Books by Amin Maalouf
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (Saqi Essentials)
by Amin Maalouf
The author has combed the works of contemporary Arab chronicles of the Crusades, eyewitnesses and often participants. He retells their story and offers insights into the historical forces that shape Arab and Islamic consciousness today.
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Julie Mehretu: A Universal History of Everything and Nothing
by Marina Warner, Amin Maalouf, Suzanne Cotter
With new photography documenting Julie Mehretu’s (born 1970) studio process, plus details and large-scale reproductions of paintings and drawings, and essays by renowned authors, this book documents her richly layered visual universe.
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Leo Africanus
by Amin Maalouf
"I, Hasan the son of Muhammad the weigh-master, I, Jean-Leon de Medici, circumcised at the hand of a barber and baptized at the hand of a pope, I am now called the African, but I am not from Africa, nor from Europe, nor from Arabia. I am also called the Granadan, the Fassi, the Zayyati, but I come from no country, from no city, no tribe. I am the son of the road, my country is the caravan, my life the most unexpected of voyages."
Thus wrote Leo Africanus, in his fortieth year, in this imaginary autobiography of the famous geographer, adventurer, and scholar Hasan al-Wazzan, who was born in Granada in 1488. His family fled the Inquisition and took him to the city of Fez, in North Africa. Hasan became an itinerant merchant, and made many journeys to the East, journeys rich in adventure and observation. He was captured by a Sicilian pirate and taken back to Rome as a gift to Pope Leo X, who baptized him Johannes Leo. While in Rome, he wrote the first trilingual dictionary (Latin, Arabic and Hebrew), as well as his celebrated Description of Africa, for which he is still remembered as Leo Africanus.
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Les désorientés roman
by Amin Maalouf
Dans Les Desorientes, je m'inspire tres librement de ma propre jeunesse. Je l'ai passee avec des amis qui croyaient en un monde meilleur. Et meme si aucun des personnages de ce livre ne correspond a une personne reelle, aucun n'est entierement imaginaire. J'ai puise dans mes reves, dans mes fantasmes, dans mes remords, autant que dans mes souvenirs. Les protagonistes du roman avaient ete inseparables dans leur jeunesse, puis ils s'etaient disperses, brouilles, perdus de vue. Ils se retrouvent a l'occasion de la mort de l'un d'eux. Les uns n'ont jamais voulu quitter leur pays natal, d'autres ont emigre vers les Etats-Unis, le Bresil ou la France. Et les voies qu'ils ont suivies les ont menes dans les directions les plus diverses. A.M.
Entre le Zweig du Monde d'hier et le Barres des Deracines, notre academicien levantin nous entraine dans les meandres de l'exil, du repentir et du retour impossible. Christian Makarian, L'Express.Copies
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In the Name of Identity Violence and the Need to Belong
by Amin Maalouf
“Makes for compelling reading in America today.”—New York Times Book Review.
“I want to try and understand why so many people commit crimes in the name of identity,” writes Amin Maalouf. Identity is the crucible out of which we come: our background, our race, our gender, our tribal affiliations, our religion (or lack thereof), all go into making up who we are. All too often, however, the notion of identity—personal, religious, ethnic, or national—has given rise to heated passions and even massive crimes.
Moving across the world’s history, faiths, and politics, he argues against an oversimplified and hostile interpretation of the concept. He cogently and persuasively examines identity in the context of the modern world, where it can be viewed as both glory and poison. Evident here are the dangers of using identity as a protective—and therefore aggressive—mechanism, the root of racial, geographical, and colonialist subjugation throughout history.
Maalouf contends that many of us would reject our inherited conceptions of identity, to which we cling through habit, if only we examined them more closely. The future of society depends on accepting all identities, while recognizing our individualism.
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