Translation
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Book review: Kamal Ruhayyim's "Diary of a Muslim Jew"
An engaging take on a complex theme
In the first half of the twentieth century, about 75,000 Jews lived in Egypt. With the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, their lives in Egypt became increasingly difficult and many emigrated to Europe. Kamal Ruhayyim believes that Jewish Egyptians were an important part of the Egyptian community and wrote a book to keep their memory alive. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the English translation of the first book in Ruhayyim's trilogy "Diary of a Muslim Jew"
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Fadhil al-Azzawi's novel "The Last of the Angels"
Topical, thrilling and entertaining – even after 25 years
The publication of Fadhil al-Azzawi's novel in German translation is a sensation on the German book market, and its publication a late tribute to the internationally-renowned Iraqi author who wrote it 25 years ago. While "The Last of the Angels" remained unknown in Germany for a long time, the novel is already highly acclaimed in the Arabic- and English-speaking world. By Volker Kaminski
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Book review: "The Last Place" by Sherko Fatah
A book about intercultural misunderstandings
Just like his novel "The Dark Ship", Sherko Fatah's latest book is alarmingly topical: one of the characters, the kidnapper Abdul, stands for all the radical Islamists who mourn the bygone days of Mesopotamia and embrace a fundamentalist worldview. Claudia Kramatschek spoke to the author about his new novel
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Interview with literary translator Hartmut Faehndrich
"What I don't see is an on-going interest in Arabic literature"
Hartmut Faehndrich is one of the most renowned translators of Arabic literature in the German-speaking world. He has translated nearly 60 novels into German. In this interview with Ruth Renée Reif, he explains why Arabic literature is undervalued in the German-speaking world
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Tenth anniversary of the death of Mohamed Choukri
The "White Nightingale" of Tangier
The Moroccan writer Mohamed Choukri may have died over a decade ago, but the debate surrounding his controversial work continues in conservative Morocco to this day. Aziz Dariouchi on the discourse surrounding Choukri's literary legacy
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The Hakawati bookshop for children and young people in Amman
Huge appetite for exciting stories
Since opening ten years ago, the Hakawati bookshop in Amman has become an institution in the Jordanian capital. Nowhere else in the city offers such a wealth of books for children and young people. Claudia Mende took a look around this fascinating shop
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Translations of Classical Islamic Literature
From the Emotional Orient to the Distortion of Islam
Why does classical Oriental poetry still sound so ornate to western ears? Blame the translations. These are still following the model of the eighteenth century, when the myth arose that Islamic poets were sentimental geniuses in the realm of emotion and romance. An essay by Stefan Weidner
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Interview with Syrian Writer Nihad Sirees
On Literature's Honest Surrender
Syrian author Nihad Sirees has written seven novels and several plays and TV dramas. After increasing pressure from the Syrian government, Sirees left Aleppo in early 2012. Marcia Lynx Qualey met him at the Abu Dhabi Book Fair, just as he was leaving his exile in the US and moving to Egypt
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Jurji Zaidan's Arabic Historical Novels
Educating and Entertaining the Public
By writing historical novels, Jurji Zaidan wanted to provide the common Arabic people with an accurate sense of their own history in an accessible, entertaining way. His novels were unavailable in English for nearly a century. But now, in the last two years, six English translations have appeared. Marcia Lynx Qualey
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Interview with Iraqi author Hadiya Hussein
''I feel closer to my country when I'm away''
Iraqi author Hadiya Hussein has been away from Iraq for more than a dozen years, yet her fiction is still filled with its concerns. Her 2004 novel "Beyond Love", recently published in English translation, is full of exile, separation, and love. Hussein talked with Marcia Lynx Qualey about home, memory, and how living outside the country affects her writing
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Interview with Filmmaker Lina al-Abed
''I Believe in the Syrian People''
Lina al-Abed is a journalist and filmmaker who left her home in Damascus, Syria, to start a career in Beirut, Lebanon. In this interview with Irmgard Berner, she talks about women in the Arab film business and how the Syrian revolution has already in some ways liberated Syrians
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Interview with Youssef Ziedan
Revolution Means Breaking with Authority
Youssef Ziedan is a bestselling Egyptian author, philosopher and scholar of history. He is also director of the Manuscript Division of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the New Library of Alexandria. In this interview with Susanne Schanda, he says that being revolutionary is also about asking questions of authority