Zainab and Om Khaltoum

I started reading "the first Egyptian novel", Zainab by Mohammed Hussein Haikal, translated into English by John Mohammed Grinsted.

I was amazed by the language of the first chapter. It spoke about people in Egypt who were field workers, from families who had been working fields for generations. Their relationships with the landscape were described in terms that people in the "West" usually save for loving relationships between people.

The only thing similar that I have ever read, were English translations of songs by the world famous Egyptian songstress, Om Khaltoum…her roots also in the Egyptian countryside…a countryside rich in agriculture due to the Nile river.

In the second chapter, the story gets into males and females, workers and property owners, in early 20th century Egypt.