Abdelrahman bin Ibrahim al-Munif ( ar, عَبْدُ الرَّحْمٰن المُنِيفٌ) known by his nickname Abdelrahman Munif (May 29, 1933 – January 24, 2004) was a Saudi Arabian novelist, short story writer, memoirist, journalist, thinker, and cultural critic. He is considered one of the most significant modern Saudi authors and one of the best in the Arabic language of the 20th century. His novels include strong political elements as well as mockeries of the Middle Eastern elite classes. His work offended the rulers of Saudi Arabia which led to the banning of many of his books and the revocation of his Saudi Arabian citizenship.

Biography

Munif was born in 1933 as a Saudi national and brought up in

Amman, Jordan Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 as of 2021, Amman is ...

to Saudi Arabian parents, and his grandmother was an Iraqi. In 1952 he moved to

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

to study law and later moved to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

. He received a law degree from the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

and a PhD in oil economics from the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...

Faculty of Economics A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

. He later returned to Iraq to work in the oil ministry and became a member of the Ba'ath Party. During this time he edited an industry journal called ''al-Naft wa al-Tanmiya'' "Petroleum and Development". He began writing in the 1970s after he left his job with the Iraqi ministry, quit the Ba'ath party, and moved to

Damascus, Syria )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

, removing himself from a regime he opposed. He quickly became known for his scathing parodies of Middle Eastern elites, especially those of Saudi Arabia, a country which banned many of his books and stripped him of Saudi citizenship. He used his knowledge of the oil industry to full effect criticizing the businessmen who ran it and the politicians they served. Munif was the author of fifteen novels. The ''

Cities of Salt ''Cities of Salt'' is a petrofiction novel by Abdul Rahman Munif. It was first published in Lebanon in 1984 and was immediately recognized as a major work of Arab literature. It was translated into English by Peter Theroux. The novel, and the qu ...

'' quintet followed the evolution of the Arabian peninsula as its traditional Bedouin culture was transformed by the oil boom. The novels portray the history of a broad region, evoking comparisons to

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

Yoknapatawpha County Yoknapatawpha County () is a fictional Mississippi county created by the American author William Faulkner, largely based upon and inspired by Lafayette County, Mississippi, and its county seat of Oxford (which Faulkner renamed "Jefferson"). Faul ...

. The quintet begins with ''Mudun al-Milh'' (مدن الملح, ''Cities of Salt'', 1984), depicting the desert oasis of Wadi al-Uyoun as it is transformed and destroyed by the arrival of Western oilmen, a story similar to that of the disrupted village of

Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and '' magnum opus'', ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...

's ''

Things Fall Apart ''Things Fall Apart'' is the debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, first published in 1958. It depicts pre-colonial life in the southeastern part of Nigeria and the invasion by Europeans during the late 19th century. It is seen as the ...

''. Much as Achebe described the effects of the arrival of powerful missionaries on a traditional African village, so Munif chronicles the economic, social, and psychological effects of the promise of immeasurable wealth drawn from the deserts of nomad and oasis communities. The quintet continues with ''Al-ukhdud'' (1985;''The Trench''), ''Taqasim al-layl wa-al-nahar'' (1989; ''Variations on Night and Day''), ''Al-munbatt'' (1989; ''The Uprooted''), and ''Badiyat al zulumat'' (1989; ''The Desert of Darkness''). Daniel Burt ranked the quintet as the 71st greatest novel of all time. The last two novels in the series have not been translated into English. His first novel to appear in English was ''Endings''. The translator called it the first Saudi novel translated into English, and hailed its innovative portrayal of rural life and environmental challenges in an Arabic genre which had, until then, focused mostly on urban, middle-class experiences. While his works were never particularly successful in the West, throughout the Middle East they are critically acclaimed and extremely popular. ''Cities of Salt'' was described by

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''Whit ...

as the "only serious work of fiction that tries to show the effect of oil, Americans and the local oligarchy on a Gulf country." While he was one of the fiercest critics of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

and his regime, he was utterly opposed to the American invasion of Iraq and spent the last two years of his life working on non-fiction projects to oppose what he saw as renewed imperialism. He died at the age of 71, of kidney and heart failure.

Bibliography

Works in English

* — 1987. ''Cities of Salt'' (Cities of Salt Trilogy, Vol 1), New York: Vintage Books. * — 1991. ''The Trench'' (Cities of Salt Trilogy, Vol 2), New York: Vintage Books. * — 1993. ''Variations on Night and Day'' (Cities of Salt Trilogy, Vol 3), New York: Vintage Books. * — 1998. ''Endings'', London: Quartet Books. * — 1998. ''Story of a City: A Childhood in Amman'', London: Quartet Books.

Works in Arabic

Fiction * — 1973. ''Al-ashjar wa-ghtyal Marzuq الأشجار واغتيال مرزوق,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1974. ''Qissat hubb majusiyya قصّة حبّ مجوسية,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1975. '' Sharq al-Mutawassit شرق المتوسّط,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1976. ''Hina tarakna al-jisr حين تركنا الجسر,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1977. ''An-nihayat النهايات,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1979. ''Sibaq al-masafat at-tawila سباق المسافات الطويلة,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * With Jabra Ibrahim Jabra. 1982. ''Alam bi-la kharait عالم بلا خرائط,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1984. ''Mudun al-milh 1: Al-tih مدن الملح ١: التيه,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1985. ''Mudun al-milh 2: Al-ukhdud مدن الملح ٢: الأخدود,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1989. ''Mudun al-milh 3: Taqasim al-layl wan-nahar مدن الملح ٣: تقاسيم الليل والنهار,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1989. ''Mudun al-milh 4: Al-munbatt مدن الملح ٤: المنبتّ,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1989. ''Mudun al-milh 5: Badiyat az-zulmat مدن الملح ٥: بادية الظلمات,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1991. ''Al-an… huna, aw sharq al-Mutawassit marra ukhra الآن... هنا، أو شرق المتوسّط مرّة أخرى,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1999. ''Ard as-sawad 1–3 أرض السواد ١-٣,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 2005. ''Umm an-nudhur أمّ النذور,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. Non-Fiction * — 1973. ''Mabda al-musharaka wa-tamin al-bitrul al-arabi مبدأ المشاركة وتأمين البترول العربي'', Beirut: Dar al-awda. * — 1975. ''Al-bitrul al-arabi, musharaka aw at-tamin البترول العربي، مشاركة أو التأمين'', Beirut. * — 1976. ''Tamin al-bitrul al-arabi تأمين البترول العربي'', Baghdad. * — 1992. ''Al-katib wal-manfa – Humum wa-afaq ar-riwaya al-arabiyya الكاتب والمنفى'', Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1992. ''Ad-dimuqratiyya awwilan ad-dimuqratiyya daiman الديمقراطية أوّلاً الديمقراطية دائماً'', Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1994. ''Sirat madina – Amman fi l-arba'inat سيرة مدينة – عمّان في الأربعينات,'' Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 1998. ''Bayn ath-thaqafa was-siyasa بين الثقافة والسياسة'', Casablanca: al-Markaz ath-Thaqafi al-Arabi. * — 1998. ''Law'at al-ghiyab لوعة الغياب'', Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 2001. ''Rihlat daw رحلة ضوء'', Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. * — 2001. ''Dhakira lil-mustaqbal ذاكرة للمستقبل'', Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr.

Obituary

* *

Biography

Bibliography

Works in English

Works in Arabic

Obituary

See also

References

External links