| Author | Muhammad Husayn Haykal |
|---|---|
| Language | Egyptian Arabic (dialog) and Literary Arabic |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Haykal |
Publication date | 1913 |
| Publication place | Egypt |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
Muhammad Husayn Haykal's novel Zaynab (Arabic: زينب Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [ˈzeːnæb]), published in 1913, is often considered to be the "first" Arabic novel.[1] The full title is Zaynab: Country Scenes and Morals (Arabic: زينب: مناظر واخلاق ريفية, romanized: Zaynab: Manazir wa'akhlaq rifiyyah). The book depicts life in the Egyptian countryside and delves into the traditional romantic and marital relationships between men and women and the interactions between the laboring cotton worker and plantation owner classes.
Haykal, son of rural land owners himself, had spent considerable time in France, where he was studying to be a lawyer, and it was actually at this point that he wrote Zaynab in 1911. Notably in the first publication, the author chose the pseudonym Masri Fallah ("An Egyptian Peasant"), which perhaps underlines the lack of prestige attached to the genre at the time of his writing.