Abdelrahman Munif
Abdul Rahman Munif (1933 - January 24, 2004) was one of the most important Arabic novelists of the 20th century. He is most noted for closely reflecting the political surroundings of his day.
Munif was born in Amman to a Saudi father and Iraqi mother. He studied in Baghdad before moving to Cairo. He became an expert in the oil industry and 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. 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 (ISBN 039475526X) quintet that followed the evolution of the Arabian peninsula from a land of Bedouin nomads to a rich and powerful kleptocracy.
While his works were never particularly successful in the west, throughout the Middle East they are both critically acclaimed and extremely popular.
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.
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