Abstrakt
James Sanua or Ya'qub Rafa'il Sannu' (1839-1912) was the eldest son of his Italian Jewish father and his Egyptian Jewish mother. He became a playwright in 1870 and established Egypt's first Arabic national theater.
Consequently, he was entitled the Egyptian Moliere. The subject matter of his plays and satirical journals became gradually critical of Egyptian elite society for emulating the West artificially and perpetuating regressive traditions such as patriarchy and polygamy.
In March 1878, James Sanua authored and published two papers in Cairo, The Egyptian Gossip, a multilingual paper, and The Man with the Blue Glasses. The latter led to Sanua's exile to Paris due to criticizing the regime of Khedive Isma'il.
The main objective of this article is to analyze three interconnected aspects of James Sanua's career: the nexus between politics and lived experience, the creation of nascent Egyptian identity through his plays and satirical journals, and the transformation of exile into a creative vigor and political thrust. Thus, it aims to make sense of the complexities of Sanua's political position and attitudes.