- Khālid Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Barādiʿī’s (1934-, Syria) play al-Salām Yuḥāṣir Qarṭājannah (‘Peace besieges Carthage’, 1979) uses the theme of war between Carthage and Rome to pass judgement on present-day events. As such, Carthage represents Egypt under Sadat, and Rome Israel (reference). The play ends with Carthage defeated by Romans and Carthage warriors vowing to rebuild it.
- Muṣṭafā al-Qurnah’s (?, Palestine) al-Mudarraj al-Rūmānī (‘The Roman Theater’, 2017) and Shimtū (‘Shimto’, 2010).
al-Mudarraj al-Rūmānī takes the reader to Philadelphia, Amman’s name under Roman times. The novel describes the social an economic setting of the city through Yānūs, a fierce adversary of the Roman empire. During imprisonment he is ordered to help construct the Roman Theater that is currently still in Amman’s city centre. He ends up becoming the construction’s overseer and manages to escape Philadelphia bound for his home village, but a confrontation with Romans is never far away (reference).
Shimtū combines the history of two cities in northern Tunisia during the Roman Empire: Shimtū, currently Jendouba, and Blārījiyyā, also Bulla Regia. It describes the hardships its citizens face living under Roman rule, and the social revolution of the Christian Donatists’ that this led to in the area adjacent to the Numidian Kingdom.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Ali al-Raʿi. 1992. “Arabic Drama since the thirties.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muḥammad MuṣṭafāBadawī. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 358-404, p. 365
- Muḥammad Ramaḍān al-Jabūr. 2018. “Al-Makān fī Riwāyat ‘al-Mudarraj al-Rūmānī’ lil-Riwāʾī Muṣṭafā al-Qarnah.” www.ahewar.org, 9 November 2018 https://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=611267 (last accessed 5 November 2021)