From the pre-Islamic odes of Imru' al-Qais to the Booker-winning fiction of Jokha Alharthi — KitabiHub is an editorial library of the great Arabic writers and the books worth your evening. Browse 600 titles, 520 authors, and 15 editorial shelves.
One feature, four shorter notes — the books we keep coming back to.
A reader's guide to the only Arabic Nobel laureate — by way of Old Cairo
He worked as an Egyptian civil servant for forty years and wrote in the early mornings before walking to his ministry office. The result was the Cairo Trilogy, the first Tolstoyan novel in Arabic, and a body of work that taught Arabic prose what the form could carry. Read the full profile →
Hand-picked novels, poetry collections, and short stories worth your evening.
Long-form editorial guides to the regional traditions of Arabic literature.
Thirteen centuries of Arabic letters in seven walking tours.
Curated starter shelves — eight to twelve titles each, with notes.
Where to start if you have never read Arabic fiction in English.
Reading List · 12 titlesTwelve novels and collections that will give you a real sense of women's writing in Arabic.
Reading List · 8 titlesEight books that will introduce you to the central body of Palestinian literature.
Reading List · 6 titlesSix entry points to a thirteen-hundred-year tradition.
Reading List · 6 titlesSix post-2003 books that map the Iraqi literary diaspora.
Reading List · 8 titlesEight novels by the writers who came after — and around — Naguib Mahfouz.
Voices that shaped — and are shaping — the Arabic canon.
The latest titles indexed by KitabiHub.
