Original - Biography in novel

Original - Biography in Novel Author: Mohammed bin Jaber Al-Sahli Binding: Hardcover Volumes: One Paper: Shamooh Size: 14 × 21 Synopsis: This book is not an autobiography of a person, as it may seem from its cover; rather, it is an autobiography of a society, and of a dominant culture over that society. The biography of Uncle Jaber (Aseel) represents the biography of (the tribe) in the Arabian Peninsula, specifically before the emergence of the (Saudi) state and shortly after its emergence. The pressure of the tribe as an existential component of a person, and not just one element of his identity, is what drove a nine-year-old boy to walk for 14 days on foot, from the east of the Arabian Peninsula to its center, and during his journey, he faced the maze of sands and thickets, wolves and hyenas, all to affirm his belonging to his tribe, which he was born and raised far from among his maternal tribe, where someone described him during a children's fight as (the foreigner), and this was the word that made the child undertake a suicidal journey to restore his dignity! But this stubborn Bedouin, whom we expected to grow up to become a (tribal sheikh), surprised everyone around him — including the readers of this book — transforming in his mid-life from a (Bedouin) to a (villager), acquiring a cow in his mud house after he was passionate about herding camels in the desert, and caring for the palm trees in his garden after he used to care for poetry and sheep. Has the (tribe) and its tribalism ended in our society now? No, but it is no longer the only means, nor the most important means, of expressing identity and showing pride. This novel/biography is full of social landmarks of a person from the Arabian Peninsula who responded with his strong will, always, to the transformations of society from dependence on the tribe and nomadism to the space of the state and civility, but with a firm insistence on maintaining fundamental (values) that are not subject to concession! Ziad Al-Drees