by J. D. Harlock
Due to the influence of One Thousand and One Nights’ early translations, depictions of premodern Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) in speculative fiction tend to be inaccurate. Dr. Jack Shaheen referred to this reductionist stereotype as “Arab Land,” an amalgamation of Eastern and North African cultures presented as the “Middle East.” This article will clarify certain misconceptions about the region to promote authentic representation.
Imperial, Royal, and Noble Ranks
Arab-esque monarchies are somehow an “emirate” headed by a “vizier” under a “sultan” referred to with the honorific “sheik.” Although no standardization exists, some choices stand out as inaccurate. Governance structures have used these terms in various ways, with modern usage having different meanings. Still, they have formed a loose hierarchy in the region.
The Khalīfah is comparable to the Catholic Pope if he also possessed his own sovereign with political and military authority. He rules over the Khilāfah as the theocratic leader in historical eras in which the title had been acknowledged by the Ummah (Islamic world). Akin to an emperor, a Sulṭān rules over a Sultānīyah. A king, or a Malik (m) / Malika (f), rules over a Mamlakah. Under them, you might find a prince, or an Amīr (m) / Amīra (f), who might be one of the Sulṭān or Malik’s children or a ruler of an Imārah, a smaller province in the vein of a principality. Any of these people might have an advisor with varying delegated powers, often called a vizier. A vazīr is the Turkish form of Wazīr (m) / Wazīra (f), with the Grand Vizier referred to as al-Wazīr al-Aʿẓam (m) / al-Wazīra al-Aʿẓam (f). Shaykh (m) / Shaykha (f) could be a title for a tribal leader, which may be inherited. It can also be used as an honorific for a respected figure within the community or a religious figure, in which case it must be earned.
The -Stans of Southwest Asia and North Africa
When fictional countries’ names end in “stan,” it’s often a reference to the “stans” of Central Asia. However, the -stan suffix is sometimes also used for Arab nations where Islam is a prominent feature of the setting, such as in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)’s Urzikstan or The Black List: Redemption’s Kyrkistan, or Six Underground’s Turgistan. This is despite the fact that no country in Southwestern Asia or North Africa has ever used it because the suffix is derived from the Persian language, meaning “land of,” and is restricted to the Indo-Iranian world or the Turkic world as a borrowed term.
Romanization
Romanization has an understated impact on worldbuilding when crafting authentic settings. Traditional practices haven’t succeeded in mimicking accurate pronunciations. For example, due to the lack of a letter ح (ḥ) in English, the closest approximation in English is the letter h. Yet, you tend to find names transliterated into “Ahmad,” spelled “Achmed” (Achmed Saves America). The same applies to the letter ج, which sounds like a rougher j, but you end up with “djinn” when writing it as “jinn” is closer.
Additionally, romanization in other languages, such as French, has led to even further confusion in English. For example, the sh sound in English is spelled “ch” in French. As a result, former French colonies or countries that were under the French mandate used Francophone transliterations, such as Bachir, pronounced closer to “Bashir,” and Chihab, pronounced closer to “Shihab.” This is why it’s important to check that you are using the romanizations closest to the Arabic pronunciation.
Traditional romanization practices have created another issue regarding made-up words meant to sound Arabic. For example, in the romanization of Arabic script, the letter ق (kāf) is often translated as q since it has a heavier sound than the letter ك (kāf), which sounds like a lighter k. To mimic this convention, there’s a tendency for made-up locale names meant to mimic Arabic to pepper in Qs, such as the infamous Qurac (Iraq), Syraq (Syria), and Kahndaq (Egypt) from the DC Universe or Aqiria from the Marvel Universe. This extends to other romanizations of sounds that are indicative of Arabic to the English-speakers’ ears, such as خ or kh for Khemed from Tintin or the suffix يا or -iyā, which is used in a variety of cases, such as Trucial Abysmia in G.I. Joe. It would be more appropriate for writers to derive names from Arabic words, such as “Bahrain” (Two Seas) or Arabizations of words from indigenous languages, such as Lebanon.
Arabic Dialects
Due to the influence of other languages and local cultures, Arabic dialects vary to the extent that some are nigh-incomprehensible to speakers in other regions. In turn, having Arabs from different areas automatically understand each other without trying to communicate in MSA (Modern Standard Arabic), the formal lingua franca rarely spoken day-to-day, or the need to clarify slang comes off as a bit of a stretch, as is the case with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022). Depictions of Arabic speakers using MSA for no reason, with no discernible accents or the wrong accent, are also problematic—how Ardeth Bay speaks in The Mummy (1999) is unrealistic, as even talking in MSA all the time will have signs of the original dialect’s accent.
Conclusion
It’s unfortunate that for a region with such diversity, there’s a homogenized depiction of the Arab world that contains no multitudes, coexists with nothing, and possesses no local lineages. Hopefully, this article will be one step in offering tangible solutions for speculative fiction writers worldwide to write authentic Arab-esque settings. Then we can finally put an end to speculative fiction’s history of harmful stereotypes that continue to harm SWANA communities in the West, and promote an accurate version of the region that represents it properly.
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J. D. Harlock is an Eisner-nominated American writer, researcher, editor, and academic pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of St. Andrews, whose writing has been featured in Strange Horizons, Nightmare Magazine, The Griffith Review, Queen’s Quarterly, and New York University’s Library of Arabic Literature. You can find him on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.