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Men in the Sun

By Ghassan Kanafani

رجال في الشمس

Ghassan Kanafani's novella of three Palestinians smuggled to Kuwait inside a water tank — an icon of Palestinian fiction.

Depth

At a glance

Review
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In time

1950196019701980
The Colonial Era · The Contemporary Era · The Modern Era

LiteratureRefugees, migrants and diaspora

Overview

The novel by Ghassan Kanafani (1963) about three Palestinians, Abu Qais, As'ad and Marwan, who hide in an empty water tank to cross the desert to Kuwait, and die of suffocation at the border because the driver was late in asking. 1

Legacy

Among the best-known Arabic texts on the Nakba and its consequences; its final question, 'why did they not knock on the walls of the tank?', became the conscience of the Arabic novel. 1

People and things also explored

Emigration to the West — hope or pain (the brain drain)· Integration and identity (al-indimaj wa-l-huwiyya)· al-Tanahmir: the Himyaritic speech remnant· Aljamia (aljamiado: Spanish written in Arabic script, and its literature)· The Arabs and their peoples before Islam· Arab naming of children after plants· Hijra (migration for the sake of religion)· The wise sayings attributed to Ali

Sources

  1. Wikidata
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Men in the Sun”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/rijal-fi-al-shams/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-17.

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Related

Emigration to the West — hope or pain (the brain drain)

The 'Al-Wasatiyya' episode on emigration to the West. The youth voted: 34% would emigrate immediately, 26% would hesitate, 40% would not; and 84% saw the phenomenon as large and dangerous. The host's figures: 54% of scholarship students never return, 50% of doctors and 29% of engineers; and 75% of the scientist class among migrants to America. The panel concluded that 2 million high-skilled leave yearly — while nations are developed by their 1-2% — and the cure is an attracting environment: good governance, human rights, rule of law and a welfare state.