Are we back to adab? The use of some constants of the adab mode in ‛Iṣām Maḥfūẓ’s Ḥiwārāt

Between 1988 and 2004, the Lebanese poet, playwright and essayist ‛Iṣām Maḥfūẓ (1939-2006) published a series of four works concerned with unusual interviews. In each of them, he dialogued with prominent thinkers of the ancient and modern Arab cultural heritage: in 1988 with the pioneers of the 19th century nahḍa; in 2000 with the so-called rebels of the turāth; in 2003 with Ibn ‛Arabī; and in 2004 with three alleged atheists of the turāth. As the author stated, he was aided by the use of the dialogic form and the interview for increasing the vitality of the represented character, leaving apart the aridity of an academic study and, at the same time, without falling openly into fction. This paper aims to analyze these works by considering how a number of elements of his cultural background, namely journalism, adab narrative prose, and drama, combined to generate a novel literary product, both in form and in content. After an introduction to the author and his works, the paper will address the impact of journalism on his style of writing, that of some literary models of the past (al-Ma‛arrī and chiefy adab narrative prose) and then includes a few references to drama.