Power dynamics in Egypt’s censorship of Gibran’s The Prophet

Abstract

Abstract After more than seventy years, when Kahlil Gibran’s 1923 masterpiece The Prophet had circulated freely in Egypt, censorship authorities banned the book in 1999 and 2011. This article explores the sociopolitical context surrounding the censorship of The Prophet and its Arabic translations, with a particular focus on the power play between censors and different agents and the strategies employed by the latter to revoke the ban on the book. The extent and intensity of power intervention speak to this case study’s significance. Qualitative analysis of English and Arabic press material is utilized to gain insights into the censors’ reports and the responses of different sociopolitical agents. This is paired with compiling and analyzing a dataset of bibliographical information on the editions of The Prophet’s Arabic translations published in Egypt between 1999 and 2022. The findings point to a decentralized system of censorship exercised by several ministries and religious institutions with competing interests. It is argued that the survival of The Prophet in the face of multiple bans can be attributed to shifting sociopolitical conditions, discordant politics of powerful agents, and international pressure.