Where science fiction and al-khayāl al-‘ilmī meet

The emergence of Science fiction in Arabic (al-khayyal al-'ilmi) can be traced back to the second part of the 20th century: this literary genre has elaborated themes and images that switches among the fantastic, the marvelous and the utopian and whose seeds belong to classical Arabic literary heritage. al-Khayyal al-'ilmi was also undoubtedly influenced by the most recognized ouvres of English Science fiction. This paper will focus on the “places” – broadly speaking – where al-Khayyal al-'ilmi met Science fiction. In this sense, importance will be given to the role of translation, the importation of Western models, and – on the other hand – to the presence of Arabic suggestions in Western Science fiction. The final part of the paper will be devoted to a catalogue of Western Science fiction works translated into Arabic.