Turki al-Hamad ( ar, تركي الحمد, ) is a Saudi Arabian political analyst, journalist, and novelist, best known for his trilogy about the

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

of Hisham al-Abir, a Saudi Arabian teenager, the first installment of which, ''Adama'', was published in 1998. Although banned in Saudi Arabia,

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

, and

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

, the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

edition of the trilogy — called in Arabic ''Atyaf al-Aziqah al-Mahjurah'' (Phantoms of the Deserted Alley) — has sold 20,000 copies. The novels explore the issues of sexuality, underground political movements, scientific truth, rationalism, and religious freedom against the backdrop of the late 1960s and early 1970s, a volatile period in Saudi Arabia, sandwiched between the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...

and the 1973 oil crisis. Hamad is quoted on the cover of one of his novels: "Where I live there are three

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

s: religion, politics and sex. It is forbidden to speak about these. I wrote this trilogy to get things moving." As a result of his work, four fatwas have been issued against him by the country's religious clerics, and he has been named as an

apostate Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal religious disaffiliation, disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of emb ...

in a statement by al-Qaeda. He continues nevertheless to live in

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...

, calling the fatwas "more of a nuisance than anything else," according to the ''Daily Star''.

Early life

Al-Hamad was born in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

to a family of merchants that originated from

Buraidah Buraidah ( ar, بريدة ') is the capital and largest city of Al-Qassim Region in north-central Saudi Arabia in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. Buraydah lies equidistant from the Red Sea to the west and Persian Gulf to the east. Its known fo ...

Al-Qassim Region The Qassim Province ( ar, منطقة القصيم ' , Najdi Arabic: ), also known as the Qassim Region, is one of the 13 provinces of Saudi Arabia. Located at the heart of the country near the geographic center of the Arabian Peninsula, it has ...

in Saudi Arabia. The family moved when he was a child to Dammam in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. He later moved to the United States, where he obtained his Ph.D. from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

, later returning to Riyadh to teach political science. He retired in 1995 to take up writing full-time.

His novels and the response

After the first of four fatwas was issued in 1999, Crown Prince Abdullah, who succeeded to the throne of Saudi Arabia in August 2005, offered al-Hamad bodyguards for his protection. The next three were issued after the publication of the third in the trilogy, ''Karadib'', in which the main character wonders whether God and the devil are the same thing, and which the clerics regarded as

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

. As a result, he was threatened by the ''mutaween'' by e-mail, and accused of apostasy by al-Qaeda. One fatwa was withdrawn in 2003 by Sheikh Ali Al-Khudair, a well-known Saudi scholar. ''Karadib'' will be published in English in 2006. Al-Hamad's latest novel, ''The Winds of Paradise'', is about the September 11, 2001 attacks and was published in Arabic in 2005. It has been described as a "thinly disguised sketch of the lives of four of the hijackers." He has elsewhere called 9/11 the "consequence of a chronic disease in the Arab psyche," a "culture of illusion":

It is an illusion when we think that all the world is against us, and nillusion when we think that there will not be any existence for us without the perishing of the others. It is illusion when we have either to get the best for ourselves or we have to die. According to this logic either we possess all the rain or let the rain to be stopped if we were thirsty. It is also an illusion if we think that the past is the route to the future and it is illusion if we think that the world without us will not be able to survive; for this reason they compete against each other to exploit us like hyenas struggling for their prey. The greater illusion is that we are God's angels on His land and all the rest of the world are devils.

Arrest

Al-Hamad was arrested December 24, 2012 after a series of tweets on religion and other topics. The arrest was ordered by Saudi Interior Minister Prince

Muhammad bin Nayef Muhammad bin Nayef Al Saud ( ar, محمد بن نايف آل سعود, translit=Muḥammad bin Nāyif Āl Su‘ūd; born 30 August 1959), colloquially known by his initials MBN or MbN, is a former Saudi Arabian politician and businessman who serv ...

, however the charges against al-Hamad were not announced. He was freed in 2013.

Bibliography

*''Adama'', novel, 2003, *''Shumaisi'', novel, 2004, *''Al-Thiqafa al-`Arabiyya Amam Tahaddiyat al-Taghayyur'', الثقافة العربية أمام تحدّيات التغيّر (Arab Culture Faces the Challenges of Change) *''Al-Karadib'', novel *''Al-Thiqafa al-`Arabiyya fi `Asri 'l-`Awlama'', الثقافة العربية في عصر العولمة (Arab Culture in the Age of Globalisation) *''Sharq al-Wadi'', شرق الوادي (East of the valley) *''Al-Siyasa Bayn al-Halal wa 'l-Haram'', السياسة بين الحلال و الحرام (Politics between the Licit and the Forbidden) * ''Riyh Al-Janna'' (Heaven's Wind) ريح الجنة

References

"Triumphant Trilogy"
by Malu Halasa, ''Time Magazine'', January 17, 2005 * by Turki al-Hamad, ''Arab News'', September 15, 2003
"Turki Al-Hamad's not-so-explosive trilogy"
by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, ''The Daily Star'', January 13, 2005 * issues/20031128/feat6en.htm "Sheikh Nasser Ibn Hamad al-Fahd withdraws several fatwas ..." ''Ain al-Yaqeen'', November 28, 2003
"Saudi Reformers: Seeking Rights, Paying a Price"
by

Neil MacFarquhar Neil Graham MacFarquhar is an American writer who is a national correspondent for ''The New York Times''. Early life and education MacFarquhar grew up in the 1960s in Brega, a fenced-off expatriate oil compound in Libya. MacFarquhar went to eleme ...

, ''Middle East Transpart'', June 12, 2005
"Lifting the veil"
by

James Buchan James Buchan (born 11 June 1954) is a Scottish novelist and historian. Biography Buchan is a son of the late William Buchan, 3rd Baron Tweedsmuir, and grandson of John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, the Scottish novelist and diplomat. He has se ...

, ''The Guardian'', November 13, 2004

External links