In his novel, Cities of Salt, Abdelrahman Munif creates a fictitious kingdom that closely resembles Saudi Arabia. Here he recounts the destruction of the bedouins' centuries-old way of life following the discovery of oil on the Arabian Peninsula. The destruction is seen through the bedouins' experience of changes that go on day after day.
THE WORLD & I reprints here the first four chapters of Munif's trilogy. In this section we encounter the traditional bedouin life that will be disrupted. We get to know the people who inhabit a small but renowned oasis, Wadi al-Uyoun. The main character of this section is Miteb al-Hathal, whose name comes from the same root as the Arabic word for the cooing of the dove, and whose role is akin to that of the doves of Noah's ark who fly in dramatically bearing tidings of the world, whether good or bad. Miteb al-Hathal prophetically senses that the bedouins' culture, which has survived many assaults, will be torn asunder under the impact of changes that three foreign visitors (it turns out they are Americans looking for oil) are going to effect.
In his commentary, "The Other Arabia," Muhammad Siddiq discusses those aspects of Cities of Salt that reveal the bedouins' religious, cultural, political, and practical difficulties with the modern world that is forcing itself upon them.
Then, in "Incorporating the Other," Roger Allen sketches the development of the modern Arabic novel, including Munif's contribution to the genre.
THE WORLD & I has followed Random House in the spelling of Arabic words that appear
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