Saudi Arabian novelist Raja Alem was recently awarded 2011’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) - commonly known as the 'Arabic Booker' - for The Doves' Necklace, an exploration of crime, religious extremism and the clash of cultures amidst Islam’s holiest of cities, Mecca.

The prize was awarded jointly for the first time, with Moroccan poet, author and politician Mohammed Achaari's The Arch and the Butterfly sharing the honours. Alem tells Run Riot's John Beck why the judging panel took such an unexpected step and how culture and the arts has fuelled, and been fuelled by, the Arab Spring.

Run Riot: Iraqi poet Fadhil Al-Azzawi, who chaired the IPAF judging panel, said it would be "unjust" to award the prize to only one novel, partly because of their artistic merits, but also because both works are (perhaps indirectly) related to the current political and social upheaval sweeping the Middle East. What do you feel led to the panel's decision?

Raja Alem: In Abu Dhabi, when he [Al-Azzawi]was first asked, he said: “both novels are equally strong in various aspects”. Many literary factors should determine the awarded novel, not only the subjects, or their relation to the Arab world’s present situation. The struggle to preserve life, identity and freedom is echoed in the various longlisted novels, as is the effort to meet that expanding human appetite to swallow land and resources at the expense of nature and global safety, and at the expense of accumulated human heritage and cultural identities.

RR: Protest, debate and rebellion often result in an explosion of artistic activity, do you expect current events to usher in a fertile cultural period for the Arab world?

RA: In the Arab world, whether people protest in the streets or sympathise behind their computer screens… there is a belief in the air that people can breathe at last and have regained their long-lost voices. For years now, in the Arab World, we came to regard dignity, I mean people’s dignity and human rights, as something from the age of the dinosaurs. But now, no matter what disasters are taking place in the rebelling countries, no matter what those in power are promising, there are real changes taking place under the surface. Not least in the perception of each individual of themselves as an effective changing factor, and consequently in the perception the rulers have of their people. I hope culture will gain from that.

RR: IPAF has been has been dependably controversial since its 2007 launch, inspiring spirited debate, boycotts and countless conspiracy theories. How important is its role in encouraging the promotion, translation and development of Arabic literature?

RA: Raising debate and controversy is what is needed in the Arabic cultural scene. For the last three decades, the Arab World seemed indifferent to its people’s creativity. That doesn’t mean the individuals were not actively creating… but at the surface of societies’ interest there was a sheet of stagnant indifference, almost oblivion to the individual and his creations and cultural worries. But this scene suddenly changed [because of] the political upheavals in most of the Arab countries, and [because of] small liberties given to the cultural scene.

I might sound optimistic, but IPAF and initiatives like it, fit as part of this… they celebrate the hidden activity which - in part - was a factor in the uprisings. IPAF creates a dynamic debate. Those who are with or against, those who wants to join or not, all are fueling this interest in fiction in general. I think, not only the IPAF but also other prizes for Arabic fiction and literature… are drawing attention to culture as worthy of celebration. This is what we lost in the past three decades; making a fuss about culture.

RR: The Doves' Necklace looks beyond common (mis)conceptions to explore aspects of Mecca which have been less well documented. Given the wave of modernisation which has taken place in the last 3 decades, is it in some respects an attempt to provide readers with a link to a city, and by extension values, which no longer exist?

RA: Indeed, it is a link to values, to a body of a city that for centuries rose from its mountains’ flesh and stones. We grew up hearing grandmothers emphasize that “Mecca breathes through its mountains”, and the houses were built of this breathing stone... Now, these foreign bodies made of cement, glass and steel are rising in the sky and swallowing even the mountains, Mecca’s lungs... The Doves' Necklacewas originally written as an eulogy to this Mecca, the Mecca of our grandmothers. The rapid change in the past five years is shaking the architectural and spiritual balance…

But the great universal changes around us make us question ourselves: are stones more spiritual than glass and steel? Are low round buildings more respectful to God’s home than skyscrapers? Is it a stupid idea to think God’s house should be this or that? I think cities choose their identities, and maybe Mecca tends to be ultramodern…

So the book is about those who are fighting that transformation and those who are accelerating it, and those caught in the gap in between. Underneath these giants overtaking Mecca, there are striving armies of  dreamers, with the minimum of materialistic means, building their dwarfed empires in the shade, or side by side the skyscrapers. Mecca will be the battlefield for these forces.

RR: An article in Bomb magazine likens you (or at least your reputation) to Nabokov, how do you feel about the comparison?

RA: I feel all writers are breathing within me, not only Nabokov. My mother is part Russian though, so I might have inherited not only the blood, but the breath of the great Russian writers.

Really, writing is reproducing what we read, shaped by what we experience in life. So, I am reproducing the beautiful scenes or sentences I have read. I never envy anybody for any material gain, but I envy those who succeed in capturing a beautiful line or even a word.

Raja Alem will appear with Mohammed Achaari at London Literature Festival at Southbank Centre on Saturday 9 July as part of the Festival of Britain 60th anniversary celebrations with MasterCard www.londonlitfest.com