Novels are considered one of the temporal arts that intersect with various genres, and the possibility of this intersection is a result of novels’ flexible and open nature that closely connects them with venerable literary genres such as epics, short stories, letters, speeches, and essays, as well as with non-literary forms such as cinema, television, visual arts, journalistic arts, various auditory and visual arts, and branching texts.

This flexible (and open) nature was also reflected in its form, which was not stable until the novel was described as “formless”, or “infinite form”, thus strengthening its connection to all literary and non-literary genres. Therefore, the elements of the novel (e.g., narrative, time, narrator) have generally remained present in various prose genres, coloring novels’ structure with flexibility and openness. Meanwhile, this open structure has also allowed writers to venture and experiment with new and diverse forms in an attempt to define a specific type that would limit the novel within certain boundaries. However, the winds of experimentation and renewal also guided the wave of changes to novels’ structure. Thus, the novel has not settled into a specific form but can be adapted and blended with all the intertwined forms around it. In contrast to the wave of experimentation and renewal, some have sought refuge in heritage, aiming to draw inspiration from it in all its forms, whether religious, historical, or folk.

Mohamed Mustagab belongs to what is known as the generation of the 1960s in Egypt. This generation took upon itself the task of modernizing literature in an attempt to explore the achievements of the Western “other”. This led to a revolutionary movement to modernize all arts, not only in terms of form but also in terms of content. Their desire for modernization included introducing new techniques into the texts they produced. The theorization of these updates distinguished the entire generation’s experience, giving it legitimacy and continuity and making the impact of the experiment and its effectiveness still present in current times.

Among the experimentation, the introduction of Western novel techniques, and inspiration being drawn from heritage, novelists were divided into two camps, and Mohammed Mustagab managed to reconcile the two sides. He wrote a novel with modern elements while still being able to incorporate the traditional form into his text. Within the context of a new vision that benefited from the intertwining structure allowed by the novel’s form, however, he turned to heritage and drew inspiration from the traditional forms seen in historical blogs, annuals, and popular forms of expression. He presented a distinctive text, allowing his novel to carry a unique characteristic due to its flexibility and openness to all forms and arts. For the historian seeking history, he unveiled historical writing techniques, including the nature of the historian embodied by the narrator. Similarly, those searching for modern techniques in the novel could find various means to identify these techniques through narrative tricks and literary devices that brought the text closer to written texts as presented by Roland Barthes.

The presence of history in novels dates back to the close relationship between the two genres (i.e., novels and history). Novels have been linked to history since their inception, and the relationship between novels and history can be said to be both ancient and problematic. This problematic relationship can be attributed to the challenges of the contemporary reality that had emerged from the colonial expansions that covered most of the Arab world and extended over a significant period of time. Additionally, a state of fractures had occurred, generated by the military failures in the disasters of 1948 and 1967 and causing internal ruptures. These attempts to understand were accompanied by efforts related to the nature of searching for the missing or absent identity due to the malicious hands of colonization, an attempt to sever ties with heritage. Many writers sought to interact with cultural heritage through various techniques and forms as a type of continuity and resistance against the imperial policies that had sought to impose a specific culture, or even the waves of incoming missions carrying Western culture, and as a rejection of a return to heritage and promotion of embracing the West.

Nevertheless, novels have been a fertile field for communication and interaction with cultural heritage in general and history in particular. Novels have established a dialogical relationship with these according to Bakhtin, intertextuality according to Julia Kristeva, or textual interaction or metanarrative according to Gerard Genette. Recalling historical events or drawing inspiration from influential historical figures is not just for studying the presence of history in a novel. It is a broader investigation into the specificity of heritage and its forms of invocation involving both poetic and prosaic creativity. Given novels’ flexibility and imagination, they attempt to capture the essential and dialectical aspects of the human relationship with history and actively contribute to presenting their images within the framework of their artistic perspective. This occurs to the extent that a novel, according to Bakhtin, becomes “an imaginative history within objective history”. 

The presence of history in novels is natural, given their shared main elements of humanity, time, and place. Both rely on constants such as the element of memory and the use of narration as a fundamental element in recounting events and storytelling about characters. Many writers have turned to historical novels, borrowing events and characters from history and making them the subjects of their narratives. Writers like Taha Hussein, Jurji Zaydan, and Aly Al-Garem have leaned toward historical novels for various reasons, including for education, highlighting Arab and Islamic glories, and calling for the emulation of role models. Despite the importance of these objectives, the presence of history in recent novels is not just a retrieval of the past; it also serves as a mask for reality and for the events of the present. This is evident in Gamal al-Ghitani’s novel Al-Zini Barakat and Mohamed Jibril’s From the Papers of Abu Al-Tayyib Al-Mutannabi.

Moreover, both history and novels belong to a single field of knowledge: the narrative field. Some argue history to be one of the sciences that have been closely associated with novels since their inception and to have had a profound impact on rise of novel. Fundamentally, novels are built on historical chronological structures that unfold within a historical space stretching from the past to the present or future. They illuminate this space with events brought to life by human and artistic characters that make a novel vivid and complete. History is also considered one of the three concepts generally associated with the discussion of modern Arabic novels and narrative forms in Arabic storytelling heritage.

Mohamed Mustagab managed to blend history and imagination in his literary works. Given this intertwining of novels with history, this study aims to explore the intersections between the two genres, focusing on his literary text titled From the Secret History of Numan Abd al-Hafiz. The study highlights the author’s techniques in blending oral and written traditions while leveraging historical methods in an imaginary literary text, all without losing the literary and imaginative essence of the narrative. The narrative utilizes historical dates and significant events in the protagonist’s life, crafting him into a model embodying the characteristics of heroes in epics and folk tales. Simultaneously, the protagonist is presented as a construct, using Roland Barthes’ expression, with the absence of an original reference, relying on the craftsmanship Mustagab adopts while shaping the character. The narrative is supported by drawing from historical and oral traditions and by incorporating linguistic and syntactic features of colloquial speech rather than by using scientific language and its conventions. The study also evaluates the novelist’s capacity to employ linguistic multiplicity in the narrative, reflecting the ideologies of the narrators and their ability to convey the narrative.