Abdul Rahman Munif

(1933 - 2004)

The author of sixteen novels and nine books of nonfiction, Abdul Rahman Munif was born in Jordan. After earning a PhD in oil economics, he worked in the oil industries of Syria and Iraq. In 1981, during the Iran-Iraq War, he left Baghdad and settled in Paris, where he wrote the novel Cities of Salt. Saudi Arabia swiftly banned the novel, along with many of his later books.