- Muḥammad al-ʿAshry (1967-, Egypt) – Hālat al-Nūr (‘Aura of light’, 2002). This novel portrays a post-oil society in which the sand of the desert, in its interaction with atmospheric hydrogen, provides a source of energy (reference). This source of energy is so rich, that the inhabitants of the recently discovered ‘Tenth’ planet import sand to produce electricity. Hero of the novel travels on the back of a mythical Centaur trying to reach the new planet (also in S: Speculative Fiction: Science Fiction: Outer Space).
- ʿAbdallah al-Baṣīṣ (?, Kuwait) – Ṭʿam al-Ḍhʾib (‘Hunger of the wolf’, 2016). This philosophical novel tells the story of a fugitive Bedouin poet looking for meaning in life while wondering through the wilderness of the desert, when he suddenly encounters a hungry wolf (reference). The hero’s story portrays his struggle with Kuwaiti society, and the friendship he develops with the wolf, a creature expected to be man’s enemy. The novel, which mixes realism with fantasy, was banned from Kuwait for four years (reference).
- Tahar Djaout (1954 – 1993, Algeria) – L’invention du desert (‘The invention of the desert’, 1987). This novel links the desert to the history of the Algerian nation. Its narrator is tasked with writing the story of Ibn Toumert, the founder of the Almohades Dynasty (reference). The novel is divided in two parts, in one the reader learns about the history of the Amazigh empire and both the Almohads and Almoravids. In the second the narrator himself travels to learn more about his topic of writing and is especially captivated by the Algerian desert. The novel also invites the reader to reflect on different periods of religious fundamentalism in Algeria (reference) (also in H: Historical Novels: Amazigh Dynasties).
- Mohammad Dib (1920 – 2009, Algeria) – Le désert sans détour (‘Desert without return’, 1992). This short novel depicts the wanderings of two interdependent figures, Hagg-Bar and his servant Siklist, who are stuck in an unnamed desert in the aftermath of a war. Their dialogue is made up of sharing their hopes and disappointments, often in a humorous manner (reference). The desert is portrayed as a source of frustration and existential ‘non exit’ (reference).
- ʿĀʾishah Ibrāhīm (1969-, Libya) – Qaṣīl (‘Qasil’, 2016). The novel depicts the stunning nature of Libya’s valleys, mountains, and caves where people have lived for centuries. Qaṣīl, hero of the novel, was born and raised in the Bani Walid tribe in Libya in the 1980s. As he gets more influenced by the beauty of the nature, he begins to follow Sufi rituals and calls for preserving traditions in the face of modern developments, including the looming demolition of the old mosque (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Modernity: Between Tradition and Modernity).
- Ghassān Kanafānī (1936 – 1972, Palestine / Israel) – Rijāl fī al-Shams (1963, English trans. Men Under the Sun, 1978). The desert in this novel takes on the symbolic role of a place that nobody survives (see for detailed description in R: Refugee: Refugees in Arab countries and D: Disabilities, Illness, and Disorders: Physical Disabilities: Impotence and Castration).
- Ibrahīm al-Kūnī (1948-, Libya), being a Tuareg, often describes the traditional Tuareg desert life and often portrays the desert as a timeless extension of the world of the spirit and as both a source of life and death. In several of his novels that are set in the desert, he describes the relationship between humans, animals, and nature (reference).
In the novel Nazīf al-Ḥajar (1992, English trans. The Bleeding Stone, 2002), for example, al-Kūnī describes the relationship between the waddān, a breed of sheep wanted for its meet, and the humans. Its main character is al-Sūf, a herder living in the mountains of southern Libya who is confronted with tribes who brutally hunt animals and demand from him to guide them towards the waddān (reference) (also in M: Minorities: Tuareg and R: Religion and Sectarianism: Islam: Sufism).
Another novel, Nāqat Allah (‘Gods camel’, 2015) is set in the 1960’s shortly after the Tuareg were scattered over four different countries which had become independent from France: Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, and Mali. It tells the story of a female camel, Tāmlālit, who longs for her homeland so much that she flees from her owner to try and to return to the ‘lost paradise’ (reference). Similar to many of al-Kūnī’s novels, the desert takes on a central role in this story as it is the scene in which the novel asks questions of belonging, exile, alienation, and one’s relationship with land (also in M: Minorities: Tuareg).
- Aḥmad Ibrāhīm al-Faqīh’s (1942 – 2019, Libya) trilogy Hadāʾiq al-Layl (1990, English trans. Gardens of the Night, 1995) and novel Fiʾrān Bilā Juḥūr (2007, English trans. Homeless Rats, 2011).
Hadāʾiq al-Layl consists of Saʾahibuk Madīnah Ukhrāʾ (‘I shall offer you another city’), Hadhihi Tukhūm Mimlakatī (‘These are the borders of my kingdom’), and Nafaq Taḍīʾhu Imraʾah Wāhidah (‘A tunnel lit by one woman’). In the first part of the trilogy, Khalīl studies at the Edinburgh University in Scotland (see in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: University Life: Academics and Students). In the last two parts of the trilogy the tormented main character, now a Libyan professor, searches for happiness and peace of mind in the desert where he visits his ancestor’s tombs and seeks advice from Sufis (reference).
In Fiʾrān Bilā Juḥūr, a group of displaced tribes from Mizda is forced to settle in the desert, but soon discover they must compete with the desert’s animals to find food, as they discover that a community of jerboas, long-legged rats, has consumed all the grain. In addition, they are confronted with the severe drought of the late 1940s, right before Libya’ independence (reference). In addition to the desert, the novel portrays the socio-political landscape of Libya in the 1940s.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Interview with Muḥmmad al-ʿAshrī by Rizān Kandī. 2012. “al-Riwāʾī al-Maṣrī Muḥammad al-Ashrī: al-Ṣaḥrāʾ Taḥtāj Ilā Jaysh min al-Riwāʾiyīn li-Iktishāfiha.” www.alquds.co.uk, 3 June 2023, https://www.alquds.co.uk/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%AA%D8%AD/ (last accessed 2 September 2023)
- Aljazeera. 2021. “Baʿad Manʿaha 4 Sanawāt … ‘Ṭʿam al-Dhʾib’ Tafūs bi-Jāʾizat Dawlat al-Kuwayt al-Tashjīʿiyyah lil-Riwāyah.” www.aljazeera.net, 4 February 2023, https://www.aljazeera.net/culture/2021/2/4/%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B9%D9%87%D8%A7-4-%D8%B3%D9%86%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B7%D8%B9%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B0%D8%A6%D8%A8-%D8%AA%D9%81%D9%88%D8%B2-%D8%A8%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%B2%D8%A9 (last accessed 10 September 2023)
- Réda Bensmaïa and Denise Davia. 1999. “Postcolonial Nations: Political or Poetic Allegories? (On Tahar Djaout’s ‘L’invention du désert’.” Research in African Literatures 30(3): 151-163, p. 153
- Eric Selling. “Mohammed Dib, Le desert sans detour (Paris: Sindbad, 1992). Pp. 136.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 26(1): 142-143, p. 142, 143
- Jehan Farouk and Saeed Alwakeel, 2015. “Representations of the Desert in Silko’s Ceremony and Al-Koni’s The Bleeding Stone.” AJCP 33: 36-62
- Faryāl Jabūrī Ghazūl. 1997. “al-Riwāyah al-Ṣūfiyyah fī al-Adab al-Maghāribī.” AJCP 17: 28-53, p. 32
- FayyizʿAlām. 2016. “Murājʿah li-Riwāyah ‘Nāqah Allah’.” www.raseef22.net, 28 May 2016. https://raseef22.net/article/38358-book-review-naqat-allah-ibrahim-al-kawni (last accessed 28 July 2022)
- Farida Abu-Haidar. 2004. “African Literature in Arabic” in The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature, eds. F. Abiola Irele and Simon Gikandi, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. 178-199, p. 194
- Ethan Chorin. 2012. “Homeless Rats: A Parable for Postrevolution Libya.” www.wordswithoutborders.org, 9 January 2012, https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2012-01/homeless-rats-a-parable-for-postrevolution-libya/ (last accessed 20 September 2023)