English
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My Head and The Globe
Israel
1. I loved the subject very much. What made me love it even more was Mr. Emad, the teacher. He would laugh with us and tell us many stories that made us love the lesson. And...
My Head and The Globe
Nader Abu Tamer
1 min
A Short Story Writer Who doesn’t Obey Army Orders
Palestine
As I was sitting in a taxi stuck in a queue of cars at the Atara Israeli army checkpoint, heading to Nablus to meet a beautiful widow I’d got to know on Facebook, it struck me...
A Short Story Writer Who doesn’t Obey Army Orders
Ziad Khadash
3 min
The Story of a Sock
Libya
I . . . am a cheap sock, I cost half a dinar. An industrial cooperative manufactured me, and my profit margin was redistributed among the elements of production. An ordinary man bought me, a manual...
The Story of a Sock
Muhammad al-Asfar
3 min
Kite
Tunisia
On his way home from school, Munir bumped into his friend Nabil. Nabil was holding the long line attached to his paper kite and happily running with the wind. Nabil said to his friend Munir, who...
Kite
Youssef Rzouga
1 min
The Beretta Always Wins (A chapter from a novel)
Tunisia
The smell was stuck in my nose and wouldn’t go. Whenever I drew air into my lungs, the smell took over, and all the torture I went through that night came rushing back. Before emailing the...
The Beretta Always Wins (A chapter from a novel)
Kamal Riahi
4 min
The Cheapest Nights
Egypt
After the evening prayer, curses came streaming out of Abdel Karim’s mouth, striking the village fathers and mothers and taking in Tantawi and his forebears on the way. The story was that Abdel Karim had hardly...
The Cheapest Nights
Yusuf Idris
6 min
The Detective
Sudan
The vet gave a smile so meek and mild it was scary. “I’ve given the dog a sedative,” he said to Mrs Nahal. “He’ll calm down in ten minutes at most.” “Good job,” she replied. “The...
The Detective
Yasin Suleiman
9 min
Broca’s Area
Sudan
In front of me, I put a ream of white paper, a copper inkwell and a feather I snatched from my neighbour’s duck. I lit a candle and stuck it in the middle of the table....
Broca’s Area
Mohamed Hassan AL-Nahat
8 min
A Weevil
Palestine
Ever since I was a child, I dreamt of learning to play the guitar. With time, this passion turned into a weevil, a gluttonous one that nested in my brain, grew up as I grew and...
A Weevil
Khalil Nasif
1 min
The Battle of Tel el-Hawa
Palestine
“It was a pitched battle…” – a description he had often read out to his classmates from history textbooks but never thought he would one day use as he had just done, speaking to his friend,...
The Battle of Tel el-Hawa
Asmaa al-Ghoul
8 min
The Veiled Man
Syria
I learned of the character of drugs and the nature of poisons from an alchemist – an Arab alchemist from the outskirts of Baghdad who had come to work as a physician in the palace of...
The Veiled Man
Jan Dost
6 min
The Seventh Floor
Egypt
You wanted me a slave bought and sold You wanted me in despair joyless. From the poem “Absent” by Palestinian poet Rashid Hussein.   ***   The distance between one floor and another was months and...
The Seventh Floor
Mohammed Salah Rajeh
3 min
Insurrection – A chapter from “The Gorilla”
Tunisia
About one o’clock in the afternoon. The wind is busy rolling along some beer-can that has been drained of its contents in the deserted street. A massive silence links the arch of the Sea Gate with...
Insurrection – A chapter from “The Gorilla”
Kamal Riahi
5 min
The Last Arab Man
Tunisia
I was in the process of completing some research on the progress of democratization in Tunisia under the threat of terrorism when a message notification popped up. The message read: “I would like to connect with...
The Last Arab Man
Maha Jouini
12 min
Mandelbaum Gate
Palestine
“Well then tell her that she intends to get out of here, mister,” the Israeli policeman called out. He was standing, arms folded, at one entrance to Mandelbaum Gate when I explained to him that we...
Mandelbaum Gate
Emile Habiby
8 min
The Shoe
Israel
I had headed out to buy a pack of cigarettes and a few tomatoes, and there was a black shoe in the entrance to the building. A black shoe, just one, on the second tile beyond...
The Shoe
Hisham Naffa
5 min
Baganda (A chapter from a novel)
Tunisia
Origin of the story: The story started by chance. It was Sunday evening and work that day hadn’t been too hard. Monday’s edition mostly comprised investigations, interviews and regional reports prepared in advance, and I often...
Baganda (A chapter from a novel)
Shukri al-Mabkhout
5 min
Black Cats
Morocco
The Imam’s words to me at the entrance to the mosque that night were strange and dramatic. He said that a pack of ferocious black cats had attacked the district and was destroying everything it came...
Black Cats
Samir Salmi
2 min
The Orange Ribbon
Palestine
As she waited for the train, she grabbed an orange ribbon out of the hand of a settler who had a blond beard and a white kippa. Then she sat down again in the shade. The...
The Orange Ribbon
Iyad Barghouti
7 min
A Pleasant Countenance
Syria
I don’t know how many hours I’d spent in solitary confinement. I was alone with four cold silent walls. I couldn’t hear anyone’s voice in that gloomy cell, and I don’t think anyone could hear me....
A Pleasant Countenance
Jan Dost
4 min
Two Royalists in Quatorze Juillet (a chapter from “An Iraqi in Paris”)
Iraq
The waiter at the Café Au Chai de l’Abbaye, Claude, asked me to finish my drink quickly. It was a quarter past two in the morning and he had to close up the café. I walked...
Two Royalists in Quatorze Juillet (a chapter from “An Iraqi in Paris”)
Samuel Shimon
19 min
Extinction
Iraq
In the year 3000AD, after many years of wars – world wars, civil wars, religious wars ­– after the heavens grew angry and smote the waters with meteorites from a vengeful hell, then there came thunderbolts,...
Extinction
Adham Adel
3 min
The Route through Purgatory
Sudan
The sands lolled and swam in the sun’s blazing rays all day, then when darkness fell, they patiently waited for the sun to rise. As far as the eye could see, the sands swelled in every...
The Route through Purgatory
Omayma Abdullah
7 min
River of Honey, Lake of Milk
Syria
Hadiya would visit us with her mother. On sunny days, we did our homework together under the grapevine; in winter, we did it by the stove. Her books were often torn: she didn’t like books or...
River of Honey, Lake of Milk
Ahmed Omar
5 min
Moscow
Tunisia
Nur al-Din al-Ajnaf had been a Communist at university. After the fall of the Soviet Union he gave up on Communism for good. Or perhaps this was a rumour close friends spread about him. Nuru was...
Moscow
Kamal Riahi
5 min
Nightly Lament
Palestine
I could smell the stench of death. From the first shades of darkness, I smelt the stench of death. A stench above me, a stench below me. Wherever I turned, I smelt the same stench. A...
Nightly Lament
Naji Daher
5 min
Chaim and Me (A chapter from novel)
Algeria
Due to the imminent end of my summer break, and shortly before resuming my work at the Teacher Training College at the beginning of the third week of September, I reassured my wife, Zuleika al-Nadra, that...
Chaim and Me (A chapter from novel)
Habib Sayah
6 min
The Visit
Tunisia
“These cities have devoured you,” he said as he pulled out the chair and sat down in the middle of the cramped room. He lit his pipe with a lighter that looked almost like a pen....
The Visit
Unknown Author
6 min
Its Name is ‘Bird’
Tunisia
Jalal wasn’t happy unless he was wreaking havoc. He was the village’s fearsome little devil. At any time he might raid the neighbours’ chicken coops and rabbit hutches. Then we’d see him grilling the meat outdoors,...
Its Name is ‘Bird’
Kamal Riahi
3 min
Karim the Romantic, Bather of the Dead
Palestine
“I’m a romantic, you brutes, and I adore Nizar Qabbani!” This was Karim’s only reply to people’s accusations and taunts. And it was on the basis of this reply that the camp residents had added the...
Karim the Romantic, Bather of the Dead
Ziad Khadash
4 min
Jabir Sabeel
Sudan
Citizen Jabir Sabeel awoke to the alarm of his Nokia mobile phone at exactly 6:05. He tried, like every morning, to cover his face with a pillow, but he felt an awful weakness. He could not...
Jabir Sabeel
Mansour Mohammad El Souwaim
2 min
He Saw Too
Iraq
Today’s Friday. I might be mistaken though, and it could be Saturday.   How stupid! Why couldn’t it be Sunday or Monday? It’s not worth thinking about or even looking at the calendar. I can’t even...
He Saw Too
Irada Al-Jubori
5 min
The Day By Day Mosque
Iraq
This vinegar is exactly ninety-nine years old, if the calculations I jotted down on my calendar of motivational quotes are correct, because the perfume was produced exactly a week before the enormous concrete head of Saddam...
The Day By Day Mosque
Mortada Gzar
6 min
The Open Door
Egypt
The last thing I decided I would do before going away was to say farewell to my grandma. By noon I was watching Ghasreen, a small town located at the heart of a small valley. It...
The Open Door
Abd al Rahman Munif
26 min
Ronaldo’s Seat
Palestine
Kadhim Ali paid no attention to the difficulties he was exposed to on account of his enthusiasm for the Brazilian football player Ronaldo. Kadhim Ali loved football but the people of his neighbourhood did not; they...
Ronaldo’s Seat
Mahmoud Shukair
6 min
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