- Leila Aboulela (1964-, Sudan) – The Kindest of Enemies (2015). Natasha Wilson works in a Scottish university and specializes in the 19th century Caucasian War, which saw a fierce Muslim resistance to the Russian invasion of Dagestan, Chechnya, and Circassia (reference). One of her students is Oz, Osama, a descendent of Ismail Shamil, one of the leaders of this resistance. The novel interweaves Natasha’s hybrid identity, being a child to a Russian mother and Sudanese father, with the story of Anna, who is taken a hostage in 1854 Georgia, as it explores the politics of the Caucasus at the time.
- Ṣunʿallāh Ibrāhīm (1937 – 2025, Egypt) – al-Jalīd (2011, English trans. Ice, 2019). In this novel, a PhD student, Shukrī, moves to Moscow in the 1970s as part of an academic exchange. He narrates his everyday experiences living in a student house for foreign students, as he observes how they eat, drink and sleep with each other while also not shying away from describing his own sexual encounters. In the meantime, the Brezhnev-era Soviet Union is stagnating and Shukrī’s descriptions include depictions of the Union’s ethnic and cultural diversity and reflections on the October 1973 war which erupts in native Egypt (also in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: University Life: Academics and Students).
- Ulfat ʿUmar al-Idilbī (1912 – 2007, Syria) – Ḥikāyat Jadī (1999, English trans. Grandfather’s Tale, 1999). A grandmother living in Damascus, Syria, tells her grandchildren about her own grandfather, Ṣāliḥ, who migrated from what is now Russia to Damascus two centuries ago. The novel depicts the Daghestani family’s political struggle against the occupying Russians who forced them into exile and describes the effects of family separation at a sensitive time in history (reference).
- Yūsif Razūqqah (1957-, Tunisia) – Mismār Tshīkhūf (‘Chekhov’s nail’, 2014). In this memoir, the author describes the period he spent in Moscow between 1984 and 1987 during a time of economic depression in the Soviet Union (reference). It also describes the collapse of the perestroika and the final stages of before and after Gorbachev.
- Khalīl al-Razz (1956-, Syria) – Al-Ḥayy al-Rūsī (‘The Russian neighborhood’, 2019). This novel is narrated by a Syrian Russian-Arabic translator who lives in a zoo in the Russian quarter of Damascus together with Fīktūr Iyfānītsh, director of the zoo and former Russian journalist, a giraffe, two dogs, and a bird at a time of war in Syria. While the novel describes the characters’ coping in their isolated neighborhood, it also reflects on the hero’s experiences living in Moscow and the cultural and political role of Russia in Syria (reference) (also in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: Translation).
- Kafā al-Zuʿaybī (1965-, Jordan) – Laylā wa al-Thalj wa Ludmīllā (‘Layla, the snow and Ludmilla’, 2007). With on the background a collapsing Soviet Union, Laylā studies medicine in St. Petersburg where her communist father sent her to (reference). She is friends with Ludmīllā who lives a free life, while she herself is still influenced by the situation in her home country, Jordan. There, disappointed with the achievements of Arab revolutions, her father becomes increasingly religious. Laylā thus finds herself between two fires, that of her home country and her patriarchal father, and her life in Russia and love for the Russian doctor Andrīyyā (also in 1991 End Cold War – Fall of Soviet Union).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Erica Wagner. 2016. “‘The Kindness of Enemies’, by Leila Aboulela.” www.nytimes.com, 15 January, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/books/review/the-kindness-of-enemies-by-leila-aboulela.html (last accessed 1 April 2024)
- Saad al-Bazei. 2000. “‘Grandfather’s Tale’ by Uflat Idilbi.” World Literature Today 74(2): 452, p. 452
- Shādī Zarībī. 2014. “‘Mismār Tshīkhūf’ Riwāyah Tunashid al-Jurāʾ wa Tusamī al-Ashyāʾ bi-Asmāʾihā.” www.alarab.co.uk, 12 April 2014, https://alarab.co.uk/%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%AA%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%AE%D9%88%D9%81-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A3%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%B3%D9%85%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A8%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%87%D8%A7 (last accessed 11 January 2023)
- Mūsā Ibrahīm Abū Riyāsh. 2020. “Riwāyah ‘al-Ḥayy al-Rūsī’ li-Khalīl al-Razz wa al-Waham al-Murīḥ.” www.alquds.co.uk, 31 March 2020, https://www.alquds.co.uk/رواية-الحي-الروسي-لخليل-الرز-والوهم/ (last accessed 5 May 2023)
- ʿAbd al-Sitār Nāṣṣir. 2009. “Inhiyār Rūsiyāh wa ʿĀdāt al-Sharq al-ʿArabī: Laylā wa al-Thalj wa Lādmīllā fī Ḍiyāfah Kafā al-Zuʿaybī.” www.addustour.com, 5 June 2009 https://www.addustour.com/articles/476260-%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D9%88%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A-%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%89-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D9%84%D8%AC-%D9%88%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%84%D8%A7-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B6%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%A9-%D9%83%D9%81%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B2%D8%B9%D8%A8%D9%8A?desktop=1 (last accessed 23 November 2021)