2012 - Write down evolution of Novel in Arabic literature, its specific fields and some famous novelists of arabic literature.

Introduction:
Through the popularity of early translations into Arabic of works of European fiction and imitations of them by Arab writers, the novel in Arabic Literature rapidly established a place for itself within the currents of intellectual change during the 19th century. Among the earliest examples of the novel in Arabic were Ghābat al-ḥaqq, an idealistic allegory about freedom that was published in Syria by Fransīs Marrāsh, and Al-Huyām fī jinān al-shām, a work set during the 7th-century Islamic conquest of Syria, by Salīm Al-Bustani.

Evolution of Novel:

Origin:
During the 19th century, a revival took place in Arabic literature, along with much of Arabic culture, and is referred to in Arabic as "al-Nahda", which means "the Renaissance". Two distinct trends can be found in the nahda period of revival. The first was a neo-classical movement which sought to rediscover the literary traditions of the past, and was influenced by traditional literary genres—such as the maqama—and works like One Thousand and One Nights. In contrast, a modernist movement began by translating Western modernist works—primarily novels—into Arabic.
Individual authors in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt created original works by imitating classical narrative genres: Ahmad Faris Shidyaq with Leg upon Leg (1855), Khalil Khoury with Yes... so I am not a Frank (1859), Francis Marrash with The Forest of Truth (1865), Salim al-Bustani with At a Loss in the Levantine Gardens (1870), and Muhammad al-Muwaylihi with Isa ibn Hisham's Tale (1907).[49] This trend was furthered by Jurji Zaydan, Khalil Gibran, Mikha'il Na'ima and Muhammad Husayn Haykal. According to the authors of the Encyclopedia of the Novel:
“Almost each of the above [works] have been claimed as the first Arabic novel which goes to suggest that the Arabic novel emerged from several rehearsals and multiple beginnings rather than from one single origin”.

First true novel
Zeinab by Mohamed Hussein Haykal, published in 1914, has often been seen as "the first true Arabic novel". It is combination of romantic protest against social pressures, derived from Rousseau, and introduction of broader social concerns into prose fiction, including issues of class structure and village life.
Zeinab owes its charm and reputation to its romantic individualism and its supple use of language. Haykal took a daring step in using Egyptian dialect for the dialogue in his novel, showing how emotion is not separated from expression and borrowing from the simplified structures and vocabulary of the print culture of his time, achievements that were built upon by later writers, including Naguib Mahfouz.
Mehfooz’s role:
Najeeb Mehfooz represents in himself the entire development of the Arabic novel. Indeed, owing to his long career, impressive productivity and ceaseless experiment he has succeeded in "rooting the novel in the Arabic language," firmly introducing it into the culture and both "enriching that culture and radicalising its connection with reality.""The vertiginous diversity of techniques, themes, characters and styles that Mahfouz has used in his works bears witness to this cultural enrichment.
Experimental Novel:
In the later half of 20th century many experiments were made in this genre. Companions and inheritors of Mahfouz such as Yehia Haqqi, Abdel-Rahman Al-Sharqawi and Youssef Idris broke with the classical novel and experimented with new forms i.e. "new kinds of writing, narrative and literary space" .The Experimental Arabic Novel places the modern and contemporary Arabic novel in the context of the modernist-postmodern culture debate in the West. Some of famous novels of 20th century are Al-Bāb al-maftūḥ, Rijāl fī al-shams, Mawsim al-hijrah ilā al-shamāl and Mudun al-milḥ,

Specific fields of Arabic Novel:
Arabic novels are written specifically for Arab readers and they have noticeable effects on Arab culture, politics and status of Arab women. In his book Le Roman Arabe, Kadhim Jihad Hassan comments that the novel has, from uncertain beginnings, proven to be of decisive importance in Arab literary culture and that it is today "undergoing a kind of inflation".
Arab women writers have written much to protest against male domination. Key themes in their novels are individualism, the drive to assert a personal and distinctly female identity, and demands for the social, sexual, and political rights of women.
Iraqi, Palestinian and Lebanese novel are affected by war, exile and often appalling suffering, and this is reflected in fiction. The Palestinian novel has a special vocation, since it has had "to create a country in words" for a people long without a state of their own.
A common theme in the modern Arabic novel is the study of family life with obvious resonances of the wider family of the Arabic world. Many of the novels have been unable to avoid the politics and conflicts of the region with war often acting as background to intimate family dramas.
Arab writers also concentrated on the question of national identity and effected changes in the way the public viewed and acted on the threat to the Arab world.

Famous Novelists:
Some famous novelists in Arabic Literature are:
1) Khalil Gibran,
2) Mikha'il Na'ima
3) Muhammad Husayn Haykal
4) Salim al-Bustani
5) Najib Mehfooz
6) Muhammad al-Muwaylihi

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