- Raḍwāʿ Āshūr (1946 – 2014, Egypt) – Athqal min Raḍwā (‘Heavier than Radwa’, 2013). In this memoir, the author and political activist interweaves her fight against brain cancer with the setbacks and victories of Egypt’s 2011 revolution (reference). The memoir describes the treatment of her sickness as she undergoes five surgeries and 25 chemotherapy sessions, but also her steadfastness and patience. Her physical pain is related to the pain resulting from oppression, injustice, persecution, and even torture by a repressive authority (reference) (also in 2011: Arab Uprisings: Egypt).
- Yūsuf Idrīs’ (1927 – 1991, Egypt) short story collection Lughat al-Āy Āy (‘Language of Oh Oh’, 1965) includes several stories depicting pain and illness from a doctor’s perspective, especially when it comes to dealing with cancer patients. In the title story, for example, a delegation from an Egyptian village goes to Cairo to consult with a doctor from their village who migrated to there, on treating Fahmī Rafīq, a cancer patient (reference). The story also reflects on the relationship between the village and the city.
- Azīz Muḥammad (1987-, Saudi Arabia) – al-Ḥālah al-Ḥarjah lil-Madʿū ‘K’ (2017, English trans. The Critical Case of a Man Called K, 2021). After reading Kafka, the narrator of this novel, ‘K’, an employee of a petrochemical company, decides to write a diary but is frustrated by his boring life, private issues, and a lack of imagination and ideas. He is also limited by the news that he has leukaemia, which is described in the novel in relation to his family and colleagues. His disease presents him with the means to escape his writers block, and he eventually travels to Japan in search for a better cancer treatment (also in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: Writing).
- Fātiḥah Murshīd (1958-, Morocco) – al-Ḥaq fī al-Raḥīl (‘The right to leave’, 2013). The Moroccan journalist Fuʾād and Moroccan Amazigh teacher Islān find each other and marry in London after which they decide to return to their native Agadir, where they settle and start a high-class restaurant. However, when Islān is diagnosed with cancer, Fuʾād asks a friend of his who is a doctor to preform euthanasia. This friend refuses, adhering to the law and religious code of the country. Fuʾād takes the task upon himself, which leads to his arrest (reference)(also in D: Death: Death).
- Munā al-Shīmī (1968-, Egypt) – Bi-Ḥajm Ḥabat ʿAnab (‘The size of a grape’, 2014). During the Ramadan of 2012, a time of revolution in Egypt, the 15-year-old Ziyād is found to have a brain tumour ‘the size of a grape’. The novel is narrated by Ziyād’s mother, who, as she copes with the duress of his treatment in the International Medical Centre in Cairo, reflects on her own past and reconsiders her relationship with patriarchal society. She also reflects on the conditions in marginalized southern Egypt, especially in Nagaa Hammadi, and relates this to the revolution underway in Egypt’s capital city. This revolution comes particularly close when Mubarak is transferred to the same hospital as Ziyād (reference).
- Shahlā al-ʿUjaylī (1976-, Jordan / Syria) – Samāʾ Qarībah min Baytna (2015, English trans. A Sky So Close to Us, 2018). The Syrian anthropology professor Jūmana, who is exiled due to the Syrian war, meets the Palestinian geographer Nāṣṣir in Amman, Jordan, where they both live. As they get to know each other, they discover that they lived in the same neighbourhood in Aleppo when Jūmana was finishing her studies. The two develop an intimate relationship, and when she is diagnosed with cancer, Nāṣṣir becomes her caretaker. The novel interweaves the story of her psychological and physical struggle against cancer with the heroine’s thoughts on life, love, and the hardships her hometown Raqqa (reference).
- Saʿadallah Wannūs’ (1941 – 1997, Syria) play Riḥlah fī Majāhil Mawt ʿĀbir (‘A Journey Through the Obscurities of a Passing Death’, 1996) and short story ‘Dhakirat al-Nubuʾāt’ (‘Memory of predictions’) reflect on Wannūs’ experiences with cancer.
In the play Riḥlah fī Majāhil Mawt ʿĀbir, Wannūs reflects on his illness and death. It is an account of one of his health crises during the extensive sessions of chemotherapy he received to treat his cancer. The story takes place in a Damascene hospital but is interrupted with flashbacks of memories (reference).
The short story ‘Dhakirat al-Nubuʾāt’ relates to Wannūs’ experiences receiving medical treatment in Paris in 1992, when French doctors told him he only had half a year more to live. It can be found in the collection ʿAn al-Dhākirah wa al-Mawt (‘On memory and death’, 1996) (see for more information on this collection D: Death: Death and N: Nature: Animals)
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Mahmoud el- Wardani. 2013. “Book review: Ashour battles cancer, old regimes in newest work.” Ahram online, 18 November 2013 http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/86782.aspx (last accessed 16 February 2019)
- Nayera El Miniawi. 2017. “Heavier Than Radwa: ‘Radwa’, a Human Being, a Mountain, a Nation.” Research on Humanities and Social Sciences 7(2): 16-19, p. 16
- Aḥmad Jabr. 2020. “Mufradāt al-Alm fī Lughah al-Āy Āy li-Yūsuf Idrīs.” www.pulpit.alwatanvoice.com, 22 March 2020, https://pulpit.alwatanvoice.com/articles/2020/03/22/516695.html (last accessed 25 February 2023)
- ʿAbd al- Qādir ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. 2013. “‘al-Ḥaq fī al- Raḥīl’ lil-Riwāʾiyah Fātiḥah Murshīd: al- Hijrah Hijrāt Mutaʿaddidah” www.alquds.co.uk, 3 December 2013 https://www.alquds.co.uk/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%82-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D8%A7/ (last accessed 14 November 2021)
- Fāyiz ʿAllam. 2016. “Murājiʿah li-Riwāyah ‘bi-Ḥujm Ḥabat ʿAnab’.” www.raseef22.net, 27 May 2016 https://raseef22.net/article/13928-book-review-size-of-a-grape (last accessed 6 October 2021)
- Fāyiz ʿAllam. 2017. “Riwāyat ‘Samāʾ Qarībah min Baytina’: Dhikrayāt fī Muwājihat al-Saraṭān wa al-Ḥarb,” www.raseef22.net, 1 June 2017 https://raseef22.net/article/53672-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A8%D8%A9-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%A7-%D8%B0%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%85%D9%88 (last accessed 16 October 2020)
- Ali Souleman. 2015. “Staging the Self: Autobiography in the Theatre of Saʿdallah Wannous.” Arab Stages 1(2)