Literary Images of the Holy city of Mecca and other Saudi cities in the work of Raja Alem

Abstract

This article proposes to make a journey through different descriptions of the city of Mecca in the past, through the work of some medieval travelers, and in the present, in some novels of the female saudi writer, Raja Alem. The reviewing of these works can be a reliable way to check how it has maintained the atmosphere of the city until the late twentieth century when, due to architectural unstoppable desire to create and destroy, the skyline is changing dramatically and irreversibly. Few voices have been raised in environments that are not strictly private, and one of them is the courageous writer Raja Alem. The last section is devoted to other cities: Riyadh, Medina, Yeddah...