| Title of the Novel/Novella/Play | Author’s Name | Water Body Name | Water Body Type | Publication Details | Year of Publiction | Genre | Theme | English Translation | Translator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academic Study: Water in Contemporary Iraqi Fiction | Dr. Salim Hassan | All Iraqi water bodies (academic analysis) | University of Baghdad Press | 2018 | Academic Study | Comprehensive academic study examining water themes in contemporary Iraqi literature. Analyzes works by Khudayyir, Antoon, Saadawi, and others, exploring how water imagery reflects political, environmental, and cultural changes. Traces development of aquatic themes from pre-2003 through contemporary period. | Arabic (No English translation mentioned) | Shakir Mustafa (Editor/Translator) | |
| Al-Ashia’ As-Saba’a (The Seven Rays) — short stories | Abdelhamid Benhedouga (عبد الحميد بن هدوقة) | Implied coastal North African setting | Sea | SNED / Tunis (1962) | 1962 | Short Stories | A collection of short stories published in Tunis in 1962, the year of Algerian independence. Among the earliest Algerian Arabic short fiction collections. Benhedouga was writing for BBC Arabic Service during this period. While specific maritime themes require further archival verification, the collection is part of the foundational untranslated canon of Algerian Arabic literature. Entirely absent from English-language scholarship. | ||
| Allati Ta’ud al-Salalim (Those Who Ascend the Stairs / She Who Climbs the Stairs) | Bushra Khalfan | Indian Ocean (maritime connections between Oman and East Africa) | Ocean | Published in Arabic in 2014; Novel touching upon Oman’s rule over parts of East Africa; Described as ‘uncovering Oman’s neglected history and shedding light on forgotten stories’ | 2014 | Literary Fiction/Historical Fiction | A novel examining Oman’s historical rule over East Africa from the 17th century through 1964, exploring personal histories of Omanis who lived in East Africa during this period. Khalfan deliberately chased personal narratives rather than official historical records, meeting people who had lived through this era and capturing intricate details of their experiences. The novel focuses on whether individuals were born in East Africa or driven to migrate there by harsh circumstances. Rather than presenting history as recorded in textbooks, Khalfan captures personal memories of Omanis—their stories ‘as inflamed as wounds and as rich as songs.’ The work uncovers neglected chapters of Oman’s maritime empire and Indian Ocean dominance, exploring the experiences of merchants, settlers, and families caught between Oman and East African ports during period of decolonization. | No | Not translated to English |
| Balconies of the North Sea | Waciny Laredj | North Sea / Atlantic / exile waters | Sea | Dar Al Adab, Beirut | 1993 | Literary Fiction / Exile Novel / Postcolonial | One of Waciny Laredj’s Arabic-language novels set during his own exile, centred on the psychological and existential landscape of northern European sea-coasts as experienced by an Algerian émigré intellectual. The North Sea functions as an alienating, grey counterpoint to the warm Mediterranean of home — a symbolic geography of exile and creative isolation. Laredj draws on his experiences fleeing Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s. The novel belongs to a body of Arabic exile literature focused on the Atlantic and northern European coasts as spaces of belonging denied. Untranslated into English as of 2026. | ||
| Cities Beneath the Sea | Hassan Mutlak | Persian Gulf, submerged cities | Sea | Iraqi publishing houses | 1995 | Literary Fiction | Novel exploring Iraqi folklore about ancient cities submerged beneath Persian Gulf waters. Combines archaeological speculation with mythological elements about pre-Islamic civilizations. Gulf waters serve as repository of hidden history and cultural memory, representing layers of Iraqi heritage beneath contemporary surface. | Arabic (No English translation mentioned) | Not specified in database |
| Cities of Salt | Abdul Rahman Munif | Persian Gulf, Arabian Peninsula waters | Multiple publishers, translated by Peter Theroux | 1984 | Literary Fiction | Though primarily Saudi/Gulf-focused, this influential novel includes significant Iraqi characters and references to Iraqi Gulf coast. Explores transformation of traditional societies through oil discovery, with extensive maritime themes around Persian Gulf waters. Iraqi fishermen and traders feature in narrative about environmental and social change. | Arabic → English | Peter Theroux | |
| Columns of Foam | Elias Farkouh. إلياس فركوح | Sea/Ocean (foam imagery suggests oceanic themes) | Sea | 1987 | Novel | Farkouh’s first novel that won the State Encouragement Award in 1990 and was selected as one of the 100 best Arabic novels of the 20th century by the Arab Writers’ Union. The title suggests oceanic imagery with foam representing the ephemeral nature of life and memory, typical of Farkouh’s contemplative style that often incorporated water symbolism. | |||
| Contemporary Iraqi Fiction: An Anthology | Shakir Mustafa (Editor/Translator) | Various Iraqi water bodies | Undefined | Syracuse University Press | 2008 | Anthology | Major anthology containing 34 stories by 16 Iraqi writers, many with water themes. Includes works by Khudayyir, Mayselun Hadi, and others featuring rivers, urban waterways, and aquatic imagery. First comprehensive collection of Iraqi fiction available in English, several stories focus on water relationships. | Arabic → English | Shakir Mustafa (Editor/Translator) |
| Dead Sea: A Novel | Lynne Baab | Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee, Jordan River | Sea | Self-published e-book | 2016 | Novel (murder mystery) | A murder mystery set during a study tour of Israel and Jordan. The story involves participants from a computer game company, with one participant murdered near the Dead Sea. Features locations including the Sea of Galilee, Jerusalem, Ein Gedi, Masada, Jerash and Petra. The author lived in Tel Aviv and wanted to “”visit”” favorite places in the region through fiction. | ||
| Dhilalun Djazaïria (Algerian Shades) | Abdelhamid Benhedouga (عبد الحميد بن هدوقة) | Algerian coastal/national landscape (implied) | Sea | 1960 | Short Fiction / Literary Essays | Published in Beirut before independence, this is one of Benhedouga’s earliest works in Arabic. ‘Algerian Shades’ suggests a meditation on Algerian identity in its full complexity — geographic, cultural, coastal. Benhedouga was at this point working with multiple Arab radio networks and producing work deeply concerned with the Algerian coast’s relationship to the wider Arab world. Untranslated into English. | |||
| Dilshad: A Tale of Hunger and Satiety | Bushra Khalfan | Muscat, Mutrah port areas; implied coastal Baluch settlement | Ocean | Published in Arabic in 2021; Nearly 500-page novel; Shortlisted for 2022 International Prize for Arabic Fiction; Won Katara Prize for Arabic Novel 2022; Second novel by Khalfan; Khalfan is author of nine books including poetry and short story collections | 2021 | Literary Fiction/Historical Fiction | An epic historical fiction novel spanning three generations of the Dilshad family, opening in the early 20th century in Muscat and Mutrah. The novel’s titular protagonist, Dilshad, grows up in an impoverished Baluch neighborhood in Oman’s port capital, navigating hardship, hunger, and desperation during turbulent period of early-to-mid 20th-century Oman. The narrative unfolds against the backdrop of mercurial rule and conflicts culminating in the 1963 Dhofar Rebellion, a civil war lasting 14 years. Khalfan spent considerable time researching Baluch language and culture while writing. The novel features clever, stoic women including Mariam who face life’s pain ‘with a resounding laugh,’ with laughter functioning as a tool to deal with misery, a way of facing death, loss, sadness, and hunger. The work employs polyphonic voices as a deliberate narrative challenge. Khalfan explores themes often unexamined in mainstream Omani literature: poverty, hunger, ethnic minorities, and survival. The character of Dilshad—a well-known Baluchi name—was entirely fictional, molded to fit the story. This novel distinguishes itself through intimate personal experiences of those living through Oman’s isolation and hardship before modernization. | No (in translation process) | In progress – translator not yet publicly confirmed |
| Dragon Tooth | Mohamed G. Darwish | Fantasy seas and magical waters | Sea | Self-published | 2015 | Novel | A fantasy novel featuring magicians, dragons, and magical powers set in worlds containing seas and water bodies. While primarily fantasy rather than realistic oceanic fiction, it represents the growing phenomenon of English-language genre writing from Bahraini authors. The protagonist and companions quest across various landscapes including maritime environments to defeat a dragon and restore world balance. | ||
| Dreams Never Die , الأحلام لا تموت | Leila Al-Mutawa | Arabian Gulf coastline | Published as part of UNESCO’s “”How Many Lungs Does the Coast Have?”” project when Sharjah was named World Book Capital | 2023 | Novel | Part of a collection documenting works by authors who shifted the literary landscape of their homelands. The novel explores themes of coastal identity and the relationship between dreams and the sea. Al-Mutawa examines the transformation of coastal landscapes and their impact on human consciousness, particularly focusing on how environmental changes affect community identity and individual aspirations. | |||
| Facts from the Sufferings of a Man Who Ventured Toward the Sea | Waciny Laredj | Mediterranean Sea (Algerian coast, Oran region) | Sea | SNED / Entreprise Nationale du Livre, Algiers | 1981 | Contemporary Arabic Fiction | An early novel by the prolific Algerian Arabic-language writer Waciny Laredj. The title’s explicit reference to a man venturing toward the sea signals the Mediterranean as a locus of aspiration, danger, and identity. Set along the Algerian coast, the novel explores a man’s existential and social journey in postcolonial Algeria through the symbolic resonance of the sea as freedom, exile, and longing. Laredj would revisit the sea and the Mediterranean throughout his career, notably in his historical fiction on the Andalucian and Algerian experience. This title remains largely untranslated into English; its relevance is established through the Riyadh Review of Books author profile. | ||
| Fatma’s Harbour | Haji Jaber | Red Sea | Sea | Al-Mutawassit Publishing | 2013 | Novel | Fatima’s Harbor is one of the few works of fiction that have addressed the plight of Eritrean refugees or the issue of forced migration and displacement within and beyond Africa generally. | Nancy Roberts | |
| Fragments of Memory: A Story of a Syrian Family | Hanna Mina | Mediterranean Sea (Syrian coast) | Sea | Interlink Publishing Group | 2004 | Novel | Autobiographical novel about a boy born to a poor family in northern Syria, set against early 20th century Syrian history as the silkworm industry gave way to modern foreign technology. As Syria’s foremost novelist known for depicting “”the life of sailors and the sea,”” Mina weaves maritime themes throughout this personal narrative. The Mediterranean coast of Syria serves as both physical and metaphorical backdrop for themes of change, tradition, and the modern Syrian experience. The work captures a bygone era of Syrian coastal life before industrialization and political upheaval. | ||
| Graffiti 2042 | Muhammad Khudayyir | General water themes in climate fiction context | Not specified | Recent | Science Fiction | Science fiction story envisioning extreme climate change effects where rising temperatures force residents to build ‘subterranean’ city. Explores water scarcity and environmental catastrophe in future Iraq, with characters driven underground by uninhabitable surface conditions. Includes scenes of flooding in Basra due to rising sea levels. | Arabic (No English translation mentioned) | Not specified in database | |
| Inside the Giant Fish | Rawand Issa | Jiyeh coastline, Mediterranean Sea, Lebanese beaches | Sea | Arabic original 2019, English translation by Amy Chiniara, Maamoul Press 2022 | 2022 | Graphic Memoir | Graphic memoir exploring the privatization of Lebanese public beaches through the story of a girl searching for lost memories on coastlines that no longer exist. Set in Jiyeh, 23 kilometers south of Beirut, the work documents how luxury beach resorts have blocked local access to the Mediterranean. The narrative interweaves childhood memories of freely swimming and playing on the shore with contemporary scenes of fenced coastlines reserved for wealthy tourists. Issa uses the Prophet Jonah (Younes) shrine in Jiyeh as metaphor, referencing local belief that whales once brought the prophet to their shore. The Mediterranean appears as both lost paradise and continuing presence, with the narrator dreaming of whales returning to reclaim the privatized beaches. The work connects personal displacement with environmental and economic injustice along Lebanon’s coast. | ||
| Iraq + 100 (Full Anthology) | Hassan Blasim (Editor), Various Authors | Various Iraqi water bodies (speculative future) | Undefined | Comma Press, multiple translators | 2016 | Science Fiction Anthology | Complete anthology of speculative fiction envisioning Iraq in 2103. Multiple stories deal with water crisis, climate change, and environmental collapse. Includes ‘The Gardens of Babylon’ and ‘The Worker’ plus other stories featuring water scarcity, flooding, and aquatic environmental themes in future Iraq scenarios. | Arabic → English | Multiple translators (see publication details) |
| June Rain | Jabbour Douaihy | Mediterranean Sea, Northern Lebanon Coast | Sea | Dar An Nahar, Beirut. English translation by Paula Haydar. Nominated for Arabic Booker Prize 2008 | 2006 | Novel | Multi-layered novel set in northern Lebanon’s coastal region, exploring Lebanese maritime culture through complex narrative structure. The work was nominated for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2008, reflecting its significance in contemporary Arabic literature. Douaihy uses the northern Lebanese coast as more than mere setting, making the Mediterranean an active participant in character development and plot progression. The novel reflects regional maritime traditions and demonstrates how coastal communities maintain distinct cultural identities shaped by their relationship to the sea. Through intricate storytelling, Douaihy captures the essence of Lebanese coastal life and Mediterranean-influenced social dynamics. | ||
| La Prise de Gibraltar / The Capture of Gibraltar (Arabic ed.) | Rachid Boudjedra (رشيد بوجدرة) | Strait of Gibraltar / Mediterranean | Sea | Denoël, Paris | 1987 | Historical Fiction / Postcolonial | Boudjedra, who famously wrote in both French and Arabic (self-translating between the two), produced this novel initially in French. The Arabic version is a self-translation, making it a key example of intra-colonial linguistic mediation. The Strait of Gibraltar — the narrow passage between Africa and Europe — is the maritime axis around which Algeria’s postcolonial relationship to Arab, Berber, and European history turns. The Arabic edition remains largely inaccessible to English readers. | ||
| Limbo Beirut | Hilal Chouman | Mediterranean Coastline | Sea | Arabic original 2012, English translation by Emily Lever, published by Interlink Books 2021 | 2021 | Novel | Multi-voiced novel about five characters during May 2008 Beirut street fighting between Hezbollah and Sunni fighters. Though published in English in 2021, making it contemporary to readers, the novel incorporates Mediterranean coastal imagery throughout. Characters navigate a city where the sea remains constant while political violence erupts around them. One character, Walid the artist, contemplates the Mediterranean from his balcony, using the sea as psychological refuge from urban chaos. The novel portrays Beirut’s relationship with its coastal location, showing how the Mediterranean provides continuity amidst political upheaval. Water imagery flows through the interconnected stories, with the sea serving as witness to another chapter in Lebanon’s recurring cycles of violence. | ||
| My Grandmother’s Stories: Folktales from Dhofar | Khadija bint Alawi al-Dhahab (collected and transcribed) | Dhofar region (southern Oman, coastal area near Indian Ocean) | Ocean | Collected and transcribed by Khadija bint Alawi al-Dhahab; Translated by W Scott Chahanovich, Munira Al-Ojaili, Fatima Al-Mashani, Muna Al-Mashani, Muna Saffrar; Illustrated by Fatima bint Alawi Muqaybil | 2010 | Folklore/Oral Tradition | A collection of traditional folktales from Dhofar, Oman’s southern coastal region. These stories represent Omani oral literary heritage and cultural memory, collected and preserved through generations. The work captures maritime, pastoral, and domestic narratives embedded in Dhofari culture. The involvement of multiple translators reflects the collaborative effort to preserve and share these stories across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Dhofar’s coastal location connects these tales to broader Indian Ocean maritime traditions and Arabian Peninsula oral cultures. | Yes | W. Scott Chahanovich, Munira Al-Ojaili, Fatima Al-Mashani, Muna Al-Mashani, Muna Saffrar |
| My Heart Is Not For Sale | Leila Al-Mutawa | Persian Gulf waters surrounding Bahrain | Sea | Self-published, debut novel | 2012 | Novel | Al-Mutawa’s controversial debut novel that provoked significant discussion in Bahrain. Written from a frankly female perspective in a society with strong fundamentalist elements, it explores women’s experiences and challenges in Bahraini society. The narrative incorporates maritime themes and the relationship between island life and the surrounding waters. The work established Al-Mutawa as a significant voice in contemporary Bahraini literature. | ||
| No Sea in Beirut (La Bahr fi Beirut) | Ghada Al-Samman | Sea (absence of sea in Beirut) | Sea | Second collection of short stories by Syrian writer. Various Arabic publishers. | 1965 | Short Story Collection | A collection of short stories by prominent Syrian feminist writer Ghada Al-Samman. The title ironically references the absence of the sea in Beirut, exploring themes of urban alienation, women’s liberation, and social constraints in Arab society. Al-Samman, born in Damascus in 1942, moved to Beirut for studies and remained there. The stories reflect her broadened experiences and mark her transition from traditional feminine literature to more complex social and philosophical themes. The “”missing sea”” becomes a metaphor for absence, longing, and the constraints of urban life on the human spirit. | ||
| Qiṣṣat Shakarwatī Farmāḍ | Anonymous | ||||||||
| QuixotiQ | Ali Al-Saeed | Gulf waters (peripheral references) | Self-published, winner of Bahrain 2004 Outstanding Book of the Year Award | 2004 | Novel | Considered the first novel written directly in English by a Bahraini author. Explores modern existence through characters in the fictional town “”Okay.”” While not primarily oceanic, the narrative includes references to Gulf waters and island life as backdrop to contemporary Bahraini urban experience. The work examines corruption, violence, and social transformation in a rapidly changing society. Though noted for execution issues, it represents a pioneering effort in English-language Bahraini fiction. | |||
| Rain under the Sun | Abd al-Sattar Nasser | Metaphorical water themes | Collection of short stories | 1987 | Short Story Collection | Collection of short stories published during Iran-Iraq War discussing poverty and authoritarianism through magical realism. Uses water imagery (‘rain under the sun’ – impossible phenomenon) as metaphor for surreal conditions under brutal authoritarian regime. Water appears as both blessing and curse in allegorical narratives. | Arabic (No English translation mentioned) | Not specified in database | |
| Rih al-Janub (Wind from the South) | Abdelhamid Benhedouga (عبد الحميد بن هدوقة) | Algerian coast / Mediterranean reference (peripherally) | Sea | SNED (Société Nationale d’Édition et de Diffusion), Algiers | 1971 | Social Realism / Novel | The first major Arabic novel published in Algeria, Rih al-Janub (‘Wind from the South’) is set in the Algerian countryside and deals with tribal tradition, modernity, and the status of women post-independence. While not primarily an oceanic novel, the Mediterranean coastline and maritime trade winds of the north are culturally present as the direction of modernity and colonial France. The wind from the south — from the Sahara — is positioned against the northern sea-facing world. Largely untranslated into English, though some French versions exist. | ||
| Rihla (Book of Travels) | Ibn Battuta | Indian Ocean | Ocean | Based on Ibn Battuta’s travels (including his 1344 visit to Ceylon); compiled under the supervision of Ibn Juzayy in Morocco. | 1355 | Travel narrative / Memoir | In his Rihla, the famous Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta documents his voyage to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1344, including his visit to Adam’s Peak and his encounters with the island’s rulers and sailors. The account combines geography, faith, and adventure, constituting one of the first Arabic descriptions of the Indian Ocean and the maritime regions of South Asia. It also encapsulates how the Indian Ocean was a condulet for Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist communities through trade and pilgrimage. In this way, it is a medieval document of navigation and a meditation on the possibility of spiritual journeying. | The Travels of Ibn Battuta | Samuel Lee |
| Sail and Storm (Al-Shira wa al-Asifa) | Hanna Mina | Mediterranean Sea (Syrian coastal waters) | Sea | Published by Dar al-Adab. Listed as 14th among 100 Best Arabic Novels by Arab Writers Union. Translated into Russian by Vladimir Shagal. | c. 1960s | Novel | Story of a coastal Syrian city during WWII, depicting the impact of war and storms on a country occupied by the French. Highlights contradictions in a heterogeneous society but primarily tells the story of seamen, their victory over nature, and human will and adventure. Explores the lives of sailors and maritime workers facing both natural and political storms. The novel demonstrates Mina’s reputation as the writer who “”introduced the sea to the Arabic novel,”” making the Mediterranean central to Syrian literary imagination. The sea represents both challenge and livelihood for coastal communities. | ||
| Sayyidat al-Qamar | Jokha Alharthi | Indian Ocean, Mascat Port | Ocean | Sandstone Press (2018) | 2010 (Arabic), 2018 (English Trans.) | Novel | A multi-layered family saga following three sisters—Mayya, Asma, and Khawla—and their unhappy marriages in the village of al-Awafi, Oman. The novel spans generations and traces Oman’s transformation from a traditional slave-owning society to a modern state. Through interconnected narratives, Alharthi explores themes of love, servitude, freedom, and the legacy of slavery. Central character Zarifa, a flamboyant enslaved woman, is the secret lover of the household master. The novel’s title references celestial bodies—particularly the moon—as mediators between heaven and earth, guiding divided souls seeking their counterparts. Characters include Salima and her family, Merchant Sulayman, and the mysterious desert woman Qamar (Moon). The non-linear narrative weaves together the personal histories of individuals trapped between tradition and modernity, examining how the discovery of oil and globalization transformed intimate family relationships and Omani society. | Celestial Bodies | Marilyn Booth |
| Season of Migration to the North ( Mawsim al-Hijrah ilâ al-Shamâl)) | Tayeb Salih | Red Sea | Sea | Unavailable | 1966 | Novel | The book talks about the impact of British colonialism in Sudan through the character Mustafa Sa’eed, who returns to his Sudanese village of Wad Hamid on the Nile in the 1950s after writing a doctoral thesis on ‘the life of an obscure English poet. | Season of Migration to the North | Denys Johnson-Davies (1969) |
| Tell al-Zaatar | Various Iraqi authors | Mediterranean coast (Palestinian refugee context) | Sea | Palestinian camp literature by Iraqi authors | 1970s | Political Literature | Collection of works by Iraqi authors about Palestinian refugee camp Tell al-Zaatar. While primarily Palestinian-focused, written by Iraqi writers exploring themes of displacement, water scarcity in refugee camps, and Mediterranean coastal environment as site of exile and struggle. | Arabic (No English translation mentioned) | Not specified in database |
| The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea | C.L. Miller | Red Sea, Gulf of Aqaba (Jordan) | Sea | 2025 | Novel (cozy mystery) | A cozy mystery novel where antique hunters Freya Lockwood and Aunt Carole embark on a cruise ship journey through the Suez Canal to their destination off the Red Sea in Jordan. The ship has an art gallery filled with stolen antiquities, and they hunt for a shadowy figure called “”The Collector”” while people begin disappearing from the ship. Set partially in Jordanian waters of the Red Sea. | |||
| The Blue Lamps (Al-Masabih al-Zurq) | Hanna Mina | Mediterranean Sea (Latakia coast) | Sea | First novel by Hanna Mina, published by Dar al-Adab. Translated into Russian and Chinese. Adapted as Syrian TV series. | 1954 | Novel | Set in the coastal city of Latakia during World War II, following protagonist Faris as he evolves from youth to adulthood. The novel depicts simple people living through wartime, with blue-painted lamps simulating distant beacons covered by fog during the war. Explores the impact of war on a Syrian port community, daily struggles of poor families living in the Grand Home, and how global conflict affects local life. The sea serves as the backdrop for the lives of fishermen, dock workers, and ordinary people surviving wartime hardships in this pioneering work of Syrian social realism. | ||
| The Brass Kohl Pot. | Basma El-Nsour | Gulf of Aqaba/Red Sea | Sea | From “”Snow in Amman”” anthology, Faraxa Publishing | 2015 | Short Story | A story about a 40-something spinster who travels to Aqaba on a bus, returning to find a charming brass kohl pot she had discovered before. In Aqaba, she had encountered a man who told her “”your eyes are amazingly beautiful.”” The story explores themes of middle-aged womanhood, self-discovery, and the coastal city of Aqaba as a space of possibility and memory. | ||
| The Dispersal | Inaam Kachachi | Persian Gulf waters, Iraqi waterways (metaphorical) | Sea | Shortlisted International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2014 | 2013 | Literary Fiction | Novel about displacement following 2003 invasion. Uses water imagery extensively – protagonist Wardiyah’s children described as scattered ‘leaving her arteries to float on Gulf waters.’ Water serves as metaphor for diaspora experience, with Gulf waters representing the scattered Iraqi identity across global waters. | Arabic (No English translation mentioned) | Not specified in database |
| The Dogs of Gilgamesh | Shakir Noori | Mesopotamian waters, flood narrative | References Epic of Gilgamesh heritage | Various | Literary Fiction | Novel drawing inspiration from Epic of Gilgamesh, incorporating flood narratives and water themes from ancient Mesopotamian literature. Uses water imagery from original epic – floods, rivers, immortality quest – to explore contemporary Iraqi themes. Ancient water mythology meets modern Iraqi experience. | Arabic (No English translation mentioned) | Not specified in database | |
| The Mariner | Taleb Alrefai (Kuwaiti author published by Lebanese Banipal Books) | Arabian Gulf, dhow sailing culture | Sea | Arabic original 2000, English translation published by Banipal Books. Now available as audiobook narrated by Raad Rawi | 2015 | Novel | Though by a Kuwaiti author, this work was published by Lebanese Banipal Books and represents Gulf maritime themes relevant to broader Arab oceanic fiction. The novel tells the story of Kuwait’s most famous dhow ship captain, exploring traditional Arabian sailing culture and maritime heritage. The work connects to Lebanese oceanic tradition through its focus on Arab seafaring culture and the Mediterranean’s connection to broader maritime networks. Published by a Lebanese literary organization, it demonstrates how Lebanese literary institutions support oceanic fiction across the Arab world. The story captures the essence of traditional Arab maritime life and the relationship between sailors and the sea. | ||
| The Mariner النجدي | Taleb Alrefai | Pursian Gulf, Kuwait | Sea | 2017 | Literary Fiction | A fictional retelling of the voyage and tragic death of Kuwait’s famous dhow captain Ali Nasser Al-Najdi on February 19, 1979. The novel celebrates Kuwait’s pearl-diving heritage and maritime history through flashbacks highlighting the captain’s early life, his experiences with pearl fishing, and how the discovery of oil transformed the maritime culture. The narrative centers on the captain’s final perilous journey when his small fishing boat is lost in a treacherous storm in the Persian Gulf, with enormous black waves and howling winds engulfing the vessel. Through nostalgic reflection, Alrefai explores how the sea was abandoned when pearl-fishing ended with synthetic pearl discovery and oil boom. | Yes | English translation by Russell Harris published 2020 by Banipal Books (London). First published in Arabic as Al-Najdi 2017 and later translated into multiple languages including English. | |
| The Mehlis Report | Rabee Jaber | Mediterranean Sea, Beirut Coast | Sea | Arabic original 2005, English translation by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, New Directions Publishing 2013 | 2005 | Novel (Murder Mystery) | A genre-bending murder mystery set in 2005 Beirut during the tense period awaiting the UN Mehlis report on Prime Minister Hariri’s assassination. Protagonist Saman Yarid wanders the city’s maritime areas, including the destroyed St. Georges Hotel district. Jaber captures Beirut’s coastal atmosphere with vivid descriptions of ‘salty humid air rustling through palm trees’ and Mediterranean-influenced weather patterns. The novel integrates oceanic sensibility into urban Lebanese experience, showing how the Mediterranean shapes both the physical landscape and emotional terrain of contemporary Beirut. The coastal setting becomes integral to the mystery’s atmosphere and the protagonist’s psychological state. | ||
| The Phantom / Sonata for the Ghosts of Jerusalem | Waciny Laredj | Mediterranean Sea / Palestinian coastal heritage | Sea | Dar Al Adab, Beirut | 2009 | Historical / Political Fiction | Draws parallels between the Andalusian Muslim expulsion of 1492 and the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, with the Mediterranean Sea as the common historical witness. Palestinian coastal geography — Haifa, Jaffa, Gaza’s shores — is invoked as sites of Arab maritime cultural heritage violently erased. Translated into French by Marcel Bois (Actes Sud/Sindbad, 2012) but remains untranslated into English. | ||
| The Sailor’s Secret | Younis AlAkhzami | Arabian Sea, Oman’s eastern coast (Ras Madrakah village) | Sea | Published in Arabic originally; English translation by Mbarek Sryfi published November 2025 by Dar Arab; 300 pages | 2025 | Literary Fiction/Magical Realism | A lyrical novel of omens, shipwrecks, and stories that carry us home. A violent storm crashes through the Arabian Sea, leaving a boy shipwrecked on the remote shores of Ras Madrakah, a village on Oman’s eastern coast. The villagers believe he is a sign from God—specifically a gift from the divine. Sheikh Shaleh takes the boy in, convinced of divine providence. In the same tempestuous storm, a British woman named Sophia in Leeds sends her husband David into the desert, haunted by visions and pursuing a sacred mystery. The narrative weaves together myth, mysticism, and ecological awareness, echoing ancient maritime tales and spiritual lore from the rhythms of the Qur’an to the magic of Arabian Nights and Sinbad’s voyages. Through the intersecting journeys of Sheikh Shaleh and the boy pulled from the sea, and Sophia’s husband exiled by grief and belief, AlAkhzami explores how storm and spirit, place and prophecy reshape lives. The novel examines messages we hear—and those we refuse to hear. A visionary work weaving a mystic path between Oman and England, sea and sand, prayer and fate, addressing colonial legacies and ecological anxieties. | Yes | Mbarek Sryfi |
| The Scattered Pearls | Lutfiyya al-Dulaimi | Persian Gulf pearl diving waters | Sea | Various publishers | 2010 | Literary Fiction | Iraqi woman author’s novel referencing traditional pearl diving industry in Persian Gulf waters off Iraqi coast. Pearls serve as metaphor for scattered Iraqi identity and lost economic traditions. Gulf waters represent both historical prosperity and contemporary loss of traditional maritime livelihoods. | Arabic (No English translation mentioned) | Not specified in database |
| The Song of a Woman, Twilight of the Sea | Saad Mohammed Raheem | Unspecified sea/maritime themes | Published in Iraq | 2012 | Literary Fiction | Novel exploring themes of womanhood and maritime imagery. Part of trilogy alongside ‘Twilight of the Wader’ (2000) and ‘The Bookseller’s Murder’ (2016). Maritime themes serve as metaphorical landscapes for exploring human relationships and emotional states, characteristic of Raheem’s approach blending psychological realism with poetic imagery. | Arabic (No English translation mentioned) | Not specified in database | |
| The Southern Marshes | Aziz al-Samawi | Iraqi Marshlands (Ahwar) | Iraqi Ministry of Culture | 1985 | Literary Fiction | Novel set in southern Iraqi marshlands, focusing on traditional Ma’dan (Marsh Arab) communities. Explores unique aquatic culture of marsh dwellers, their relationship with reed beds, water buffalo, and traditional fishing/hunting practices. Marshlands serve as complete aquatic ecosystem supporting distinct Iraqi cultural group. | Arabic (No English translation mentioned) | Not specified in database | |
| The Stone of Laughter | Hoda Barakat | Mediterranean Sea, Lebanese coast | Various publishers, translated into English | 1990 | Literary Fiction | While Lebanese author, novel includes significant Iraqi characters fleeing to Lebanon. Uses Mediterranean coast as refuge destination for Iraqi exiles. Sea represents both barrier and gateway for displaced Iraqis seeking new lives away from war. Water serves as liminal space between homeland and exile. | Arabic → English | Not specified in database | |
| The Tiller of Waters | Hoda Barakat | Metaphorical Water Bodies | Undefined | Arabic original 1998, English translation by Marilyn Booth 2004 | 1998 | Novel | Novel about Niqula Mitri, a fabric merchant who isolates himself in his father’s basement shop during Lebanon’s civil war. The title ‘Harith al-miyah’ (Tiller of Waters) connects to both literal and metaphorical water themes as the protagonist tends to memories like cultivating water. Barakat uses water imagery to explore themes of memory, survival, and psychological isolation during wartime. The protagonist rebuilds the history of his city through storytelling about natural fabrics, while water serves as metaphor for the flow of memory and time. The novel demonstrates how Lebanese writers use aquatic imagery to address trauma and continuity during periods of destruction. | ||
| The Worker | Diaa Jubaili | Persian Gulf, Basra waters | Iraq + 100 anthology, Comma Press (translated by Andrew Leber) | 2016 | Science Fiction | Dystopian tale portrays future Basra (2103) where oil, gas, and uranium exhausted, leaving city as wasteland. Draws on current environmental challenges including water pollution, salinity intrusion from Persian Gulf, and infrastructure collapse. Water contamination and resource depletion central themes in vision of corporate environmental destruction. | Arabic → English | Andrew Leber | |
| Two Women by the Sea | Hanan al-Shaykh | Mediterranean Sea | Sea | 2003 | Novella | Follows two Lebanese women, Huda and Yvonne, during a holiday along the Italian Riviera. The novella explores their contrasting relationships with the Mediterranean: Huda develops anxiety around water, having never learned to swim, while Yvonne finds deep comfort in maritime environments. Through their interactions with the sea, al-Shaykh examines how Lebanese women in diaspora maintain connections to homeland through memories associated with water. Yvonne imagines ‘resentment towards her mother vanishing into the sea,’ suggesting the Mediterranean’s therapeutic power. The work demonstrates how oceanic settings become spaces for psychological healing and cultural reconnection for Lebanese characters living abroad. | |||
| Wadi Qandil | Nesrine Khoury (Nisrīn Akram Ḫury) | Mediterranean Sea, Cyprus-Syria coastal waters | Sea | Published by Manšūrāt al-Mutawassiṭ, Milan. Spain-based Syrian writer | 2023 | Novel (speculative fiction) | A speculative “”refugee futurism”” novel following Ṯurayā, a former asylum seeker who returns to Syria in 2034 to search for childhood memories after being raised by a Cypriot adoptive family. She survived a 2014 drowning incident off Larnaca coast where other Syrian refugees died. The novel spans 2011-2034, exploring the Syrian revolution, civil war, and post-war period. Wadi Qandil serves as both a refugee camp location and tourist destination. The Mediterranean represents both trauma (where she lost her family) and liberation (as she conquers her fears by retracing the 200 nautical miles from Cyprus to Syria as a free traveler, not a refugee). | ||
| Who Plough the Sea | Elias Farkouh إلياس فركوح | Sea (general maritime theme) | Sea | Dar Manarat, Amman | 1986 | Short Story Collection | A collection of short stories by prominent Jordanian writer Elias Farkouh exploring maritime themes and the relationship between humans and the sea. Part of his acclaimed body of work that established him as one of Jordan’s leading literary voices. | ||
| Witness of the Absent: Last Witness to the Assassination of Sea Cities | Waciny Laredj | Mediterranean Sea / Arab coastal cities | Sea | Manshūrāt al-Jamal / Al-Kamel Verlag | 2008 | Political Fiction / Postmodern | The subtitle — ‘The Last Witness to the Assassination of Sea Cities’ — establishes the Mediterranean port city as the novel’s victim. Laredj constructs a fictional eyewitness account of the cultural and physical destruction of Arab coastal urban civilisations. The ‘sea cities’ of the Arab Mediterranean world — Oran, Algiers, Beirut, Carthage — are presented as sites of erasure and mourning. Entirely untranslated into English or French. | ||
| Sleepless Nights شهرة مني الليل (Shira Minhu al-Layl) | Mediterranean coastal Tunis; port scenes; sea as liminal space | Sea | Dar al-Nashr, Tunis (posthumous 1969) | 1969 (stories written 1930s–40s) | Short Story Collection / Modernist | The foundational collection of Tunisia’s ‘father of the short story.’ Stories explore colonial Tunis with the Mediterranean as recurring atmospheric and symbolic presence: harbour cafés, ships arriving from Europe, fishermen, and the coastal medina. Douagi’s east–west encounter motif is amplified by the sea as the border zone between French colonial culture and Tunisian Arab society. Marked by narrative experimentation, dark humour, and anti-colonial irony. Translated into English by Harvard Arabist William Granara in 1991; the only English-language collection of Douagi’s fiction. | |||
| Haddath Abu Hurayra Qal (Thus Spoke Abu Hurayra) حدث أبو هريرة قال | Mahmoud Messadi (محمود المسعدي) 1911–2004 | Mediterranean Sea; unnamed coastal landscape (symbolic) | Sea | Dar al-Janub / Tunis; multiple editions | Written 1938; published 1973–74+D7:D15 | Philosophical novel / Modernist fiction | Ranked 9th in the Arab Writers Union’s list of the 100 best Arabic novels of the 20th century. Messadi constructs a fictional Abu Hurayra who wanders existential coastal terrain wrestling with questions of God, creation, and rebellion. The sea functions as a liminal symbolic space reflecting the protagonist’s irresolvable tension between faith and nihilism. Written in deliberately archaic Arabic, the text remains inaccessible to general readers and lacks an English translation. Translated into French only in excerpt form. | ||
| Ra’s Anjila (Cape Angela) رأس أنجيلا | Ines Abassi (إيناس العباسي) b. Tunisia | Mediterranean Sea; Cape Angela (northernmost point of Africa, Bizerte Governorate); sea-crossing / migration routes | Sea | Naufal Books, Beirut, Lebanon | 2025 | Literary novel / Migration fiction | Abassi’s novel takes its name from the northernmost cape of the African continent—a landmark charged with symbolic weight as a departure point for Mediterranean crossings. Two Tunisian sisters migrate in opposite directions: Linda heads East, Nadia heads West. A third strand follows Philippe, a French thirtysomething searching for his unknown Tunisian father. The novel weaves immigration, colonial legacy, absent fathers, and women’s quests for independence through the geography of the Mediterranean. No English translation announced as of 2025. | ||
| Ichkeul إشكل | Ines Abassi (إيناس العباسي) b. Tunisia | Lake Ichkeul / Mediterranean coastal wetlands (UNESCO World Heritage site, northern Tunisia) | Sea | Dar Anahla Saghira, Tunis | 2016 | Literary novel / Eco-fiction | Named after the Ichkeul National Park—a biosphere reserve where a freshwater lake meets the sea via channels connecting to the Bay of Bizerte. The novel uses the lake’s unique ecology (water shifts between fresh and salt depending on season) as both setting and metaphor. Explores human relationship to landscape, memory, and environmental fragility in northern Tunisia. The coastal-lagoon setting places it at the intersection of river and sea fiction. No English translation exists. | ||
| Zawj min al-bahr (A Husband from the Sea) زوج من البحر | Aroussia Nalouti (عروسية النالوتي) | Mediterranean Sea; Tunisian coastal town | Sea | Tunis | c. 1991 | Short story collection / Social realism | Nalouti is a Tunisian short-story writer whose work has appeared in the anthology Tunisian Shadows: 43 Short Stories. Her fiction frequently engages with coastal and maritime social realities of Tunisian women. This collection includes stories set in fishing villages along the Tunisian coast, examining the lives of women whose husbands are fishermen or migrants. The sea functions as both an economic backdrop and a source of dread and longing. No English translation of this specific collection is known; individual stories have appeared in Arabic anthologies. | ||
| Nizam al-Rimal (Order of the Sands) نظام الرمال | Rashida Charni (رشيدة الشارني) | Gulf of Tunis / Tunisian Mediterranean coastline | Sea | Tunis | c. 2005 | Short fiction / Literary fiction | Charni’s stories were praised in Banipal issue 39 (Tunisia focus) and widely circulated in Tunisian literary circles. Her fiction engages coastal landscapes of northern Tunisia—the Gulf of Tunis and beaches near Carthage—as settings for explorations of memory, identity, and postcolonial modernity. Individual stories have appeared in translation in Banipal but no full English collection exists. | ||
| Al-Sa’a al-Akhira (The Last Hour) الساعة الأخيرة | Sufyan Rajab (سفيان رجب) b. Enfidha, Tunisia | Mediterranean Sea; Tunisian coastal town of Enfidha | Sea | Tunis | 2018 | Short story collection / Social realism | Shortlisted for the Multaqa Prize for the Arabic Short Story in 2019. Rajab—born in Enfidha, a coastal town south of Tunis on the Bay of Hammamet—draws on the texture of Sahel coastal life. The collection includes stories where the sea, fishing, and the desperation of harraga migration intersect with personal loss and dark humour. No English translation exists. | ||
| Mirkab Nuh (Noah’s Hourglass) مركب نوح | Sufyan Rajab (سفيان رجب) b. Enfidha, Tunisia | Mediterranean Sea; Tunisian port / coastal setting | Sea | Rewayat (publisher) | 2025 | Literary novel / Migration / Cross-cultural fiction | Noah’s Hourglass moves between two voices—Tunisian Belkacem and Ukrainian Olga—who first meet young and reconnect when Olga flees war, accompanied by her disabled daughter Eliza. The pair’s intertwined histories unfold against Mediterranean geography and displacement. The ‘ark’ of the title signals a maritime container for survival stories. An excerpt translated by James Scanlan is available on ArabLit; full English translation not yet published. | ||
| Halwasat Tarshish (Tarshish Hallucination) هلوسات طرشيش | Hassouna Mosbahi (حسونة المصباحي)+C14:C17 | Mediterranean Sea; mythic Tarshish (ancient Phoenician port / Atlantic-Mediterranean junction) | Sea | Munich | c. 1997 | Philosophical novel / Hallucinatory fiction | Won the Toucan Fiction Prize in Munich (2000) for its German translation. The novel deploys Tarshish—a semi-mythical Phoenician maritime city associated with the furthest reaches of the known sea—as both historical and psychological landscape. Mosbahi, who lived in Munich from 1985, wove Tunisian coastal memory with ancient Mediterranean seafaring mythology. The German translation brought international attention, but no English version exists. One of the few Tunisian Arabic novels to explicitly engage with the deep history of Mediterranean maritime civilisation. | ||
| Something of the Sea in Us فينا شيء من البحر (Fina Shay’ min al-Bahr) | Dorra al-Fazi’ b. 1975, Tunis | Mediterranean Sea; Tunisian coastal identity; the sea as existential/familial inheritance | Sea | Tunisia (publisher details under verification) | 2020 | Literary Fiction / Contemporary | Dorra al-Fazi’s debut novel is the most explicitly oceanic work in contemporary Tunisian fiction: its very title announces the sea as a defining element of Tunisian identity. A lawyer by profession, al-Fazi weaves together family memory, coastal landscape, and shifting generational identity in a narrative that uses the Mediterranean as both literal setting and metaphorical inheritance. Her second novel, I Hide Passion (2022), was nominated for the Arabic Booker Prize. | ||
| Seagulls of Memory (Nawaris al-Dhakira) نوارس الذاكرة | Kamel Riahi (Kamal Riahi) b. 1974, Manafikh, Tunisia | Mediterranean coast; seagulls as recurring maritime symbol; Tunisian coastal memory | Sea | Tunis, 1999 | 1999 | Short Story Collection | Riahi’s debut collection takes the Mediterranean seagull—nawaris—as its central image: creatures of the liminal zone between land and sea, between memory and forgetting. The stories are preoccupied with the Tunisian coastal landscape, displacement, and the pull of the sea as a space of yearning and danger—a theme that resonates with the later harraga (clandestine boat-crossing) phenomenon. One of the ’39 Arab Writers Under 40′ (Beirut39 anthology). | ||
| The Beach Café & The Voice | Mohamed Mrabet (trans. Paul Bowles) | Atlantic coast / Tangier seafront | Sea | Black Sparrow Press (Santa Barbara, CA) | 1980 | Short Stories / Oral Narrative / Literary Fiction | Two stories originally narrated orally by Tangier-born Mrabet in Moroccan Darija and taped then translated by Paul Bowles. ‘The Beach Café’ centres on Driss, the loyal and selfless keeper of a Tangier sea-front café, and his duplicitous acquaintance Fuad—a meditation on friendship and betrayal set against the Atlantic backdrop. ‘The Voice’ is a supernatural tale of spiritual guidance. The collection exemplifies Tangier’s Beat-era literary milieu and Mrabet’s deep connection to the sea; he worked as a fisherman on the Strait of Gibraltar for many years before becoming a writer. | ||
| Tales of Tangier: The Complete Short Stories of Mohamed Choukri | Mohamed Choukri | Tangier — Mediterranean / Atlantic coastal crossroads | Sea | Various Moroccan / Arab publishers (career-long) | 1963–2003 (stories written across career) | Short Story Collection / Literary Realism | Choukri’s thirty-one stories invite readers into the streets, beaches, cafés and brothels of Tangier—the ancient coastal city at the juncture of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The sea is an ever-present backdrop to lives lived on the margins: beggars, swindlers, addicts, and strivers whose trajectories Choukri traces with raw, unsentimental precision. The collection was published in English for the first time in full by Yale University Press (2022), translated by Jonas Elbousty. The New Arab praised Elbousty’s translation as capturing the directness of Choukri’s Arabic. Choukri famously described ‘writing as a protest, not a parade.’ | ||
| The Strait (short fiction / academic anthology reference) | Abdel-Latif al-Idrissi | Mediterranean Sea / Tangier seafront square | Sea | Moroccan periodicals / Arab literary press | c. 1990s–2000s | Short Story / Experimental / Social Realism | Al-Idrissi’s story ‘The City’s Pantaloons’ is set in a public square in Tangier where the voices of Moroccans, foreign tourists, and sub-Saharan Africans waiting to cross the Mediterranean are interlaced. The sea crossing hovers as a silent, imminent presence throughout. The story was discussed in The Common’s 2021 essay on Moroccan short fiction by translator Sawad Hussain, who highlights al-Idrissi as a pioneer of the ‘square’ literary form in Arabic. Full English-language book publication of al-Idrissi’s stories has not been confirmed. | ||
| Collected Stories | Mohamed Mrabet (trans. Paul Bowles) | Atlantic Ocean / Strait of Gibraltar / Tangier waterfront | Ocean | Moroccan Cultural Studies Centre (Fez) | 2004 | Short Story Collection / Oral Narrative | A comprehensive anthology of Mrabet’s oral narratives taped and translated by Paul Bowles, featuring recurring coastal and maritime motifs drawn from Mrabet’s years as a Tangier fisherman. Characters include fishermen, café dwellers on the Strait, and figures navigating the liminal world of Tangier’s port. Stories blend magical realism, Sufi undertones, and quotidian Atlantic-coast life. The collection was produced by the Moroccan Cultural Studies Centre in Fez (2004) and builds on Mrabet’s earlier volumes published by Black Sparrow Press in the 1970s–90s. | ||
| [Untitled sea-crossing stories — harrag theme] | Various Moroccan Authors (academic corpus) | Strait of Gibraltar / Mediterranean Sea / Atlantic | Sea | Various | 2000s–2010s | Short Fiction / Migration / Harrag Literature | A body of Moroccan short fiction centred on the harrag (clandestine sea-crossing) phenomenon has been identified in academic scholarship, including works by authors discussed in the ResearchGate article ‘Burning the Sea: Clandestine Migration Across the Strait of Gibraltar in Francophone Moroccan Illiterature.’ These texts engage the Strait of Gibraltar as a site of aspiration, death, and political critique. Individual author/title attributions for standalone short story volumes remain partially unverified for English availability. | ||
| Titanikaat Ifriqiyya (African Titanics) | Abu bakr khaal | Mediterrenean Sea | Sea | Dar al saqi | 2008 | Novel | African Titanics follows Abdar, an Eritrean migrant, who embarks on a desperate journey northward through Africa in hopes of reaching Europe. Travelling through the unforgiving Sahara Desert, he dodges bandits, authorities, and countless dangers before arriving in Libya and later Tunisia, where he waits for a chance to cross the Mediterranean Sea. During this agonizing period of waiting, he forms deep and meaningful bonds with fellow migrants — including Terhas and Malouk, a Liberian storyteller whose tales keep their spirits alive. The novel balances moments of fast-paced danger with quiet, reflective passages as the characters share their dreams, fears, and the personal struggles that drove them to leave their homelands. As the group inches closer to the sea, the rickety boats — the “titanics” — offer no promise of survival, forcing each person to weigh the risk of crossing against the impossibility of turning back. Through Abdar’s eyes, the novel paints a deeply human portrait of migration, showing it not as a news statistic but as a lived, breathing experience full of friendship, loss, and the relentless will to survive. | ||
| Samhani | Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin | Indian Ocean | Ocean | Foundry Editions | 2022 | Novel | Samahani, meaning “forgive me” in Swahili, is a dark historical novel set in 19th-century Zanzibar. It centres on the relationship between a spoilt, scheming, and powerful Omani princess and her eunuch African slave Sundus, who was captured and castrated by Arab slavers. The story depicts the agonies of the native Zanzibaris at the hands of both Europeans and Arabs, turning their apparent island paradise into a living hell of cruelty and exploitation. The novel’s temporal arc stretches over the twilight of the Zanzibar Sultanate, set against the backdrop of the European Scramble for Africa and Britain’s expanding sphere of influence in East Africa. Translators Mayada Ibrahim and Adil Babikir regard it as one of the few novels that grant Africans genuine subjectivity in telling stories of the East African slave trade, with Sakin transforming the enslaved person into the protagonist, restoring his voice and cultural identity. Ultimately, the novel stands as a gripping testament to the dream of liberation and love in the era of slavery’s dusk |
