Different than the genre of autobiography where the life of the author is focus of the novel, memoirs treat a part of the life of the author as a framework to describe relationships with important people or the witnessing of important historical events.
- Fakhrī al-Bārūdī (1887 – 1966, Syria) – Mudhakkirāt al-Barūdī (‘Memoires of al-Barudi’, 1951). Beginning with his childhood memories and descriptions of its folklore aspects in Damascus, al-Barūdī follows by describing the intensifying tensions within the Arab-Turkish relationship in his school. Though scarcely sharing personal details and how Arab nationalism in the period effected himself, the novel describes the general Damascene atmosphere in the pre- World War 1 period (reference) (also in 1800 – 1920 Ottoman Period).
- Muʿīn Basīsū (1927 – 1984, Palestine) – Yawmiyyāt Ghazza (‘Diaries of Gaza’, 1971). This collection of memories, written by the poet Muʿīn Basīsū, reflects on the author’s growing up in Gaza. A special role is given to the sea, and how his uncle taught him to swim, a lesson that echoed in the way his poetry is written (reference). It goes on to describe the author’s leftist political leanings and involvement with communism, his relationships with other poets, the details of Gaza’s infrastructure, and his thoughts on poetry (also in I: Israel and Palestine: West Bank and Gaza).
- Mīr Baṣrī (1911 – 2006, Iraq) – Riḥlat al-ʿUmr min Ḍifāf Dijlah ilā Wādī al-Tāymiz (‘From the banks of the Tigris to the Thames Valley’, 1992). In his memoir, Baṣrī reflects on his life as a Jew in Iraq, his work for the Iraqi government during the creation of Israel, and his eventual exile to London (also in 1948 al-Nakbah).
- Maḥmūd Darwīsh (1941 – 2008, Palestine / Israel) – Dhākirat Lil-Nisyān (1987, English trans. Memory for Forgetfulness, 1995). Set in one day in Beirut under siege in 1982, this memoir of the famous Palestinian poet in exile is a juxtaposition of dream, reality, poetry, prose, past and present, through which it questions the relationship between memory and history. It describes Darwīsh’s long day and direct circumstances in detail, such as how he makes his morning coffee in a destructed in Beirut with the sound of bombs on the background, while reflecting on the siege of his own homeland: Palestine (reference) (also in 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon).
- Jabrā Ibrāhīm Jabrā (1920 – 1994, Palestine) – al-Biʾr al-Ūlā: Fuṣūl min Sīrah Dhātiyyah (1987, English trans. The First Well: A Bethlehem Boyhood, 1995). This memoir chronicles the writer’s youth in the 1920s and 1930s in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, where his own Christian background coexists with Muslim and Jewish culture (reference). It describes Jabra’s early interest in literature, the relationship between his illiterate parents, and the children’s games he used to play. The timeframe of this memoir also includes the aftermath of the World War I, that caused an exodus to South and Central America (also in 1914 – 1918 World War I).
- Fatema Mernissi (1940 – 2015, Morocco) – Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Childhood (1994). This literary work is a fictionalized memoir of the first nine years of the author’s life, from 1940 to 1949. The story takes place in a closed city harem in Fez, Morocco, and interweaves Mernissi’s own memories with the stories of the women around her. Reflecting on how this period in her life shaped her thinking, Mernissi describes her growing up in the harem as constraining but safe. Her mother, Douja, for example, supported her to pursue an education (reference). The memoir also sheds light on Moroccan society from French colonialism, through World War II, to the country’s independence.
- ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf (1933 – 2004, Jordan / Saudi Arabia) – Sīrat Madīna: ʿAmmān fī al-Arbaʿīnāt (1994, English trans. Story of a City: A Childhood in Amman, 1996). This literary work combines the autobiographical element of the author’s childhood years all through age nineteen, when he leaves Amman, with a chronicle of the city Amman, which is depicted as a multicultural and cosmopolitan city (reference). These two characteristics are also reflected in the protagonist’s own identity, having a Saudi father and an Iraqi mother, and being raised in Amman. As such, the text is not only a depiction of his childhood, but also of developing an identity in exile (reference) (also in C: Cities: Jordan: Amman).
- Nawāl al-Saʿadāwī (1931 – 2021, Egypt) – Mudhakkirāt Ṭabībah (1958, English trans. Memoirs of a Woman Doctor, 2001). This autobiography describes the authors coming-of-age as a young Egyptian woman studying medicine and becoming a doctor. Al-Saʿadāwī uses her experiences as a doctor and psychiatrist to express the internal and external conflicts that women experience (reference). She describes how her obtained knowledge challenges patriarchal and religious-conservative conceptions of womanhood, such as the medical versus religious conception of menstruation. She also interweaves her personal story with the political circumstances through the story of urban, educated Egyptian women in the decolonizing era of the 1950s (reference) (also in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: Doctor’s Stories).
- Ṣamuwʾīl Shamʿūn (1959-, Iraq) – Iraqi fī Bārīs (‘Iraqi in Paris’, 2005). After finishing his military duty in Iraq, the narrator travels to different Arab countries where he is asked to explain his Jewish name. He joins the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and works in Beirut, until he moves with them to Tunis where he gets a visa to move to France. There he is homeless while dreaming to make a movie about his deaf and mute father but, being unable to do so, he writers about his youth in Iraq and how he loved cinema. After a few years he moves to London where he gets married and works as an editor for Banipal, a magazine on Arab literature (reference).
- Muḥammad Shukrī (1935 – 2003, Morocco) – Al-Khubz al-Hāfi (1982, English trans. For Bread Alone, 1972). Through this controversial childhood memoir, of which the English translation appeared first, the author addresses different issues in the Moroccan society of around the 1940s, such as poverty and social classes, the negative effect of colonialism, and the minority status of the Amazigh (reference). Shukrī grew scraping the streets of Tangier in search for something to eat, not rarely harassed by sexual predators, while at home he was confronted with a violent father (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: The Marginalized).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Thomas Phillip. 1993. “The Autobiography in Modern Arab Literature and Culture.” Poetics Today 14(3): 573-602, p. 580-1
- ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Ḥamūd. 2023. “Muʿīn Basīsū Yastakmil ‘Yawmiyyāt Gazza’.” www.manateq.net, 15 November 2023, https://manateq.net/%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A8%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%88-%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%83%D9%85%D9%84-%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%91%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9/ (last accessed 14 January 2024)
- Muḥammad Nāṣṣir al-Khawālidah. 2008. “Maḥmūd Darwīsh wa Dhākirat Lil-Nisyān.” www.diwanalarab.com, 25 October 2008, https://www.diwanalarab.com/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%B4-%D9%88 (last accessed 19 January 2024)
- Khadījah Zaʿatar. 2009. “Khiṭāb al-Hawāmish fī Sirat Jabrā Ibrāhīm Jabrā al-Dhātiyyah ‘al-Bʾir – Shāriʿa al-Amīrāt’.” Discours littéraire et religieux au Maghreb 43: 23-36, accessed through https://journals.openedition.org/insaniyat/886 (last accessed 19 January 2024)
- Dalya Abudi. 2010. Mothers and Daughters in Arab Women’s Literature: The Family Frontier. Brill: Leiden and Boston, p. 118
- Ariel M. Sheetrit. 2014. “The Geography of Identity ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf’s ‘Sīrat madīna: ʿAmmān fī ‘l-arabʿīnāt’.” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, 14: 27-45, p. 28, 43
- Evelyne Accad.1995. “Arab Women’s Literary Inscriptions” in College Literature Vol. 22: 1 pp. 172-180, p. 175
- Khadidiatou Guèye. 2010. “‘Tyrannical Femininity’ in Nawal El Saadawi’s ‘Memoirs of a Woman Doctor’.” Research in African Literatures 41(2): 161-172, p 165
- BBC Arabic. 2015. “ʿĀlim al-Kutub: Liqaʾ Khāṣ maʿ al-Kātib al-ʿIrāqī Ṣamuʾīl Shamʿūn.” www.bbc.com August, 26, 2015 https://www.bbc.com/arabic/multimedia/2015/08/150826_books_world_samuel_shimon (last accessed November 20, 2021)
- Natalie Khazaal, 2013. “Re-evaluating Mohamer Choukri’s Autobiography Al- Khubz al- Hāfi: The Oppression of Morocco’s Amazigh Population, the Saʿālīk, and Backlash.” MEL 16 (2): 147-168