- Rīm Bassīyūnī (1973 – , Egypt) – Mārīyū wa Abū al-ʿAbbās (2023, English trans. Mario and Abu L- Abbas, 2025). The novel traces the lives of 20th-century Italian architect Mārīyū and the pious Sufi saint and teacher al-ʿAbbās in Egypt, when Mārīyū is commissioned to design the saint’s mosque. It reflects on the life of al-ʿAbbās, from his exile from Andalusia and discipleship under Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shādhilī to his spiritual struggles, humility, and pursuit of divine truth. Through Mārīyū’s identification with the saint’s teachings on detachment, justice, and inner serenity, the novel presents Sufism as a living tradition of compassion and self-purification relevant to both medieval Egypt and the modern world (reference) (also in R: Religion and Sectarianism: Islam: Sufism: Sufist mystici O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: Architecture).
- Abdelwahab Meddeb (1946 – 2014, Tunisia) – Talismano (1979, English trans. Talismano, 2011). This novel portrays the narrator’s imaginary return to the cities of his youth from his life in Paris. It describes these cities in Tunisia based on his imagination and memory, resulting in a hallucinatory journey that reflects on Arab, Islamic, and European culture, identity, and history (reference). While doing so the novel also makes religious references, particularly Sufi references, as it invokes and celebrates Sufi figures, texts, and rituals. It also depicts a popular rebellion against Bourguiba-era Tunisia in the shape of a crowd that makes its way through the city (also in 1956 Independence Tunisia / 1957 Tunisia becomes a republic).
- Ibrāhīm al-Kūnī (1948-, Libya) al-Majūs (English trans. The Fetishists, 2018) and Nazīf al-Ḥajar (1992, English trans. The Bleeding Stone, 2002).
al-Majūs centres a battle between two competing cultures over establishing utopia on earth, namely: between the ancient Tuareg law and moderate Islam and the sects of gold dust, agents of traditional African folk religions (reference). Al-Kūnī uses many references to Sufism, such as Sufi figures, practices and ideas, and symbols, while also describing the lives of different tribes living in the desert, including their relationship with animals and the vegetation (reference) (also in M: Movement: (E) migration, Refugees and Return: Refugees in Arab countries).
Nazīf al-Ḥajar draws on Tuareg practices and Sufi mysticism to depict the Sahara desert’s balanced way of life which is endangered by a modern (western) lifestyle (reference). It depicts the relationship between the waddān, a breed of sheep wanted for its meet, and the humans. Its main character al-Sūf, a herder living in the mountains of southern Libya. While al-Sūf treats the nature and the waddān respectfully he is confronted with tribes who brutally hunt animals and demand from him to guide them towards the waddān (also in N: Nature: Desert and M: Minorities: Tuareg).
- ʿAbd al-Ḥakīm Qāsim’s (1934 – 1990, Egypt) – Ayyām al-Insān al-Sabʿa (1969, English trans. The Seven Days of Men, 1989). The novel traces an Egyptian boy’s progressive alienation from the traditional world of his family, which is steeped in mystic (Sufi) religion and Islamic folklore (reference). The novel describes the Sufi practices of the Order of Sayyid al-Badāwī led by the pious farmer Ḥājj Karīm, the father of the narrator (see in F: Family Life: Children and Adolescents: Bildungsroman and S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Modernity: Religion and Modernity).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Noshin Bokth. 2025. “Mario and Abu L-Abbas: A novel exploring faith, architecture, and a spiritual journey through Egypt’s history.” www.newarab.com, 5 November 2025, https://www.newarab.com/features/mystical-journey-through-egypts-past-mario-and-abu-l-abbas
- Hoda El Shakry. 2019. The Literary Qur’an: Narrative Ethics in the Maghreb. Fordham University Press: New York, p. 60
- Jamal Assadi. 2021. “Ṣūfī Motifs in Ibrāhīm al-Kūnī’s ‘The Fetishists’.” Advances in Literary Studies 9: 143-153, p. 143, 144
- Meg Furniss Weisberg. 2015. “Spiritual Symbolism in the Sahara: Ibrahim al-Koni’s Nazīf al-Ḥajar.” Research in African Literatures 46(3): 46-67, p. 46 see also Faryāl Jabūrī Ghazūl. 1997. “al-riwāyah al-ṣūfiyyah fī al-adab al-maghāribī.” AJCP17: 28-53
- EAL. p. 633-4