See also H: Historical Novels: Historical Novels on Slavery
- Rāshid ʿabd al-Naʿīmī (1937-, UAE) – Shāhindah (‘Shahinda’, 1976). Often seen as the first from the UAE, this novel sheds light on the slave trade of women in the country. When Shāhindah’s father leaves the family in search for a better life, a slave trader gets his hands on the beautiful girl and sells her to the merchant Ḥusayn, whose family she then lives with (reference). When Muḥammad, a man she falls in love with, refuses to marry her, she starts to prostitute herself after which Ḥusayn sells her to another slave trader who she reluctantly marries. Nevertheless, as a ‘revenge’ on men, she has multiple relationships, and is eventually left with an old widower in the desert. This is not her last station, however, as she is then discovered by a royal subordinate who takes her to the palace. She becomes queen and is finally able to take revenge (reference).
- Walad ʿAbd al-Qādir (1941-, Mauritania) – al-Asmāʾ al-Mutaghayyirah (‘The changing names’, 1981). This novel is set during and right after the time of the independence movement in Mauritania and during independence, and talks about the social makeup of the country in that time-period (reference). It centres a young boy who is sold into slavery, and “changes his name several times during his live, in order to be accepted by the various people among whom he has to live”, in a society in which one’s social status is derived from the name and surname (reference) (also in 1960 Mauritania Independent).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Jonas Elbousty and Muhammad Ali Aziz. 2015. Advanced Arabic Literary Reader for Students of Modern Standard Arabic. Routledge: London, p. 66 and al-Bīl, Fāris Tawfīq. 2015. Al-Riwāyah al-Khalījiyyah: Qirāʾah fī al-Ansāq al-Thaqāfiyyah. Dār al-Akādīmyyah li-Nashr wa al-Taqzīʿ: Amman, p. 37, 67
- Aḥmad Ibrāhīm al-Sharīf. 2019. “Mubdaʿa min Mawritāniyyah .. Aḥmad Walad ʿAbd al-Qādir wa ‘al-Asmāʾ al-Mutaghayirrah’.” www.youm7.com, 29 June 2019 https://www.youm7.com/story/2019/6/29/%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%B9-%D9%85%D9%86-%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%A3%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D9%88%D9%84%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D9%88-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%BA%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9/4309973 (last accessed 4 August 2023)
- Farida Abu-Haidar. 2004. “African Literature in Arabic” in The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature, eds. F. Abiola Irele and Simon Gikandi, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. 178-199, p. 195 and ʿAṭiyyah Yūsif. 2014. “Tīmah al-Ṭifl wa Fīnūmīnīlujiyā al-Ism fi Riwāyat ‘al-Asmāʾ al-Mutaghayyirah lil-Riwāʾī al-Mawrītānī Aḥmad Walid ʿAbd al-Qādir’.” Majalat al-Adāb 14(1): 138-168, p. 153-154