Arab literary and political memoirs: A Note. There was an article decades ago by Elie Kedouri (no, I am no fan of his, especially that he wrote with utter contempt about the region and its people especially later in his life, and his interpretation of Husayn-McMahon correspondence were conveniently pro-Zionist and did not conform to the evidence in British diplomatic archives, and he produced a generation of condescending Middle East experts) about Arab political memoirs. I personally think that the first president after independence, Bisharah Al-Khuri, wrote a very interesting and well-written memoirs, but the three volumes could have been easily edited down to one volume. He did not have to cite from his speeches as much--or reproduce whole chunks, but he wrote his own literary-styled speeches and was proud of it. Ahmad Faris Ashidyaq in the 19th century--one of the most interesting Arab literary figures EVER (read the only good biography of him by `Adil As-Sulh and read what Albert Hourani wrote about him in his Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age), was a pioneer: whether in his As-Saq `Ala-s-Saq or in his book of travels in Malta and Europe, was the most interesting and incisive, but he has the habit of inserting chunks from encyclopedia entries and almanacs of the time about the cities that he was covering. Shidyaq's writings on the clergy is the most daring that you can read in Arabic. Ghazzali's Munqidh mina-d-Dalal is a spiritual memoirs of sort, and it goes back to the 11th century. Jurji Zaydan's memoirs are interesting and they cover his period at the American University of Beirut during the uproar over evolution when a whole bunch of students and professors (who dared mention Darwin) were expelled--read the book on that by my former high school history teacher Shafiq Jiha and he just had it published in English. In recent times, I really like Ihsan `Abbas' (one of the best Arab literary critics of the 2nd half of the 20th century) Ghurbat Ar-Ra`i the most, with its melancholic tone. It is a rare MODEST Arab memoir, and carries no pretentiousness or bragging whatever. He also was most honest about his (very unhappy) marriage. Suhayl Idriss wrote volume 1 of his memoirs, but it was rushed at the end, and his illness affected the progress of the project--I told Samah his son that one expected more after a very good first section. Halim Barakat's Ta`ir Al-Hawm is an honest and literary biography but it is too brief, as I told Halim when it first came out. Fawwaz Trabulsi wrote an interesting account titled Mudhakkirat Al-Fata bi-l-Ahmar, but he had much more to tell that he withheld, as I told him. But the most controversial memoirs are undoubtedly `Abdur-Rahman Badawi in 2 volumes, which came out 2 years ago just before his death. I read it 3 times already: how can I talk about somebody who was both brilliant and crazy at the same time. The most disciplined and learned of men, and yet drawn to crazy conspiracy theories. Somebody who prosletized for existentialism in the Arab world, and who collected writings by atheists in the classical period of the Arab/Islamic civilization, and who specialized in Greek thought among many other things. Muhsin Mahdi (the former professor of Islamic philosophy at Harvard) told me this story: he once stopped in Paris in the 1980s to see Badawi. Badawi was all excited; he told Mahdi that he just discovered the reasons for Arab decline and stagnation. He said that he has "discovered" that Jamal `Abun-Nasir was Jewish, and that "this" was the reason for Arab problems. Badawi was a fascist, and was never ashamed of his fascism. But his memoirs were like him: totally undiplomatic, rude, vindictive, honest, ruthless, and full of knowledge of various things. My favorite was a reference to his dating in his earlier days: I just cannot see what this man would talk about sitting with a woman in Paris. He was the most one-dimensional man there is. That must have been hilarious, I always thought. PLO leader, Abu Dawud (the real leader of Black September) wrote an excellent and very modest memoirs, and they cover a very important period, and Abu Dawud does not lie. He talks about important developments, and never exaggerates his role. A man of great courage and leadership managed to play a very important role in the PLO's role in the Lebanese civil war without people even knowing his name. He was not your typical PLO show-off and braggart type that `Arafat was producing in bundles. Do you know that Abu Dawud was once shot by an Israeli agent in an East European capital several times in his body and face: and do know what Abu Dawud did? Abu Dawud did what you would expect Abu Dawud to do: he went running, with blood streaming out of him, and with people being terrified at the sight, after the assassin. Other Palestinian memoirs of interest: the Diary of Akram Zu`aytar (hi `Arub), and the several memoirs by first PLO buffoonish leader Ahmad Shuqayri. I am too biased in favor of PLO founder (and its representative in Lebanon) Shafiq Al-Hut and I recommend anything he writes, and he always writes with a great sense of humor. Of Lebanese communist memoirs, I only recommend that by the late Mustafa Al-`Aris, the labor organizer who we now know was a matter of great interest to US intelligence for some reason. Karim Muruwwah did not write his memoirs but his book of several long interviews with Saqr Abu Fakhr (thanks for the book Saqr) were published as memoirs: they bothered me a great deal. Not modest at all, and he (typical of a Lebanonese politician) claims that EVERYBODY in Lebanon (including right-wing fascist leader who killed and massacred communists) were "his friends." Everybody was a "friend" of Karim Muruwwah. Somebody with "everybody is a friend" (like Bill Clinton) is somebody with no friends, I strongly believe. I always believed that Mikha'il Nu`aymah's Sab`un (his 3 volumes autobiography--he wrote it when he was 70 (hence the title which means Seventy) and later lived into his 90s--I had written about my meeting him as a fan when I was 11) is one of the best literary works in Arabic in the 20th century. It certainly is on the level of the trilogy that won Mahfouz the Nobel Prize--if not better, much better, not that I believe in the standards of the Leninist Nobel committee. And I always wondered why there is no special Nobel Prize for Potato studies. I mean they have one for "peace" so why not potato? Whenever I read Sab`un (and I must have read it 4 or 5 times) I want a 4th or 5th volume. Arab leaders (except the presidents of Lebanon) don't write memoirs: they either get killed, or they live under the assumption that they are immortal, so they never to sit down and write. As-Sadat wrote one, but it is not even worth mentioning. It was good enough but only to be serialized in the National Inquirer, if it stood to the standards of the National Inquirer. Of the Lebanese presidents, Charles Hilu wrote a most pretentious Lebanonese memoirs, and has a most petty scene in which he describes his visit to the Academe Francaise (an elitist body which governs the use of the French language), and how he started interfering in the deliberations of the group, about the appropriate use of one word, and that he was right, and the body was wrong. How embarrassing. Hilu was a hard working student who when elected to the presidency could not write Arabic well, not unlike many Lebanonese patriots. Former prime minister Sa'ib Salam, gave him a copy of the Qur'an and of Mutanabbi's poetry, and to his credit, Hilu achieved a high level of command in Arabic in his first year of the presidency. Former president Ilyas Hrawi cannot write, and he can barely read but reads better than the Saudi king `Abdullah: a Lebanese journalist wrote the memoirs for him, and they are interesting because they are like Hrawi: vulgar, funny, and personal, without a trace of erudition. Former prime minister Salim Huss writes regular accounts of his time in office but they cannot be described as memoirs per se. Former prime minister Sami As-Sulh published a readable memoir in the 1960s, and they were recently republished by An-Nahar but only because As-Sulh was a mere tool in the hands of Kamil Sham`un, who is all but worshipped by An-Nahar's owner, the right-wing Ghassan Tuwayni. Arab Moroccan intellectual, and political philosopher, Muhammad `Abid Al-Jabiri wrote his memoirs, but they are mostly an intellectual account of his life. Fawaz Turki wrote three volumes of his memoirs (in English) but only the 1st one can be recommended (The Disinherited which can be read as a great introduction to the Palestinian problem); the last two are obviously full of lies and fabrications, and one reviewer, Sharif El Musa, pointed that out in his review in JPS. I have recommended before Husayn Shahrastani's memoirs, and his account of life under Saddam's regime, and in his jails. Syria's former minister of defense, the useless Mustafa Tlas, wrote interesting 2 volumes (so far) memoirs: they are quite anecdotal and quite colorful. These are to read while eating mazah and drinking beverages. But when you read them you cannot but wonder (as I wondered in amazement): with these we were preparing for the liberation of Palestine and the recovery of Arab lands? With these men? Anis Mansur's account of "Kanat Lana Ayyam fi Salun Al-`Aqqad" is a great look at intellectual life in Egypt during `Aqqad's reign. SSNP leaders and intellectuals have a tradition of writing memoirs for some reasons\. The late Hisham Sharabi wrote his memoirs twice: they both were interesting but irritatingly narcissistic (true to his personality). Former head of SSNP `Abdullah Sa`adah wrote a very informative memoirs: they were tough, just as he was, while another former leader (both deceased) In`am Ra`d devoted too much of his memoir to defensiveness: you see, his conduct in jail after the SSNP's coup in Shihab's administration was less from exemplary. For a party that prides itself on discipline and toughness, Ra`ad broke down, and pleaded for mercy and leniency. Ra`d was deposed of his position after the SNNP reconciled with the Syrian regime after the first phase of the Lebanese civil war; the Syrian put a veto on him. He was too close to the Iraqi regime, and he permitted the release of a small SSNP booklet (you will never find it anywhere now, but I have a copy) in 1976 titled the Shami Invasion of Lebanon (in reference to the military invasion by the Syrian regime in 1976 to save the right-wing sectarian militias in Lebanon from defeat--don't remind me. That intervention enraged the 16-year old Angry Arab. One SSNP leader, `Abdullah Al-Qubursi wrote a very comprehensive account of his life and that of the party, and he did that--as I told his son `Atif--with modesty and even self-denial. For the Ba`th, the best is Sami Al-Jundi's books. This former dentist rose in the Syrian Ba`th ranks (before Hafidh Al-Asad's coup), and his account tells the story of a rushed and confused era. His books (all of them) are quite literary, and reveals a very humane and romantic personality deeply and sincerely influenced by French romantic literature. Al-Jundi was an early courageous voice against manifestation of Arab anti-Jewishness: he was always keen to express his fierce opposition to Zionism and Israel without losing his sense of identification with the suffering and plight of Jews in Arab lands after 1948, who were victims of both Israel and Arab governments. Hani Fukayki wrote the best source on the scary world of Iraqi Ba`thist intrigues. Less interesting is Munfi Ar-Razzaz' At-Tajrubah Al-Murrah (The Bitter Experience). In Egypt, there are memoirs of former foreign ministers: the most interesting of that genre is that by Boutros Ghali (available in English in two-volumes--I am judging here from the standpoint of reading and evaluations standards and not from a political standards as I do not agree with Ghali on anything, unless he is a fan of fried eggplants, and in that case we agree on one thing). Nasser's foreign minister Mahmud Riad wrote his memoirs, but they are politically informative and the author could not given his personality engage in reflections or introspections. Leftist opposition leader Khalid Muhi Ad-Din wrote his memoirs and they are available in English too: I like the one reference in the beginning to a conversation he had with Nasser during their days when they plotted as Free Officers for their coup (known as Revolution in Arab parlance--and you have to blame the Ba`th for that, and Michel `Aflaq himself--see his article on Coup as Revolution in his Fi Sabil Al-Ba`th): when Muhi Ad-Din was a member of a communist cell, his cell leader was a mechanic: and Nasser (revealing a classism that he was able to hide during his ruling times) would exclaim how Khalid would accept to be led by a "mechanic." Abu Mahir Al-Yamani (a labor organizer in Palestine in the pre-48 period who later helped found the PLO and the Movement of Arab Nationalists, and would later emerge as a key PFLP leader) told me last year that he completed his 7 volumes of memoirs, but that he requested that two volumes of them would not be published until after his death. They may be displeasing to George Habash, I gathered. But they still are not out. I look forward to reading them. George Habash has still not written his memoir: he had a book of interviews with Fu'ad Matar, and Habash told me that he was not pleased at all with that book. I had one discussion with Habash about writing a biography of him (and I was approached to doing it by Arab publisher Riad Najib Ar-Rayyis, and I made it clear that I would not be interested in doing it unless I do it from my very critical perspective, and not as a co-writer or note-taker) but he told me that his wife is insisting on doing it with her, and with no outside interference, for some reason--but she is known to be annoying. OK. I found Habash to be very open minded about criticisms, and I had given him two devastatingly critical pieces I wrote about the PFLP, and one (published in the Journal of Palestine Studies) had the title (on Habash's role in MAN) "Neither Unity Nor Liberation". Now why did I write all this, I don't know. I am bored with it now, and I shall stop.