- Sinān Anṭūn (1967-, Iraq) – Iʿjam (2002, English trans. Iʿjam: An Iraqi Rhapsody, 2006). When in the archives of the Iraqi interior ministry handwritten notes are found, an employee is tasked with transcribing them into a legible document. What results is a fictional prison memoir of an Iraqi literature student, Furāt, who was imprisoned in the times of Saddam Hussain in the 1980s. His manuscript, however, is marked with footnotes by the employee who corrects and adds to Furāt’s ironic jokes and observations (reference) (also in 1979 Saddam Hussain President of Iraq).
- ʿAlī al-Jallāwī (1975-, Bahrein) – Aḷḷāh baʿd al-ʿĀshirah (‘God after ten o’clock’, 2011). This satirical novel is on the writer / poet’s experience of imprisonment for writing a poem criticizing the Bahraini regime when he was 17, and then again for another three years in 1995 when he participated in the 1990s uprisings demanding democratic reforms (reference). al-Jallāwī’s prison guard. Ādil, likes to take on the role of God after 10 o’clock in the evening. The novel tells of al-Jallāwī’s experiences with torture and interrogations in several prisons, as well as the overall conditions in Bahrain in the described time-period.
- Anṭwān al-Duwayhī (1948-, Lebanon) – Ḥāmil al-Wardah al-Arjuwāniyyah (‘The bearer of the purple rose’, 2013). Hero of this novel is a writer who for unknown reasons is imprisoned in the ‘Ḥuṣan al-Mīnyāʾ’ facility in Lebanon. He writes up his experiences in prison as well as his hypotheses as to why he was arrested. He also describes that prison is not only a place of deprived freedom, but also a socially accepted phenomenon (reference). He gives his writings to his girlfriend, asking her not to read them and only publish them when the tyrant dies.
- ʿAbd al-Karīm Ghallāb (1919 – 2017, Morocco) – Sabʿat abwāb (‘Seven Gated’, 1965) In this novel, the narrator recounts the tales of his fellow prisoners in Morocco who have been incarcerated and tortured for their nationalist activities. It is based on the author’s own experiences of six months imprisonment (reference).
- Turkī al-Ḥamad’s (1952-, Saudi Arabia) trilogy of novels Aṭyāf al-Aziqqah al-Mahjūrah (‘Phantoms of the Deserted Alleys’), which consists of al-ʿAdālah (English trans. Adama, 2003), al-Shumīsī (English trans. Shumaisi, 2004) and al-Karādīb (‘The Cardinals’, 1998). The novels centre on Hishām al-ʿĀbir, who in the first novel lives in al-Dammam, then moves to Riyadh in the second, to end up in a prison in Jeddah in the last novel, because he became a member of a government-opposed organization. He embarks on an existential journey within himself between his prison walls. The novel is banned in Saudi Arabia (also in F: Family Life: Children and Adolescents: Bildungsroman).
- Abd al-Wahhāb al-Ḥamādī (1979-, Kuwait) – La Tuqaṣiṣ Ruʾyāk (‘Dont tell me your nightmare’, 2014). A dark picture of Kuwait right before the Arab Spring, this novel tells the story of Bassām, who is disturbed by nightmares of a man asking him to save him from death. Throughout the novel, Bassām tries to interpret the dream, a process through which light is shed on the political situation in Kuwait. Among others, he describes illegal torture in detention camps, government corruption, the conditions of migrant workers, and his own past relationships (reference).
- Binsālim Ḥimmīsh (1948-, Morocco) – Muʿadhdhibatī (2010, English trans. My Torturess, 2015). When a young Moroccan bookseller, Ḥamūdah, is accused of being a jihadi activist, he is drugged, imprisoned, and tortured, primarily by a French woman known as al-Ghūlah (‘The Ogre’) (reference). The novel is set after his release following a period of six years in an unknown prison, and describes his experiences. The novel is a reference to the post 9/11 period, in which ‘The War on Terror’ allowed the US and its allies to arrest and abuse people without charge or trail (also in 2001: 9/11 Twin Tower Attack).
- Ṣunʿallāh Ibrāhīm (1937 – 2025, Egypt) – Tilka al-Rāʾiḥah (1966, English trans. That Smell and Notes from Prison, 2014) and Mudhakkirāt Sijn al-Wāḥāt (‘Notes from al-Wahat prison’, 2005).
Tilka al-Rāʾihah tells the first-person narrative of an aspiring writer who is released from prison in Egypt during the 1960s. He describes his daily activities that mimic his prison experience, as he still feels isolated, living with his sister, and is held captive by a policeman who signs off his notebook each night. As such, the line between freedom and captivity is blurred, reflecting on the difficulty of adapting after imprisonment (reference). The narrator’s frustration is symbolized, among other things, by him masturbating (reference). The novel was banned in Egypt, although it later appeared in a heavily censored version.
Mudhakkirāt Sijn al-Wāḥāt is a collection of the author’s prison notes first written on cigarette rolling paper. He spent five years in prison for his communist activities during Jamal Abdel Nasser’s presidentship. He describes instances of torture that he and his friends, some of them also famous writers such as Fuʾād Ḥaddād, went through. At the end of the novel, the author included a history of the Egyptian communist party. An annotated selection of this novel appeared in English translation in That Smell and Notes from Prison (2014) (also in I: Ideologies and Political Movements: Communism and Marxism)
- Al-Ṣādiq bin Mahannī (?, Tunisia) – Sāriq al-Ṭamāṭim aw Zādanī al-ḤabsʿAmran (‘Tomato stealer, or the imprisonment made me older’, 2017). This novel narrates the experiences of its author who was imprisoned for his leftist political activities. It includes him being tortured and his interactions with prisoners who have other political ideologies. It ends with the narrator personally being granted pardon by former Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba in 1980, a scene in which he describes his feelings and thoughts when faced with the man who imprisoned him (reference).
- ʿAbd al-Rahman Maṭar (1960-, Syria) – Sarāb Barrī (‘Wild mirage’, 2015). The storyline of this novel centres the journalist and novelist ʿĀmirʿAbd Aḷḷāh. After participating in the Syrian riots in the 1980’s, ʿĀmir is exiled and imprisoned in Libya. The novel details his daily life in prison, with a focus on the torture and oppression he goes through. During the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, ʿĀmir escapes and sees his chance to continue protesting oppression in Syria by joining the mass demonstrations (also in 1970 Hafez al-Asad Syria).
- Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Nabī (1977-, Egypt) – Fī Ghurfat al-ʿAnkabūt (2016, English trans. In the Spider’s Room, 2018). When a young man is released from imprisonment for having a homosexual relationship, he follows his therapists’ advice and writes down his experiences. However, he encounters a writer’s block and is distracted by a spider, the only other living creature in his room. He starts to remember episodes from his earlier life, such as a young man who sexually harassed him when he was a child, his earlier marriage to cover up his homosexuality, and the birth of his daughter. The events in the novel are based on the arrests following a gay party on the Queen Boat in Cairo (reference) (also in L: Love, Lust and Relationships: LGBTQ: Male Homosexuality).
- Samīr Sāssī (1967-, Tunisia) – Burj al-Rūmī: Abwāb al-Mawt (‘Borj Roumi: The Doors of Death’, 2011). Sāssī, who was accused of being Islamist activist member of the Nahda party, narrates the ten years of detention he spent in the Burj al-Rumi prison in the north of Tunisia during the 23-year reign of Bin Ali (reference). The novel is a is a detailed testimony of the gruesome torture that he and fellow prisoners endured. The novel was first published under the name Burj (‘Borj’) in 2003.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Mahmoud Tawfik. 2009. “Sinan Antoon’s ‘I’jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody’ A Literary Daring Deed.” www.qantara.de, 3 July 2009, https://qantara.de/en/article/sinan-antoons-ijaam-iraqi-rhapsody-literary-daring-deed (last accessed 12 July 2024)
- Maryam ʿAbd Allah. 2012. “ʿAlī al-Jallāwī: al-Baḥr Khārij al-Quḍbān.” www.al-akhbar.com, 20 January 2012, https://al-akhbar.com/Literature_Arts/63995 (last accessed 25 April 2023)
- Ibrāhīm al-Ḥajarī. 2014. “‘Ḥāmil al-Wardah al-Arjuwāniyyah’ Murāfaʿa Sardiyyah Ḍidd al-Istibdād.” www.aljazeera.net, 8 February 2014 https://www.aljazeera.net/news/cultureandart/2014/2/8/%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B1%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9 (last accessed 26 October 2021)
- EAL, p. 247
- Fāyiz ʿAlām. 2016. “Murājiʿa li-Riwāyat ‘Lā Tuqaṣiṣ Ruʾyāk’.” www.raseef22.com, 27 May 2016 https://raseef22.net/article/6904-book-review-abd-el-wahab-al-hamady%20 (last accessed 2 August 2020)
- Nūr al-Hudā Ghūlī. 2011. “Riwāyat ‘Muʿadhdhibatī’.. ʿAwlamat al-Sujūn.” www.aljazeera.net, 25 January 2011 https://www.aljazeera.net/news/cultureandart/2011/1/25/%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%B0%D8%A8%D8%AA%D9%8A-%D8%B9%D9%88%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%86 (last accessed 27 October 2021)
- Tarek el- Ariss. 2013. Trails of Arab Modernity: Literary Affects and the New Political. New York: Fordham University Press, p. 150.
- Stephan Guth. 1995. “The Function of Sexual Passages in some Egyptian Novels of the 1980’s” in Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Roger Allen, Hilary Kilpatrick, and Ed de Moor. London: Saqi Books 123- 130, p. 127
- Ḥabīb al-Ḥājj Sālim. 2018. “al-Ṣādiq bin Mahannī: al-Sijn Mir’āh lil-Tārīkh.” www.al-akhbar.com, 6 January 2018 https://al-akhbar.com/Kalimat/242919 (last accessed 26 October 2021)
- Badiʿa Zaydān. 2017. “‘Fī Ghurfat al-ʿAnkabūt’ li-Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Nabī: ‘al-Mithliyah al-Jinsiyah’ fī Tanāwul baʿīd ʿan al-ʾIsfāf.” www.al-ayyam.ps, 7 March 2017 https://www.al-ayyam.ps/ar_page.php?id=11e87728y300447528Y11e87728 (last accessed 24 November 2021)
- Aljazeera. 2011. “‘Burj al-Rūmī’ .. Dhākirat Sajīn Islāmī.” www.aljazeera.net, 20 November 2011, https://www.aljazeera.net/culture/2011/9/30/برج-الرومي-ذاكرة-سجين-إسلامي (last accessed 22 March 2023)