitāb al-Nabī li-Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān” [Egypt denies the confiscation of The Prophet written by Gibran Kahlil Gibran]. Al-Bayan, 29 June 1999. Accessed 16 July 2022. [URL]
Albin, Michael W. 1987. “Official Culture in Egypt and the Role of the Book.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 241: 71–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ali, Hisham M. 2018. “Visibility and Reception: Two Translations of Gibran’s The Earth Gods .” MA diss., Hamad Bin Khalifa University.
2022. “Gibran in Lebanese Nationalism: A Study of His Canonization and the Translation Flows of The Prophet .” PhD diss., KU Leuven.
Al Jazeera. 2011. “Idāna li-Muṣādarat Kutub Adabiyya bi-Maṣr” [Egypt’s confiscation of literary literature is condemned]. Aljazeera, 12 April 2011. Accessed 29 July 2022. [URL]
ʿAwāl, Yūsuf al-, and Minna al-ʾAbiyyaḍ. 2019. “Fī Dhikrā Raḥīluh .. Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān Nabī al-ʿIshq Aldhī ʾaḥbatuh Mayy Ziyādah Wa Taghanat bi-ʾAshʿāruh Fayrūz [On the anniversary of his death.. Gibran Khalil Gibran, the prophet of love whom May Ziadeh loved and whose poems Fairuz sang].” Al-Ahram, 10 April 2019. Accessed 11 June 2022. [URL]
Ayyad, Khayrat. 2012. “Human Rights Organizations’ Use of the Internet as a Communication Medium in Egypt.” Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research 5 (2): 167–185. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Badawī, ʿAbd al-Raḥman. 2015. “Fī Dhikrā Mīladuh al-132 … Jubrān Katab ʿlā Qabruh ‘ʾana Ḥayy Mithluk’ .. Wa Baqīya ʾanīn al-Nay Yuradid Shiʿruh [On his 132nd birthday.. Gibran wrote on his grave ‘I am Alive Like You’.. and the lament of nay continued to resound his poetry].” Al-Ahram, 6 January 2015. Accessed 2 September 2022. [URL]
Baer, Brian James. 2016. “Translation Criticism in Newspaper Reviews: The Rise of Readability.” In Authorizing Translation, edited by Michelle Woods, 12–31. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Baetens, Jan, and Theo D’haen. 2020. “A Canon? Yes, But What Are We Going to Do with It?” European Review 28 (4): 559–564. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brems, Elke. 2019. “Canonization.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, edited by Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha, 52–56. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brownlie, Siobhan. 2014. “Examining Self-Censorship Zola’s Nana in English Translation.” In Modes of Censorship and Translation: National Contexts and Diverse Media, edited by Francesca Billiani, 205–234. Oxon and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cao, Xueman. 2021. “Power Dynamics in the Translation of Sexually Explicit Language in China.” The Translator 28 (3): 1–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chandler, Paul-Gordon. 2017. In Search of a Prophet: A Spiritual Journey with Kahlil Gibran. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Dawn. 2003. “Al Azhar Blacklists Book of Love Poetry.” Dawn, 4 November 2003. Accessed 12 September 2022. [URL]
Fāzulla, Husām. 2017. Limadhā Lan Tastaṭīʿ al-ʾIbāʿ fī Maṣr [Why you cannot be creative in Egypt]. Cairo: Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression.Google Scholar
Fisk, Robert. 1999. “‘The Prophet’ Falls Foul of Egyptian Thought Police.” The Independent, 27 July 1999. Accessed 28 September 2022. [URL]
Foucault, Michel. 1982. “The Subject and Power.” Critical Inquiry 8 (4): 777–795. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibran, Kahlil. 1923. The Prophet. New York: Alfred A Knopf.Google Scholar
. 1926. Al-Nabī [The prophet], translated by Anthony Bashir, 1st ed. Cairo: Boustany Publishing House.Google Scholar
. 2000. Al-Nabī [The prophet], translated by Tharwat Okasha, 10th ed. Cairo: Dar Al-Shorouk.Google Scholar
. 2016. Al-Nabī: klasīkiyyāt al-adab [The prophet: Literature classics]. Cairo: Al-Dār Al Maṣriyya Al Lubnāniyya.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Thomas W. 2019. “Writing in Red: The East German Writers Union and the Role of Literary Intellectuals in the German Democratic Republic, 1971–90.” Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina.
Ḥasan, Māher. 2017. “Kutub wa Ḥikāyat .. Al-Azhar yuṣādir waṣāyā al-shahāwī fī ʿishq al-Nisāʾ” [Books and stories.. Al-Azhar confiscates al-Shahawi’s book ‘Commandments on Women’s Love’]. al-Masry al-Youm, 17 June 2017. Accessed 30 September 2022. [URL]
Hassan, Waïl S. 2009. “Gibran and Orientalism.” In Arab Voices in Diaspora: Critical Perspectives on Anglophone Arab Literature, edited by Layla Al Maleh, 65–92. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Jacquemond, Richard. 2008. Conscience of the Nation: Writers, State, and Society in Modern Egypt. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.Google Scholar
Khamīs, Hiba. 2020. “Tarshīḥat Al-Ḥaẓr .. Kabsūlat Falsafiyyah Yuqadimuha Jubrān fī Kitab al-Nabī” [Books to read while in lockdown: Philosophical capsules presented by Gibran in ‘The Prophet’]. Masrawy, 29 April 2020. Accessed 30 December 2022. [URL]
L’Orient-Le Jour. 1999. “LIVRES ‘Le Prophète’ de Gebran à Nouveau Autorisé En Égypte.” L’Orient-Le Jour, 30 July 1999. Accessed 2 January 2023. [URL]
Mazzarella, William. 2013. Censorium: Cinema and the Open Edge of Mass Publicity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Mroue, Bassem. 1999. “Egyptian Censors Ban Dozens of ‘Sacrilegious’ Books.” Los Angeles Times, 22 August 1999. Accessed 2 November 2022. [URL]
Najjar, Fauzi M. 2001. “Book Banning in Contemporary Egypt.” The Muslim World 91 (3–4): 399–424. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reuters. 2011. “Al-Riqābah ʿala al-Maṭbūʿat bi-Maṣr Tuṣadir Kutuban Minhā al-A’māl al-Kāmila li-Jubrān [Censorship in Egypt confiscates books, including the Complete Works of Gibran ].” Reuters, 14 April 2011. Accessed 3 October 2022. [URL]
Selaiha, Nehad. 2013. “The Fire and the Frying Pan: Censorship and Performance in Egypt.” TDR (1988–) 57 (3): 20–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2014. “TDR Comment: Egypt Update from Nehad Selaiha.” TDR (1988-) 58 (3): 7. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stagh, Marina. 1993. The Limits of Freedom of Speech: Prose Literature and Prose Writers in Egypt Under Nasser and Sadat. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Tymoczko, Maria. 2009. “Censorship and Self-Censorship in Translation: Ethics and Ideology, Resistance and Collusion.” In Translation and Censorship: Patterns of Communication and Interference, edited by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, and David L. Parris, 24–45. Dublin: Four Courts Press.Google Scholar
Walters, Meir. 2016. “Censorship as a Populist Project: The Politics of Managing Culture in Egypt.” Ph.D. diss., Georgetown University.
Yehia, Ranwa. 1999. “Gibran’s Friends Disagree on Response to Ban.” The Daily Star, 24 July 1999. Accessed 13 July 2022. [URL]