Al Ayyam (The Stream of Days) - Taha Hussein

The Stream of Days is an autobiographical work by Taha Hussein (Wikipedia biography), worldly reknown for his political activism and studies of language and literature in early twentieth century Egypt. The section of his autobiograhy included in the Anderson anthology recounts his experiences as a blind student at the Azhar University in Cairo. He became blind after an illness at the age of 3 but was able to attend both the Azhar and Cairo Universities, the first to graduate with a Ph.D. from the secular Cairo University.

The excerpts included in Anderson's anthology are beautifully written--there is much description, so much that it's easy to forget that the narrator has left out the visual aspect of his experience. It is written in third person, and the style is reminiscent of Chekhov, with similar distance from the characters and scenes, and short moments of quiet reflection. There are few abstractions as the reader is carried along with the boy through his day of schooling and study. Most evocative were the moments that the boy was sitting in the background, absorbing the sounds of his brother and roommates:

"The din of eager laughing voices flooded though the room, burst out through the window on the left, and dropped echoing to the street below; it overflowed through the door on the right and cascaded into the well of the building, where it interrupted the bickering or whispered undertones of the worker's wives on the first floor."

His story was very moving, especially to a student attending a Western University 100 years later. His lifestyle was at once demanding and relaxing. The classes at the Azhar University were much like mine, but in the context of the Koran, they became a moral and spiritual obligation. I could feel that the boy's understanding and judgement were somewhat clouded by youth and inexperience, especially when he thought condescendingly of the sheiks, his superiors and teachers at the university. However, Hussein also managed to point out that the sheiks themselves were clouded by their fierce defense of their religious practices and antiquated traditions.

The picture above is of the mosque at Azhar University, in Cairo, Egypt. It can be found with information about the University here.