- ʿAbdallah Bin Bakhīt (1952-, Saudi Arabia) – Shāriʿa al-ʿAṭāyif (‘Street of affections’, 2009), tells the story of three characters who live in the ‘Street of Affections’ in Saudi Arabia, who face their own hardships. It portrays the teenage Nāṣir, who is violated by the men in the neighbourhood, Shanghafah a disabled slave, and Saʿd the son of a poor family.
- Muḥammad al-Busāṭī (1962 – 2012, Egypt) – Jūʿa (2007, English trans. Hunger, 2008). This novel is a day-to-day account of those at the bottom of the Egyptian society who continuously suffer from hunger. It centers the family of Zaghlūl, whose father struggles to hold on to a steady job in Egypt following the 1952 military revolution and Nasser’s Rule (reference). The novel describes how experiencing hunger affects human relations, namely that it leads to the collapse of values and to opportunism (reference) (also in 1954 Nasser comes to power in Egypt).
- Tawfīq Bin Brīk (1961-, Tunisia) – Kalb bin Kalb (‘Dog, son of a dog’, 2013). Written entirely in the Tunisian dialect, and using harsh language, this book in a detailed manner tells the story of the marginalized sections of Tunisian society (reference). Its hero is the outlaw Sʿad Kawbawī, a man who works in various professions, from smuggling and currency exchange to journalistic and literary writing. Through his story, the reader gets a picture of the violence and abuse that takes place in Sʿad’s environment (also in L: Language and Dialects: Dialects: Tunisian dialect).
- Albert Cossery (1913 – 2008, Egypt) – Mendiants et Orgueilleux (1955, English trans. Proud Beggars, 1981). This novel centers the stoic former philosophy university professor who voluntarily turned into a beggar, Gohar. Gohar works a series of strange jobs such as a bookkeeper in a brothel and writing letters for prostitutes. He is also a drug addict and one day, while he is looking for his drug-supplier in a brothel, he encounters the dead prostitute Arbana. A police investigation led by Nour El Dine follows, in which Gohar is a suspect. As the investigation unfolds, the novel describes the lifestyle of Gohar and his friends, as well as the constrains of bureaucracy put on Nour El Dine (reference). The novel was made into a 1991 movie with the title Shaḥātīn wa Nubalāʾ (also in D: Disabilities, Illness, and Disorders: Addiction: Alcohol and Drugs).
- Bilāl Faḍl (1974-, Egypt) – Umm Mīmī (‘Mimi’s mother’, 2021). Protagonist of this satirical, comical novel rebels against his father in Alexandria by studying media in Cairo, where he rents a room in the apartment of the eccentric Umm Mimi and her son (reference). After Umm Mimi’s dies, however, he is stuck with her corpse and forced to arrange the funeral. While describing the student life of the protagonist, the novel also reflects on the historical, social, and geographical dimensions of the poor neighborhood he lives in (reference). The novel uses intertextuality to refer to folklore and religious texts, and is written in both fuṣḥa, classical Arabic, and the Egyptian dialect as well as a style in which it addresses the reader directly (also in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: University Life: Academics and Students).
- Buthaynah al-ʿĪssā (1982-, Kuwait) – Kharāʾiṭ al-Tīh (‘Maps of wandering’, 2015). This novel opens in Mecca where a couple on their Hajj lose their seven-year-old son Mashārī in a flood of pilgrims. The novel is set for twenty-two days and follows the parent’s quest to find him, which takes them from Kuwait to the Sinai in Egypt, and their confrontation with questions about their beliefs and what it means to be a parent. It also describes of their son’s wanderings in the region while encountering forgotten and neglected worlds of those marginalized from the holy city and its surrounding areas, many of whom have restored to crime lacking other options of living (reference) (also in C: Cities: Saudi Arabia: Mecca).
- Yūsuf al-Muḥaymīd (1964-, Saudi Arabia) – Fakhākh al-Rāʾiḥah (2003, English trans. Wolves of the Crescent Moon, 2007). This novel is made up of the three intertwined storylines of its main characters. The first is Ṭurād. Born a Bedouin, he has become fed up with his humiliating jobs in Riyadh. When he is at the bus station ready to leave the city, he finds an official file on Nāṣir, an illegitimate child who grew up in an orphanage, whose story forms the second storyline. The third character is the Sudanese Tawfīq, who was captured and sold in Saudi Arabia as a slave. Having been raped and castrated, he eventually works for a rich family. The novel was banned in Saudi Arabia (also in C: Cities: Saudi Arabia: Riyadh).
- ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Barakah Sākin’s (1963-, Sudan) work often focusses on those marginalized in his home country Sudan. Mukhayyilah al-Khandrīs (‘The imagination of Khandris’, 2014), for example, tells the harrowing story of orphaned street children in Sudanese cities who are constantly threated by violence and abuse and find refuge in alcohol and drugs (also in Family Life: Children and Adolescents: Orphans and Illegitimate Children). His novels have been banned in Sudan.
- Muḥammad Shukrī (1935 – 2003, Morocco) – Al-Khubz al-Hāfi (1982, English trans. For Bread Alone, 1972). Through this controversial childhood memoir, of which the English translation appeared first, the author addresses different issues in the Moroccan society of around the 1940s, such as poverty and social classes, the negative effect of colonialism, and the minority status of the Amazigh (reference). Shukrī grew scraping the streets of Tangier in search for something to eat, not rarely harassed by sexual predators, while at home he was confronted with a violent father (also in M: Memoirs).
- Sektou Mint Mohamed Vall (?, Mauritania) – Le berger du Ksar el Barka (‘The shepherd of Fort el-Baraka’, 2015). Mimoun, young Amazigh from Mauritania, discovers “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen”, a 1789 human civil rights document from the French Revolution, in the library of his school.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- ʿAbd al-Munʿam al-Shantūf. 2012. “‘Jūʿa’ li-Muḥammad al-Busāṭī: al-Ḥājah bi-Iʿtibāriha Alīghūriyyah Sardiyyah.” www.alquds.co.uk, 28 August 2012 https://www.alquds.co.uk/%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%B9-%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%87%D8%A7-%D8%A3/ (last accessed 25 July 2023)
- Kamāl al-Riyāḥī. 2013. “Al-Tūnisī Tawfīq Bin Brīk wa ‘al-Adab al-Sharīr’.” www.aljazeera.net, 11 November 2013 https://www.aljazeera.net/news/cultureandart/2013/11/11/التونسي-توفيق-بن-بريك-و-الأدب-الشرّير (last accessed 5 May 2022)
- Scott Esposito. 2012. “Proud Beggars: plumbing the extremes of pride and poverty.” www.thenationalnews.com, 17 February 2012, https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/books/proud-beggars-plumbing-the-extremes-of-pride-and-poverty-1.372117 (last accessed 25 July 2023)
- Nashwā Aḥmad. 2021. “al-Riwāʾī Bilāl Faḍl Yʿatamid al-Saḥriyyah fī Raṣd Azmah al-Wāqiʿa al-Maṣrī.” www.independentarabia.com, 26 July 2021 www.independentarabia.com/node/245071/ثقافة/الروائي-بلال-فضل-يعتمد-السخرية-في-رصد-أزمة-الواقع-المصري (last accessed 2 May 2022)
- Aḥmad Nājī. 2021. “‘Umm Mīmī’ li-Bilāl Faḍl Tarbiyyah al-Ṭālib al-Mughtarib fī ʿĀlam al-Qāhirah al-Suflī.” In Bidāyyāt (23) https://bidayatmag.com/node/1370 (last accessed May 2, 2022)
- Sawad Hussain. 2017. “An Excerpt from Bothayna al- Essa’s ‘Maps of Wandering’.” www.arablit.org, 11 April 2017, https://arablit.org/2017/04/11/an-excerpt-from-bothayna-al-essas-maps-of-wandering/ (last accessed 23 February 2019)
- Natalie Khazaal, 2013. “Re-evaluating Mohamer Choukri’s Autobiography Al- Khubz al- Hāfi: The Oppression of Morocco’s Amazigh Population, the Saʿālīk, and Backlash.” MEL 16 (2): 147-168