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Abdul Rahman Munif
Abdul Rahman Munif
Abdul Rahman Munif (1933 - January 24, 2004) (Arabic: ??? ?????? ????) is one of the most important Arabic novelists of the 20th century. He is most noted for closely reflecting the political surroundings of his day. Variations on Night and Day), Al-munbatt (1989; The Uprooted), and Badiyat al zulumat (1989; The Desert of Darkness). Daniel Burt, in his The Novel 100, ranked the quintet as the 71st greatest novel of all time.[3] The last two novels in the series have not yet been translated into English. While his works were never particularly successful in the west, throughout the Middle East they are both critically acclaimed and extremely popular. Cities of Salt has been described by Edward Said as the "only serious work of fiction that tries to show the effect of oil, Americans and the local oligarchy on a Gulf country."[4] While he was one of the fiercest critics of Saddam Hussein 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.
Life
Munif was born a Saudi national and brought up in Amman, Jordan to a Saudi father and Iraqi mother.[1] In 1952 he moved to Baghdad to study law and later moved to Cairo. He received a law degree from the Sorbonne and a Ph.D. in oil economics from the University of Belgrade. He later returned to Iraq to work in the oil ministry and became a member of the Ba’ath Party. He began writing only in the 1970s after he left his job with the ministry, quit the Ba’ath party, and moved to Damascus 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 Saudi citizenship.[2] He used his knowledge of the oil industry to full effect criticizing the businessmen who ran it and the politicians they served. The author of fifteen novels, his masterwork is the Cities of Salt quintet that followed the evolution of the Arabian peninsula as its traditional bedouin culture is transformed by the oil boom. The novels create an entire history of a broad region, evoking comparison’s to William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County. The quintet begins with Al-tih (1984, Cities of Salt) in the desert oasis of Wadi al-Uyoun that is disrupted by the arrival of western oilmen in an image similar to that of the disrupted village of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. As Achebe described the effects on a traditional African village of the arrival of powerful missionairies, 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;
Bibliography – Works in English
• Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1987. Cities of Salt (Cities of Salt Trilogy, Vol 1), New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-394-75526-X • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1991. The Trench (Cities of Salt Trilogy, Vol 2), New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-394-57672-1 • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1993. Variations on Night and Day (Cities of Salt Trilogy, Vol 3), New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75551-9 • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1998. Endings, London: Quartet Books. ISBN 0-7043-2651-5 • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1998. Story of a City: A Childhood in Amman, London: Quartet Books. ISBN 0-7043-8023-4
Bibliography – Works in Arabic
Fiction • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1973. Al-ashjar waghtyal Marzuq ,قوزرم لايتغاو راجشألاBeirut:
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al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wanNashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1974. Qissat hubb majusiyya ,ةيسوجم ّبح ةّصقBeirut: alMuassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wanNashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1975. Sharq alMutawassit ,طّسوتملا قرشBeirut: alMuassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wanNashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1976. Hina tarakna al-jisr ,رسجلا انكرت نيحBeirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1977. An-nihayat ,تاياهنلاBeirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1979. Sibaq almasafat at-tawila ,ةليوطلا تافاسملا قابس Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman & Jabra Ibrahim Jabra. 1982. Alam bi-la kharait الب ملاع ,طئارخBeirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lidDirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1984. Mudun almilh 1: Al-tih ,هيتلا :١ حلملا ندمBeirut: alMuassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wanNashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1985. Mudun almilh 2: Al-ukhdud ,دودخألا :٢ حلملا ندمBeirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wanNashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1989. Mudun almilh 3: Taqasim al-layl wan-nahar حلملا ندم ٣: ,راهنلاو ليللا ميساقتBeirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1989. Mudun almilh 4: Al-munbatt ,ّتبنملا :٤ حلملا ندم Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1989. Mudun almilh 5: Badiyat az-zulmat ةيداب :٥ حلملا ندم ,تاملظلاBeirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lidDirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1991. Al-an… huna, aw sharq al-Mutawassit marra ukhra ...نآلا ,ىرخأ ةّرم طّسوتملا قرش وأ ،انهBeirut: alMuassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wanNashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1999. Ard as-sawad 1-3 ,٣-١ داوسلا ضرأBeirut: al-Muassasa alArabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 2005. Umm annudhur ,روذنلا ّمأBeirut: al-Muassasa alArabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. Non-Fiction
Abdul Rahman Munif
• Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1973. Mabda almusharaka wa-tamin al-bitrul al-arabi أدبم ,يبرعلا لورتبلا نيمأتو ةكراشملاBeirut: Dar alawda. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1975. Al-bitrul alarabi, musharaka aw at-tamin لورتبلا ,نيمأتلا وأ ةكراشم ،يبرعلاBeirut. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1976. Tamin albitrul al-arabi ,يبرعلا لورتبلا نيمأت Baghdad. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1992. Al-katib walmanfa – Humum wa-afaq ar-riwaya alarabiyya ةياورلا قافآو مومه - ىفنملاو بتاكلا ,ةيبرعلاBeirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1992. Addimuqratiyya awwilan ad-dimuqratiyya daiman ,ًامئاد ةيطارقميدلا ًالّوأ ةيطارقميدلا Beirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1994. Sirat madina – Amman fi l-arba’inat يف ناّمع - ةنيدم ةريس ,تانيعبرألاBeirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1998. Bayn aththaqafa was-siyasa ,ةسايسلاو ةفاقثلا نيب Casablanca: al-Markaz ath-Thaqafi alArabi. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1998. Law’at alghiyab ,بايغلا ةعولBeirut: al-Muassasa alArabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 2001. Rihlat daw ,ءوض ةلحرBeirut: al-Muassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wan-Nashr. • Munif, Abdul Rahman. 2001. Dhakira lilmustaqbal ,لبقتسملل ةركاذBeirut: alMuassasa al-Arabiyya lid-Dirasat wanNashr.
Obituary
• The Guardian • An Arabian Master by Sabry Hafez, New Left Review
References
[1] [1] [2] Munif biography in Peter Theroux’s translation - Abdelrahman Munif (1987). Cities of Salt. New York: Vinatage International. pp. 629. ISBN 0-394-75526-X. [3] Burt, Daniel S.; (2004). The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All
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Time. New York: Checkmark Books. ISBN 0-8160-4558-5.
Abdul Rahman Munif
[4] http://www.al-bab.com/arab/literature/ munif.htm Other Info
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Rahman_Munif" Categories: 1933 births, 2004 deaths, People from Amman, Arabic novelists, People of Iraqi descent, Iraqi writers, Jordanian writers This page was last modified on 14 May 2009, at 15:53 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
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