By Samira Meghdessian The importance of historiography lies in ensuring a continuity between past and present, even as bombs erase everything that has been built, as we have witnessed recently in Gaza, or as homes are destroyed and families evicted, as in cities and villages across historic Palestine. Ramallah is not the oldest of Palestinian cities. In her introduction to The Book of Ramallah, author Maya Abu al-Hayyat describes it as “a seemingly modest city ...
A few years ago, when we asked Egyptian novelist Miral al-Tahawy for a favorite book in Arabic by a woman writer, she said, “Truth is, there is a long list of Arab women’s work that I’m sure was important in the history of my reading, but what I remember is the last text I read that had a profound impact on me, and that’s Duna Ghali’s Orbits of Loneliness (منازل الوحشة), a novel that tells ...
The forthcoming collection Bidayàt, ed. Aldo Nicosia, brings together the openings of twenty-two different Arabic novels; these are translated into Italian by Nicosia with the help of two other translators. For ArabLit, Nicosia sat down in front of the mirror and conducted a somewhat impertinent interview with himself about the project. Interviewer: Mr. Nicosia, why Bidayàt? What new does it add to the Italian cultural landscape? Aldo Nicosia: Bidayàt is an anthology that, as its ...
A few years ago, when we asked Egyptian novelist Miral al-Tahawy for a favorite book in Arabic by a woman writer, she said, “Truth is, there is a long list of Arab women’s work that I’m sure was important in ...
Najem Wali’s 2024 novel My Romantic Aunt, published by Rewayat, follows a man’s relationship with his boundary-breaking aunt. From ‘My Romantic Aunt: Her friends, Her Relationships, and Me’ By Najem Wali Translated by Nada Hodali About Her My “Romantic Aunt.” Whoever ...
In Abdulaziz al-Saqabi’s A Drop of Alcohol, the search for an absent brother turns into a journey of self-discovery. A Drop of Alcohol By Abdulaziz al-Saqabi Translated by Lily Sadowsky Chapter One “Who are you afraid of? Go on, get a move on ...
The forthcoming collection Bidayàt, ed. Aldo Nicosia, brings together the openings of twenty-two different Arabic novels; these are translated into ...
“I’m trying to translate al-Jurjani so that he sounds like a literary critic writing in English, writing in his native language. I don’t want the reader of al-Jurjani’s experience with metaphor to think this guy is foreign – because al-Jurjani didn’t think he was foreign.”
“Our anonymous author was most probably a gourmet cook himself but not necessarily a professional cook. He might have had a profession like those people to support his family, and wrote about cooking, his passion.”
” Jaziri wrote poetry with one set of alphabets which at that time were used in four languages: Kurdish, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. Sometimes, he used the four languages in one couplet. His poems are still recited and sung by Kurds. That coexistence of languages was quite natural, the alluring music was convincing, although I sometimes understood almost nothing.”