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In the mid-20th century, so many Agatha Christie novels were published in Arabic that Hercule Poirot and Miss Marples filled barrows and bookshelves from Algiers to Cairo to Amman to Muscat. These original and reprinted versions are still widely available.
How many of Christie’s novels were published in Arabic translation? The exact number remains a mystery, as many were published in unauthorized editions. According to UNESCO statistics, Christie competes with Shakespeare for the title of author most translated from English to Arabic. On GoodReads, Christie has a huge lead at the top with 62 of her titles.
![British crime writer Agatha Christie at her home in Greenway House, Devon (1946) [Getty] [Getty Images] British crime writer Agatha Christie at her home in Greenway House, Devon (1946) [Getty] [Getty Images]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/48fa344fe664433285f5f5c2a3d9aaba_19.jpeg)
In any case, in the second half of the 20th century, many Arab writers came of age reading translations of Christie’s page-turning mysteries, which offered thrilling developments and satisfying resolutions.
“When I was a child living in Amman, [in the 90s]” says writer and translator Ibtihar Mahmoud. “Arabic translations of Agatha Christie’s works were abundantly available in most bookstores. In fact, the first book I bought with my own money was A Promise with Death.”
“Sympathetic to Arabs”
Many well-worn copies of Christie’s novels now sit idle in second-hand bookstores in Cairo, and Christie is no longer at the top of the region’s bestseller lists. Still, the desire for classic criminals persists. In Dearborn, Michigan, which has the largest Arab population in the United States, librarian Isabella Rowan says, “Arabic translations of Agatha Christie novels are very popular.”
read more: The mysterious decline and rise of Arab crime fiction
It wasn’t a one-way relationship. The Middle East was also important to Christie. In the winter of 1910-1911, Agatha, then 20 years old, held her formal coming-out party in Cairo.
![Sean Connery and Vanessa Redgrave appear on the poster for the movie Murder on the Orient Express, based on Christie's novel. [Getty] [Getty Images] Sean Connery and Vanessa Redgrave appear on the poster for the movie Murder on the Orient Express, based on Christie's novel. [Getty] [Getty Images]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/5d4f47728209464fa0dd82910f25f178_19.jpeg)
Her stay in Egypt inspired “Desert Snow”, This became her first unpublished novel. Like many of Christie’s works, this work depicted the lives of wealthy people, people she saw in hotel dining rooms.
Fans have highlighted ugly racial and cultural stereotypes in Christie’s novels, including superstitious Arabs, court chiefs, and “dirty, dark yellow” Iraqis…
Christie wrote several more novels before returning to the area in the late 1920s. That was when she met her second husband at an archaeological excavation site in Ur, Iraq.
Throughout the 1930s, Christie and her husband spent many months on end in Syria and Iraq, where she participated in archaeological research and wrote some of her most popular books. Christie’s beloved Belgian detective Hercule Poirot rides the Orient Express, vacations in Jerusalem, and solves a murder mystery in Petra, Jordan.
Christie’s daughter Rosalind said in a 1990 interview that her mother was “sympathetic to the Arabs,” but fans were drawn to the superstitious Arabs, court sheiks, and “dirty dark yellow” characters in Christie’s novels. It emphasizes ugly racial and cultural stereotypes such as Iraqis.
In fact, she seems to have put more effort into humanizing ancient Egyptians than the 20th-century people she met and worked with at the excavations.
Still, Arab readers eagerly read Christie’s novels., Just as there were early detective novels by Arthur Conan Doyle and Maurice LeBlanc.
Christie’s traces in Arabic novels
However, despite her popularity, Christie’s footprint in Arabic novels is difficult to find.
At the 2011 Emirates Litfest, Egyptologist Kamal Abdel Malek and Welsh crime writer Matt Rees spoke with the title:Could an Agatha Christie emerge from the Arab world?“
“As far as I know, there are no private investigators, either individuals or institutions, in the Arab world,” Abdel Malek said in an email. I remember Matt Rees saying this…private detectives only work in democracies, and that’s why we have private detectives in Western countries rather than in the Arab world, where every aspect of the law is directly in the hands of the state. That’s why it was possible. government. “
![Peter Ustinov plays Hercule Poirot in the film adaptation of Christie's Death on the Nile, co-starring David Niven and Bette Davis [Getty] Peter Ustinov plays Hercule Poirot in the film adaptation of Christie's Death on the Nile, co-starring David Niven and Bette Davis [Getty]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/0e550df5bc1d40cfbb504312ee678ea3_19.jpeg)
Certainly there are Arabic thrillers and detective stories. Still, most don’t follow the classic Christie style. Egyptian novelist Ahmed Murad, author of the popular novel Vertigo, has gone out of his way to declare that he does not consider himself to be Agatha Christie.
Nadia Ghanem, an Algerian scholar and mystery novel aficionado, echoes Abdel Malek’s point, saying, “In Agatha Christie, the character is usually played by a private detective, but in Algerian detective novels, the character is usually played by a retired or active police officer.” It will be played by the government,” he said.
According to Ghanem, Christie’s novels typically end with the culprit being found, but in Algerian mystery novels, things only get worse at the end.
“I always read Christie for comfort, knowing that the world is a fair place, at least in a parallel dimension. Algerian detective literature is anything but pleasant!”
![Princess Anne speaking with Agatha Christie and her husband, archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, in 1974 [Getty] [Getty Images] Princess Anne speaking with Agatha Christie and her husband, archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, in 1974 [Getty] [Getty Images]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/c5df7f62a6374e659e0fb86ef088e940_19.jpeg)
Other Arab detective novels, such as The White Mask by Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury, It has an equally unpleasant ending.
Ghanem added that Christie remains a reference point and an aspiration. When young Algerian writer Nassima Bouloufa’s first detective novel was published, her critics dubbed her “the Algerian Agatha Christie.”
Zehira Hofani, one of Algeria’s first female mystery novelists, stopped writing mystery novels during the province’s “dark decade” in the 1990s. In a recent interview with Ghanem, Houfani, who now lives in Canada, told others, “I really admired Agatha Christie’s sense of intrigue. I learned from her and someday wrote Algerian detective novels. I read her in hopes of finding a home.”
Marcia Lynx Qualey writes about Arabic literature and literary translation for many publications. She writes her daily blog at www.arablit.org.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
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