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Article published In: Babel
Vol. 69:5 (2023) ► pp.581–597

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

 | KU Leuven
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with KU Leuven.

Published online: 18 September 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00339.ali
Abstract
After more than seventy years, when Gibran, Kahlil. 1923. The Prophet. New York: Alfred A Knopf.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar 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.
Résumé
Après plus de soixante-dix ans pendant lesquels le chef-d’oeuvre de Gibran, Kahlil. 1923. The Prophet. New York: Alfred A Knopf.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, avait circulé librement en Égypte, les autorités de censure ont interdit le livre en 1999 et 2011. Cet article jette la lumière sur le contexte sociopolitique de la censure du Prophète et de ses traductions arabes, et met en relief le jeu de pouvoir entre censeurs et différents agents, et les stratégies employées par ces derniers pour lever l’interdiction du livre. L’étendue et l’intensité de l’intervention du pouvoir témoignent de l’importance de cette étude de cas. L’analyse qualitative des documents de presse en anglais et en arabe est utilisée pour mieux comprendre les rapports des censeurs et les réponses des différents agents sociopolitiques. Ceci est associé au recueil et à l’analyse d’un ensemble de données d’informations bibliographiques sur les éditions des traductions arabes du Prophète publiées en Égypte entre 1999 et 2022. Les résultats indiquent un système décentralisé de censure exercé par plusieurs ministères et institutions religieuses aux intérêts concurrents. On soutient que la survie du Prophète face à de multiples interdictions peut être attribuée à l’évolution des conditions sociopolitiques, à la politique discordante d’agents puissants et à la pression internationale.
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
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Ali, Hisham M.
2025. One language, many hierarchies. Language Problems and Language Planning DOI logo

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