Within the participation of "Kalima" club for reading at the Cairo International Book Fair, the "Kalima" project for translation in the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi, yesterday, yesterday, organized a discussion session on the book "A trip to Egypt", written by Theophile Gautier.
The translator, Dr. Mohamed El-Khouly, novelist Ibrahim Abdel-Majid, writer and journalist Mohamed Shair, participated in the discussion. The session was presented by Researcher Raafat Al-Swairki.
Al-Swairki said that the book is one of a long series of books published on the history of Egypt, starting from Herodotus and Ibn Battuta, and other travelers who wrote the history of man on earth, up to the writings of contemporary historians.
For his part, Mohamed El-Khouly made it clear that the book "A Journey to Egypt" was written in the late 19th century, and it represents one of the pages of a deeper book, which is a book of passion for Egypt, specifically the French passion for history and civilization, and its contributions to the progress of mankind.
He stated that the author of the book, Theophile Gautier, came to Egypt in 1869, the year of the opening of the Suez Canal, as he was stunned by the appearances that accompanied its opening, but he was not interested in referring to the suffering of the Egyptian peasants in digging the canal, as well as interested in the book describing the Egyptian lane, and the most important Aspects of daily life in them, so he described even the "apes" and "the container", but he looked at these aspects with a holistic view, as he was also referring to what was said about Egypt from poems, and the paintings of oriental paintings on them, as he was dazzled by the Egyptian railway, which is the second Worldwide, he wrote about it, as he wrote about weather, desert and agriculture in a mixture that he included For a book. For his part, novelist Ibrahim Abdel-Majeed said: “During my reading of the book, I wondered why Gautier did not write about the injustice that the Egyptian people were suffering, and the high taxes imposed on him to cover the huge expenses that Khedive Ismail spent on the opening ceremonies of the Suez Canal and the development of the country, but despite that The book remains very interesting, and an important addition in this field. ”
For his part, the author, Muhammad Shair, in his intervention, raised a question about whether the book was Orientalist or not, and if its author is considered oriental? Responding that the book carries more joy in humanity than it belongs to the literature of colonialism, as it presents a loving image of Egypt, in which it tries to correct the colonial image drawn by orientalists before.
He pointed out that the author came loaded with pictures drawn in his imagination about the region from the work of orientalists, and from his reading of the book "One Thousand and One Nights."
From the manifestations of French fondness
The translator, Dr. Mohamed El-Khouly, said, “The book is part of the manifestations of the French fascination that was beginning, in my view, in the late 18th and early 19th century, with Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign against Egypt, which was at that time living in the coma of the Mameluke era. A state of civilizational clash between the Mamluk Egypt and the French Revolution, and the development France was witnessing in various fields.