See also R: Religion and Sectarianism: Christians and Christianity for more information on the Christian belief and believers in the Arab-majority world, including the subcategory of Coptic which describes the experience of Copts in Egyptian society.
- Tawfīq Yūsuf ʿAwwād (1911 – 1989, Lebanon) – Ṭawāḥīn Bayrūt (1972, English trans., Death in Beirut, 1984). When Tamīmah, a southern Lebanese Shiite girl, visits her law-studying brother in Beirut, she ends up meeting Hānī, a Maronite Christian activist. They become lovers, and after she enrols in the university in Beirut, she herself becomes an active member of the student political movement (reference) (see for more information C: Cities: Lebanon: Beirut and 1968 Student Revolution in Lebanon).
- Jabbūr Duwayhī (1949 – 2021, Lebanon) – Sharīd al-Manāzil (English trans. Firefly, 2022). This novel portrays the university student Niẓām, who is a Muslim by birth, but was adopted into a Christian family and eventually moves to a Muslim neighborhood (reference). It is set in the city of Beirut, whose neighbourhoods and social structures are portrayed in detail. And as the city descents into war, the reader follows Niẓām’s romantic relationship with Janān and his increasing confrontations with the religious duality of his identity in the context of sectarian violence (also in 1975 – 1998 Lebanese Civil War).
- Maḥmūd Ḥassan al-Jāsim (1966-, Syria) – Nuzūḥ Maryam (‘Mariam’s journey’, 2015). Sārah, a Christian woman, tells the story of her displacement to her daughter Miryam, starting with her moving to the countryside between Aleppo and Raqqa to teach English, where she falls in love with and marries Miryam’s father, a Muslim farmer called Hāshim (reference). From there, they move to the city of Raqqa where she gives birth to Miryam. With the outbreak of the revolution in 2011, Sārah is forced move again, this time without Hāshim who has disappeared. She first goes to Beirut and then to Gaziantep, Turkey. She passes away in a refugee camp, leaving her diary as a novel for her daughter Miryam (also in 2010 – 2020: 2011 Syrian Uprisings and Civil War: Displacement).
- ʿAbdallah Khalīfah (1948-, Bahrain) – Al-Aqlaf (‘The uncircumcised’, 2002). This novel focuses on the conflict between religious doctrines in the Gulf and the tensions brought to the region by foreign colonial forces. The author refers to the missionary missions that spread their religion and influence through humanitarian work (reference). Hero of the novel is Yaḥīy, who falls in love with the American nurse Mīrī. The novel displays the development of their romantic relationship in a context of power struggles and a changing social climate (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Modernity: Religion and Modernity).
- Idwār al-Kharrāṭ (1926 – 2015, Egypt) – Rāma wa al-Tinnīn (1980, English trans. Rama and the Dragon, 2002). This novel revolves around the relationship between the Copt Mīkhāʾīl and the Muslim Rāma – a relationship that ranges between the overtly sexual and the mystical, and which constitutes a daring theme in view of the taboos on marriage between Muslim women and non-Muslim men (reference) (also in R: Religion and Sectarianism: Christians and Christianity).
- Vénus Khoury-Ghata (1937-, Lebanon) – La Maȋtresse du Notable (‘The command of the remarkable man’, 1992). Central character of this novel is Flora, a blonde Polish woman who has just given birth to a third child by a Christian husband. She leaves her husband, children, and newborn, crossing the demarcation line dividing the city of Beirut during the Civil War, to meet her Muslim lover and live with him in a building facing the one she has just left (reference).
- Rafik Schami (1946- , Syria) – Diedunkle Seite der Liebe (2004, English trans. The Dark Side of Love, 2009). This novel, originally written in German, starts in 1969 with the body of a murdered Muslim army officer hanging in a basket from the portal of the St. Paul’s chapel in Damascus, Syria. When the Secret Service investigates the case, they stumble upon hundreds of interwoven tales of betrayal, revenge, and forbidden love, eventually leading them to a generation old blood feud between the Catholic Mushtaks and the Orthodox Shahins. The novel describes an impossible love story, in addition to the domestic turmoil in mid-twentieth century Syria which sharpened the tensions between religious and ethnic minorities (also in L: Love, Lust and Relationships: Inter-religious and ethnic (romantic) relationships: Between Muslims and Christians).
- Ḥammūr Ziyādah (1979-, Sudan) – Shawq al-Darwīsh (2014, English trans. Longing of the Dervish, 2014). This novel, set in the 19th century in Sudan right after the fall of the Mahdist state, follows the story of Bakhāt Mandīl, who has just been released as a slave of European masters and seeks revenge for his imprisonment and the murder of his lover, the Christian missionary Thayūdūrā (reference). The novel also explores the social conflict between white Christian and Islamic Sufi cultures in Sudan, this latter of which determined the religious and intellectual vision of the Mahdist state (1844 – 1885) (reference) (also in H: Historical Novels: Historical Novels on Slavery and 1844 – 1885 Mahdi State Sudan).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- EAL, p. 115
- Aḥlām Māzin Bakrī. 2022. “Ṣūrah al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah fī Lubnān Riwāyah ‘Sharīd al-Manāzil’ li-Jabbūr al-Dawīhī Namūthijan.” Majalah al-Lughah al-ʿArabiyyah wa Ādābiha 1(3): 49-72, p. 51, 55
- ʿAbd al-Raḥman Ḥabīb. 2021. “Riwāyāt al-Jawāʾiz … Maḥmūd Ḥassan al-Jāsim Yudawwin Sīrat Ṭiflah Sūriyyah fī ‘Nuzūḥ Miryam’.” www.youm7.com, 30 November 2021, https://www.youm7.com/story/2021/11/30/%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%B2-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%85-%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%B7%D9%81%D9%84%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%89/5557638 (last accessed 2 November 2023)
- Faysal ʿAbd al-Ḥassan. 2007. “Al-Aqlaf li-ʿAballah Khalīfah: Ḥāḍir wa Māḍī al-Kutub al-Jinsī wa al-Taṭaruf al-Dīnī fī Duwal al-Khalīj.” www.alquds.co.uk, 1 March 2007, https://www.alquds.co.uk/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%82%D9%84%D9%81-%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%AE%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%81%D8%A9-%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%B6%D8%B1-%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B6%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%A8/ (last accessed 6 July 2023)
- EAL, p. 437
- Evelyne Accad.1995. “Arab Women’s Literary Inscriptions.” College Literature 22 (1): 172-180, p. 178
- Muḥammad Najīb Muḥammad ʿAlī. 2014. “Shawq al-Sarwīsh .. Bayn al-Maḥkī wa al-Maskūt ʿAnhu.” www.ajnet.me, 30 October 2014, https://www.ajnet.me/culture/2014/10/30/%D8%B4%D9%88%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%B4-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%83%D9%8A-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%83%D9%88%D8%AA-%D8%B9%D9%86%D9%87 (last accessed 23 March 2024)