Mediating a Disney-style Islam: The Emergence of Egyptian Islamic Animated Cartoons
Abstract
As early as the 1930s, Egypt was the first Arab country to establish an animation production. While the majority of productions in the eight-decade history of the industry have been aimed at a national audience and conveyed through locally relevant messages, a growing number of films and series on Islamic topics targeting a transnational Muslim audience have emerged since the 1990s. This article examines the growth and characteristics of Egyptian Islamic animated cartoons and the Islamization of animation. It explores how the Egyptian state’s politics in the 1990s and its tightening affiliations with al-Azhar, the country’s highest religious authority, paved the way for such a production. Through a close study of the case of Qisas al-Qur’an (Stories from the Qur’an), the country’s most significant production to date in terms of budget, quality and distribution, this article provides an introduction to the characteristics of Egyptian Islamic animation.
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Filmography
Ashab al-Ukhdud (People of the Caves) (1995). Egyptian television: dir. Zeinab Zamzam.
Bakkar (1997–2002). Cairo Cartoon.
From the Stories of the Prophets (1999). Zamzam Media.
Mish Mish Effendi (1937). Frenkel Pictures.
Min Qisas al-Tabeʿeen (Tales of the Followers) (2006). Matrix.
Miracle Stories in the Qur’an (2014) Sabbah Media. Niletoon.
Qissat ‘Aya (Story of an ‘Aya) (1995). Al-Shahar Studio.
Qisas al-Hayawan fil-Qur’an (Animal Stories in the Qur’an) (2011). Sabbah Media, Niletoon.
Qisas al-Insan fil Qur’an (Stories of People in the Qur’an) (2012). Sabbah Media, Niletoon.
Qisas al-Nisa’ fil Qur’an (Stories of Women in the Qur’an) (2013) Sabbah Media, Niletoon.
Qisas al-Agaeb fil Qur’an (Miracle Stories in the Qur’an) (2014) United Media Production Company, MBC.
Qisas al-’ayaat fil Qur’an (Stories of the Verses in the Qur’an) (2015) United Media Production Company, MBC.
Yunus (The Story of Jonah) (1995). Egyptian television: Dir. Zeinab Zamzam.
Biographies
Omar Sayfo is a researcher at Utrecht University and a previous visiting scholar at the Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge. He defended his PhD thesis on identity politics and Arab animated cartoons in 2016 at the Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University. In addition to his academic work, he is also an author of popular articles published amongst others in The New York Times, Huffington Post and Foreign Policy. Omar Sayfo is currently working on his monograph on Arab animation and identity.
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Article first published online: July 10, 2018
Issue published: July 2018
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