Travel
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150th anniversary of Friedrich Ruckert′s death
Forget Goethe, read Ruckert
One of Germany′s greatest poets died 150 years ago – and today, hardly anyone is familiar with him. But all those years ago, Friedrich Ruckert knew how to integrate refugees successfully. By Christoph Meyer
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Evelyn Waugh′s ″Labels: A Mediterranean Journal″
Egypt revisited
Evelyn Waugh, the English writer most would associate with his best-selling novel ″Brideshead Revisited″, died fifty years ago this month. Yet Waugh was also a passionate traveller and observer of foreign cultures. In this early work, he transports the reader back to early twentieth century Egypt. Sherif Abdel Samad read the book
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Book review: ″The Underground Girls of Kabul″
Boys for a time
Segregation calls for creativity – in Afghanistan, some parents simply pass off their daughters as boys. Fascinated by the idea, Swedish journalist Jenny Nordberg decided to record the results of her research. Marian Brehmer read the book
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Werner Herzog′s epic ″Queen of the Desert″
Hackneyed melodrama
"Queen of the Desert″ tells the life-story of eccentric explorer Gertrude Bell. This well-bred Englishwoman was drawn to the Middle East at the turn of the last century. It’s the first time that Werner Herzog has made a female character the main focus of one of his films. The result is disappointing. By Jochen Kürten
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Gertrude Bell
Queen of the desert
Gertrude Bell was many things: an archaeologist, an intelligence officer and a great British eccentric. Above all, however, writes Iris Mostegel, she was a key figure in the Middle East during the First World War and the woman who shaped modern-day Iraq
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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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The Arab world
Arabic: the last tie that binds
In terms of politics, economics, religion and culture, the paths of the Arab states diverge. The once proclaimed unity between them has been consigned to the history books. Only one thing still binds them together: the Arabic language. By Kersten Knipp
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Historical Travelogues by Women
Lugging a Piano to Khartoum
Up until the 20th century, it was uncommon for European women to travel the Orient. Those who did, however, shared attitudes ranging from open curiosity and sympathy to the shameless conceit of superiority and racism – just like their men. By Andreas Pflitsch
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Max Baron of Oppenheim
An Encyclopedic Travelogue Free from the Arrogance of the Time
As diplomat and explorer, Max Baron of Oppenheim's knowledge of the Orient was exceptional for the time. His interest in the Arab world was unique as well in that it was free from condescension. A portrait by Andreas Pflitsch
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Gertrude Bell's Orient Travels
Escape from the Tight Corset of the Modern Age
Gertrude Bell was one of the few women that in the 19th century travelled the Orient. In trying to escape rigid Victorian conventions, she ended up as an agent for the British Secret Service and as personal advisor to Iraq's King Faisal I. By Andreas Pflitsch
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Pierre Loti
Dreams of the Orient
Under the pen name Pierre Loti, Frenchman Julien Viaud brought us the zeitgeist of Orientalism in literary form. His autobiographically inspired novels paint a romantic picture of the "mysterious" Orient and manifest a longing for the exotic. Susan Javad reports