- Ibrāhīm Aṣlān (1935 – 2012, Egypt) – ʿAṣāfīr al-Nīl (1999, English trans. Nile Sparrows, 2004). A family saga and detective novel at once, this novel chronicles the life of a family of rural migrants in Cairo. It starts with the disappearance of the old grandmother of the family whose daughter-in-law did not dare tell her that her two grown-up children have died. The grandmother had decided to look for them in her native village, after which her grandson also returns to the village in search for her, where he is confronted with his family’s past and his own present (reference).
- ʿAbd al-Karīm Juwayṭī (1962 -, Morocco) – al-Maghāriba (‘The Moroccans’, 2016). Using the histories of three different families, this novel describes Morocco’s historical developments from the period of different Amazigh dynasties to the French occupation and Moroccan independence until the present day. These three families represent different social and cultural aspects of Morocco’s diverse identity (reference). It is narrated by one of the two blind Ghāfiqi brothers, both ex-soldiers who represent the poor educated Moroccan. The novel also refers to important Moroccan historical singers, reformists, writers, politicians and theologists.
- Murtaḍā Kzār (1982-, Kuwait / Iraq) – al-Sayyid Aṣghar Akbar (‘Mr. Asghar Akbar’, 2012). This novel portrays three generations of family genealogists from the Shia shrine city of Najaf in south-central Iraq from 1871 – 2005 (reference). It tells the story of three spinsters, grandchildren of Mr. Aṣghar Akbar, who are investigating their grandfathers story, starting from the basement of the old family house he is documented to be buried in (reference). In that basement, the sisters find old photographs and documents that bring them closer to their own family’s past, including their grandfather’s career as a genealogist, and, with it, that of the city of Najaf and its inhabitants (reference) (also in R: Religion and Sectarianism: Islam: Shia).
- Ṣidqī Ismāʿīl (1924 – 1972, Syria) – al-ʿUṣāh (‘The rebels’, 1964). This novel portrays the effects of political corruption in Syria from 1900 until 1948 on three generations of a prominent family in Aleppo. The first generation is subservient to the Turkish regime, the second is drawn to the nationalist cause against the French, and the third combats corruption and disillusion among fellow Syrians (reference) (also in C: Cities: Syria: Aleppo).
- Najīb Maḥfūẓ’s (1911 – 2006, Egypt) monumental trilogy on Cairo: Bayn al-Qasryn (1956, English trans. Palace Walk, 1990), Qasr al-Shawq (1957, English trans. Palace of Desire, 1991), al-Sukkariya (1957, English trans. Sugar Street, 1992) (appeared in the English translation as The Cairo Trilogy (2001). This trilogy uses the ʿAbd al-Jawwād family as the focus for a huge canvas of Egyptian political and cultural life from 1917 to 1944. Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Jawwād, the father of the family, is a patriarch par excellence and all the other protagonists are hierarchically placed in relation to him (reference). The trilogy was published around the Suez Crisis of 1956 and the increasing political prominence of Nasser and Egypt in the Arab world and beyond. By describing forty years of Egyptian social and political upheaval through three generations, the work demonstrates the different individual struggles that had led up to the revolution (reference) (see also C: Cities: Egypt: Cairo and 1952 Revolution in Egypt: Before the revolution)
- ʿIzzat al-Qamḥāwī (1961-, Egypt) – Bayt al-Dīb (2010, English trans. House of the Wolf, 2013). The novel is a story of four generations in a fictional idyllic village, al-ʿIsh, in the Egyptian Delta, and covers their story from Napoleon’s nineteenth-century expedition to the British occupation, to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It is narrated by the elderly matriarch of the family, who, when she sees her grandchildren chatting on their phones, askes them to send an email to God (reference). The novel describes how the village was established, how external political developments affected its inhabitants, and how family dynamics evolved (reference). It won the 2012 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.
- Fuʾād al-Tikirlī (1927 – 2008, Iraq) – al-Rajʿ al-Baʿīd (‘Echo from Far Away’, 1980). This novel is a panorama of Baghdadi bourgeois society in the last months of ʿAbd al-Karīm Qāsim’s regime, 1962 – 1963, with its political oppression and the resulting social and intellectual frustration of the middle classes, shown through three generations of a family living together in a house in the old quarter of Bāb al-Sharqī (reference). The book relates, from several different viewpoints, the events and emotions of the protagonists, with at its center the love of three men, the brothers Midḥāt and ʿAbdal-Karīm, and a member of the next generation, ʿAdnān, for Munīra, for the cousin of the brothers and aunt of the third. One of the central scenes in the novel is the rape of Munīra by ʿAdnān (reference) (also in Police novels, Thrillers and Crimes: Rape and Sexual Abuse: Rape and Sexual Abuse and 1958 Coup in Iraq / 14 July Revolution).
- Shahlā al-ʿUjaylī (1976-, Jordan / Syria) – Ṣayf Maʿ al-ʿAdū (2018, English trans. Summer with the Enemy, 2020). In this novel, the narrator, Lamīs, talks about her live in Raqqa, Syria, and recounts the stories of her grandmother, mother, and her own childhood adventures, before she is forced to flee to Cologne, Germany, when the Syrian war breaks out. She specifically recalls the romantic relationship her mother developed with the German Nikūlās, an astronomer who spent a summer with her family while doing research who helps her when she arrives in Cologne (reference). The novel was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2019 (also in L: Love, Lust, and Relationships: Inter-religious and ethnic (romantic) relationships: Between Arabs and Westerners).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Zuzana Kratka. 2006 “Book Reviews: Zuzana Kratka reviews two novels by Ibrahim Aslan.” Banipal27, https://www.banipal.co.uk/book_reviews/22/%20zuzana-kratka-reviews-two-novels-by-ibrahim-aslan/ (last accessed 3 March 2019)
- Interview with ʿAbd al-Karīm Juwayṭī on SkyNews. 2023. “Al-Riwāyah wa al-Hawīyah wa al-Tārīkh … Mʿa ʿAbd al-Karīm Juwayṭī.” www.skynewsarabia.com, 27 January 2023. https://www.skynewsarabia.com/program/hadithalarabi/1592251-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%87%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AE-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%B7%D9%8A (last accessed 20 May 2023)
- Yasmeen Hanoosh. 2013. “Unnatural Narratives and Transgressing the Normative Discourses of Iraqi History: Translating Murtaḍā Gzār’s Al-Sayyid Aṣghar Akbar.” JAL 44: 145-180
- Mithāq Ḥassan ʿAṭār al-Rikābī. 2018. “Markazat al-Hāmish fī Riwāyat al-Sayyid Aṣghar Akbar li-Murtaḍā Kzār.” Majalat Awrūk li-l-ʿUlūm al-Insāniyyah 12(1): 157-168, p. 160, 161
- Sabry Hafez. 1995. “Women’s Narrative in Modern Arabic Literature: A Typology.” in Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Roger Allen, Hilary Kilpatrick, and Ed de Moor. London: Saqi Books, 154-175, p. 156
- EAL, p. 490
- Nizwa. 2011. “ʿIzzat al-Qamḥāwī fī ‘Bayt al-Dīb’ … Tawātir al-Ajyāl wa Tashʿab al-Asmāʾ.” www.nizwa.com, 1 October 2011, https://www.nizwa.com/%D8%B9%D8%B2%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%8A-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A8-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AC/ (last accessed 24 May 2023)
- Muhsin Jassim Ali. 1983. “The Socio- Aesthetics of Contemporary Arabic Fiction: an Introduction.” JAL 14 (1): 67-84, p. 72
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- Ibrāhīm ʿĀdil. 2019. “Riwāyat ‘Ṣayf mʿa al-ʿAdū’: min Ḥikāyāt al-Nisāʾ wa al-Ḥarb.” www.ida2at.com, 10 March 2019 https://www.ida2at.com/summer-enemy-novel-review/ (last accessed 24 May 2023)