This book explores the relationship between fictional literature and nation formation in the wider Muslim world. Through twelve unique case studies, it shows how the complex entanglements of nation, religion, and modernity in the process of political and cultural identity formation are probed and verbalized in fiction. The collection of studies in the book is unique. The chapters move beyond well-researched Arab-Muslim core settings such as Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, and focus on other Arabic and non-Arabic Muslim majority countries, including Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Azerbaijan, Iraq, and Iran. The contributions link these literary narratives to the formation of national identities in culturally and linguistically diverse - even antagonistic - settings. The book is excellent reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in Middle Eastern studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, postcolonial studies, anthropology, and sociology, as well as those interested in Muslim societies, and nationalism.
