- ʿAlī Badr (?, Iraq) – Maṣābīḥ Urshalīm (‘Jerusalem lantern’, 2006). This novel is a fictional portrayal of the Palestinian-American professor and intellectual Edward Said. The novel starts with Said’s influence on the Iraqi elite in the 1970s, and the subsequent division between those supporting Said and those supporting the Iraqi professor Kanan Makiya, who supported the American invasion of Iraq. The novel then portrays Amīn, a Palestinian student of Said at Columbia university. Amīn, missing his home, creates his world one on paper just as he believes Israel created the myth of Jerusalem. He writes an unfinished novel on Said, through who’s eyes he portrays the history of Jerusalem (reference).
- Binsālim Ḥimmīsh (1948-, Morocco) – Al-ʿAllāmah (1997, English trans. The Polymath, 2009). This novel centres the important historical figure of Ibn Khaldūn (1332 – 1406), whose nickname is Polymath, and who is seen as the founder of social sciences. Using language close to that of Ibn Khaldun’s time-period, it describes part of Ibn Khaldūn’s life, both his ideas and his private life, while reflecting on the relationship between intellectual and political power (reference). It won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for literature in 2002.
- Yūsuf Zaydān (1958-, Egypt) – Fardiqān: Iʿtiqāl Shaykh Raʾīsī (‘Fardeqan – the Detention of the Great Sheikh’, 2018). This novel centres Avicenna, the great polymath, and describes his life from his birthplace in a village in Uzbekistan, until his death in Iran. The novel weaves his life story around the period of Avicenna’s four-month detention in the Fardeqan Castle in Iran after a political dispute with the Buyid Emir of Hamadan (reference). The novel among others focuses on Avicenna’s thoughts and views, as well as his works on medicine and natural sciences (reference).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Faraḥ Dāghir. 2006. “ʿAlī Badr Yuḍīʾ ‘Maṣābīḥ Urshalīm’… wa Yakhtarʿa al-Tārīkh” www.al-akhbar.com November 10, 2006 https://al-akhbar.com/Culture_People/204451 (last accessed November 14, 2021)
- Kāmil al-Riyāḥ. 2013. “al-Takhayyullī wa al-Marjaʿī fī Riwāyah ‘al-ʿAllāmah’ li-Sālim Ḥimmīsh.” www.thakafamag.com September 6, 2013 https://thakafamag.com/?p=3569 (last accessed January 31, 2022)
- Khālid al-Baqālī al-Qāsimī. 2020. “Riwāyah ‘Fardiqān: Iʿtiqāl Shaykh Raʾīsī’ li-Yūsuf Zaydān.. Istiʿādah Ārāʾ Ibn Sīnā.” www.alketaba.com, 30 March 2020, https://alketaba.com/رواية-فردقان-اعتقال-الشيخ-الرئيس-لي/ (last accessed 25 April 2023)