- Jūkha al-Ḥārthī (1978-, Oman) Sayiddāt al-Qamr (2010, English trans. Celestial Bodies, 2018). Set from the 1940s onwards, this novel depicts in a non-chronological manner three sisters and their families in the Omani village of al-ʿAwāfi, who witness the country evolve from a traditional, slave-owning society to its complex present. The storyline switches between the personal, such as parents and relationships, and the public, such as the British imperialism and the oil-effected economy. The English translation was the first Arabic novel that won the Man Booker International prize in 2019.
- ʿAbdallah Khalīfah (1948-, Bahrain) – ʿAqāb Qātil (‘Fatal punishment’, 2014) and al-Yanābīʿa (‘Springs’, 2013). In this first novel, the author describes how Bahraini society became a consumer society dependent on oil-export. Its main characters are from both the poor and middle social class. Covering the period from the British colonisation until Bahraini independence, al-Yanābīʿa tells the story of three generations: Al-Awwād, his son ʿAlī, and his grandson Jamāl. It reflects on the transformations in Bahraini society after pearls from Japan replace Bahraini pearls, and oil is discovered, which leads to fundamental changes in the class structures in society (also in 1971 Independence Bahrain).
- The Qatari sisters Dalāl Khalīfah (?-) and Shuʿāʿ Khalīfah (?-) are considered pioneers of the novel in Qatar. Both have published novels dealing with the modernisation of the Gulf following the oil era. Shuʿāʿ Khalīfah’s Khabāyā al-Lāl (‘The secrets of Lal’, 2020), for example, tells the story of a desert near Abu Dhabi, in which ‘black gold’ is found, and the influence this has on Bedouin life and identity (reference). Its hero is Hazzāʿ Bilmajādī, who, like many Bedouin and tribesmen, works for the British Oil Company under poor conditions. The novel includes lexicon from the Bedouin dialect and describes local traditions and customs.
- Ibrāhīm ʿAbd al-Majīd (1946- , Egypt) – al-Ballad al-Ukhrā (1994, English trans. The Other Place, 2005). Protagonist of this novel, a middle-class Egyptian from Alexandria, moves to one of the oil-rich Gulf States in search for work and describes his and other laborer’s experiences interacting with the country’s local elite and agents of Western businesses. The novel won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 1996 (together with Laṭīfah al- Zayyāt’s al-Bāb al-Maftūḥ (1960, English trans. The Open Door, 2002)) (also in M: Movement: (E)Migration, Refugees and Return: (E) Migration: Arab Migrant Workers).
- ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf (1933 – 2004, Jordan / Saudi Arabia) – Mudun al-Miliḥ, a five volume literary work of which the first three are translated to English: al-Tīh (1984, Cities of Salt, 1987), al-Akhdūd (1985, English trans. The Trench, 1991), Taqāsīm al-Layl wa al-Nahār (1989, Variations on Night and Day, 1993), al-Munbatt (‘Sprouting’, 1989) and Bidayāt al-Ẓulmāt (‘Beginnings of injustice’, 1989).
The immense literary work describes the history of an unnamed society resembling the Gulf and its developments influenced by oil. It captures the dramatic changes that the desert and its inhabitants have undergone: the intervention of colonial powers and the corruption of the ruling family, the wrenching of traditional desert communities into exploited and oppressed urban populations, and the changing from nomadic tribal rivalries into centralized police states (reference). As Edward Said stated on the jacket-cover of the English translation “it is the only serious work of fiction that tries to show the effect of oil, Americans and the local oligarchy on a gulf country.” The complete work is the longest novel in modern Arabic literature.
- Sulṭān al-Qaḥṭānī (1950- ?, Saudi Arabia) – Zāʾir al-Masāʾ (‘Evening visitor’, 1980). This is one of the first novels dealing with the petroleum age in Saudi Arabia, the age of increased materialism (reference). When the livelihood of the blacksmith ʿAbd Allah is threatened by modern industry, he is forced to marry off his daughter Nūrah. But Nūrah’s husband divorces her again when his first wife discovers the marriage, and Nūrah is left alone and divorced with their child. The son grows up to be an eye-doctor and eventually meets his father when this latter is his patient (reference).
- Yūsuf al-Qaʿīd (1944-, Egypt) – al-Bayāt al-Shatawī (‘Hibernation’, 1974). Tells the story of the events following the visit to an Egyptian village by a group of oil engineers looking for oil. The novel describes the affect the visit has on each of the villagers’ ambitions and dreams. The novel was made into a 1987 film with the same title.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Munā Abū al-Naṣr. 2021. “Riwāyah ‘Khabāyā al-Lāl’ … Iktishāf al-Nafṭ wa Suʾāl al-Hawiyah.” www.aawsat.com, 23 January 2021, https://aawsat.com/home/article/2760546/%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%C2%AB%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84%C2%BB-%D8%A7%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%81%D8%B7-%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%A4%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%87%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9 (last accessed 8 August 2023)
- Maher Jarrar. 2016. “Foreword” in Representations and Visions of Homeland in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Sebastian Günter and Stephan Milich. Georg Olms Verlag: Hildesheim, Zürich, New York. pp. xvii-xxxiii, p. xxiv and Ṣabry Hafiẓ. 2006. “An Arabian Master.” New Left Review 37: 39-66
- Sultan S.M. Al-Qahtani. 1994.The novel in Saudi Arabia: emergence and development 1930-1989: an historical and critical study. (doctoral dissertation University of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom) Retrieved from http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8131/ p. 127, 129 (last accessed 4 May 2021)