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The Arabic language features one of the greatest literary traditions in history. Let’s take a closer look at some of its best examples across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
With over 400 million Arabic speakers around the world, Arabic books are one of the most fascinating and wide-ranging glimpses into world literature. Arabic Language Day was established by UNESCO to celebrate this tradition. “We reaffirm the important role of Arabic in bringing people together through culture, science and literature.” It is held on December 18th every year.
Don’t worry if you are not familiar with this language. The titles we have collected in this list were originally written in Arabic, but can also be found in (highly rated) translated forms. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the best examples of literature that Arabic has to offer.
![Leila and Majnun](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/laylaandmajnun-byHermitageMuseum-1140x760-1.jpg)
fiction:
One Thousand and One Nights – Antoine Garland (translator) (1816)
In English it is commonly known as arabian nights, thousand and one nights is a collection of folk tales written in Arabic over the centuries by writers from the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, and South Asia. Stories range from comedy to tragedy to erotica to poetry, and the thread that ties them all together is the frame narrative. A young woman, Scheherazade, tells a series of stories to the king, Shahriyah, on her first wedding night.
![penguin australia 1001 night](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/penguin-aus-1001-nights.jpg)
Those Days – Taha Hussein, E.H. Paxton (translators) (1929)
those days is an autobiographical novel that depicts the life of Taha Hussein, starting from his childhood in a small village in Egypt and ending with his studies abroad in Egypt and France. Hussein is one of the most widely read Arabic writers in the Western world, known as the “Dean of Arabic Literature” and nominated 14 times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
![daily 1](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/814OzlAVr5L.jpg)
The Return of the Soul – Tawfiq Al Hakim, William Hutchins (translator) (1933)
Following the lives of young Egyptians and their relatives, return of the spirit The film is a Bildungsroman, set in the turbulent times that preceded the Egyptian revolution of 1919. According to the publisher: “The Return of the Spirit is considered al-Hakim’s most important novel, even though he wrote more plays than novels, due to his deft understanding of class and culture in Egyptian society. His status as one of the country’s most prominent writers and cultural commentators has been cemented.”
![return of the spirit](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/9780143133971.jpg)
The Man in the Sun – Ghassan Kanafani, Hilary Kilpatrick (translator) (1962)
men in the sun The book details the lives of three Palestinian refugees in an Iraqi refugee camp and their dreams of fleeing to Kuwait and finding work as laborers in the oil boom. This Arabic book written by Palestinian revolutionary Ghassan Kanafani is a moving examination of the forced displacement of Palestinians in the 20th century.
![men under the sun](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/men-in-the-sun.jpg)
Season of Migration North – Tayeb Salih, Dennis Johnson-Davis (translator) (1966)
Season of migration to the north is a postcolonial Arabic book written by Sudanese novelist Taib Salih.It is attracting attention as one of Edward Said’s works. “Six Great Novels of Arabic Literature” This book explores the impact of European colonialism on Sudanese culture and identity.
According to the Guardian’s review: “This profound and elusive classic explores not just the corrosive psychological colonization that Frantz Fanon observed, but a more complex bidirectional Orientalism in which poetry and The allure of Western thought, embodied in liberal ideals, is understood by the novel’s Sudanese narrator as the tempting fruit of a poisonous tree.”
![Season of migration to the north](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/season-of-migration-to-the-north.jpg)
City of Salt – Abdul Rahman Munif, Peter Theroux (translators) (1984)
Set in an obscure country in the Levant in the 1930s, the novel tells the story of the discovery of oil by Americans in the Bedouin lands of Wadi al-Uyon.
Reviewed by Publishers’ Weekly:The story unfolds at a stately pace over many years, with an endless stream of characters and events, each connected to the next by many plot threads. Theroux’s sensitive translation conveys the subtleties of ambiguity and nuance inherent in Arab language and culture.”
![city of salt](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/cities-of-salt-.jpg)
Beirut Blues – Hanan Al Sheikh, Catherine Cobham (translator) (1992)
Told through a series of letters, beirut blues is an Arabic book about Asmahan, a young Lebanese woman, and her struggle to understand the increasing instability in her home country during the Lebanese civil war.
It was originally published as an Arabic book and translated into English four years later. beirut blues It has received praise from literary elites, including Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie, who described the work as follows:In her prose, a sensual, unsentimental portrait of a shattered universe, unified by the low, unabated heat of human desire.”
![beirut blues](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/beirut-blues.jpg)
Yacoubian Bir – Alaa Al Aswani, Humphrey Davies (translator) (2002)
Yakubian Building is a Roman symbol depicting Egyptian society after the 1952 Egyptian revolution. Set in a poor working-class neighborhood in downtown Cairo, the novel depicts a colorful set of characters, their relationship with the Yacoubian Building, and their relationships. “draw[s] Changes in sexual mores and long-standing social traditions caused by World War II and the British Eighth Army.“
![jacobian building](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/the-yacobian-building.jpg)
Azazir – Youssef Ziedan, Lorenzo Decrich (translators) (2008)
Azazeel This work depicts the life of the monk Hypa, and its events take place in the 5th century AD, between modern-day Upper Egypt, Alexandria, and northern Syria. While highly acclaimed in the Arab world, including winning the International Arabic Novel Award, Azazeel The incident caused an uproar within the Coptic Orthodox Church and was criticized as defaming the church and the theological events of ancient Christianity.
![Azazel](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/azazel.jpg)
Celestial Bodies – Joka Alharti, Marilyn Booth (translator) (2010)
Arabic novel that was translated into English in 2019 and won the International Man Booker Prize Celestial body It depicts the lives of three Omani sisters, Maya, Asma, and Kara. Exploring themes such as love, marriage, education, class, and culture, Celestial body is an Arabic book set in the rapidly developing Oman.
![Celestial best arabic book](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/allen-and-unwin.jpg)
“The Cue” – Basma Abdel Aziz, Elizabeth Jackett (translator) (2013)
Exploring themes of totalitarianism and persecution through a dystopian lens, Queue It is an exploration of meaninglessness, futility, and existential questions. It details the experience of living in a Middle Eastern city where people are controlled by buildings known as gates. Queue This work is an absurd and metaphorical exploration of the plight of Egyptian society after the Arab Spring.
![Queue](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/the-queue.jpg)
Frankenstein in Baghdad – Ahmed Saadawi, Jonathan Wright (translator) (2014)
frankenstein in bagdad The film follows Hadi, a junkyard dealer in US-occupied Baghdad, who collects the remains of bomb victims and sews them together for a proper burial. When one of his creations is infused with the soul of another victim, chaos ensues; frankenstein in bagdad He uses surrealism to express the atrocities of war.
![frankenstein in bagdad](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Frankenstein_In_Baghdad_9781786073976_MMP_2_.jpg)
Poetry:
The Butterfly’s Burden – Mahmoud Darwish, Fadi Judah (translator) (2007)
Written by Palestinian Poet Laureate Mahmoud Darwish, butterfly’s burden is his most famous three-volume collection. stranger’s bed (1998), a collection of love poems. state of siege (2002) and don’t apologize for what you did (2003), both depicting the politics and turmoil of Ramallah.
![butterfly's burden](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/71x88hNM8tL.jpg)
Chronicles and Selected Poems of Majnoon Laila – Qasim Haddad, Ferial J. Ghazoor (translator), John Verlenden (translator) (2014)
The story of Majnoon and Leila is beloved across the Asian continent. Chronicles and selected poems of Majnun Laila Reimagining Iranian folktales and infusing them with modern sensibilities. The publisher explains:A powerful lyric poet, Haddad juxtaposes classical and modern symbols, combining the old with the new, the sensual with the sacred, and the ordinary with the extraordinary.”
![Majnun Leila](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/81GNCn-nNSL.jpg)
Jerusalem and other poems: 1997-2017 – Tamim al-Barghouti, Ahadaf Soueif (translator), Radwa Ashur (translator) (2016)
Scholar Marina Warner writes:Based on the tradition of classical Arabic literature, he rethinks and reinvents fable, satire, philosophical dialogue, parody, prophecy, elegy, and lyricism. And the results sparkle with wonderfully original, often witty, contemporary fantasy.”
Arabic books by Tamim al-Barghouti, Jerusalem and other poemsis a stunning collection of the Palestinian poet’s most beloved works, translated by novelist Ahadaf Souef and Radwa Ashour, mother of al-Barghouti.
![in jerusalem](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/simon-and-schuster.jpg)
Lighthouse for the Drowning – Joudat Fakhreddin, Jason Iwen (translator), Huda Fakhreddin (translator) (2017)
By fusing the traditions of classical Arabic literature with the values of modernism, lighthouse for drowning people This is the first translated version of Joudat Fakhreddin’s poem. A revolutionary in Arabic poetry, Joudat Fakhreddin is considered one of the best second-generation poets of the modernist movement in the Arab world.
![lighthouse for drowning people](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lighthouse-for-the-drowning-1.jpg)
The Blueness of the Evening – Hassan Najmi, Eric Selin (translator), Mubarek Shrifi (translator) (2018)
It depicts an exquisite scene of an exterior with a melancholy interior and a vast landscape. evening blue It provides poignant insight into the political, geographic, and linguistic melting pot that has made Morocco an established center of creativity, resistance, and artistry.
![evening blue](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/the-blueness-of-the-evening.jpg)
Non-Fiction:
Muqaddimah – Ibn Khaldun, Franz Rosenthal (translator, 1958 edition) (1377)
In search of solitude, Ibn Khaldun spent four years in the Algerian castle of Qalat ibn Salamah, where he wrote his masterpiece, the Psalms. Mukadima, an introduction to history. It details the universal history of Arabs and Berbers and also discusses historical methods. ”It aims to provide the criteria necessary to distinguish between historical truth and error.”
![Mukadima](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/the-muqaddimah.jpg)
“I Saw Ramallah” – Mourid Barghouti, Adaf Soueif (translator) (1997)
Detailing the Palestinian writer’s own 30-year exile experience from his home country. I saw Ramallah It is a story of returning to a hometown that no longer exists. Mourid Barghouti weaves the story of his return home with the history of his travels across the Arabian Peninsula, creating a portrait of an identity overshadowed by political violence.
![I saw Ramallah](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/71GDufFgxL.jpg)
Beekeepers of Sinjar: Rescue of Stolen Women in Iraq – Duniya Mikhail, Max Weiss (translator) (2017)
Originally an Arabic book by journalist Duniya Mikhail (later translated by Max Weiss) Beekeeper: Rescue Stolen Woman in Iraq The film tells the story of an unlikely hero who successfully escapes the clutches of Daesh (ISIS) with the help of a beekeeper who transports them across a war-torn landscape to safety. It tells the stories of women who have.
![Beekeeper in Sinjar](https://happymag.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/the-beekeeper-of-sinjar.jpg)
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