Mudhakkarat Malik bin Nabi - al-Afan
- Author died
- 1393 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Ummah
Mudhakkarat Malik bin Nabi - al-Afan (Arabic: مذكرات مالك بن نبي - العفن, Memoirs of Malik bin Nabi: The Rot; original French: Pourritures - Mémoires) is an autobiographical work by the Algerian thinker Malik bin Nabi (1323–1393 AH / 1905–1973 CE), detailing his personal hardships, political trials, and intellectual struggle against French colonialism .
Composition and Context
Bin Nabi began drafting the work in French on March 1, 1951 . The text was written during an exceptionally trying period of his life, following the publication of his works The Quranic Phenomenon (al-Zahirah al-Qur'aniyyah) and The Conditions of Renaissance (Shurut al-Nahdah), amid increasing psychological and intellectual pressure from French colonial authorities and disappointment over the lack of support from fellow countrymen .
Due to colonial police harassment, Bin Nabi considered destroying the manuscript in August 1951, but he ultimately entrusted the typed first volume to Abd al-Rahman Shayban and Ibrahim Mazhoudi upon their insistence . The work was kept out of circulation during his lifetime, and although Bin Nabi had intended for the student mosque at the University of Algiers to publish it from a typed copy, his death in 1973 delayed its release .
Title and Theme
Explaining the choice of the title al-Afan (Pourritures), Bin Nabi wrote that among many candidate titles, this one encapsulated them all by reflecting the bitter social decay, impediments, and moral frustration under colonial rule and internal decline . The book serves as a frank, candid autobiographical testimony contrasting with his more widely circulated memoirs, Mudhakkarat Shahid al-Qarn (Memoirs of a Witness of the Century), focusing deeply on intellectual conflict and the social disease of "colonizability" (qabiliyyat al-isti‘mar) .
Scope and Publication
The published first volume of al-Afan covers the period between 1932 and 1940 . It was translated into Arabic by Noureddine Khendoudi from the original French typed manuscript provided by Abd al-Rahman bin Ammarah . The Arabic edition was published in Algiers by Dar al-Ummah in 2007, featuring an introduction by Ahmad bin Numan and a foreword by Abd al-Rahman bin Ammarah .
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