Malkat al-Dar Muhammad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Malkat ed-Dar Mohamed Abdullah

Malkat al-Dar Mohamed Abdullah (Arabic: ملكة الدار محمد عبد الله, Sudanese: [ˈmalkat ɘdːˈãr muħamːad ʔbdˈʌlɑ], 1920 – 17 November 1969) was a Sudanese literary writer, educator and women's rights activist. Her novel written in the 1950s, The Wide Void, has been characterized as the first Sudanese novel in the style of social realism. Sudanese literary critic Lemya Shammat called her "a pioneer of the literary feminist renaissance and a woman of spirit and courage."[1]

Life and career[]

Malkat al-Dar Mohamed was born in El-Obaid, the capital city of today's federal state of North Kordofan. After completing primary and secondary school, she enrolled in the teachers college in Omdurman and served as a teacher after her graduation. She started learning English on her own, making use of correspondence with teachers of English in Sudan. Having taught in several Sudanese cities, she was appointed inspector for education in Kordofan in 1960. An active member of the Sudanese Women’s Union, Malkat al-Dar Mohamed, whose first name translates as "the queen of the house", passed away in 1969.[2]

Cover of "The wide void"

Literary critic Eiman El-Nour states that the novel "Al-Faragh al-'arid" (The Wide Void) was the first true example of a Sudanese novel in the style of social realism. Written in the first half of the 1950s, but published only in 1969, after the death of its author, the story "depicted for the first time the life of a working woman in Sudanese society." In the same article, El-Nour qualifies this novel as romantic and presenting an idyllic image of the Sudanese countryside.[3]

According to literary critic Marcia Lynx Qualey, Malkat al-Dar Mohamed won the first short story contest organized in 1947 by Radio Omdurman for her story about life in a Sudanese village “Hakim al-Qariya” or “The Village Sage".[4] Several of her other short stories were published in local and Arab newspapers and magazines. In her stories, women are presented as important characters and thus question traditional sociocultural roles.[1] - Sudanese novelist Buthaina Khader Makki said about Malkat al-Dar Mohamed: “She was extremely courageous at a time when people were asking women not to be loud and endure oppression."[5]

Select bibliography[]

  • The Mad Woman
  • The Village Sage, 1947
  • The Wide Void (in Arabic الفرغ العريض), published in 1969[6]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Shammat, Lemya (12 October 2019). "On gender stereotypes in Sudanese fiction". ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
  2. ^ Katara Prize for Arabic Novel. "ملكة الدار محمد عبد الله". جائزة كتارا للرواية العربية (in Arabic). Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  3. ^ El-Nour, Eiman (1997). "The Development of Contemporary Literature in Sudan". Research in African Literatures. 28 (3): 150–162.
  4. ^ Lynx Qualey, Marcia (27 September 2019). "In a Sudan Where Literature is Often Smuggled, the Short Story is a Perfect Form". Literary Hub. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
  5. ^ Al-Taghyeer Magazine (15 April 2014). "About Malkat ed-Dar Mohamed Abdullah". صحيفة التغيير السودانية , اخبار السودان (in Arabic). Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  6. ^ "Catalog Search Results | HathiTrust Digital Library". catalog.hathitrust.org. Retrieved 10 June 2021.

Further reading[]

Retrieved from ""