The cultural heritage of the Middle East can indeed impress and inspire almost everyone because the development of literature, painting, architecture, science, and philosophy has occupied an important part of people’s lives. I bet you studied the works of the great poet and philosopher Omar Khayyam at school or university, but can you now list other outstanding authors in the world of modern Middle Eastern literature? I am here to help you a little, so I have compiled a list of famous authors whose works have become the foundation of modern literature and contributed significantly to its development and popularization not only in Eastern countries but all over the world.
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Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini is an American writer of Afghan descent. He was born in 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan, but his family later moved to the United States and was given political asylum there.
His debut novel was The Kite Runner, a book that gained worldwide popularity and became the third best-selling novel in the United States in 2005. In this work, Khaled Hosseini managed to convey the feelings and emotions of his characters as they face the difficult life in Afghanistan. The novel is set against the backdrop of the fall of the monarchy, the entry of Soviet troops into the country, and the Taliban regime. As he mentioned in one of his interviews, he began to write novels to tell the Western world about Eastern civilization in general and the history of Afghanistan in particular. And this is entirely true; as in the following novels, such as A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountains Echoed, the author describes the problems of social inequality, poverty, war, and immigration that ordinary families had to endure without being able to change their lives for the better.
Now, Khaled Hosseini is the UN representative for refugees, and he is actively engaged in humanitarian work, trying to help Afghan people, especially children.
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Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai is only 23, but she is already a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, a Pakistani human rights activist, and an author of an award-winning nonfiction book in which she tells about her life and the lives of other women in Pakistan. At age 11, she started a small blog for the BBC, describing her life under the Taliban regime, their attempt to take control of the Swat Valley, and her views on the development of girls’ education. She quickly became popular abroad because she was not afraid of telling about the problems of women in Muslim countries. But Pakistani conservative society did not like that, and later, a group of terrorists tried to kill the girl. Fortunately, after a long period of treatment in Britain, she recovered and continued her activities. Why do I go into such detail about her biography? Because she wrote an autobiographical book based on her own story. The full title is I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, and believe me, it is definitely worth your attention.
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Ferit Orhan Pamuk
Ferit Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish writer, screenwriter, journalist, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is renowned not only in his motherland but also abroad, and his novels have been translated into more than 50 languages. His books are the perfect read for those who want to immerse themselves in the culture and history of the Turkish people. And the author himself is not afraid to speak his mind and advocates recognition of the Kurdish and Armenian genocide. The author in his works often discusses the eternal confrontation between Islam and Christianity, the East and the West, tradition and modernity.
The heroes of his novels are ordinary people. For example, in his debut novel Cevdet Bey and His Sons, he tells the story of a family spanning several generations against the backdrop of the collapse of the Turkish Empire and years of struggle for a democratic, civilized society.
His novel named Snow takes place in Istanbul in the 1990s, and the action starts when a young journalist returns to the city after 12 years of political exile in Germany. Ka, that’s the main character’s name, has his plans and goals, but suddenly the heavy blizzard begins, and he finds himself isolated from the outside world for three days. But Ka managed to make the most of even the most desperate situation. During that time, he talked to people of many different political views, such as a former communist, an Islamic extremist, secret service officials, a secularist, a fascist nationalist, etc.
Of course, I will not reveal the whole scenario, but I can tell you one thing – it is an exciting and intriguing story that can shed light on the events of those times and cannot leave anyone indifferent.
As you may have noticed, contemporary authors are committed to publicizing the darker events of the history of the Middle East. They are eager to tell and share the most difficult experiences they and their compatriots have gone through. Moreover, they have already made a huge contribution by raising awareness, promoting and developing their culture, and highlighting such pressing social issues.
