Dark and bright sides of man’s life in Muḥammad al-Murr’s short stories

Abstract

Muḥammad al-Murr, a contemporary writer of the United Arab Emirates, was born in Dubayy, in 1954, where he grew up and completed the Secondary School. In the seventies he left for the United States where he studied at the Syracuse University, New York. His sojourn abroad played an important part in shaping his philosophy of life and it greatly affected his gift for literature. On his return to the Emirates in the early eighties, he started working for a regional paper as a journalist. This activity marks an initial period of his literary career. He had been editing his column entitled Awrāq al-aḥad (Sunday Papers) at the newspaper called “Al-Ḫalīǧ”. He wrote about cultural and social issues. He cooperated with the “Al-Bayān” magazine, where he edited Ḥadīṯ al-iṯnayn (Monday Chats). Muḥammad al-Murr made his debut in the columns of the “Al-Bayān” in 1982 with his first short story entitled Ḥubb min naw‘ aḫar (Love of Different Kind). His first collection of short stories under the identical title was released in the same year.