- Ismāʾīl Ghazālī (1977-, Morocco) – Mawsim Ṣayd al-Zanjūr (‘The season of pike fishing’, 2013). A Franco-Moroccan saxophonist with Amazigh roots is invited by a Moroccan singer-friend to go pike fishing with him in the Aglmam Azgza lake in the Atlas Mountains (reference). While he stays in a hotel by the lake, he recalls his friend who committed suicide after completing a novel. In the hotel, the narrator meets a score of characters, both foreign and local but all in search of something, as he learns about the mysterious history of the lake and, in parallel, his own relation to the lake that predated his birth (also in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: Music).
- Ḥanna Mīnāh (1924 – 2018, Syria) – al-Shirāʿ wa al-ʿĀṣifa (‘Sail and Storm’, 1966) is set in Latakia under French colonial rule and describes the political sentiments in Syria during World War II through the story of a sailor suffering shipwreck. When the main protagonist, Muḥammad Ibn Zahdī al-Ṭarūsī, is caught up in a heavy storm at sea, his ship sinks and he forced to stay on mainland before eventually venturing off to sea with a new ship (reference). On the mainland, Muḥammad befriends the communist fighter Kāmil, and he gradually becomes politically active against the French forces (reference). The story of the sailor’s struggle against nature / the storm, is juxtaposed with the destruction the war brought about in Latakia. The novel was made into a 2012 movie with the same name (also in 1940 – 1945 World War II).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Khaled El Aref. 2016. “I Speak Tamazight, but in Arabic: Contesting the Cultural Terrain in Morocco.” International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences,70-83, p. 77
- Nāṣṣir al-Ḥarshī. 2019. “Riwāyah ‘al-Shirāʿ wa-al-ʿĀṣifa’ li-Ḥahhā Mīnah: al-Sindibād Yaḥlim bil-ʿAwdah Ilā al-Baḥr.” www.alquds.co.uk, 28 February 2019, https://www.alquds.co.uk/%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%B5%D9%81%D8%A9-%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%86%D8%A7-%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%AF/ (last accessed 18 July 2023)