Abdul Rahman bin Ibrahim al-Munif (; May 29, 1933 – January 24, 2004), also known as Abdelrahman Munif, was a novelist, short story writer, memoirist, journalist, thinker, and cultural critic. He is considered one of the most significant authors in the Arabic language of the 20th century. His novels include strong political elements as well as mockeries of the Middle Eastern elite classes. He is best-known for ''

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 th ...

'', a quintet of novels about how the discovery of oil transformed a traditional

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

culture. Munif's 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 in

Amman, Jordan Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the List of largest cities in the ...

, to a Nejdi merchant family. His grandmother was Iraqi. His ''Story of a City: A Childhood in Amman'' describes his upbringing there. In 1952, he moved to

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

to study law and later moved to

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. He received a law degree from the Sorbonne and a PhD in oil economics from the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, 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 me ...

's Faculty of Economics. He later returned to Iraq to work in the oil ministry and became a member of the

Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ' ), also known simply as Bath Party (), was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology ...

. 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 Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

, 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 his 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 ''

'' quintet followed the evolution of the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

as its traditional

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. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

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

. 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 (; born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel ''Things Fall Apart'' ( ...

's ''

Things Fall Apart ''Things Fall Apart'' is a 1958 novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It is Achebe's debut novel and was written when he was working at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. The novel was first published in London by Heinemann (publisher), ...

''. 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 claimed it was the first Saudi Arabian novel to be 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 Munif's 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 academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of Postcolonialism, post-co ...

as the "only serious work of fiction that tries to show the effect of oil, Americans and the local oligarchy on a

Gulf A gulf is a large inlet from an ocean or their seas into a landmass, larger and typically (though not always) with a narrower opening than a bay (geography), bay. The term was used traditionally for large, highly indented navigable bodies of s ...

country." While he was one of the fiercest critics of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

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 Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...

. He died in Damascus at the age of 70, of kidney and heart failure.

Bibliography

Works translated into English

* — 1987. ''

'' (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 translated into English

Works in Arabic

Obituary

See also

References

External links