Yahya Haqqi

Born 1905 in Cairo. Egyptian Arabic writer of short fiction and literary scholar.

Haqqi was educated as a lawyer and spent many years in the diplomatic service. He first published his works in 1925. His first book, The Lamp of Umm Hashim (1944), is a collection of short stories on a theme of great importance for the Egyptian intelligentsia—namely, their place in the cultures of the East and the West. The influence of Chekhov and L. Tolstoy is evident in ’Antar and Juliet (1961), a collection of lyrical short stories with elements of symbolism, and especially in his best short story, “The Empty Bed” (1961), which is distinguished by subtle psychological analysis. Haqqi has also written detailed studies of the development of the short story in Egypt in the first third of the 20th century: The Dawn of the Short Story (1960) and Stages of Criticism (1963).