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Further reading: Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:
Christianity, Islam, Modernity (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 2003); Richard W. Bulliet, The Case
for Islamo-Christian Civilization (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2006); Norman Daniel, Islam and
the West: The Making of an Image (Oxford: Oneworld,
1993); Hugh Goddard, A History of Christian-Muslim
Relations (Chicago: New Amsterdam Books, 2000);
Tarif Khalidi, The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in
Islamic Literature (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 2001).
cinema
Although motion picture technology first devel-
oped in e
Urope
and the U
nited
s
tates
during the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, film produc-
tion rapidly became a global phenomenon. It was
first introduced into Muslim lands by Western-
ers, but by the 1930s and 1940s, native entrepre-
neurs had developed their own film industries,
which really began to flourish after World War
II with the rise of newly independent nation-
states. Except for s
aUdi
a
rabia
, where movie
theaters are banned because of the puritanical
outlook of the Wahhabi Islam practiced there,
the cinema became a popular pastime in many
countries, especially among city dwellers. e
gypt
,
i
ran
, and t
Urkey
have become major centers of
film production in the Middle East. l
ebanon
,
a
lgeria
, Tunisia, i
ndonesia
, and m
alaysia
have
also developed their own film industries. i
ndia
,
where secular-minded Muslims are active in the
cinema, produces more films than any country
in the world. The following article discusses the
Arab, Iranian, and Indian cinemas as well as rep-
resentations of Arabs and Muslims in American
and British films.
ArAb CINEMA
c
airo
is the Hollywood of the Arab world. Nearly
3,000 films have been produced in Egypt. No other
Arab country comes close to this number. The first
screenings of the French Lumière brothers’ films
took place in Alexandria in 1896. Egypt began
producing its own films as early as 1909, but film
production during the colonial period was domi-
nated by European capital and often by European
directors as well. Egypt was the only Arab country
to establish a national film industry prior to its
formal independence in 1952. Most other Arab
countries did not develop a national cinema until
the period of decolonization after World War II.
Arab cinema has been greatly influenced by
Hollywood. American-made movies early on cap-
tured local markets in many Arab countries,
Egypt included—as much as 80 percent of the
screen time is monopolized by American film
exports. However, Arab cinema also developed
its own cinematic idioms and cultural nuances
even as it adapted Hollywood plots and churned
out low-budget comedies, musicals, and romantic
dramas. The great Arab comic film actors such as
Egyptians Ismail Yasin and Adel Imam and Syrian
Durayd Laham were masters at slapstick humor,
but they all employed their comic talents in films
K 144
cinema
that had a nationalist edge and socially critical
content, which directly appealed to Arab popular
audiences that had living memories of colonialism
and foreign domination.
Arab cinema also developed a star system.
Popular singers such as U
mm
k
UlthUm
, Shadya,
and Abd al-Halim Hafiz promoted their musi-
cal artistry through cinema from the late 1930s
through the 1960s and broadened their appeal
throughout the Arab World. Egypt had its equiva-
lent of Marilyn Monroe in Samya Gamal (1960s)
and even its equal to actor-political activist Susan
Sarandon in Yusra, who has fought censorship and
championed Arab causes such as opposing foreign
aggression against Iraq in the 1990s and support-
ing Palestinian rights.
The Arab world has produced an impressive
array of directors who have mastered film lan-
guage in a way that has created a body of serious
artistic production that is of world-class quality.
Perhaps the most renowned of these artist-direc-
tors is Egyptian Youssef Chahine (d. 2008), a
Christian by heritage, whose work in the early
1950s launched the career of Omar Sharif and
who continues to be prolific to this day (Alexan-
dria. . . . New York, 2004). Since the 1980s in the
era of globalization, European financing (espe-
cially French) has lent new life to an ailing Arab
film industry and cultivated talented new direc-
tors such as Yousri Nasrallah (Gate of the Sun,
2004, Egypt), Nouri Bouzid (Man of Ashes, 1986,
Tunisia), Moufida Tlatli (Silence of the Palaces,
Movie billboards in Cairo, Egypt. The billboard on the far left is for Al-Mansi (The forgotten one), featuring Adil Imam
and Yusra.
(Juan E. Campo)
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