A Small Death, the Saudi novelist’s historical novel about a Sufi mystic and adventurer, takes $50,000 honour for ‘striking artistry’
A historical novel about the life and adventures of an Andalusian adventurer and Sufi mystic has taken the most prestigious prize in Arabic fiction.
Saudi author Mohammed Hasan Alwan won the $50,000 (£39,000) International prize for Arabic fiction for A Small Death, his fictional account of the life of Sunni scholar Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi. The novel follows him from his birth in Muslim Spain in 1165 to his death in Damascus in 1240, taking in journeys from Andalusia to Azerbaijan, and his reflections on the violence witnesses in Morocco, Egypt, the Hejaz (now part of Saudi Arabia), Syria, Iraq and Turkey. A contentious figure in history, Ibn ‘Arabi has been declared the foremost spiritual leader in Sufism by some, but condemned as an apostate by others.
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