America in an Arab Mirror: Images of America in Arabic Travel Literature: An Anthology 1895–1995

149 Pages·2000·0.42 MB·English

by  Kamal Abdel-Malek (eds.)

America in an Arab Mirror
Images of America in Arabic Travel Literature
An Anthology
1895–1995
Edited by
Kamal Abdel-Malek
America in an Arab Mirror
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America in an Arab Mirror
Images of America in
Arabic Travel Literature
An Anthology
1895–1995
Edited by
Kamal Abdel-Malek
AMERICAINANARABMIRROR
Copyright © KamalAbdel-Malek,2000.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-312-22963-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.For information,address St.
Martin’s Press,175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010.
ISBN 978-0-230-62035-3 ISBN 978-0-312-29931-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780312299316
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
America in an Arab mirror :images of America in Arabic travel literature :an
anthology,1895–1995 / translated and edited by Kamal Abdel-Malek.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. United States—Description and travel. 2. Arabs—Travel—United
States—History—20th century. 3. United States—Social life and customs—
20th century. 4. United States—Foreign public opinion,Arab. 5. Arab
Americans—Attitudes. 6. Arab Americans—Biography. 7. Traveler’s
writings,Arabic—Translations into English. I. Abdel-Malek,Kamal.
E161.5.A43 2000
973.92—dc21 99–086123
Design by Letra Libre,Inc.
First edition:May,2000
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For A. Abdel-Malek,
my dear brother and my first Ustaadh, teacher,
who instilled in me the love of learning.
Semper fidelis.
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Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
List of Accounts of Arab Travelers to America
According to Their Date of Publication (1895–1995) xi
I
AMERICA IN THE EYES OF A
NINETEENTH-CENTURY ARAB
1. A Stranger in the West:The Trip of Mikhail Asad Rustum
to America,1885–1894, Mikhail Asad Rustum (1895) 3
II
THE MAKING OF AN IMAGE:AMERICA
AS THE UNCHANGED OTHER,
AMERICA AS THE SEDUCTIVE FEMALE
2. “The America I Have Seen”:
In the Scale of Human Values,Sayyid Qutb (1951) 9
3. A Love Tour, Mahmud Awad (1972) 29
4. An American Immigrant,Ahmad Mustafa (1979) 31
5. New York 80,Yusuf Idris (1980?) 37
6. America:The Jeans and the Switchblade,
Muhammad Hasan al-Alfi (1989) 43
7. America for Sale, Mahmud Imara (1991) 45
III
AMERICA:THE DREAM AND THE REALITY,
THE AMERICAN AS AN EXAMPLE TO EMULATE
8. America in the Eyes of an Easterner,
Or Eight Years in the United States, Philip K.Hitti (1924) 49
9. The World in America,Amir Boqtor (1926) 55
10. The Trip to America,Muhammad Labib al-Batanuni (1930) 59
11. The Flying Sphinx [in America], Mahmud Taymur (1946?) 61
12. America Under the Microscope, Zaki Khalid (1954) 63
13. My Days in America,Zaki Najib Mahmud (1955) 67
14. The Land of Magic, Shafiq Jabri (1962) 81
15. America:Paradise and Hellfire,Adil Hammuda (1982) 87
16. The Washington Memoirs,Yusuf al-Hasan (1986) 91
17. America (Top Secret),Ahmad Haridi (1987) 93
18. Embers and Ashes:Memoirs of an Arab Intellectual,
Hisham Sharabi (1988) 97
IV
AMERICA IN THE EYES OF
ARAB WOMEN TRAVELERS
19. America and I,Jadhibiyya Sidqi (1962?) 105
20. An Egyptian Girl in America, Karima Kamal (1983) 111
21. The Trip:The Days of an Egyptian Female
Student in America, Radwa Ashur (1987) 117
22. America’s Other Face,Layla Abu Zayd (1991) 121
23. America the Way It Is, Hala Sarhan (1995) 123
V
SATIRICAL VIEWS OF AMERICA
24. Cheerful America of the Past:Journal of a Penniless
Student in the United States, Mustafa Amin (1989) 129
25. America,You Cheeky Devil, Mahmud al-Sadani (1990) 135
26. My Story with Eva [Ivana Trump],Ali Salem (1993) 143
27. “The Sabeel in America,”Kamal Abdel-Malek (1999) 147
Index 151
Preface and Acknowledgments
This anthology illustrates the ways in which America has been por-
trayed in the Arabic travel literature in the one hundred years span-
ning 1895–1995.These travel accounts,here published in English for the
first time, reveal the differences in the viewpoints, regional provenance,
backgrounds,and gender of the travelers.Images of America in these ac-
counts range from America as the unchanging Other,the very antithesis of
the Arab Self,to America as the seductive female and America as the Other
that has praiseworthy andreprehensible elements;some to reject,others to
appropriate.
With very minor exceptions,the works anthologized here comprise all
the available published accounts of Arab travelers to America.However,
for the benefit of the reader,I have included in the list of Arabic works
below some travel accounts not represented in this anthology.The selec-
tions in this anthology are presented in chronological order under five
rubrics: I.America in the Eyes of a Nineteenth-Century Arab; II.The
Making of an Image:America as the Unchanged Other,America as the
Seductive Female;III.America:The Dream and the Reality,the American
as an Example to Emulate;IV.America in the Eyes of Arab Women Trav-
elers;and V.Satirical Views of America.In order to make this anthology
accessible,I have decided against using any specialized transliteration sys-
tem of Arabic words.
My interest in Arab-American encounters in history,literature,and the
arts started over a decade ago.The accounts of Arab travelers to America
have always fascinated me.I widely researched the topic and had opportu-
nities to read papers on it at Princeton and Dartmouth where I greatly
benefited from the comments and the questions posed by colleagues in the
field of Arabic and Middle Eastern studies.A question that was raised by a
Princeton Arabist after one of my talks on the topic was whether Arab
writings on America could be regarded as a case of Occidentalism, a
counter-Orientalism of sorts.It is an important question and I leave it to
the reader to devise his or her own answer to it after reading this anthol-
ogy.I hope that this anthology will appeal to those who are preoccupied
with such academic questions as well as others who are interested in issues