Contradicting Confrontation with Colonial Orientalism in Abdulrahman Munif's Ard As-Sawaad

Orientalism, apart from being an attempt to introduce “the Orient”, and a manifestation of liaison between the East and the West, also has aimed to control and colonize. Therefore, Colonial Orientalism is a familiar term for the educated eastern writers, who are concerned about identity issues and work for resolving them. Confronting colonial orientalism happens in various forms, the most important of which is exploiting the potentials and possibilities available in literature, especially in novels. The novel Ard As-Sawaad (the Land of blackness) is an example of this confrontation in which Abdulrahman Munif attempts to create events and characters that portray a picture of the colonizing and the colonized in a way that the artistic features of the work are also preserved. Munif reminds the readers of the goals of colonization and how the people of the Orient confront those goals. Rich symbolizes the Colonizing West and Dawood Pasha represents the Colonized East. The conclusion which can be drawn is that colonizing forces would never succeed in their domineering goals if they are resisted by Easterners who are cognizant and knowledgeable and take sensible action.