Qasim Muhammad Tawfiq Al -Haj is a novelist and storyteller, a Jordanian national of Palestinian origins. He began writing in 1974 by publishing a collection of short stories in Jordanian and Arab newspapers and magazines. He published his first collection of short stories while studying at the University of Jordan, entitled ((It's Time for Us to Rejoice)) in 1977. His name became prominent in the world of literature locally and in the Arab world with the publication of his first novel, “Mary Rose Crosses the City of the Sun,” which received widespread resonance due to the creativity it contained at the level of subject matter and text. It was reprinted in 2007 in Ramallah - Palestine by Dar Al-Ra’a’, in celebration of Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture. .

He published nine novels and short stories characterized by boldness in presenting and treating a number of topics that are considered taboo in Arab culture, and the ability to mix myth with reality in a remarkable formulation represented by his narrator, Mary Rose, as well as sharp realism in novels such as A More Beautiful Land, and Oman, A Final Rose, as well as dealing with the topic of alienation. The Arab in the novel Al-Shindagha.

His life

He was born in Jenin - Palestine to a family residing in Amman. He is the fifth in a family of ten children. He spent his childhood and youth and still resides in Amman. He studied in its schools and completed his university education at the University of Jordan, where he graduated in 1978 with a BA in Literature. He engaged in party work, which was banned at the time, from his high school days until the late 1980s. Qasim Tawfiq has been working in the banking sector since his graduation from the University of Jordan until now, and he is the Assistant General Manager of a Jordanian bank

Literary biography

Qasim Tawfiq has his own literary style, and his topics are characterized by presenting unaddressed social issues with boldness, without noise, and with transparent language. He is considered one of the Jordanian writers who stuck their works to the place “Amman” at a time when the Jordanian writer was heading to “nowhere.” This idea is evident in all of his works, even those that were exposed to the city of Dubai, “Al-Shindagha.” His first collection of short stories, “It’s Time for Us to Rejoice” in 1977, and the collections that followed, “Introductions to a Time of War” in 1982, “Peace, O Amman, Peace, O Star,” 1982, and The Lover, 1987, all monitor the Jordanian social reality with the same ability to provoke and stimulate prohibited topics.

 As for Qasim Tawfiq’s novels, in the novel “Mary Rose Crosses the City of the Sun,” the events revolve around the relationship of a young Muslim man with a Christian woman, and the novel follows two axes, the first in the words of the protagonist and the second in the words of his mother, who narrates a story from the Jordanian heritage of an incident that occurred in the nineteenth century regarding a relationship. Between a Muslim man and a Christian woman, the two stories run in parallel despite their contradiction, in which the writer employed the advanced cinematic narration technique.

 In his novels A More Beautiful Land (1987) and Amman, A Final Ward (1992), Qasim Tawfiq explores Amman from the early sixties until September 1970. As for the novel “The Mulberry Paper,” published by Dar Al-Mahrousa - Cairo in 2000, it is a literary vision of events that occurred with a Jordanian dissident who was sentenced to death on charges of conspiracy. The result of testimony provided by a secret witness, where the novel presents the life of this witness. The novel “Al-Shindagha”, published by Dar Al-Shepherds, Ramallah - Palestine in 2007, deals with the alienation of the Arab person within his homeland.

 As for the novel “The Mulberry Paper,” published by Dar Al-Mahrousa - Cairo in 2000, it is a literary vision of events that occurred with a Jordanian dissident who was sentenced to death on charges of conspiracy as a result of testimony presented by a secret witness, as the novel presents the life of this witness.

 The novel “Al-Shindagha”, published by Dar Al-Shepherds, Ramallah - Palestine in 2007, deals with the alienation of the Arab person within his homeland. As for the novel “The Mulberry Paper,” published by Dar Al-Mahrousa - Cairo in 2000, it is a literary vision of events that occurred with a Jordanian dissident who was sentenced to death on charges of conspiracy as a result of testimony presented by a secret witness, as the novel presents the life of this witness. The novel “Al-Shindagha”, published by Dar Al-Shepherds, Ramallah - Palestine in 2007, deals with the alienation of the Arab person within his homeland.

Al Shindagha is an area in Dubai

His works

Novels

short stories