Forthcoming November 2025: New Saudi Poetry, the Memoir of a Palestinian Communist, More
As publication dates often slip — and new books surface — we try to have a glance at what’s really (to the best of our knowledge) coming in translation from Arabic at the start of each month. If you have more books to add, please let us know.
Palestine is everywhere, ed. Skye Arundhati Thomas (November 1)
From the publisher:
‘Palestine is everywhere because it names a political subject of radical universal emancipation,’ writes teacher and writer Nasser Abourahme. In Palestine is everywhere, writers, thinkers, poets and artists map the Palestinian struggle for freedom and its global resonances.
Vital dispatches from Gaza, essays, poems, protest chronicles, images and letters from prison reflect upon resistance, solidarity and the right to self-determination. Amid a world-historical moment marked by unknowability and loss, this collection offers essential reading for those interested in Palestinian liberation.
This collection is edited by Skye Arundhati Thomas, with contributions from Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Nasser Abourahme, Amal Al-Nakhala, Muhammad Al-Zaqzouq, Maisara Baroud, Ahmed Bassiouny, Houria Bouteldja, Anees Ghanima, Sahar Khalifeh, Laleh Khalili, Lujayn, Lina Meruane, Mohammed Mhawish, Nahil Mohana, Rahul Rao, Nasser Rabah, Adam Rouhana, Ahmad Zaghmouri.
All royalties from this project will be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN).
Memoirs of a Palestinian Communist: The Secret Life of Najati Sidqi, by Najati Sidqi, tr. Margaret Litvin, Anas Farhan, and Gideon Gordon (November 4)
From the publisher:
The secret life of a Palestinian Communist activist during the leadup to World War II.
In the public eye, Najati Sidqi was known as a journalist and writer, a translator of Russian classics, and an outspoken opponent of Nazism. However, Sidqi concealed a critical component of his life from the world and his family. He was an underground activist for the Palestinian Communist Party, a risky and influential pursuitthat took him to early Bolshevik Moscow, British courts and prison cells in Palestine, Nazi Germany, intrigue-heavy interwar Paris, and Civil War Spain, Morocco, and Algeria. Throughout his journey, Sidqi continued to write, even as he faced fascism, intense surveillance, active warzones, the death of friends, and exile.
Memoirs of a Palestinian Communist brings Sidqi’s incredible life and work to light, wryly narrating his international travels, his work as an activist, and his political dealings at a crucial moment for Palestine and the international fight against fascism. Translated from Arabic into English for the first time, it is a riveting firsthand account of an often-overlooked aspect of the history of the global left. Generous supplementary materials make the memoir accessible to students and non-specialist scholars: a preface by Sidqi’s grandson, a foreword by renowned historian Joel Beinin, a translators’ introduction that presents new research on Sidqi’s family history, a map of his travels, and a timeline, as well as a bibliographic essay offering pointers for further research.
The Turks and the Caliphal Army, by al-Jāḥiẓ, ed. and tr. Robert G. Hoyland (November 4)
From the publisher:
A defense of Abbasid military policy from a powerhouse of Arabic letters
In the aftermath of a bitter civil war in 3rd/9th-century Baghdad, the Abbasid caliph al-Muʿtaṣim began purchasing Turkish slaves to create a highly trained private militia loyal only to him. In doing so, al-Muʿtaṣim introduced an enduring tradition of enslaved soldiers that became widespread across the region. The incorporation of these Turkish troops into the caliph’s army, however, threatened to throw fuel on the fires of factional strife. With this text, written at the request of a high-ranking official, the legendary polymath and “father of Arabic prose” al-Jāḥiẓ defends the Turkish soldiers’ effectiveness and importance, and in so doing defends the unity and integrity of the army and the value of allegiance to the Abbasid state.
Using the epistolary essay as a rhetorical device, al-Jāḥiẓ conceives a debate between his patron, al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān, and an unnamed adversary. With al-Fatḥ as a mouthpiece, al-Jāḥiẓ skillfully contrasts his own reasoned argument for harmony and understanding with his adversary’s impassioned partisan polemics, drawing attention to the common ground—history, geography, religion, and devotion to the Abbasid cause—shared by the Turks and their rivals. While extolling the Turks’ merits as soldiers, al-Jāḥiẓ stresses unity and reconciliation over discord and division. The result is a remarkable essay offering insight into social and political cohesion in the Abbasid empire at its height, and the rifts that threatened its stability.
Tracing the Ether: Contemporary Poetry from Saudi Arabia, ed. Moneera Al-Ghadeer (November 17)
A beautiful bilingual collection of embodied contemporary poetry from Saudi Arabia, where place is mediated both by a relationship with the tropes of classic Arabic poetry and by the pixelated images of Skype and Google maps.
Translated from the Arabic by Moneera Al-Ghadeer, Christina Civantos, Emily Drumsta, William Granara, Waïl S. Hassan, Nashwa Nasreldin, Yaseen Noorani, and Anna Ziajka Stanton.
From the publisher:
An expansive bilingual anthology, Tracing the Ether showcases twenty-six acclaimed Saudi poets who are reimagining their place in our interconnected, digital world. Breaking away from the traditional focus on pre-Islamic Arabian poetry, this collection presents sixty-two contemporary poems that engage boldly with modernity, cyberspace, and globalization. These award-winning poets employ innovative forms and speculative frameworks to explore how social media and digital culture are reshaping notions of home, identity, and cultural boundaries. Their work demonstrates that far from merely imitating Western models, Saudi poets are crafting distinctive voices that speak to universal human experiences while remaining grounded in their cultural context.