Abdul Rahman Munif

Facts

• Abdul Rahman Munif was a Saudi novelist (1933-2004) whose politically charged work led to his books being banned and citizenship revoked.
• Born in Jordan to a Saudi father and Iraqi mother, Munif studied law in Baghdad and Cairo, earning a PhD in oil economics from the University of Belgrade.
• After leaving his job at the Iraqi oil ministry in the 1970s, he used his writing to critique Middle Eastern elites, especially those in Saudi Arabia.
• Munif wrote fifteen novels, including the "Cities of Salt" quintet, which depicts the cultural shift in the Arabian peninsula due to the oil boom.
• His works were acclaimed in the Middle East, with "Cities of Salt" recognized as a unique exploration of the impact of oil, Americans, and the local oligarchy on a Gulf country.
• A vocal critic of Saddam Hussein, Munif spent his last years opposing the American invasion of Iraq through non-fiction work.

Life

Munif was born a Saudi national and brought up in Amman, Jordan to Saudi father and an Iraqi mother. In 1952 he moved to Baghdad to study law and later moved to Cairo. He received a law degree from the Sorbonne and a PhD in oil economics from the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Economics. He later returned to Iraq to work in the oil ministry and became a member of the Ba'ath Party.

He began writing in the 1970s after he left his job with the Iraqi ministry, quit the Ba'ath party, and moved to Damascus, Syria, 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. He used his knowledge of the oil industry to full effect criticizing the businessmen who ran it and the politicians they served.

Munif was the author of fifteen novels. The Cities of Salt quintet followed the evolution of the Arabian peninsula as its traditional Bedouin culture was transformed by the oil boom. The novels portray the history of a broad region, evoking comparisons to William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County. The quintet begins with Mudun al-Milh (مدن الملح, Cities of Salt, 1984), depicting the desert oasis of Wadi al-Uyoun as it is transformed and destroyed by the arrival of Western oilmen, a story similar to that of the disrupted village of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Much as Achebe described the effects of the arrival of powerful missionaries on a traditional African village, 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; Variations on Night and Day), Al-munbatt (1989; The Uprooted), and Badiyat al zulumat (1989; The Desert of Darkness). Daniel Burt ranked the quintet as the 71st greatest novel of all time. The last two novels in the series have not been translated into English.

While his works were never particularly successful in the West, throughout the Middle East they are critically acclaimed and extremely popular. Cities of Salt was 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."

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.

Obituary