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 This page intentionally left blank 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. This page intentionally left blank 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