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- Country of residence: Palestine
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It is the title of the manuscript of the first novel written by the Palestinian engineer Muhammad Mahmoud Al-Akshiyya, to place it among the winners of the Katara Prize for Arabic Fiction in its sixth session for the year 2020, in the category of “Boys’ Novels.”
Muhammad Al-Akshiyya, who was born in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza City in 1984, and lives in “Tal Al-Hawa”. He holds a master’s degree in engineering and is close to obtaining a second master’s degree in business administration. Today he works as director of the transportation department at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza. .
Muhammad attributes the credit for his direction to the world of the book; To his father, the late novelist and activist writer Mahmoud Al-Akshiyya, who always urged him to read, which Al-Akshiyya sees as the fuel for writing... “The love of reading gave birth to a love of writing in me, which is something inherited. The beginnings were with some poetic experiments, followed by writing poetry plays, some of which were completed.” It was embodied by amateur bands and youth artistic initiatives on the stage of the Rashad Shawa Theater.”
Regarding this, Al-Akshiyya pointed out that what surprised him was the large attendance of the audience, and the audience’s interaction with the serious and classical plays he was presenting, such as the plays: “The Conquest of Constantinople,” “Returning to Jaffa,” “The Tribe of Light,” and others, before To cut himself off from the world of creativity and engage in professional, practical and academic life.
Although most of Al-Akshiyah’s writings and publications are philosophical poetry, including the collections “Al-Shafaq” and “The End of the City,” and this year the poetry collection “More Than Me,” he turned, in his novel “2222,” to narrative writing, specifically novels for boys.
Al-Akshiyya, who stressed the difficulty of writing for children, found that the tendency to write for the category of boys and young people gives the writer more space, since this category has the ability to comprehend less simple concepts than those who are younger. The novel focuses on the category between 12 and 18 years, and its pillar is imagination. Scientific.
Al-Akshiyya pointed out that his work in engineering, his readings in physical and scientific theories such as relativity, quantum mechanics, space-time, time travel, etc., and his passion for fantasy films, were behind the novel “2222.” It is the pivotal Gregorian year in the novel, and the events take place between the year 2019, the year the novel was written, and what comes between it, through the character of the boy Mahmoud and his colleague Hala, who are interested in inscriptions and drawings on the rocks in one of the caves in the city of Jerusalem, and they search for those creatures in it that take certain shapes and emerge from specific places. At a time when a traveler returning from the year 2222 comes to the place in an attempt to solve the mystery of a virus discovered at that time that threatens humanity with extinction. They meet in the cave about the inscriptions of our Canaanite ancestors, who had some kind of ability to predict or foresee the future, and they present the solution to the hieroglyphs of this virus, without forgetting the history of the city of Jerusalem, and the global scientific influence of the Arabs throughout history.
When asked about the novel that was written before the spread of the Corona virus, which prevented him and others from arriving in Doha to receive the award in person, and whether he considered what was stated in his novel to be a kind of prediction of “Covid 19,” Al-Akshiyya replied: When the pandemic occurred and spread globally. I had a certain feeling about this, and it coincided with my reading an article about an American writer who boasted that he had published a novel months before the spread of “Corona,” talking about a virus sweeping through Mecca, as a result of which the Kaaba was closed, and the Hajj season stopped, and he found many international media platforms promoting his novel. The truth is that the novel “2222” also talked about the virus that threatens humanity, although in that year it was nearly 202 years later, the novel saw it as more deadly, but there are no media platforms to talk about the novel as it is one of those that came close literary, in one way or another, to what is happening. Now in the world in light of the spread of the pandemic.
Al-Akshiyya stressed: The matter is not a prediction as much as it is a reading of reality, climate changes, and linking them to physical laws, the movement of history, and other things. The matter is based on scientific facts, which is what was in the novel “2222”, which is as much a triumph of the history of Palestine and Jerusalem in particular, as much as What it presents is a warning to the world that the future may be worse if human practices remain as they are in violating the environment. This was before “Corona,” and now it will be difficult to imagine things being more difficult, which may actually be the case.
The winner of the Katara Award for the “Boys’ Novel” category in its sixth session confirmed that winning the award encouraged him to move forward with a new novel project for the boys’ category, which he believes is truly thirsty for literature presented to them in a smooth and exciting manner that addresses their ages and mentalities, revealing: During my writing of the novel, specifically After I wrote the first chapter, I visited a camp for teenagers in coordination with its administration, and I gathered their opinions about it, and they were very well received. The camp administration even called me asking me for a second visit so that the young people could learn about the fate of Mahmoud and the other coming from the year 2222 AD, because they had participated in some way in expressing their opinions. Providing creative concepts is important to me.
Al-Akshiyya stressed that the generation of young people, females and males, in Palestine are distinguished by extreme intelligence and have tremendous creative abilities, and therefore it is not easy to offer them what satisfies them. “I have worked and will work to provide what their minds and important tastes will accept, and I hope that I have succeeded in the novel (2222).” Thus, I will continue the journey in a way that achieves this goal for an influential generation that is thirsty for knowledge and creativity and does not underestimate them, and their fertile and vast imagination.”
Al-Akshiyya expressed his hope that he would find someone who would adopt the conversion of the work into a cinematic film or television work with a production that matches the nature of the novel, noting that those in charge
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