SOURCE: Wise, Renate. “Subverting Holy Scriptures: The Short Stories of Yûsuf Idrîs.” In The Postcolonial Crescent: Islam's Impact on Contemporary Literature, edited by John C. Hawley, pp. 140-54. New York: Peter Lang, 1998.

In the following essay, Wise investigates the Islamic influence on Idris's short fiction.

I. Introduction

Since the seventh century Arabic literature has been greatly influenced if not dominated by Islam. While literary critics have elaborated amply on the impact of Islam on medieval Arabic literature,¹ they have for the most part ignored the Islamic influence on modern Arabic literature. Instead, when analyzing this literature, critics are quick to point to the influence of Western literature: “Modern Arabic literature took shape as a result of increasing contacts with Europe and, as a result, has been highly influenced by Western literary models and concepts” (Somekh 4). This proves true also for the short stories of the prominent...