The Kohl Thief Collection by Yahya Haqqi

“The Kohl Thief” Collection by Yahya Haqqi

General Introduction to the Collection and the Author

Yahya Haqqi (1905–1992) is considered one of the pioneers of modern Arabic short stories, known for the psychological and social depth of his writing and his richly poetic language.

His collection The Kohl Thief was published in 2000 by the Egyptian General Book Organization and includes four stories: “Ka’an,” “The Kohl Thief,” “A Poor Woman,” and “The Empty Bed.”

These stories explore the human condition through characters from marginalized social classes, with a focus on how environment shapes identity and behavior.

Detailed Analysis of the Four Stories

1. “Ka’an”: Psychological Deformation and the Struggle with Fate

Plot Summary:

The story follows a criminal from Cairo’s Zinhim neighborhood, tried for an unspecified crime. Through fragmented narration, the story reveals his harsh childhood in a broken family, marked by violent favoritism and neglect—abused by his father and excessively coddled by his mother.

After his father’s death, his older brother expels him from school just before completing his primary education and drags him naked to the police station. These experiences transform a gentle child into a criminal.

Social and Psychological Analysis:

Environmental Influence: Haqqi portrays Zinhim as a breeding ground for psychological deformities. Childhood games like “Cops and Robbers” reinforce the hero’s sense of inevitability as a thief, viewing police life as easy while thieves struggle to survive.
Distorted Perception of Women: Due to the harshness of the women in his neighborhood, the protagonist associates women with cruelty and links sexuality with violence (such as choking).
Language and Style: The story uses unusual similes drawn from impoverished surroundings, like describing fear as “a cold that ran through my soul in the height of summer,” while Egyptian colloquial language reflects the characters’ inner lives.

Critical Message:

Haqqi criticizes a society that creates criminals only to punish them without addressing the causes, calling attention to poor neighborhoods like Zinhim as “caves” of psychological distortion.

2. “The Kohl Thief”: Love, Death, and the Strangeness of Forgetting

Plot Summary:

The narrator lives alone in a two-story house. He rents the second floor to Mustafa, who marries Wajiha. The story depicts their intense, almost consuming love: “His gaze almost devours her.”

After Wajiha dies suddenly, Mustafa becomes a grieving figure, crying “as one expelled from paradise,” and grows a beard. Yet, paradoxically, he soon forgets her and marries another woman, returning love to his life within the same house.

Symbolic and Philosophical Analysis:

Blisters on the Narrator’s Hands: These signify the inner turmoil of the characters. Haqqi’s repeated reference emphasizes hidden suffering unseen by others.
The House as an Existential Space: The two floors symbolize isolation (narrator) and love (Mustafa and Wajiha), later transforming into spaces of death and forgetting.
Fear and Coldness: Haqqi depicts fear as a chilling presence during death: “I open my eyes and find myself turned into a slab of ice… Could this be fear? Could it be death?”

Existential Message:

The story challenges the notion of eternal love, showing that life continues despite tragedy and that forgetting is not betrayal but a survival mechanism.

3. “A Poor Woman”: The Contradiction Between Appearance and Essence

Plot Summary:

Fathiya, called “poor” because of her husband Fouad’s illness and her inability to support her family, is a complex character. She shows resourcefulness, falsifying her husband’s medical certificate to collect his salary (“She sat before the president… undoing the buttons of her coat”).

Yet she also manipulates relatives like Abdel Rahim and curses her mother-in-law. The story ends with her sorrow at her husband’s recovery, which threatens her planned trip.

Sociological Analysis:

Contradictions in Character: The ironic title “A Poor Woman” highlights how Fathiya shifts from victim to manipulator, reflecting society’s contradictory judgments of women.
Hybrid Language: Haqqi blends classical Arabic with colloquial expressions (“her feet’s little dolls,” “may God ruin her house”) to reveal the gap between Fathiya’s social image and reality.

Feminist Message:

The story critiques societal expectations that confine women to roles of “victim” or “saint,” showing how circumstances drive women to contradictory behaviors.

4. “The Empty Bed”: Isolation and Absence

Plot and Themes:

The story centers on an empty bed, symbolizing the absence of a key figure (through death or migration). This void reflects feelings of longing and loss, serving as a metaphor for missing human connections. Haqqi’s poetic compression renders “emptiness” almost tangible.

Symbolic Analysis:

The bed represents absences that leave holes in characters’ lives, such as missing love or hope.

Stylistic and Artistic Features of the Collection

Poetic Language and Unusual Imagery: Haqqi uses unconventional similes drawn from popular environments, e.g., fear as “cold” in midsummer. In Ka’an, life is compared to “crumb after crumb,” emphasizing human fragility.
Blending Classical and Colloquial Arabic: This highlights the tension between the official world (authority, law) and the popular world (neighborhoods like Zinhim). In A Poor Woman, colloquial speech exposes the characters’ hypocrisy.
Narrative Techniques:
- Fragmented Time: In Ka’an, Haqqi divides the story into five non-sequential scenes, creating a sense of disorientation.
- Omniscient Narrator: In The Kohl Thief, the narrator observes externally yet penetrates the characters’ consciousness to reveal contradictions.
Story Construction: Haqqi’s stories resemble “puzzles,” where events coalesce at the end into a complete, often dark and sorrowful, picture.

Historical and Social Context of the Collection

Haqqi’s Personal Experience: His work as a public prosecutor in Upper Egypt (1927–1928) brought him close to marginalized communities, informing stories like Ka’an and A Poor Woman.
Depiction of Popular Neighborhoods: Zinhim is more than a setting; it exemplifies neighborhoods that foster “psychological deformities” due to poverty and domestic violence, calling for social reform rather than punishment.
Class Critique: In Ka’an, Haqqi emphasizes society’s preference for police officers over others, reinforcing systemic injustice.

Critical Perspective on Yahya Haqqi’s Literature

Comparison with Other Pioneers: Haqqi influenced subsequent generations, including Yusuf Idris. Naguib Mahfouz once remarked, “I placed Haqqi’s name first when asked who deserves the Nobel.”
Stylistic Innovation: His use of “strange figurative imagery” set him apart, e.g., depicting love as a predatory creature: “his gaze almost devours her.”

Critical Evaluation of the Collection:

Strengths: Psychological depth, bold social critique (notably portraying sexual deviance stemming from violence in Ka’an), and linguistic innovation.
Weaknesses: Some readers find The Empty Bed less powerful, and the dense language can challenge general audiences.

The Significance of The Kohl Thief in Arabic Literature

The Kohl Thief is more than a short story collection; it is an existential critique of mid-20th-century Egyptian society. Across four stories, Yahya Haqqi explores:

How marginalized neighborhoods produce criminals.
The fragility of human emotions like love and loyalty.
The contradictions between women’s social image and reality.
The existential impact of absence and loss.

This collection demonstrates that Haqqi was not merely a writer but a social thinker and linguistic artist who transformed the short story into a mirror reflecting the deepest questions of human existence. As critic Yusuf Al-Barawi observed, “Yahya Haqqi achieved a high level of literary mastery… reflecting a terrifying reality unknown to many.”

"Without literature, life is hell." — Yahya Haqqi

For the original summary in Arabic