Doha, Qatar: The activities of the ninth session of the Katara Festival for the Arabic Novel concluded on Friday.
The event ran from October 13 to 20, and it is expected to announce the launch of the tenth session in 2024. During the celebration of the activities of the current session, the categories of the Katara Award for Arabic Fiction will increase to six categories, instead of five. On Thursday, the series of seminars, lectures and discussion sessions were also concluded by holding a discussion session on the novel “Musked” by the Omani writer Tariq Al Mandhari.
The session was moderated by the Omani writer Ahmed Al Rashidi. A second session was also held entitled: “When the Novel Takes the Stage,” in which Dr. Hassan Rashid, theatre critic spoke.
The novelist, Tariq Al Mundhiri provided an explanation of his novel derived from Omani history during the period following the death of Sultan Said bin Sultan in 1856 and the political dispute that occurred between the sons of Sultan Said, Majid and Thuwaini, indicating that the novel follows two parallel political and social paths.
The novelist was committed to the events, historical, and introduce some imagination into the social path. He explained that the title of the novel, “Musked,” is taken from the old name of Muscat, according to what was mentioned in historical documents and old maps, and this is similar to the name “Katara,” which was called Qatar in the past.
He pointed out that heroism in his novel is not individual, but rather more than one can be counted. Regarding his choice of the historical novel over other types of novels, he said: “History is the building block on which we are supposed to rely if we want to establish a true renaissance.”
In turn, Dr. Hassan Rashid, the theatre critic, discussed the topic “When the Novel Takes the Stage” and talked about the relationship between the novel and theatre, considering that literature and the arts, with their different aspects and methods of formation and manifestations, arose from a single womb.
