The First World War and its aftermath effected on Arabic countries to such an extent that it changed the themes addressed in Arabic literature. Many soldiers from many Arabic countries were conscripted for the European armies through the Ottoman army. Furthermore, the end of the war brought much political and social upheavals in the region. It led to the demise of the Ottoman Empire but did not lead to the promised independence for Arab states.
Thus, nationalistic feelings intensification leading to the nationalist struggle. Although not everybody agreed with the popular demand for Arabic independence, different opinions existed on how to shape the Arabic future struggle led to the rise of plurality in political thinking and party formation (reference). And yet other writers found themselves caught in social, intellectual, and political dilemmas (reference).
Literature in this period focused on positively representing the Arab identity. However, many writers in this period also felt caught in social, intellectual, or even political dilemmas (reference).
The works of literature mentioned in this section in one way or another describe experiences of the Arab-majority world before, during, and after World War I.
- Isabella Hammad (?, England / Palestine) – The Parisian (2020). Written in English and set during World War I, this novel centres the Palestinian Midhat Kamal, a young man who moves to Montpellier in France to become a doctor, and although he sees himself as an equal to his French hosts, he finds that he is rather an object of their fascination. When Midhat moves to Paris, he engages in meaningless romantic relationships while he develops a friendship with a politically active group of men from Syria. When the war ends, Midhat returns to Palestine, and the novel depicts the political and social developments of the region such as the 1936 uprising.
- Ṣalāḥ ʿIsā (1939 – 2017, Egypt) – Rijāl Rayya wa Sakīna (‘Raya and Sakina’s men’, 2016). The novel is a fictionized history of two Egyptian sisters considered the country’s most infamous serial killers. With the help of their husbands and two local men, the two sisters, owners of a set of brothels in Alexandria, killed 17 women between 1920 and 1921 and were sentenced to death in May 1921. The novel uses real-time documents from the sisters’ file and describes their story while also reflecting on colonized Egypt of the 20th century, including famine, the 1919 revolution, and the World War I (reference) (also in P: Police Novels, Thrillers and Crimes: Murder).
- Ruqaya Izzidien (?, Iraq / UK) – The Watermelon Boys (2019). This novel takes place in the period from 1915 until 1920 when Iraq, still under control of the Ottoman Empire, is engulfed in the World War I. Protagonist of this novel, Ahmed, leaves his family to join the British forces in fighting their Mesopotamian Campaign against the Ottoman Empire. At the same time Carwyn, a Welsh teenager enrolled in the army, ends up in the British campaign in Iraq where he teaches himself Arabic. Their paths cross and a friendship develops as both share the experience of war and parallel discrimination in the British army.
- Jabrā Ibrāhīm Jabrā (1920 – 1994, Palestine) – al-Biʾr al-Ūlā: Fuṣūl min Sīrah Dhātiyyah (1987, English trans. The First Well: A Bethlehem Boyhood, 1995). This memoir chronicles the writer’s youth in the 1920s and 1930s in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, where his own Christian background coexists with Muslim and Jewish culture (reference). It describes Jabra’s early interest in literature, the relationship between his illiterate parents, and the children’s games he used to play. The timeframe of this memoir also includes the aftermath of the World War I, that caused an exodus to South and Central America (also in M: Memoirs).
- Ḥannā Mīnah (1924 – 2018, Syria) – Baqāyā Ṣuwar (1975, English trans. Fragments of Memory, 2004). Adding autobiographical elements, Mīnah in this novel describes the life of a poor Syrian family in the difficult years following World War I and the transfer from the Ottoman oversight to the French Mandate (reference).
- Mīkhāʾīl Naʿīmah (1889 – 1988, Lebanon) – Sabʿūn: Ḥikāyat ʿUmr (‘Seventy: the story of a life’, 1962-66). The second part of this three-volume autobiography is set between 1911 and 1932 and reflects on the author’s stay in the US studying at the University of Washington and serving for the US army in Bordeaux during World War I (reference). The author raises the question of his identity while fighting Germans in France (reference) (see for a description of the complete volume A: Autobiography).
- Sayyid Quṭb (1906 – 1966, Egypt) – Ṭifl min al-Qarya (‘A child from the village’, 1973). This autobiography tells of the author’s childhood in a village and his eventual move away from the village in the search of further education. It provides an anthropological and political inside into the Egyptian village at the eve of World War I (reference) (also in A: Autobiography).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Sabry Hafez. 1992. “The modern Arabic short story.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muḥammad Muṣṭafā Badawī. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 270- 329, p. 282
- Robin Moger. 2020. “An Expert from The Men of Raya and Sakina.” www.jadaliyya.com, 4 May 2020, https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/41064 (last accessed 26 October 2023)
- Khadījah Zaʿatar. 2009. “Khiṭāb al-Hawāmish fī Sirat Jabrā Ibrāhīm Jabrā al-Dhātiyyah ‘al-Bʾir – Shāriʿa al-Amīrāt’.” Discours littéraire et religieux au Maghreb 43: 23-36, accessed through https://journals.openedition.org/insaniyat/886 (last accessed 19 January 2024)
- Marilyn Booth. 1994. “Fragments of Memory: A Story of a Syrian Family.” World Literature Today 68(4): 877-878, p. 977
- Ibrāhīm Mashārah. 2023. “Mīkhāʾīl Naʿīmah wa Ḥikāyat ʿUmr … Akthar min Mujarad Sīrah.” www.alquds.co.uk, 10 April 2023, https://www.alquds.co.uk/ميخائيل-نعيمة-وحكاية-العمر-أكثر-من-مج/ (last accessed 10 May 2023)
- EAL, p. 589
- Thomas Phillip. 1993. “The Autobiography in Modern Arab Literature and Culture.” Poetics Today 14(3): 573-602, p. 589, 590, 597