Books for Arabic Learners

What’s fun to read if you’re learning Arabic? (And if you like shopping during the winter holiday season, you can think of these for a friend who is learning Arabic)…

The following are my personal favorites and go-to reads for Arabic learners and those interested in the Arab region:

Non-Fiction

Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatema Mernissi (1940-2015)

This memoir, written in English by the most prominent Moroccan feminist, offers a readable and interesting account of childhood in Fes in the mid-20th century. Anyone interested in gender, history, and Morocco will enjoy this book. Please note that the term “harem” should be considered critically. It does not mean the sumptuous, sexual free-for-all that many English speakers imagine when seeing the word. This image is based on false (orientalist) information, as well as historical reality perhaps, but only limited to certain royal courts, most likely Ottoman (depending on the influences in the reader’s life). In any case, it has nothing to do with middle-class families in Fes. So why does she use the term? Because, as a feminist, she finds it useful for thinking about how society demarcates gender. In the UK, the title is The Harem Within: Tales of a Moroccan Girlhood. Elif Shafak, a Turkish feminist, has also used the term in the title of her memoir, Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within. All this is to say that I highly recommend Dreams of Trespass, and I encourage readers to rethink the term “harem” and their own ideas about gender and society in the process of enjoying this story of growing up.

In An Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler’s Tale by Amitav Ghosh

In An Antique Land is a fascinating book that can reach a wide range of people. Its chapters alternate between Amitav Ghosh’s ethnographic fieldwork (as an anthropologist) in Egypt in the 1980s and his recreation of a traveler’s 12th century tale, based on his historical research. Amitav Ghosh writes as a scholar, as well as someone who grew up in India, studied at Oxford, and has taught in the U.S. and in India. Both parts of his narrative include various kinds of diversity and explore how people interact across social barriers of difference. Like Dreams of Trespass, this is a book I can reread and re-recommend because it remains thoughtful, informative, and timely.

One more Non-Fiction selection: الرحلة / The Journey: Memoirs of an Egyptian Woman Student in America by رضوى عاشور / Radwa Ashour, now available in English translation by Michelle Hartman. Radwa Ashour is one of my all-time favorite writers in Arabic, and this book provides a look at her experience as an Egyptian woman studying in the United States in the 1970s, reflecting on race, politics, and society.

Historical Fiction

غرناطة / Granada by Radwa Ashour, available in English translation (of first part only) by William Granara

This is a beautifully-written historical novel, available in a very capable translation by Dr. Granara. (Note: Only the first part of the Arabic trilogy is available in English.) Set in the 15th century, we see the excitement surrounding Christopher Columbus and the violence surrounding the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. Ashour’s descriptions and characters are a treat, and her depiction of these historical events also provides a look into her views on so many timely topics of society, authority, identity, freedom, and the human condition.

In Arabic: I highly recommend أمريكا by Rabee Jaber and أولاد الناس, the Mamluk trilogy by Reem Bassiouney. I hope that both will be available in English some day.

Children/YA

سراج / Siraaj by Radwa Ashour, English translation by Barbara Romaine

This slim volume provides an imaginary story of the search for freedom, inspired by nineteenth-century realities. This is probably the only Arabic fiction about Sub-Saharan African culture in the Arab region. Fun creative writing by a skilled writer. Recommend for YA audience.

The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye

This little book is a calm, delightful exploration of a preparation for a journey and how it is human to resist change, and to find beauty and loss in the process. The author is a poet (and has a great interview on On Being). Recommended for ages 7-12, perhaps as bedtime reading.

Also see today’s post from Arablit for a list of bilingual books (in English and Arabic). It’s great language practice to see both languages side-by-side as you encounter literature.