- Maqbūl Mūsā al-ʿAlawī (1968-, Saudi Arabia) – Ziryāb (‘Ziryab’, 2014). At the centre of this novel is the life of the singer, oud player, composer, and poet, Ziryāb, which means ‘black bird that sings beautifully’, who lived from 789 until 857. Ziryāb played for the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid, something that led to the envy of his teacher who threatened him. He was forced to flee from Baghdad to al-Andalus, reigned at the time by lover of the arts Abd al-Rahman II, where he was able to retrieve his life of making music. Not only does the novel shed light on the history of Arab music, but also on life at the royal courts (reference) (also in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: Music).
- Maya Tamza Arriz (pseudonym for Saoud Bousselmania, 1957-, Algeria) play Le Soupir du Maure (‘The moor’s sigh’, 2001) describes the fall of the last Moorish kingdom in Europe, the Emirate of Grenade in Spain, in 1492 (reference).
- Raḍwā ʿĀshūr (1946 – 2014, Egypt) trilogy Thulathiyyah Gharnāṭah (1994 – 1995, English trans. Granada: A Novel, 2003- ). This trilogy consists of Gharnāṭah (‘Granada’, 1994); Muraymah (‘Morayma’, 1995) and al-Raḥīl (‘The departed’, 1995). The trilogy tells the story of three generations of the imaginary Spanish Arab family of Abū Jaʿafar, who lives in the district of Albaicín. It follows the family from 1491 until 1609 and recounts the fall of Andalusia and the mass deportation of Muslims from the region.
The first novel, Gharnāṭah depicts the social reaction in Albaicín to the possible capitulation of the last Muslim ruler to the Kingdom of Castile. Muraymah, among other things, describes how the use of the Arabic language was forbidden and what social customs this led to, such as people leaving their doors open on celebratory occasions to prove their adherence to the law (reference). The last novel, al-Raḥīl describes the oppression of Arabs and Muslims through the story of the family descendent ʿAlī, who ends up in Valencia when searching for his aunt, where he starts to teach young children Arabic despite the rules of that period that forbid this.
- Wāsīnī al-Aʿraj (1954-, Algeria) – Al-Bayt al-Andalusī (‘The Andalusian house’, 2011). This novel is set in both in the past and present and tracks the history of an Algerian-Morisco family from his origins in 16th century Granada to their forced settling in Algeria (reference). The storyline taking place in the past centers Aḥmad, who is forced into exile in Algeria, where he builds a house completely in Andalusian style which served as a refuge that reminded him of his former life. The second storyline takes place in the present, where Murād, a descendent of Aḥmad, fights an Algerian municipality to preserve this house.
- Rashīd Būjidrah (1941-, Algeria) – Maʿrakat al-Zuqāq (‘The battle of the corridor’, 1986). Hero of this novel, Ṭāriq, lives in Algeria of the 1980s and is forced by his father to translate classical texts on the historical figure of Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād, who his father named him after (reference). This prompts him to look back critically at the historical figure, an Amazigh who is credited with crossing the mountains of Gibraltar (which were named after him), and the Muslim conquest of Iberia in 711. The protagonist debunks how the historical figure was mythologized, while also relating the history of the Muslim conquest to the Algerian independence war.
- Binsālim Ḥimmīsh (1948-, Morocco) – Hādhā al-Andalusī (2008, English trans. A Muslim Suicide, 2014). This novel tells the life story of Sufi radical thinker Ibn Sabʿīn (ʿAbd al-Khāliq), who is forced into exile from his birthplace in Andalusia, a region in which Muslims were facing persecution. He travels first to Ceuta (nowadays a Spanish autonomous city in the north coast of Africa), and continues to Mecca, where he is eventually murdered (or is it suicide?) in the 13th century Islamic world. Through the story of Ibn Sabʿīn, the reader gets a view of different regions during a critical period in Islamic history (reference) (also in R: Religion and Sectarianism: Islam: Sufism).
- Rabīʿa Jābir (1972-, Lebanon) – Riḥlat al-Gharnāṭī (‘The journey of the Grenadian’, 2002). In the 11th century, a time of weakened Islamic rule in Andalusia and the start of the Reconquista and the Crusades, Muḥammad al-Gharnāṭī embarks on a journey to find his brother al-Rabīʿa, who went missing in an Andalusian Forest (reference). His quest takes him to several Andalusian cities and Christian Europe, as well as present day Morocco, Egypt, and Turkey (then under Roman rule). In addition to being a travel story and a historic novel, it also describes the suffering al-Gharnāṭī faces trying to find his brother and is therefore also a story of hope.
- Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Laṭīf (1978-, Egypt) – Ḥisn al-Turāb (‘Hisn al-Turab’, 2017). This novel takes place in the small town of Hisn al-Turab (nowadays called Iznatoraf), located near Granada, during a crucial moment in history: the fall of Andalusia and the oppression of Muslims that followed. It portrays three generations of the Dī Mawlīnā (De Molina) family from the fall of Granada in 1492 to their existence in the diaspora of several North African cities (reference). In doing so, it sheds light on the history of the region as well as that of the family and their challenge of being Muslims in Spain and Moriscos in Morocco.
- Ṣubḥī Mūsā (1972- , Egypt) – al-Mūrīskī al-Akhīr (‘The last Morisco’, 2015). This novel details the life of Muslims who remained in Andalusia after it fell. Its main protagonist, Murād, reads the memoirs of his grandfather, Muḥammad Allah Jahwar, who experienced the fall of the Islamic rule and witnessed the Morisco Revolt in 1568. The memoirs share the grandfather’s views on the causes of this revolt, including the prohibition of showing any Muslim identity.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Hāshi Shafīq. 2015. “‘Ziryāb’ Riwāyah al-Saʿūdī Maqbūl al-ʿAlawī Bayn Baghdād wa al-Andalūs: Mulūk wa Diasāʾis wa Funūn.” www.alquds.co.uk, 24 October 2015 https://www.alquds.co.uk/%EF%BB%BF-%D8%B2%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%8A-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A8%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%88%D9%8A/ (last accessed 5 November 2021)
- Neil Doshi. 2003. “Arriz Tamza, Mayaalim.” Encyclopedia of African Literature. eds. Simon Gikandi, Routledge: New York, p. 43
The first novel, Gharnāṭah depicts the social reaction in Albaicín to the possible capitulation of the last Muslim ruler to the Kingdom of Castile. Muraymah, among other things, describes how the use of the Arabic language was forbidden and what social customs this led to, such as people leaving their doors open on celebratory occasions to prove their adherence to the law.[1]
[1] https://elakademiapost.com/%D9%85%D9%84%D8%AE%D8%B5-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%A9-%D8%B1%D8%B6%D9%88%D9%89-%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%B4%D9%88%D8%B1/
- Maher Jarrar. 2016. “Foreword” in Representations and Visions of Homeland in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Sebastian Günter and Stephan Milich. Georg Olms Verlag: Hildesheim, Zürich, New York. pp. xvii-xxxiii, p. xxvii
- Christina Civantos. 2017. The Afterlife of al-Andalus: Muslim Iberia in contemporary Arab and Hispanic narratives. State University of New York Press: Albany, p. 140
- Saʿīd al-Falāq. 2020. “Ibn Sabʿīn: al-Ṣūfiyyah fī Muwājihat Sulṭat al-Fuqahāʾ: ‘Hadha al-Andalusī’ Namūthijan.” www.mominoun.com, 18 March 2020, https://www.mominoun.com/articles/ابن-سبعين-الصوفية-في-مواجهة-سلطة-الفقهاء-هذا-الأندلسي-نموذجا-7057 (last accessed 25 April 2023)
- ʿAbd al-Majīd Sabāṭah. 2016. “Riḥlah al-Ghranāṭī al-Tāʾih.” www.aljazeera.net, 12 December 2016 https://www.aljazeera.net/blogs/2016/12/12/%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%84%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%B1%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%87 (last accessed 10 January 2022)
- Mahmoud Abdelhamid M. A. Khalifa. 2020. “Feverish Souls: Archives, Identity, and Trauma in Fihris and Ḥiṣn al-Turāb”, Arab Studies Quarterly 42(4): 287-307, p. 291