Abdelilâh b. Arafa’s Historical and Sufic Novels within the Scope of the Novel al-Junayd Alef Lâm Mîm al-Marefa

The novels the first examples of which we have come across in the Arabic literature are the historical novels thanks to the effects of the literary translations made in the west. With the help of the fact that the historical information has been commented by the author without ignoring the fictional structure and artistic qualifications over again, the historical novels have got progressed in time and the variety has begun in the sub-genres of novel. The sufic novel, one of these genres, has been included into the Arabic Literature with Naguib Mahfouz and has improved as a result of the knowledge gained and has reached until today. Especially the authors of the countries such as Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Jordan have achieved to take the sufic novel to the significant level. One of the authors who have quite a big role in this success is Abdelilâh b. Arafa, who is a Moroccan author and academist. Contributing a new aspect to the sufic novel, Ibn Arafa has brought eleven novels about to be completed at fourteen within the project he has planned since 2002 in this genre of a novel he has described as an exemplary novel. In this article the progress of the historical and sufic novel in the Arabic Literature will be mentioned briefly, and then Ibn Arafa’s novels will be introduced succinctly. After that, the summary of the novel entitled al-Junayd Alef Lâm Mîm al-Marefa will be given and the novel will be examined with regards to its being a historical and sufic novel. 

Cite this article: Can, A. H. (2022). Abdelilâh b. Arafa’s historical and sufic novels within the scope of the novel al-Junayd Alef Lâm Mîm al-Marefa. Current Perspectives in Social Sciences, 26(1), 150-161.