Google Doodle Celebrates - Abdul Rahman Munif's 90th Birthday.
Today's Doodle honors Abdul Rahman Munif, a writer, journalist, and reviewer of culture. Munif was born in Amman, Jordan, on this day in 1933.
Munif went to Iraq in 1952 to go to the University of Baghdad and study law. After he left Iraq, he got his bachelor's degree from Cairo University in Egypt. He then went to the University of Belgrade and got his Ph.D. in petroleum economics in 1961.
As an economist in Baghdad, he worked in the oil business. Later, he worked for the Oil Ministry in Syria and OPEC. Munif was an editor at the monthly magazine al-Naft wa al-Tanmiyya (Oil and Development) and living in Iraq. He started writing when he was young and thought that "the purpose of literature is to make people more aware." Before writing his first book, he put out a few short stories. While he was working as an editor, his first book was being made.
Al Ashjar wa-ightiyal Marzooq (Trees and the Murder of Marzooq), Munif's first book, came out in 1973. This work got people to think about a more free and fair society. His best-known work is the five-book set Mudun al-Milh (Cities of Salt, 1984–1989), which shows how the Arab world changed during the oil age. Al-Nihayat (Endings, 1978), Sharq al-Mutawassit (East of the Mediterranean), and the three-volume historical story Ard Al-Sawad (Land of Darkness Trilogy, 1999) are also very important works by him.
Some of Munif's 15 stories and 9 non-fiction books have been translated into more than 10 languages. He was given the Al-Owais Cultural Award in 1989 and the Award of Cairo Gathering for Arab Creativity in Novel Writing in 1998 for his writing.
Happy birthday, Abdul Rahman Munif! Thank you for what you've done for Arab literature and how you've thought about social and political problems.