Abdelrahman Munif

One of the most important historical figures in Jordan is Abdelrahman Munif. Abdelrahman bin Ibrahim al-Munif, also known as Abdelrahman Munif, was a Saudi Arabian novelist, short story writer, memoirist, journalist, thinker, and cultural critic. He is regarded as one of the most important modern Saudi authors, as well as one of the best Arabic writers of the twentieth century. His works contain both significant political aspects and parodies of the Middle Eastern ruling classes. His work outraged Saudi leadership, resulting in the prohibition of many of his publications and the revocation of his Saudi citizenship.

Munif was born in 1933 as a Saudi national and raised in Amman, Jordan, to Saudi Arabian parents and an Iraqi grandmother. He traveled to Baghdad to study law in 1952 and then to Cairo. He holds a law degree from the Sorbonne and a Ph.D. in oil economics from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Belgrade. Later, he went to Iraq to work in the oil ministry and joined the Ba'ath Party. During this time, he edited the industry journal al-Naft wa al-Tamiya, which translates as "Petroleum and Development."

He began writing in the 1970s, after leaving his work with the Iraqi Ministry, leaving the Ba'ath party, and migrating to Damascus, Syria, to distance himself from an oppressive regime. He immediately became known for his harsh depictions of Middle Eastern elites, particularly those of Saudi Arabia, which banned many of his novels and deprived him of Saudi citizenship. He made full use of his understanding of the oil industry, condemning the businessmen who managed it and the politicians who supported them.

Munif had written fifteen novels. "Endings" was his first work to be published in English. The translator lauded it as the first Saudi novel translated into English, praising its original depiction of rural life and environmental challenges in an Arabic genre that has previously focused mostly on urban, middle-class experiences. While his works were never very successful in the West, they are critically praised and extremely popular throughout the Middle East. Cities of Salt has been regarded as the "only serious work of fiction that tries to show the effect of oil, Americans, and the local oligarchy on a Gulf country" by Edward Said. While he was a harsh opponent of Saddam Hussein and his regime, he was vehemently opposed to the American invasion of Iraq, spending the final two years of his life working on non-fiction projects to oppose what he viewed as renewed imperialism. He died of kidney and heart failure at the age of 71.