Hawamish

The name

Hawamish¹ means margins, the part of the page where these books keep their notes. Each title takes the next number in the series. The first is Ya’qub Sarruf’s novel Fatat Misr, printed in Cairo in 1905.

Where the text comes from

Every edition starts from a scan of an early printing that is free to use.² The text is transcribed from it line for line, exactly as printed, with the printer’s spelling, every vowel mark that is printed and the spaced full stops. A doubtful reading is marked where it stands, and a word that cannot be read is marked as missing. Nothing in this layer is corrected. When the context suggests another word, the suggestion goes in a note and the printed word stays.

The reading text

The text the book prints is made from the transcription by rules, and the introduction states them. The author’s words stay as they are, with no modernising of vocabulary or grammar. The printer’s habits with hamza, final ya and ta marbuta are brought into line without comment. Light modern punctuation is added and the printed paragraphs are kept. Vowel marks stay where the printing has them and are added only where a word could be misread.

Notes and introduction

The notes stand in the margin beside their line and stay short. They explain the people, places and events that a reader of the time knew, give foreign names in Latin script, and gloss hard words. Anything longer goes in the introduction, which covers the author, the first printing, how the book was received, and how the edition was made.

The house style