“The Minisecures”—excerpt from The History of the Gods of Egypt
Bonfire of the vanities: A second-rate artist imagines the prophets and the grand, holy tales of monotheism.
Robin Moger
Mohammad Rabie is a writer and editor, born in Cairo in 1978. He has published four novels in Arabic, Kawkab Anbar, Year of the Dragon, Otared and History of the Gods of Egypt. Otared appears in an English translation by Robin Moger, which was nominated for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2016. Rabie served as an editor in Altanweer publishing house, Cairo (2013-2018) and Alkarma publishers, Cairo (2018-2020). Presently he manages the Khan Aljanub Arabic bookstore in Berlin, which he cofounded in 2020.
Robin Moger is a translator of Arabic prose and poetry living in Barcelona. He has translated a number of books into English, most recently The Book of Sleep by Haytham Wardany (Seagull Books, 2020), Slipping by Mohammed Kheir (Two Lines Press, 2021) and Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal (Other Stories, 2023). His translation of Mohammad Rabie’s Otared was published in 2014 by Hoopoe Press. Published poetry books include Agitated Air (Tenement Press, 2020), translations in correspondence of the poems of Ibn Arabi with Yasmine Seale, and Strangers In Light Coats (Seagull Books, 2024) by Ghassan Zaqtan. His translations of prose and poetry have appeared in a number of anthologies and outlets including Blackbox Manifold, SEEDINGS, Tentacular, The Johannesburg Review of Books, and The White Review.