- Rabih Alameddine (1959-, Lebanon / USA) – I, the Divine (2001). Football in this literary work is associated with the protagonist’s family’s traumatic experiences of Lebanon’s Civil War (see 1975 – 1988 Lebanese Civil War) and the nation’s chronic dilemma of sectarianism, prejudice, and chauvinism. Written in English, it narrates the life story of the Lebanese American artist Sarah Nour el-Din, who has a talent for controlling the football, but whose parents and teacher disallowed her to play the game (reference) (also in C: Cities: Lebanon: Beirut).
- Khālid al-Barrī (1972-, Egypt) – Al-Dunyā Ajmal min al-Janna (2001, English trans. Life is More Beautiful Than Paradise: A Jihadist’s Own Story, 2009). This novel tells the autobiographical story of the author as he describes the role soccer played in forming his political ideas. It starts in Asyut in Upper Egypt, in the year 1986, when the author was 14, and through playing soccer got involved with a radical group of Muslims who he became friends with and developed a loyalty to the Islamic militant cause (reference) (also in I: Ideologies and Political Movements: Terrorism: (De) Radicalization).
- Parker Bilal (pen name of Jamal Mahjoub, 1996-, Sudan / UK) published several English- language crime and investigation novels such as The Golden Scales (2012). This crime- novel centres on the Sudanese down on his luck former police inspector Makana who fled to Cairo and is hired by the powerful Hanafi, owner of the city’s soccer team, to track down his missing star player. In his search, Makana is confronted with the city’s underworld of among others religious fanatism, Russian gangsters and security forces (also in P: (Police) Thrillers and crimes: (Police) Investigations).
- Muḥammad al-Bisāṭī (1937 – 2012, Egypt) – Duqq al-Ṭabūl (2006, English trans. Drumbeat, 2010) depicts a soccer team in an unnamed country that resembles the Gulf region, that qualifies for the World Cup. The country’s monarch leader requires each citizen to go to France to support the team. The many foreign workers remain alone and are suddenly in control over the country where they have lacked so many human rights (reference). The story is narrated by an anonymous Egyptian driver (also in M: Movement: (E)Migration, Refugees and Return: (E) Migration: Non-Arab Migrants in Arab Countries)
- Hishām al-Bustānī’s (1975-, Jordan) controversial short story ‘Al-Fayṣalī wa al-Waḥdāt’, describes the hostility between the fan clubs of Jordan’s two main soccer teams. It centers two fans from each club, the ‘green man’ and the ‘blue man’, whose violent clash ultimately makes them indistinguishable (reference). The story reflects not just on sports in Jordan, but also on identity politics, relations between Jordanians and Palestinians in Jordan, and the pointlessness of the rivalry. The short story can be found in the collection al-Fawḍah al-Ratībah lil-Wijūd (2010 English trans. The Monotonous Chaos of Existence, 2022). The English translation can also be read in Barricade: A Journal of Antifascism and Translation 1, no.1 (Spring 2018)).
- Ḥasan Kamāl (?, Egypt) – Nasiytu Kalima al-Sir! (‘I forgot my password’, 2017). The novel is inspired by the Egyptian taekwondion Amr Khairi. It describes the physical and psychological road the protagonist had to take to become a Taekwondo champion, among others training in Korea. Furthermore, the narrator of the novel describes the political and social developments he witnessed in Egypt during the last ten years, as well as what he witnessed when traveling to other parts of the world such as the partition of Korea into north and south Korea (reference) (also in W: Outside the Arab World: Asia).
- Maʿan Abū Ṭalib (1981-, Jordan) – Kul al-Muʿārik (2016, English trans. All the Battles, 2016). This novel focuses on 28-year old Saʿīd, who leads a comfortable, yet boring, middle-class life in Amman until he one evening visits a run-down boxing club. His obsession with underground sports grows as he starts skipping work or showing up with injuries. He eventually leaves his job to start full-time training. He starts to enter fights and winning them, becoming a boxing star. However, his rise to boxing stardom eventually ends with defeat, something the protagonist needs to learn how to deal with.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Yousef Awad. 2016. “Football in Arabic literature in diaspora: Global influences and local manifestations.” International Review for the Sociology of Sport 51(8): 1005-21, p. 1009
- Alon K. Raab. 2017. “Sport in the Middle East” in The Oxford Handbook of Sports History, eds. Robert Edelman and Wayne Wilson, Oxford University Press: Oxford: 287- 300, p. 296
- Curtis R. Ryan. 2023. “Uniter or Divider? Identity Politics and Football in Jordan.” POMEPS Studies 48, pp. 7-12, p. 9
- Shīmāʾ Shanāwī. 2017. “Ḥasan Kamāl: ‘Nasiytu Kalimah al-Sir’ Riwāyah ʿĀliqah bi-al-ʿĀlim al-Iftirāḍī.” www.shorouknews.com, 19 December 2017 https://www.shorouknews.com/news/view.aspx?cdate=19122017&id=69c9f2eb-b797-4330-8e18-aa35783b72f6 (last accessed 24 November 2021)