Cities of Salt by Abdelrahman Munif

First published: 5 volumes collectively titled Mudun al-milh; volume 1, al-Tih, 1984 (Cities of Salt, 1987); volume 2, al-Ukhdud, 1985 (The Trench, 1991); volume 3, Taqasim al-layl wa-al-nahar, 1989 (Variations on Night and Day, 1993); volume 4, Al-Munbatt, 1989; volume 5, Badiyat al-zulumat, 1989

Type of work: Naturalism

Time of work:Cities of Salt, from World War I to 1953; al-Ukhdud, from 1953 to 1962

Locale: Saudi Arabia

Principal Characters:

Cities of Salt

• Mut‘ib al-Hadhdhal, a Bedouin patriarch living in the oasis
• The Prince
• Ibn Rashid, the prince’s deputy

al-Ukhdud

• Khaz‘al, the sultan of the oil-rich sultanate
• Subhi al-Mahmalji, his personal physician and adviser
• Hammad, the head of the secret service of the sultanate
• Wadad, Subhi’s wife
• Samir, an Egyptian journalist and sometime lover of Wadad

The Novel

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.

The action of volume 1 spans the period from World War I to the early 1950’s. No specific dates are given in the novel itself. The time frame, however, can be readily established from the transparent correspondence between internal narrative events and actual historical events. Thus, the reign of Sultan Khuraybit, founder of the fictional kingdom in the novel, corresponds to the reign of Sultan ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (1902-1953), founder of the Saudi kingdom.

Volume 2 begins with the ascent of Khaz ‘al, Khuraybit’s eldest son, to the throne and ends with his overthrow by his younger brother on charges of inefficiency and corruption. Sultan Khaz ‘al stands for King Sa‘ud, who ruled Saudi Arabia from 1953 until 1962, when he was deposed by his younger brother, Faysal, who then became sultan. (The forthcoming third volume, entitled “Taqasim al-layl wa-al-nahar,” “divisions of day and night,” will presumably dramatize subsequent historical events that occurred during the reign of Sultan Faysal and his successors.)

Although sultans, kings, and princes exercise significant control in the novel, they are not its immediate or primary subject. The focus of attention throughout volume 1 is on the gradual transformation of a desert oasis from pristine simplicity to a bustling metropolis. What sets this process of transformation in motion is the sudden, unannounced appearance of three American petroleum engineers in this idyllic landscape. Having had no previous exposure to foreigners, the indigenous Bedouin population views the three American engineers with curiosity and apprehension as they go about surveying the desert landscape in search of oil. In the manner of nineteenth century European and American naturalist fiction, the slow-paced narrative attempts to capture in minute detail the reaction of the Bedouins to this unprecedented encroachment on their desert habitat.

The Americans’ presence in the desert begins to take a more permanent nature with the arrival of prefabricated houses, heavy landscaping and drilling equipment, and other technological wonders such as binoculars, radios, tape recorders, and television sets. The apprehension of the indigenous population turns to forthright hostility. Initially, this hostility is passive and finds expression in the withdrawal of Mut ‘ib al-Hadhdhal, the patriarch of the oasis, from the encounter with the new reality. When he fails to persuade the prince to put a halt to the surveying and drilling and to order the Americans out, the patriarch simply rides his camel into the desert one night and disappears. Although no physical trace of him is ever found, he becomes a symbol of resistance to the new epoch and occasionally returns to haunt the prince and local representatives of the government. When, toward the end of volume 1, the Bedouins stage a strike against the American oil company and someone sets the entire oil field and camp ablaze, all fingers point to the ghost of Mut ‘ib al-Hadhdhal.

The focus of volume 2 shifts from the physical landscape of the remote oasis and the city of Harran that was built around it to the new capital in the interior, Muran (presumably Riyad, the actual capital of Saudi Arabia). Unlike Harran, the nucleus of the capital consists of a cluster of palaces built with oil revenues for members of the royal family. The sultan’s main palace houses his ever-increasing harem and serves as the locus of much of the narrative in this volume.

A still greater portion of this volume is devoted to describing the personality, motives, concerns, and life-style of the sultan’s physician and main adviser, Subhi al-Mahmalji. While not a member of the royal family by blood, “the physician,” as he is called in the novel, is the actual founder of the kingdom. It is he who creates the governmental institutions and offices on which the nascent state stands. Foremost among these are the secret service and the propaganda department, for which he handpicks the most loyal and efficient among the sultan’s subjects. To immortalize his own name, the physician envisions writing a historical and philosophical treatise about the nature of government based on his actual experience in the service of the sultan. As he indulges his illusions of grandeur in this manner, control over the affairs of state slips imperceptibly from his hands and passes into the hands of his subordinates, especially Hammad, the head of the sultanate’s secret service whom the CIA had been cultivating for many years without the physician’s knowledge.

Totally engrossed in his quest for financial and political power, the physician also neglects the emotional and sexual needs of his wife, Wadad. She avenges herself by maintaining regular illicit relations with his various subordinates and business partners. Just when the physician’s lifelong wish to become the sultan’s exclusive adviser and confidant appears within reach, events take an unexpected turn. Shortly after the aging sultan marries the physician’s sixteen-year-old daughter and departs for Europe on their honeymoon, he is deposed by his younger brother and the physician is ordered by the new ruler to leave the country immediately.

The Characters

Characterization in this novel serves the primary objective of providing a panoramic view of Bedouin society as it undergoes radical transformation. To realize this intention, the narrative point of view constantly shifts from one scene to another, describing each barely long enough to record the effects of the cataclysmic change on the face of the desert and its dwellers. The net result is akin to a set of group photographs as opposed to individual portraits. No Bedouin character displays any significant psychological depth, and none is given to introspection. In fact, no clear line appears to separate the private from the public realm in the life of this nomadic society. The characters who display any degree of roundedness stand out as typical, rather than unique, individuals.

This may explain, at least in part, Mut ‘ib’s disappearance at the end of volume 1. The Bedouin patriarch tries to stem the ravishing of the desert through the only means available to him, namely, public remonstration with the prince. When that fails, there is little else he can do as an individual. Disappearance into the desert in the thick of night invests him with mythic qualities and enables him to carry on the fight.

The same strategy of characterization is applied to the American engineers and personnel. They always appear together and are described as a group. The reader never gets a direct glimpse of their personalities and conduct. Instead, Abdelrahman Munif shows the reaction of the indigenous population to the presence of the Americans. From such a distance, all the characters appear to be stereotypes rather than realized individuals.

Among the major characters of the novel, only the physician appears as a well-rounded character. For this reason, he, and not the sultan, should be considered the main character of the novel. This is particularly true of volume 2, which dramatizes his methodical and painstaking pursuit of power and his sudden fall from it.

There is evidence to suggest that the physician may be a composite of a number of historical figures who served in various capacities under Sultan ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, the founder of the Saudi monarchy. As a fictional character, however, the physician is interesting because he simultaneously combines in his personality the omnipotence of every creator over his creation and the ability to subordinate himself completely to the will of those whom he installs in power. His obscure origins and mysterious arrival into the nascent desert kingdom and his admiration for “the German way of doing things” are also intriguing.

Hammad, the Bedouin whom the physician handpicks to head the secret service of the new state, develops to full stature in the course of the novel’s action. His character demonstrates precisely how knowledge can be transmuted into power. While the physician was the first to detect Hammad’s talent, it is the CIA which cultivates it for systematic application. Hammad’s initiation into the sophisticated methods of intelligence-gathering and the effective wielding of knowledge and power takes place during his first trip to the United States. From that point on, his visits to the United States increase steadily in frequency and length. Toward the end of volume 2, he emerges as the undisputed power behind the throne.

Critical Context

Mudun al-milh is Munif’s seventh and undoubtedly most important novel. It is the first, however, set in the writer’s native land of Saudi Arabia. His earlier novels dealt with more general Arabian concerns as he perceived them from his self-imposed exile, initially in Iraq, where he worked for many years as a petroleum engineer, and later in Paris, which he made his home. Most of Munif’s fiction is written in the traditional styles of naturalism and social realism, both of which were fashionable in the 1940’s and 1950’s in Arabic fiction but which have become somewhat archaic since then.

The naturalistic mode is exceptionally appropriate, however, for the purposes of this novel: namely, to evoke in minute detail the plenitude of a world that once was and is no more. This is an undertaking of epic proportions, and, like all epics, it describes and explains everything in full, leaving nothing to chance. It is unquestionably the most important Arabic novel in decades and will probably have an impact far beyond literature.

Bibliography

Allen, Roger. The Arabic Novel: An Historical and Critical Introduction, 1982.. Modern Arabic Literature, 1987.

Chicago Tribune. August 14, 1988, XIV, p. 5.

The Christian Science Monitor. September 2, 1988, p. B6.

Kirkus Reviews. LV, December 1, 1987, p. 1645.

Los Angeles Times Book Review. May 29, 1988, p. 3.

Publishers Weekly. CCXXXII, December 11, 1987, p. 58.

Siddiq, Muhammad. “The Contemporary Arabic Novel in Perspective,” in World Literature Today. LX, no. 2 (Spring, 1986), pp. 206-211.