Turki al-Hamad (, ; born 10 March 1952) 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 b ...

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, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

, and

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

, the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

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, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

and the

1973 oil crisis In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began after Eg ...

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

taboo A taboo 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, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

s: religion, politics and sex. It is forbidden to speak about these. I wrote this trilogy to get things moving."Turki Al-Hamad's not-so-explosive trilogy
''dailystar.com.lb'', 13 January 2005. As a result of his work, four

fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

s have been issued against him by the country's religious clerics, and he has been named as an

apostate Apostasy (; ) is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous religious beliefs. One who ...

in a statement by

al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

.Time (magazine)
/ref> He continues nevertheless to live in

Riyadh Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in 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, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

to a family of merchants that originated from

Buraidah Buraydah or Buraidah (Arabic: بريدة) is the capital and largest city of Al-Qassim Province in north-central Saudi Arabia. Renowned as the agricultural capital of Saudi Arabia and often referred to as the food basket of the Kingdom, the cit ...

, Al-Qassim Region in Saudi Arabia. The family moved when he was a child to

Dammam Dammam (Arabic: الدمام ad-Dammām) is a city and governorate, and the capital of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Located on the coast of the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 1,386,166 as of 2022, making it the country's fifth- ...

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 The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, 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

s 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, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

. 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, 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, ''Middle East Transpart'', June 12, 2005
"Lifting the veil"
by James Buchan, ''The Guardian'', November 13, 2004

External links