Essays and Features

Who Killed the Detective Novel?

Rethinking Crime Fiction in Arab Criticism

By Naomi Pham

Though the crime fiction genre has seen a rise in popularity among Arab writers in recent years, Arab criticism continues to treat the detective novel as inferior in the hierarchy of literary genres. Tales surrounding murder and mystery in Arab literature can be traced back to some renowned works of Arab literature — from classics like “One Thousand and One Nights” to more contemporary works like “The Thief and the Dogs” by Naguib Mahfouz or Yasmina Khadra’s “Inspector Llob” series. Yet it is not uncommon to hear the detective novel described by intellectuals as not "serious" enough or incapable of attaining the stature of novels that grapple with "serious" themes like identity, history, defeat, exile, and tyranny. Other sources state the genre has been treated as youth literature, dismissed by critics. For this reason, the genre has been sidelined as literature for entertainment rather than professional literature.

Essays and Features

From Bsharri to Boston:

Migration, Modernity, and Mentorship Forged the Transnational Legacy of Khalil Gibran

Naomi Pham

The 95th anniversary of the passing of Gibran Khalil Gibran has prompted appreciation and remembrance of the late poet and artist, whose renown transcended borders and crossed seas. Many remember the writer for his most famous work, “The Prophet,” published in 1923, and continue to remember his legacy as a member of the Pen League nearly a century after his passing.

Writing Against the Current of History:

Unraveling Said Khatibi’s Algerian Crime Fiction Novel

By Naomi Pham

Algerian writer Said Khatibi’s novel “Swimming Against the Tide” (Ughalib Majra al-Nahr, Dar Nofal, 2025) was named the winner of the 2026 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), otherwise known as the Arabic Booker. The novel competed against works by Egyptian novelist Ahmed Abdel-Latif, Algerian novelist Amin Zaoui, Egyptian author Doaa Ibrahim, Iraqi novelist and writer Diaa Jubaili, and Lebanese novelist and journalist Najwa Barakat. Khatibi’s prize-winning novel “Swimming Against the Tide” takes readers to his hometown of Bou-Saada, a small town in southern Algeria, in the early 1990s. Two narratives piece together a larger picture of Algeria on the cusp of the Black Decade (1992-2002), exploring prevailing cultural norms and the degrading reality women faced during that era. As Said Khatibi states in an interview with ArabLit, “In my novel, I am not concerned with recording or debating history; rather, I tell the story of how history affects individuals. I write about people on the margins, who were not heroes, yet who bore the consequences of broader historical events.”

Essays and Features

On Living Twice and Belonging Nowhere:

Living Across Two Geographies of Fear and Freedom

By Naomi Pham

“I offer these lines to the world on behalf of all those who have left a homeland tossed about by crises and conflicts,” writes Samah Halawani in the opening lines of her essay, “I Walk ‘Here,’ Wrapped in a Screen That Relays the Events of ‘There,’” published in Al Modon. Halawani’s words speak to the complex experiences of those in exile, divided between their homeland and their new dwellings — an existential struggle between attachment and detachment. This dual existence, she states, is a difficulty that anyone who has left their homelands behind may also experience, whether they arrived in their new countries by choice or by force.

Essays and Features

From Palestine to Lebanon:

The Persistence of a Human Moment

Elie Chalala

For generations, in Lebanon and across the Arab world — and even in the diaspora — the term Nakba has carried a weight that exceeds its literal meaning of “catastrophe.” It is not merely a historical reference but a formative concept, one through which collective memory, political consciousness, and emotional identification have been shaped.

A City of Many Homelands:

How 'Niyū Yūrk' Archives the Story of Middle Eastern New York

By Naomi Pham

A rich resource capturing the vast cultural history of New York’s MENA community over centuries, the exhibition "Niyū Yūrk: Middle Eastern and North African Lives in the City" ran from October 4, 2025, to March 8, 2026. Curated by Hiba Abid, the Curator for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, and organized by the New York Public Library, the exhibition explores the history of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) immigration to New York City from the late 19th century to the present, tracing through art, music, literature, and the slew of accomplishments made by the community the ways these emigrants planted their roots in their new home.

Essays and Features

Living Under the Shadow of War:

The Drone Above Us, the Debate Among Us

Elie Chalala

What caught my attention amid the ongoing war involving Israel, the United States, Iran, and Hezbollah are scenes strikingly similar to those I have personally witnessed — albeit remotely — in my native Lebanon, and now, in different ways, within the diaspora.

From Asfourieh to Aftermath:

Psychiatry, the State, and the Collapse of Care in Lebanon

By Naomi Pham

The stigmatization of mental illness remains prevalent in the Arab world, especially surrounding psychiatric institutions like the Asfourieh Hospital, formally known as the Lebanon Hospital for the Insane, which closed its doors in 1982. While part of Asfourieh’s reputation stems from its direct associations with infamous cases like that of May Ziadeh, much of the hospital’s history has been overlooked, from its ties to the development of treatment for the mentally ill, its contributions in furthering psychiatric studies, and its role as one of the leaders in modernizing medicine in the Arab world at the time.

Essays and Features

Syrian Literature and the Borders of Global Recognition:

Why Syrian Literature Struggles to Cross Borders

Elie Chalala

Ali Safar, a Syrian writer and critic based in Paris, raises thought-provoking questions in his essay “Why Don’t Syrian Writers Reach Global Recognition?” — questions that prompted my selection of this issue.* Published in The New Arab, Safar’s piece explores the global marginalization of Syrian literature.

Writing Against Defeat:

Issam Mahfouz’s Theatre, Criticism, and the Struggle for Meaning

By Naomi Pham

The late Lebanese playwright, poet, and critic Issam Mahfouz was known for his contributions in numerous fields, including modern poetry, journalism, and, perhaps most famously, as one of the pioneering figures of the Lebanese modern theater movement that lasted from the late 1950s up to the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975. Following his death in 2006, Al Jadid published a feature article by the late Mohammad Dakroub highlighting Mahfouz’s contributions to Arab criticism. Now, 21 years after his death, many continue to recall his legacy. Alhussam Muhy al-Din’s article, “Twenty Years After the Passing of Issam Mahfouz: A Legacy That Extends Beyond the Theater,” published in Al Quds Al Arabi, rekindles appreciation for the works of this celebrated writer.

Essays and Features

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