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

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

 | KU Leuven
After more than seventy years, when Kahlil Gibran’s 1923 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.
Keywords: censorship, Kahlil Gibran, power dynamics, translation, The Prophet
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
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 18 September 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00339.ali
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