The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation's OdysseyFrom Fouad Ajami, an acclaimed author and chronicler of Arab politics, comes a compelling account of how a generation of Arab intellectuals tried to introduce cultural renewals in their homelands through the forces of modernity and secularism. Ultimately, they came to face disappointment, exile, and, on occasion, death. Brilliantly weaving together the strands of a tumultuous century in Arab political thought, history, and poetry, Ajami takes us from the ruins of Beirut's once glittering metropolis to the land of Egypt, where struggle rages between a modernist impulse and an Islamist insurgency, from Nasser's pan-Arab nationalist ambitions to the emergence of an uneasy Pax Americana in Arab lands, from the triumphalism of the Gulf War to the continuing anguished debate over the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords. For anyone who seeks to understand the Middle East, here is an insider's unflinching analysis of the collision between intellectual life and political realities in the Arab world today. |
Contents
Prologue THE INHERITANCE | 3 |
The Suicide of Khalil Hawi REQUIEM FOR A GENERATION | 26 |
In the Shape of the Ancestors | 111 |
Copyright | |
5 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Abu Zeid Adonis Anton Saadah Antonius Arab nationalism Arab political Arab world Arabia Arafat assassination Beirut British Cairo campaign century claim Copts country's culture Damascus death decade desert dream Druze Egypt Egyptian exile father foreign French Gaza Gibran Greek Orthodox Gulf Haidari Hawi's Ibn Arabi intellectual class Iran Iranian Iraq Iraqi Islam Islamists Israel Israeli Jabal Druze Jerusalem Jordan Karbala Khalil Hawi Khomeini knew Kuwait land leader Lebanese letters literary lived military modernity mountain Mubarak Muslim Naguib Mahfuz Nasser never Nizar Qabbani Palestine Palestinian pan-Arab peace with Israel Peres Persian poem poet poetry Qabbani Rabin rebellion regime religious revolution rule rulers Saadah Sadat Saddam Hussein Saudi secular Shia Shimon Peres Shweir Six Day War social society Syria Taha Hussein theocratic things tion took tradition truth turned village wanted West Beirut women writer wrote young
References to this book
Iraq Since 1958: From Revolution to Dictatorship Marion Farouk-Sluglett,Peter Sluglett No preview available - 2001 |
Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948 Meron Benvenisti Limited preview - 2000 |