With this recent publication, the American University in Cairo Press pays belated homage to Yusuf Idris, one of the world’s best short-story writers, described by Tawfiq Al-Hakim as “the renovator and genius of the short story.”
Denys Johnson-Davies rightly points out in the introduction that “The Essential Idris” “will fill a gap” because anyone interested in Idris work until now had to read a large number of publications to find all his stories. I doubt whether Idris would be satisfied with such a thought. He died with the belief that his literary talent had never been properly rewarded. He was particularly upset when, having been nominated for the Nobel Prize, he eventually lost to Naguib Mahfouz.
However, the jury’s choice is perfectly understandable. Naguib Mahfouz chose to write novels which are a far more popular literary genre than short stories. Secondly, his novels had been translated into English and French; therefore his work could be evaluated by the Nobel Prize committee. On the contrary, Idris’ prolific literary output, (mainly short stories) has never attracted much attention: some of his short stories have been published in collections of short stories but the majority are virtually unknown and very few have been translated.
A virulent critic of the rich and powerful, Idris always favored the underdog. His short stories are like colorful clips, capsules of life reflecting the changing values of Egyptian society during the twentieth century. He addressed issues such as love, poverty, injustice, hypocrisy and alienation with a formidable sense of realism and he was one of very few Arabic writers to warn about the dangers of religious fundamentalism.
He was born in 1927 and educated at Cairo University, where he received an M.D. in 1952. While in college, he started to write and in 1954, he published his first collection of short stories, Arkhas Layali (The Cheapest Nights and Other Stories). The Cheapest Nights, reflects Idris’ concern with Egypt’s soaring birth population; it depicts a man, Abd Al-Kerim walking angrily through the streets of a bustling village. Annoyed by the number of poor children hanging around him, he wonders why there are so many children and he feels that many of them will die of crime and starvation. His erratic behavior could easily be taken for madness but he is in fact: “A simple man, unfamiliar with the things of the night, the tea playing havoc with his head; his pockets stripped clean on a cold winter’s night, and all his companions long sunk in deep sleep. What was there for him to do? He could only do what he always did on cold winter nights. Finally he was home.” Months later, his wife gives birth to his seventh son and years later, he is still the same: wondering every night why there are still so many children clogging the narrow streets.
One of the most touching stories in this collection is “Death from Old Age.” The narrator is a civil servant whose job consists of signing birth and death certificates. He pays a belated tribute to Amm Muhammad, an undertakers’ assistant, when he notices that “people took his death as a matter of course, no reason for anyone to grieve or mourn or even to sigh in sorrow.” He, himself, only became aware of Amm Muhammad’s existence when the latter told him his only daughter had died. With a few, carefully chosen words, Idris is able to convey Amm Muhammad’s tragic pain: “I felt sorry for him as he stood so forlorn, leaning toward the ground as if an invisible force were pulling him down, precipitating the moment when he would be laid there for good. He just stood, motionless and dry-eyed.” A day later, Amm Muhammad dies but his boss cannot refrain from sobbing as he remembers this good hearted man always ready to serve in the best possible way.
In this particular story, Idris draws from his own experience when he worked as a medical inspector in the Department of Health, a position which put him in touch with the urban poor. From then on, he showed a great concern for the less-privileged and this was reflected in his stories. He worked as a physician and a psychiatrist for more than ten years, but he chose to quit his medical practice in the mid-sixties to focus on his literary career. He became a political activist, and his leftist views resulted in several arrests and brief imprisonments. In the mid-1970s he wrote for daily newspapers such as Al Jumhuriyya and Al-Ahram. He eventually went back to literature and wrote short fiction and critical essays until his death in August 1991.
Idris made a great contribution to the controversial area of the Arabic language. His stories have not only constantly reflected his concern for the poor and under-privileged but they have also shown the gap between the educated classes (known for their knowledge of classical Arabic) and the man in the street using only the colloquial dialect. He criticized Arabic literature for being stagnant and was convinced it needed a drastic transformation. He was in favor of the use of colloquial Arabic in literature but this decision was hotly debated. Some critics described his use of everyday Egyptian language as “inferior” while other literary experts viewed it as a necessary step to energize Arabic literature and as proof that Egyptian culture was changing and becoming more popular.
Idris admitted to writing on impulse and this served him well in the field of his favorite literary genre, the short story. His novels and plays are not on the same level: in the longer fictional mode, the writer is unable to sustain the rhythm, cohesion and brilliance present throughout his short stories. While Idris’ political activities often took him away from literature, Naguib Mahfouz dedicated his whole life to literature and his literary output reflects that faithful commitment which lasted until the very end of his life. Nevertheless, Idris is a master story teller. His stories always teem with liveliness, spontaneity, humor, and he has the knack of using the least words to say the most. He needs to be rediscovered and truly deserves to take his place as one of the world’s finest short story writers.
