The "landmark" texts (and pertinent reference literature) will be chosen, in agreement with participants' preferences, from among the following works:
- Khalīl al- Khūrī, Way, idhan lastu bi-Ifranjī! (1859/60)
- Jurjī Zaydān, al-Mamlūk al-shārid (1891)
- Muḥammad al- Muwayliḥī, Ḥadīth ʿĪsā b Hishām (1899/1907)
- Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān, Ṣurākh al-qubūr (1908)
- Muṣṭafā Luṭfī al- Manfalūṭī, al-Naẓarāt (1910)
- Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān, al-Ajniḥa al-mutakassira (1912)
- Muḥammad Ḥusayn Haykal, Zaynab (1913)
- Maḥmūd Ṭāhir Lāshīn, Ḥadīth al-qarya (1929)
- Ṭāhā Ḥusayn, al-Ayyām I (1929)
- Maḥmūd Ṭāhir Lāshīn, Ḥawwāʾ bi-lā Ādam (1934)
- Tawfīq al- Ḥakīm, Yawmiyyāt nāʿib fī ’l-aryāf (1937)
- Yaḥyā Ḥaqqī, Qindīl Umm Hāshim (1944 publ )
- Najīb Maḥfūẓ, Zuqāq al-Midaqq (1947)
- Yūsuf Idrīs, Arkhaṣ layālī (1953)
- ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al- Sharqāwī, al-Arḍ (1953/54)
- Yūsuf Idrīs, Jumhūriyyat Faraḥāt (1954)
- Najīb Maḥfūẓ, Cairo Trilogy (1956/1957)
- Laylà Baʿalbakkī, Anā aḥyā (1958)
- Najīb Maḥfūẓ, Awlād ḥāritnā (1959)
- Najīb Maḥfūẓ, Zaʿbalāwī (1961)
- Ghassān Kanafānī, Die Kurzromane (1963 – 1970)
- Zakarīyā Tāmir, al-Thalj ākhir al-layl (1963)
- Laylà Baʿalbakkī, Safīnat ḥanān ilā ’l-qamar (1963)
- Yūsuf al- Shārūnī, al-Ziḥām (1963)
- Ṣunʿallāh Ibrāhīm, Tilka ’l-rāʾiḥa (1965/66)
- Najīb Maḥfūẓ, Tharthara fawq al-Nīl (1966)
- al-Ṭayyib Ṣāliḥ, Mawsim al-hijra ilā l-šimāl (1966)
- Najīb Maḥfūẓ, Taḥt al-miẓalla (1967)
- Yūsuf Idrīs, Bayt min laḥm (1971)
- Tawfīq Yūsuf ʿAwwād, Ṭawāḥīn Bayrūt (1972)
- Jamāl al- Ghīṭānī, al-Zaynī Barakāt (1974)
- Emīl Ḥabībī, Al-Waqāʾiʿ al-ʿajība fī khtifāʾ Saʿīd Abī ’Naḥs al-Mutashāʾil (1974)
- Zakarīyā Tāmir, Yawma ghaḍiba Jinghīz Khān (1979)
- Ḥanān al- Shaykh, Ḥikāyat Zahra (1980)
- Ṣunʿallāh Ibrāhīm, al-Lajna (1981)
- Muḥammad Shukrī, al-Khubz al-ḥāfī (1982)
- Idwār al- Kharrāṭ, Turābuhā zaʿfarān (1985)
- Ṣunʿallāh Ibrāhīm, Dhāt (1992)
- Ḥanān al- Skhaykh, Aknus al-shams min fawq al-suṭūḥ (1994)
- ʿAlāʾ al- Aswānī, ʿImārat Yaʿqūbiyān (2002)
- Rajāʾ ʿAbdallāh al- Sāniʿ, Banāt al-Riyāḍ (2005)
- Yūsuf Zaydān, ʿAzāzīl (2006)
- Muḥammad Rabīʿ, ʿUṭārid (2015)