Abdulrahman Munif

Who is Abdulrahman Munif?

Abdulrahman Munif was one of the most important Arab novelists of the twentieth century, widely associated with Saudi Arabia through his father's origins and his searing literary treatment of the Arabian oil boom. Born in Amman to a Saudi father and an Iraqi mother, he studied law and later earned a doctorate in petroleum economics in Belgrade, working for years in the oil industry before devoting himself to writing. His masterpiece is the five-volume epic 'Cities of Salt' (Mudun al-Milh), which chronicles the wrenching social transformation of a Gulf society upended by the discovery of oil and the arrival of foreign companies. The work's critical portrayal of power and modernization led Saudi authorities to ban it and to revoke his citizenship. He continued writing from exile, producing novels, memoirs, and essays, and died in Damascus in 2004, remembered as a towering and controversial chronicler of the region.

Sources: Abdulrahman Munif, 'Cities of Salt' (Mudun al-Milh, 1984, English translation by Peter Theroux 1987) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, entry on Abdelrahman Munif