I’ve been reading the marvelous Cities of Salt by Abdelrahman Munif, for many weeks, and have begun The Trench, the second volume in the trilogy, which explores the impact of the western culture, and the Americans in particular, as they arrive in a fictional country of the Middle-East during the oil explorations and development of the 1930s.  I can’t say enough about the first volume.  It is marvelously conceived, and translated with a gift I can barely begin to acknowledge.  Here is a short passage from two-thirds into the book.

“This is a gift I have brought you from far away, Your Highness, and it will bring the whole world to you and bring you to the farthest point of the world as you sit there.”

The emir’s eyes opened wide and he nodded continuously to show that he understood and grasped perfectly everything Rezaie was saying.  He did not say a word but waited to see what would happen next.

“This machine, Your Excellency, is very sensitive and precise,” said Rezaie in a different tone.  “No one but yourself may touch it.”

The emir looked even more surprised and somewhat afraid, and his men looked at each other.

“Now we begin,” said Rezaie, smiling confidently and rubbing his hands.

He moved his hand to one side of the box and waited a moment, his eyes trained on its middle, his face very close, as if whispering to it.  A green light went on in the machine’s middle, and the emir looked at the others, and though he tried to be calm his looks were looks of fear and alarm.  Rezaie turned some of the knobs on the box, and suddenly sharp voices burst from no one knew where.  Everyone present started violently, and a number of the men retreated a few steps, and one man hid behind some others. The emir shifted in his seated position and looked at the others as if to ask them to be strong and prepared for anything.  Rezaie moved the knobs more energetically than before.  The green light grew brighter, then almost faded away, with a piercing squeak.  He touched the knob again, and there was a burst of music.  The sound of the music was clear, as if it came from within the tent.  The men looked at each other, mildly shocked, and the emir crept toward the box, smiling.  Rezaie adjusted the sound and turned it up until it filled the tent.

With pleasure mixed with terror the men listened to the music in silence.  After a few minutes, with a quick and crafty movement no one saw, Hasan Rezaie stopped the music.  A long, profound silence fell, so palpable that a man could have stroked it with his hands.

Rezaie spoke.  “That was music, Your Highness, that was just one station, and there are so many others!”

… Their faces were impassive and uncomprehending, but the emir’s head was nodding as if jogged by a strong wind.

“The world around us is a strange one, full of secrets,”  said the emir.  “Almighty God ‘teacheth man that which he knew not.’ The important thing is for him to keep his intentions holy and open his heart so that Almighty God may inspire and teach him.”

* * *

In between the two volumes I began wondering more about contemporary Arabic literature.  Munif’s trilogy is from the 1980s, translated in the 1990s. Naguib Mahfouz of Egypt won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. Orhan Pahmuk, a Turk not an Arab, won the prize in 2006.  Poets, Mahmoud Darwish and Taha Muhammad Ali, Palestinians, are fairly well known in English reading circles.  But who else?  Who is writing and being read in the Middle-East, Arabic, Turkish, Iranian, not to mention Armenia, Kurdistan, Afghanistan and the many other nations of the area?

One good beginning is a group and their website,  Kutub, in Dubai, UAE:

Kutub is a literary circle that reads works by Middle Eastern authors published in both Arabic and English. We are based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates and organized by The Third Line, an art gallery in Dubai, UAE that represents contemporary Middle Eastern artists. We meet always on the first Monday of the month at 7:45 pm at The Third Line.

We meet next on Monday 4th October to discuss Men in the Sun and Other Stories by Ghassan Kanafani

* * *

Monday, October 4th – Men in the Sun and Other Stories by Ghassan Kanafani

Monday, November 8th – Two Women in One  By Nawal El-Saadawi

Monday, December 6th – Stealth by Sonallah Ibrahim

January, TBC – Winter Book Sharing Dinner

Monday, February 7th – The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist by Emile Habiby

Monday, March 7th – Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif

Monday, April 4th – Kalila wa Dimna

Monday, May 2nd – Year of the Revolutionary New Bread-Making Machine by Hassan Daoud

And if that’s not enough to get started with, see their list of previously read books, here.

A thread at LibraryThing.com begins with a short list of books, followed by comments on some of them with other recommendations.