- Al-Shaykh Walīd Aḥmadou (?, Mauritania) – Lil-Ḥadīth Baqiyah (‘There is more left to talk about’, 2012). Set in Mauritania, this novel focusses on the bitter rivalry between the patriotic and honest Aḥmad Walīd Maḥammah ʿAbdallah, who manages an important national institution, and the corrupt head of the secretary of that institution, Ḥusnāʾ bint Abātā, who developed an octopus-like gang controlling the state and its administration (reference). The rivalry leads to Aḥmad’s dismissal and to him being sued on rape-charges, with devastating consequences for his and marital life. Aḥmad eventually sees no solution but to surrender and collaborate with the evil forces he used to fight.
- Rūgīh ʿAssāf (1941-, Lebanon) and Niḍāl al-Ashqar’s (1941-, Lebanon) play Iḍrāb al-Ḥarāmiyyah (‘The thieves on strike’, 1971), deals with the relationship that exists between crime and the police: one of mutual aid and benefit (reference). The thieves in this play are not regular thieves, they are industrials who underpay workers and corrupt doctors who prescribe patients expensive and unnecessary medicine. When people protest this exploitation and successfully remove the ones responsible, they discover that a new set of thieves come to replace the old ones.
- Ghānim al-Dabbāgh (1923 – 1991, Iraq) – Ḍajjah fī al-Zuqāq (‘Noise in the alley’, 2001). In this novel, the main character Khalīl exposes cases of corruption in the petty bureaucracy of the provincial city of Mosul during the regime of Nūrī Saʿīd in the 1950s (reference). It includes many scenes of 1950s Iraq, such as the protests of 1957, and Khalīl’s personal life, such as his mistreatment of his mother and dealing with his own (political) uncertainties. The book consists of three parts, and al-Dabbāgh started working on the first part in 1958 (reference) (see also 1930 – 1958: Nūrī Saʿīd Prime Minister of Iraq).
- Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm’s (1898 – 1987, Egypt) play Aʿmāl Ḥurrah (‘Private Enterprise’, 1950) unmasks corruption in government departments and private companies (reference). A team of civil servants secretly has a double job in the afternoons in a private company, where they use goods and equipment that they bought on behalf of their daytime government department. Furthermore, the head of the government department, who is suspicious about his employees, has an affair with a singer of ‘low morals’.
- ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf (1933 – 2004, Jordan / Saudi Arabia) – al-Ashjār wa Ightiyāl Marzūq (‘The trees and Marzūq’s assasination’, 1973). This novel treats the issue of continuous Arab defeats from the perspective of the insider. It opens with two strangers meeting on a train in an unnamed Arab country. The first, Ilyās, is an ordinary man working different jobs as a hired labour. He represents the destruction of the rural community. The other traveller, an intellectual by the name Manṣūr, fought Israel during the Palestinian Nakbah of 1948 (see 1948 al-Nakbah), after which he studied in Europe. Manṣūr questions the legitimacy of the Arab regimes, making himself a target for interrogation and eventually forcing him into exile (reference) (also in 1967 al-Naksah).
- Aḥmad Murād (1978-, Egypt) – Fīrtīgū (2007, English trans. Vertigo, 2010). This political thriller novel exposes the corruption of businessmen and politicians in the author’s native Egypt, where he worked as the personal photographer of President Mubarak for a period of five years before this latter was overthrown. Hero of the novel, Aḥmad Kamāl, is also a photographer who by chance witnesses and photographs the murder of several corrupt businessmen in the bar Fīrtīgū in downtown Cairo, where he was waiting for his friend who is collateral damage to the assassination (reference). What follows is Aḥmad’s entanglement in a web of cover-ups and crimes (also in P: (Police) Thrillers and Crimes: Murder).
- Jamīla Murānī (1986-, Algeria) – Tufāḥ al-Djinn (‘The dijnn’s apple’, 2016). Part crime and part historical fiction, this novel reflects on the role of justice in the context of corrupt political systems (reference). It is set during the caliphate of Harūn al-Rashīd and narrated by the twelve-year old Nardīn, who first appears while hiding from men who broke into her home and are murdering her parents and siblings. Nardīn realizes that they are looking for something in the library of her father, Hazīr, who is the official translator of medical manuscripts for the caliph (reference). In the remainder of the novel Nardīn unravels the events that led to the murder of her family (also in H: Historical novels: Abbasid period (750-1258 CE)).
- ʿAlī Sālim’s (1936 – 2015, Egypt) play Il Rājul illi Ḍiḥiq ʿala al-Malayka (‘The man who fooled the angels’, 1968) and Walā al-ʿAfārīt al-Zurq (‘Not even the wily devils’, 1971) portray corruption of mankind by comparing their behaviour to that of angels and the devil.
This first play portrays a corrupt man who dies and comes to live amongst angles. However, this does not change his manners, not even after he is sent back to earth after promising the angels to establish justice (reference).
Walā al-ʿAfārīt al-Zurq portrays ʿAṭiyyah, a male Cinderella who dreams of becoming an actor, but who is abused and ridiculed by his own brothers (reference). Then he receives the help from benevolent cultured devil who wants to improve the relationship between humans and devils (reference). But the devil is no match to the two brothers, who proceed to sabotage ʿAṭiyyah’s successes.
- Magdī al-Shāfʿī’s (?, Egypt) graphic novel Mitrū (2008, English trans. Metro, 2012). Offers a vivid portrait of Cairo under Mubarak’s rule. When a friend of Shihāb and Musṭafā is murdered, they discover that the murder is never really investigated, but that the case is surrounded with deceitful information exposing the ills of Egyptian society, including corruption and neglect from the authorities, police, and press (reference). To find a solution to their own poverty, the two friends plan a bank robbery (also in C: Cities: Cairo and 1981: Mubarak President of Egypt).
- Yūsuf al-Sibāʿī (1917 – 1978, Egypt) – Arḍ al-Nifāq (‘Land of hypocrisy’, 1949). This novel describes the appearance of hypocrisy and opportunism in the Egyptian society. When the hero encounters a shop that sells morals, his curiosity motivates him to buy some, only to discover they are useless in a country ruled by hypocrites (reference). He therefore decides to steal a mixture of morals and to throw them in the Nile, hoping this would change the attitude around him. But he is instead accused of spreading morals, and his punishment is to live in the shadow of morals in a reality full of hypocrisy, unable to be accepted by his own society.
- Ḥusayn al-Wād (1948 – 2018, Tunisia) – Saʿādatuhu… al-Sayyid al-Wazīr (‘His excellency the minister’, 2011). This novel is set in Tunisia, where a teacher unexpectedly becomes a minister. Initially he is opposed to the moral and political corruption he witnesses in his new function, but the novel portrays how he himself becomes a part of the system and even defends it (reference). Although the novel was written before the 2001 revolution in Tunisia, it reflects on one of the main problems that led to the widespread Arab uprisings.
- Saʿd al-Dīn Wahbah’s (1925 – 1997, Egypt) play al-Sibinsah (‘Sibinsah’, 1963). In this symbolic play the soldier Ṣābir claims to have discovered a ‘bomb’ on a trash heap in a provincial town, which then disappears (reference). What follows is a portrayed of corruption in every aspect of society. Ṣābir believes it was stolen while he was relieving himself, and tasks Darwīsh with finding it. But Darwīsh presents him with a piece of iron that he placed on top of some leaves, claiming it is the bomb and prompting Ṣābir, the ‘so-called bomb expert’, to declare that it is a very dangerous bomb. Ṣābir is rewarded with a military promotion, while two innocent people are arrested. But soon the situation flips, and it becomes clear that the real bomb is hidden.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Ṣaḥrāʾ Mīdiyyā. 2021. “Qirāʾah fī Qissat al-Ustāth al-Shaykh Walid Aḥmadū ‘Lil-Ḥadīth Baqiyah’.” www.saharamedias.net, 9 September 2021 https://www.saharamedias.net/7219-%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%82%D8%B5%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B0-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%AE-%D9%88%D9%84%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%88-%D9%84/ (last accessed 16 March 2021)
- Ali al-Raʿi. 1992. “Arabic Drama since the thirties.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 358-404, p. 392
- Roger Allen. 1992. “The Mature Arabic Novel Outside Egypt.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 193-223, p. 207
- Shakīb Kaẓim. 2019. “Ḥayn Tasfaḥ al-ʿUmr .. Ghānim al-Dabbagh fī ʿAmalihi al-Riwāʾī al-Waḥīd Ḍajjah fī al-Zuqāq’.” www.almadapaper.net, 5 May 2019 https://almadapaper.net/view.php?cat=218331 (last accessed 26 October 2021)
- Ali al-Raʿi. 1992. “Arabic Drama since the thirties.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 358-404, p. 376
- Ṣabry Hafiẓ. 2006. “An Arabian Master.” New Left Review 37: 39-66, p. 41-3
- Mohammed Matarneh. 2019. “‘Vertigo’ d’Ahmed Mourad, un roman noir pour dépeindre les heures les plus sombres de l’Egypte.” Synergies Turquie 12: 151-180
- Nadia Ghanem. 2018. “Why Djamila Morani’s ‘The Djinn’s Apple’ Should be on the IPAF Longlist, not Amin Zaoui.” www.arablit.org, 23 January 2018 https://arablit.org/2018/01/23/why-djamila-moranis-the-djinns-apple-should-be-on-the-ipaf-longlist-not-amin-zaoui/ (last accessed 19 December 2021)
- Nadia R. Farag-Badawi. 1981. “Ali Salem (ʿAlī Sālim): A Modern Egyptian Dramatist.” JAL 12: 87-100, p. 87
- ʿAli Sālim. 2015. “Walā al-ʿAfārīt al-Zurq.” www.aawsat.com, 23 February 2015, https://aawsat.com/home/article/296411/علي-سالم/ولا-العفاريت-الزرق (last accessed 22 March 2023)
- Iman Hanafy. 2016. “Revolutionizing the Graphic Novel: A Study of El- Shafee’s ‘Metro’.” Symploke 34(1-2): 421-434, p. 425
- Laḥbīb Āyat A Ṣāliḥ. 2018. “Riwāyat ‘Arḍ al-Nifāq’.. Wāqiʿ al-Mujtamaʿ āt al-ʿArabiyyah fi suṭūr.” www.aljazeera.net, 13 July 2018, https://www.aljazeera.net/blogs/2018/7/13/رواية-أرض-النفاق-واقع-المجتمعات (last accessed 6 March 2023)
- Kamāl al-Riyāḥī. 2012. “al-wād yaqtaḥim milaff al-fasād riwā’īyan” .” www.aljazeera.net, 14 December 2012 https://www.aljazeera.net/news/cultureandart/2012/12/14/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%85-%D9%85%D9%84%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%A7 (last accessed 5 November 2021)
- Muḥammad Mandūr. 2020. Fī al-Masraḥ al-Miṣrī al-Muʿāṣir. Hindawi: York House, Sheet Street, Windsor, p. 167 (Re-publication of the 1971 book: retrieved from https://www.hindawi.org/books/80509160/, last accessed 27 August 2022)