Last February, he announced in Cairo the short list of the Naguib Mahfouz Prize for Literature for 2021, which included 6 novels from Algeria, Egypt, Yemen and Syria, including the novel "Zaidi Fortress" by the Western Yemeni novelist Omran.

In addition to "Al-Zaidi Fortress", 5 other novels were nominated, which are: “The Disappearance of Mr. Ali Ibrahim, and "Kohl and Habban" by the Egyptian Omar Taher.

According to a statement announced by the American University in Cairo Publishing House (the organizer of the award) on Monday February 8, 2021, the six novels out of 270 that have been nominated for the award from all countries of the Arab world and diaspora, and the winning novel is supposed to be announced at the end of March Ongoing.

The novel "Zaidi Fortress", published by Hachette Antoine in Beirut, is a 260-page novel that sheds light on tribalism, the use of sectarianism, and exploits the lack of awareness of the common people who are the fuel of conflicts and their biggest victims.

The "Zaidi Fortress" recounts a dark reality and a miserable stage in the history of Yemen, as it can be considered as a documentation in some way of a sensitive stage of the imams' rule in Yemen: the last stage of the precursors that preceded the announcement of the September 26, 1962 revolution in the north of the country, and the precursors before the declaration of the liberation of Aden and the southern cities The country is from British colonialism.

In the events of the novel, regions in the north of the country witness a succession of darkness centered on Sana'a.

On the other hand, Aden and regions in the south of the country are witnessing the throes of the last groans that are paving the way for liberation from colonialism.

Western Omran, born in 1958, is a Yemeni short story writer, novelist and politician (communication sites)

Narrative prowess

The novel discusses the use of religion to serve the whims of authoritarian groups.

A religious cover - in the events of the novel - burns an entire forest, including rebels, who fled Mirdas prison.

With narrative skill and great familiarity with the details of reality and the vocabulary of that period of time in the history of Yemen, the Westerner transports the novel's reader into a world that is almost like a movie sequence on a televised screen, starting with life inside and outside the fort and along the valley, villages and misconceptions (Al-Mukhlaf: An old administrative division in Yemen ).

The novel reveals the practices of the "sheikhs" and their assistants and guards

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indicating the value of the (pastoral) citizen who is and what is owned by the sheikh, whether he wants it or not.

And highlighting a bitter feudal life: diaries of ugliness, persistence in injustice, and the violation of rights without deterrence or objection, according to the events of the novel.

The novel tends - through its characters and facts - to a civic life, in which all are equal under the umbrella of the law, a life dominated by security, stability and peaceful coexistence between all groups, groups and sects, but this dream is not easy.

Mirdas, Zahra and Qaroun

Imran distributes the novel into 3 sections: Mirdas, Zahra, and Qarun.

In every part, he succeeds in presenting a picture that shows the state of hunger, poverty, disease, violence, injustice, bullying, and societal screening: arrests, prisons, hostages, monopolization of land, torture, murder ... etc.

And in the context also, the love story between Qarun, who is one of the free youths returning from Aden, and Zahra, the girl from the "slave" community, who are a marginalized segment with no land or property, who are enslaved by sheikhs and influential people in cultivating the land, but some of them are trying to rebel against reality with the help of Ahrar And former prisoners.

feudalism

“O my son, we are among the jeez of the people, so the human beings. If a cow is born in any village, the wise person raises to the sheikh, who will inform him of its birth, and if a sheep is born as well. Even the chickens count them and count their eggs and their hairlessness, so they have polytheism (that is, half) of everything.” The mother of the young child, Qarun, speaks to her son, while he interrupts her, saying, "This is injustice," and she replies, "There is no injustice and no need. They said it was in their cow."

Here emerges the feudal life that had always prevailed during those dark periods.

Shaden Championships

While the events continue, Imran succeeds in narrating the details of the rebellion against Mirdas and its fortress, and highlights the heroism of "Shaden", the daughter of Shinhas, one of those imprisoned by Mirdas.

Shaden ventures with a flower to begin a life hidden among the mountains and in the caves of the scorched forest, then more than one killing occurs by Shaden in her quest to avenge her dignity and the dignity of her relatives, but she finally dies at the hands of the fortress guards, to join her husband and children and breathe in the same cemetery in which she was buried Her family is a result of the oppression and tyranny of the sheikhs.

Despite the ugliness of violence, injustice, violation of rights, and confiscation of property throughout the pages of the novel, Western Imran succeeded in creating an interesting reading relationship between the reader and the novel, through an intense narrative language that is not repeated or weak, but rather like poetic sections within the body of a narrative. It is punctuated by transitions between the fort, the forest, the valley, the mountain, and the coast.

As soon as you start reading the novel, its pages insist on you to dive more, eager to be saved from all this blood shed everywhere, and from all the groans locked up in the breasts.

As for the narrative lock, despite the announcement that "the emancipation sun will rise tomorrow, where there is no difference between a pastor or a servant. There is no lineage or sectarianism after today. We have come to save you, to cleanse our valley from the exploiters. There will be no tyrant among us after today," then a counter-revolution - took Sectarian tribal forces are preparing for them in the dense jungle, and each of them has its own hidden intentions and endless hatreds - blocking the path to rosy dreams, led by Jamal Ibn Mirdas, a returnee from Egypt, who has become in a military suit.