WRITERS from Saudi Arabia

Top 8

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Saudi Arabian Writers of all time. This list of famous Saudi Arabian Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Jamal Khashoggi (1958 - 2018)

With an HPI of 63.22, Jamal Khashoggi is the most famous Saudi Arabian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 71 different languages on wikipedia.

Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (; Arabic: جمال أحمد خاشقجي, romanized: Jamāl ʾAḥmad Ḵāšuqjī, Hejazi Arabic pronunciation: [dʒaˈmaːl xaːˈʃʊɡ.(d)ʒi]; 13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist for Middle East Eye and The Washington Post, and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi served as editor for the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Watan, turning it into a platform for Saudi progressives. Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 and went into self-imposed exile. He said that the Saudi government had "banned him from Twitter", and he later wrote newspaper articles critical of the Saudi government. Khashoggi had been sharply critical of the Saudi rulers, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He also opposed the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. On 2 October 2018, Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents related to his planned marriage but was never seen leaving. Amid news reports claiming that he had been killed and dismembered inside, an inspection of the consulate, by Saudi and Turkish officials, took place on 15 October. Initially, the Saudi government denied the death, but following shifting explanations for Khashoggi's death, Saudi Arabia's attorney general eventually stated that the murder was premeditated. By 16 November 2018, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had concluded that Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's assassination. The murder has created tensions between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, including calls for the U.S. to sever diplomatic ties with the kingdom. On 11 December 2018, Jamal Khashoggi was posthumously named Time magazine's person of the year for his work in journalism, along with other journalists who faced political persecution for their work. Time referred to Khashoggi as a "Guardian of the Truth".

2. Imru' al-Qais (501 - 544)

With an HPI of 61.05, Imru' al-Qais is the 2nd most famous Saudi Arabian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Imruʾ al-Qais Junduh bin Hujr al-Kindi (Arabic: ٱمْرُؤ ٱلْقَيْس جُنْدُح ٱبْن حُجْر ٱلْكِنْدِيّ, romanized: Imruʾ al-Qays Junduḥ ibn Ḥujr al-Kindiyy) was a pre-Islamic Arabian poet from najd in the late fifth and early sixth centuries and also the last King of Kinda. He is sometimes considered the father of Arabic poetry. His qaṣīda, or long poem, "Let us stop and weep" (قفا نبك qifā nabki) is one of the seven Mu'allaqat, poems prized as the best examples of pre-Islamic Arabian verse. Imru' al-Qais was born in the Al-Qassim Region of northern Arabia sometime in the early 6th century. His father was said to be Hujr bin al-Harith (حجر ابن الحارث Ḥujr ibn al-Ḥārith), the Kindan regent over the Arab tribes of Asad and Ghatafan, and it is believed that Imru' al-Qais was born in the territory of Asad. His mother was said to be Fatimah bint Rabi'ah al-Taghlibi (فاطمة بنت ربيعة التغلبي / Fāṭimah bint Rabī‘ah al-Taghlibī). Legend has it that Imru' al-Qais was the youngest of his father's sons, and began composing poetry while he was still a child. His father strongly disapproved of this habit in his son, believing poetry to be an unseemly pastime for the son of a king. His father also disapproved of Imru' al-Qais' scandalous lifestyle of drinking and chasing women and eventually banished him from his kingdom, or so the legend goes. But later, when the Asad rebelled and assassinated his father, Imru' al-Qais was the only one of his brothers to take responsibility for avenging his death. Renouncing wine and women, he fought the tribe of Asad until he had exacted revenge in blood, and spent the remainder of his life trying to regain his father's kingdom. Like many figures of early Arabia, which at that time lacked a formal writing system and relied on the oral transmission of stories, the details of the life of Imru' al-Qais are hard to determine with any certainty. Even so, historians have been able to compare the various stories written down by later biographers with clues from Imru' al-Qais' poems and information about major historical events in the Sasanian and Byzantine Empires to reconstruct a probable account of the life and ancestry of this most famous of the Jahili poets. According to one account, his full name and ancestry was Imru' al-Qais, son of Hujr, son of al-Harith, son of 'Amr, son of Hujr the eater of bitter herbs, son of Mu'awiyya, son of Thawr of the tribe of Kinda (Arabic: إمرؤ القيس ابن حجر ابن الحارث ابن عمرو ابن حجر اكل المرار ابن معاوية ابن ثور الكندي). He was also referred to as "the Lost King" (الملك الضليل al-Malik aḍ-Ḍalīl) because he was never able to recover his father's throne.

3. Antarah ibn Shaddad (525 - 615)

With an HPI of 59.68, Antarah ibn Shaddad is the 3rd most famous Saudi Arabian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Antarah ibn Shaddad al-Absi (Arabic: عنترة بن شداد العبسي), ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād al-ʿAbsī; AD 525–608), also known as ʿAntar, was a pre-Islamic African-Arab knight and poet, famous for both his poetry and his adventurous life. His chief poem forms part of the Mu'allaqāt, the collection of seven "hanging odes" legendarily said to have been suspended in the Kaaba at Mecca. The account of his life forms the basis of a long and extravagant romance.

4. Al-Khansa (575 - 645)

With an HPI of 59.24, Al-Khansa is the 4th most famous Saudi Arabian Writer.  Her biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Tumāḍir bint ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn al-Sharīd al-Sulamīyah (Arabic: تماضر بنت عمرو بن الحارث بن الشريد السُلمية), usually simply referred to as al-Khansāʾ (Arabic: الخنساء, meaning "snub-nosed", an Arabic epithet for a gazelle as metaphor for beauty) was a 7th-century tribeswoman, living in the Arabian Peninsula. She was one of the most influential poets of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods. In her time, the role of a female poet was to write elegies for the dead and perform them for the tribe in public oral competitions. Al-Khansāʾ won respect and fame in these competitions with her elegies, and is widely considered as the finest author of Arabic elegies and one of the greatest and best known female Arab poets of all time. In 629, she went to Medina with a deputation from her clan and, after meeting the Islamic prophet Muhammad, embraced the new religion. Her poetry was later recorded by Muslim scholars, who were studying unaltered Arabic of her time in order to explicate the language of early Islamic texts.

5. Hassan ibn Thabit (554 - 674)

With an HPI of 58.91, Hassan ibn Thabit is the 5th most famous Saudi Arabian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Ḥassān ibn Thābit (Arabic: حسان بن ثابت) (born c. 563, Medina died 674) was an Arabian poet and one of the Sahaba, or companions of Muhammad, who was best known for poems in defense of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was born in Medina, and was a member of the Banu Khazraj tribe. Muhammad gave him a slave, Sirin, as a concubine. His writings in defence of Muhammad refer to contemporary events that have been useful in documenting the period. He was also Islam's first religious poet, using many phrases from the Qur'an in his verses.

6. Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf (600 - 624)

With an HPI of 58.59, Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf is the 6th most famous Saudi Arabian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf (Arabic: كعب بن الأشرف; died c. 624) was, according to Islamic texts, a 7th century poet in Medina.

7. Al-A'sha (570 - 629)

With an HPI of 50.50, Al-A'sha is the 7th most famous Saudi Arabian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Al-A'sha (Arabic: ٱلْأَعْشَىٰ) or Maymun Ibn Qays Al-A'sha (d.c. 570– 625) was an Arabic Jahiliyyah poet from Al-Yamama, Arabia. He traveled through Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia and Ethiopia. He was nicknamed Al-A'sha which means "weak-sighted" or "night-blind" after he lost his sight. He continued to travel even after becoming blind, particularly along the western coast of the Arabian peninsula. It was then that he turned to the writing of panegyrics as a means of support. His style, reliant on sound effects and full-bodied foreign words, tends to be artificial. His love poems are devoted to the praise of Huraira, a black female slave. He is said to have believed in the Christian eschatological themes of Resurrection and Last Judgment, and to have been a monotheist. These beliefs may have been due to his interactions with the bishop of Najrān and the 'Ibādites of Al-Hirah. His poems were praised for their descriptions of the wild ass, for the praise of wine, for their skill in praise and satire, and for the varieties of metre employed. One of his qasidah or odes is sometimes included in the Mu'allaqat, an early Arabic poetry collection done by the critic Abu 'Ubaydah.

8. Raif Badawi (1984 - )

With an HPI of 40.39, Raif Badawi is the 8th most famous Saudi Arabian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Raif bin Muhammad Badawi (Arabic: رائف بن محمد بدوي, also transcribed Raef bin Mohammed Badawi; born 13 January 1984) is a Saudi writer, dissident and activist, as well as the creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals. Badawi was arrested in 2012 on a charge of "insulting Islam through electronic channels" and brought to court on several charges, including apostasy. In 2013, he was convicted on several charges and sentenced to seven years in prison, and 600 lashes. In 2014 his sentence was increased to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes, and a fine of one-million Saudi riyals. The flogging was to be carried out over 20 weeks. The first 50 lashes were administered on 9 January 2015. The second flogging was postponed more than twelve times. The reason for the most recent postponement is unknown, but the previous scheduled floggings were delayed due to Badawi's poor health. Badawi is known to have hypertension, and his health worsened after the flogging began. His wife, Ensaf Haidar, who took refuge in Canada after her life was threatened in Saudi Arabia, has said Badawi will not be able to survive further flogging. Ensaf Haidar has given a series of televised interviews about Badawi’s plight, including at the 2016 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights acts as Badawi's international legal counsel. The organization has led both public advocacy campaigns as well as private diplomatic efforts to help secure Badawi's release from prison. While his exact location was unknown, it was reported that Badawi was imprisoned in Dhahban Central Prison. On 11 March 2022, his family reported that after 10 years Badawi was released from prison. While he is no longer in prison, his 10 years passport ban continues and he may not leave the country. Al Jazeera quoted an anonymous interior ministry official as saying on March 12, "the sentence handed down to Raif was 10 years in prison followed by a travel ban for the same length of time. The court ruling holds up and is final. ... He cannot leave the kingdom for another 10 years unless a [royal] pardon is issued.”