Cross-cultural adventures on the printed page

Getting to grips with Arabic literature in Abu Dhabi

Literature
If you’re no stranger to the city’s bookshops you’ll have noticed that getting your hands on any decent Arabic fiction in translation is as easy as grabbing a copy of the new Harry Potter book on its release date. Nigh on impossible. So how do you get to grips with Arabic literature if you don’t know the language? Since PROTA (The Project for the Translation of Arabic) came into being in the 70s many truly great Arabic reads have been translated into English in a thoroughly readable manner. There’s no doubt that over the last 20 years, since the Nobel prize for literature was awarded to Naguib Mahfouz in 1988, Arabic literature has made a significant impact upon the international literary scene.

The poet and critic Salma Khadra al- Jayyusi led the project to translate a number of seminal modern Arabic works into English and put together a large anthology of the best stories –if you fancy dipping into Arabic fiction make this your first port of call. To give you a taster here’s a short excerpt from Stars over Jericho by Liana Badr describing the lost land of ‘fragrant gum Arabic in rice pudding, sweet golden puffs of zalabia dough, the warm thirsty smell of roasted watermelon seeds, soft lupin seeds in brine, dripping pickles [and] custards scented with orange-blossom water’. Delicious. This is a critical selection of works, so bear in mind that not every important author from every Arab speaking country is necessarily represented – nonetheless you’ll find a rich and diverse range of top-notch scribblings from more than 140 prominent Arab writers of fiction in The Anthology of Modern Arabic Literature; a great way to introduce yourself to some of the language’s best recent fictional works.

Women
Nawal el Sadaawi’s book The Hidden Face of Eve rocked boats across the world when it was published in 1980. It’s a non-fiction discussion of the lives of women in Arab cultures and is one of over 30 works by the Egyptian doctor and author. The intimate revelations of the lives of women taken from El Sadaawi’s first hand experiences as a professional and confidante disclose secrets usually hidden beneath shrouds of family honour and shame.

Another non-fiction is the Princess series of books by American author Jean Sasson. Daughters of Arabia is the second book in the series and highlights the effect that the changing economic standards of life and subsequent cultural developments have had on different generations of Saudi women. US born Jean Sasson lived in Saudi Arabia for ten years and became a confidante of Sultana (pseudonym), princess of the royal house of Sa’ud – eventually writing her story and unveiling mysterious life of a high-born Muslim women for the world to see. This book focuses on her daughters-second generation members of the royal family who have reaped the rich rewards of Saudi’s oil wealth. Sultana’s daughters live in a gilt-edged world – a far cry from the basic life of pre-oil Arabia, which their parents experienced as children. Surrounded by untold opulence and luxury but stifled by the strict restrictive lifestyle imposed upon them as Muslim women in Saudi Arabia, they react in diverse but equally desperate ways. Their dramatic stories are set against a rich backcloth of Saudi Arabian culture and social mores which Sultana depicts through Sassoon with humour, compassion and integrity. Throughout, however, she never tires of her quest to expose the injustices which her society levels against women whilst maintaining her faith and allegiance to Islam. Not only an engaging read, but a bold statement about modern Saudi life from a female perspective. Her cause is given an extra sense of urgency against the backdrop of increased dissent against the Al Sa’uds and the looming spectre of Islamic fundamentalism.

Language
Nicholas Awde and Putros Samano’s book Arabic Alphabet is an indispensable resource for anyone determined to decipher this elegant script. This chirpy little book proceeds step by step through all the letters of the Arabic alphabet in a friendly, chatty and undaunting style. If you’re a determined reader you’ll be glad to know that progress is rapid; we were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get to grips with the initial stage of recognising the letters and starting to string words together. The Arabic Alphabet belongs on the desk of every student of Arabic, and in the suitcase or rucksack of every visitor to the Middle East.

Photography
Wilfred Thesiger, adventurer, gentleman and one of the greatest explorers of the 20th century recorded his eccentric peregrinations around the near-east with hundreds of glorious monochrome photographs, a careful selection of these have been put together in this book. Visions of Nomad is more than your usual coffee table tome, it's a pictorial journey through the forbidding barren landscape of the Empty Quarter and the other remarkable lands and people the author encountered during his life as a nomad. Thesiger to all intents and purposes rejected his oh-so-English private school upbringing and found a home with the Bedu people of Arabia, although the tone of the accompanying prose is such that the reader will not be surprised to learn that this eccentric and enigmatic figure lived out the last of his days in an English cottage bedecked in harris tweed.

Poetry
Few people in the world display such great admiration for literary expression and are so moved by the word, spoken or written, as the Arabs. Given the West’s relative apathy towards poetry it might come as a surprise to learn that even modern audiences across the Gulf can be stirred to passion by the recital of poems. It doesn’t seem to matter if the verse is only vaguely comprehended, and by the delivery of orations in the classical tongue, though it be only partially understood. The rhythm, the rhyme, the music, produce an effect termed as ‘lawful magic’. If you are looking for a good introduction to modern Arabic verse we recommend Victims of a Map, This is a seminal collection of works in translation by three of the Arab world’s leading poets Adonis, Mahmud Darwish and Samih al-Qasim. It includes 13 poems by Darwish never before published in book form even in Arabic, and a long piece by Adonis written during the 1982 siege of Beirut. Budding linguists will be able to pick their way through the poems in the original Arabic as the verses are printed simultaneously – a fantastic way to see if those long hours spent poring over the alphabet were well spent.

Politics
To many, the workings, motivations and goals of the world’s most infamous terrorist group remain a mystery. In The Secret History of Al Qa’ida Abdel Bari Atwan goes some way to answer the questions of those curious about how this mysterious group (prior to 9/11/01 not a household name) have managed to hold the world in its thrall. Palestinian Atwan has had unparalleled access to key associates of the world’s most wanted man. Atwan is the only Western-based journalist to have spent time with Osama bin Laden in his Tora Bora hideout in 1996, just one of the fascinating encounters he recounts in this book. Since then, his London based newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi has been the vehicle of choice for many al- Qa’ida communiqués. Atwan provides a unique insight into the workings of this most notorious of terrorist organisations. The book includes new information on al-Qa’ida’s presence in countries such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia; it is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand how the terrorist network operates around the world.


By Michelle Madsen, March 2006 (Time Out)