Cities of Salt | Cities of Salt

At a glance:

Author: Abdelrahman Munif
First Published: 1984
Type of Work: Naturalism
Time of Work: , from World War I to 1953; , from 1953 to 1962
Setting: Saudi Arabia
Principal Characters: Mut‘ib al-Hadhdhal, The Prince, Ibn Rashid, Khaz‘al, Subhi al-Mahmalji, Hammad, Wadad, Samir
Genres: Long fiction, Naturalistic literature
Subjects: 1950’s, Politics, 1940’s, Doctors, 1910’s, 1920’s, 1930’s, Kings, queens, or royalty, Middle East, Technology, Oil wells or oil-well drilling, Arabs, Bedouins
Locales: Saudi Arabia

Mudun al-milh (cities of salt) narrates the story of the discovery of oil in the Arabian Peninsula and the radical impact of that discovery on the physical and human landscape. Although the kingdom in which the action takes place is never mentioned by name, it is clear that the reference is to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In the novel, the cities of Harran and Muran represent the major Saudi Arabian cities that developed in the aftermath of the discovery of oil during the first decades of the twentieth century.

Cities of Salt | Cities of Salt

At a glance:

The Novel

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