برڨ الليل

برڨ الليل (Barg el-Leil, "Night's Lightning") is a historical, picaresque, and satirical novel by the Tunisian writer al-Bashir Khraief, published in 1961 by Dar al-Tunisiya, after winning the Municipality of Tunis prize in 1960. Set in Tunis in the 10th century of the Hijra under Khair al-Din Barbarossa, it has been called the "Tunisian Don Quixote"—among the first Arabic novels to engage directly with Cervantes's legacy.

The story follows an African boy torn from his mother and sold into slavery, who nonetheless keeps his humanity, wit, and unpredictable charm through every injustice done to him. Through his eyes, Khraief satirizes the hypocrisy of a society that has lost its humanity even as it thirsts for war and bloodshed.