The Representation of Iraqi Jewish Identity in the Works of Samir Naqqash

The immigration of the Jewish population from Iraq to Israel in the early 1950s subsequently compelled Iraqi Jewish authors to choose the language in which they would express themselves and approach their readers. Namely, whether to write in the newly acquired Hebrew or in their mother tongue, Arabic. This paper centers around two Iraqi-born Jewish authors residing in Israel: Sami Michael (1926- ) and Samir Naqqash (1938-2004). Michael is one of the most esteemed writers and influential public figures in contemporary Israel, and best known for successfully changing his writing from Arabic to Hebrew. On the other hand, late Naqqash was the only figure who continued writing in his native Arabic while living in Israel, in spite of the difficulty in finding a targeted audience. The main purpose of this paper is to draw a comparison between Michael’s Hebrew novels “Storm among the Palm Trees” (1975), “Handful of Fog” (1979) and Naqqash’s Arabic novel “Shlomo Al-Kurdi, Me and the Time” (2004), and to discuss how these two authors recount life in Iraq, particularly focusing on their portrayals of a tragic pogrom called “Farhud,” which took place in 1941 in Baghdad. Simultaneously this paper explores what effect their choice of language may have had on their writings, and examines the relationships between those authors and the literary canons which are deeply connected to such national narratives as Zionism and Arab Nationalism. Through this comparative analysis, finally this paper sheds light on the possibility of multiple Iraqi Jewish Identities.