- Ismāʿīl Fahd Ismāʿīl (1940 – 2018, Kuwait) – al-Sabīlīyāt (2015, English trans. The Old Woman and the River, 2019). This novel explores the history of a piece of green artery in a vast wasteland in Iraq following the Iran-Iraq war. The piece of land was blocked by Iraqi forces from receiving water from the Shatt al-Arab River, drying up all the vegetation except for an area called ‘al-Sabīlīyāt’. There, a 55-year-old woman, Umm Qāsim, suffocating by the devastation around her, took care of all the green and planted new flowers wherever they were destroyed by the conflict (reference) (also in 1980 – 1988 Iran – Iraq War).
- ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf (1933 – 2004, Jordan / Saudi Arabia) – al-Nihāyāt (1978, English trans. Endings, 2007). This novel looks at the relationship between humans and their environment (reference). It is set at a time of prolonged drought in the desert, which threatens the existence of a community resulting in conflict between nature and the humans who misuse it. Its hero, ʿAssaf, is asked by the community to help them hunt the remaining animals, but he instead tries to persuade them not to overhunt and or to uphold the privileges of a few at the expense of the many (reference) (also in V: Village and Rural life).
- Āminah al-Ramīlī (?, Tunisia) – Tūjān (‘Tujan’, 2016). This novel deals with issues of drought and water scarcity in a rural Amazigh village in the south of Tunis, Tūjān. It portrays the conflicts over water that start to take place between different tribes in the region. The conflicts are described by the hero of the novel, Sulṭān Walid al-Ghazāl, who returns to the desert town after 20 years of exile in Canada (reference). The novel won the Tunisian Comar d’Or prize in 2016 together with the novel Mirāyā al-Ghiyāb (‘Mirrors of abscence’, 2016) by Nabīhah al-ʿĪysī (1972-, Tunisia).
- ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Shāwī (1950-, Morocco) – al-Sāḥah al-Sharafiyyah (‘The honorary square’, 1999). Written after the writer’s own prison experience, the narrator of this novel, Saʿd Ibrāhīm, describes how torture, isolation, and a monotonous life in the dark and humid prison cell effected his mental and physical health. After his release, Saʿd settles in the fictional small village of Barāndah, where he discovers how the villagers’ suffering from drought and water scarcity leads to the revival of old tribal conflicts, which are fought through rape, kidnapping, and the creation of militias by the elders of the village (reference) (also in G: Dysfunctional Governance: Prison and Torture: Effects of prison and torture).
- Walid ʿAbd al-Qādir (?, Mauritania) – Al-ʿUyūn al-Shākhiṣah (‘The glazed eyes’, 2000). This novel describes the consequences of drought and poverty in the Mauritanian countryside, such as villagers fleeing to the city or seeking innovation to counter the drought. The novel is narrated by al-Ḥabīb, who describes the reaction of those surrounding him, such as that of the Shaykh, who refuses to move to the city. While deploying intertextuality with religious texts such as the Quran and Ḥadīth, the novel depicts life in the desert in Mauritania (reference).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- ʿAlī Ḥassan al- Fawwāz. 2016. “‘al-Sabīliyāt’ Sīrah Imrʾah Taḥlim bi-Zawj Ghāʾib fī al-Ḥarb” www.alarab.co.uk, 7 December 2016 https://alarab.co.uk/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A3%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%A8%D8%B2%D9%88%D8%AC-%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%A8-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A8 (last accessed 14 November 2021)
- Muḥammad ʿAbdallah al-Qawāsimah. 2020. “Al-Mawdūʿa wa al-Taqaniyāt fī Riwāyah ‘al-Nihāyāt’ li-ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf.” www.addustour.com, 29 January 2020 https://www.addustour.com/articles/1153497-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B6%D9%88%D8%B9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%82%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%C2%AB%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA%C2%BB-%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%86-%D9%85%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%81 (last accessed 5 May 2023)
- Ṣabry Hafiẓ. 2006. “An Arabian Master.” New Left Review 37: 39-66, p. 50
- Khamīs bin Brīk. 2016. “Tūjān … Ṣirāʿa al-Māʾ wa al-ʿIshq ʿaind al-Birbir bi-Tūnis.” www.aljazeera.net, 23 June 2016, https://www.aljazeera.net/culture/2016/6/23/%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B5%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B4%D9%82-%D8%B9%D9%86%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%B1 (last accessed 23 September 2023)
- al-Kabīr al-Dādīsī. 2018. Masārāt al-riwāyah al-ʿarabiyyah al-muʿāṣirah, Muʾassah al-raḥāb al-ḥadīthah: Bayrūt, p. 185
- ʿAbdullah al-Mutaqī. 2020. “al-Ṣaḥrāʾ fī Akthar min Ṣūrah fī Riwāyat ‘Al-ʿUyūn al-Shākhiṣah’ li-Aḥmad Qalid ʿAbd al-Qādir.” www.raialyoum.com, 17 July 2020, https://www.raialyoum.com/%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AA%D9%82%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D9%83%D8%AB%D8%B1-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9/ (last accessed 20 September 2023)