سهرت منه الليالي

Sahirtu minhu al-Layali ("Nights It Kept Me Awake") gathers the short fiction of Ali al-Du'aji, one of Tunisia's most beloved satirists and a central figure of the country's early modern literary scene. Drawn from the newspapers and magazines where the pieces first appeared, the collection was assembled by Ezzeddine Madani and published in 1969, decades after al-Du'aji's early death.

Across fifteen short stories, al-Du'aji turns a wry, affectionate, and often biting eye on everyday Tunisian life, its cafés, streets, and ordinary people, using humor and irony as instruments of sharp social observation. His light, conversational style masks a serious critique of the manners and hypocrisies of his time. Two of the collection's best-known stories were later adapted for film and for the stage.

A landmark of modern Tunisian and Arabic literature, the collection endures as a portrait of a place and an era, and as a showcase of a distinctive comic voice.