01.05.2009
by Elie Chalala
One salient feature of Al Jadid lies in focusing on “the new,” as the name Al Jadid means in Arabic. This correctly suggest that Al Jadid has distanced itself from tradition, if tradition means indiscriminate safeguarding of the past. We in Al Jadid cannot be a voice of the past because the past could mean oppression of minorities, of the poor, of intellectuals, just to name a few. We are a forward-looking publication rather than an apologetic one, celebrating the critical and the humane in Arab and Arab-American culture.
01.05.2009
di Elie Chalala
Una delle caratteristiche principali di Al Jadid sta nel promuovere “il nuovo,” come da significato dello stesso termine Al Jadid in Arabo. Questo correttamente suggerisce che Al Jadid ha scelto di distanziarsi dalla tradizione, se tradizione significa salvaguardia indiscriminata del passato. Noi di Al Jadid non possiamo essere una voce del passato perché il passato potrebbe voler dire oppressione delle minoranze, dei poveri, degli intellettuali, ma non solo. Noi siamo una rivista che guarda al futuro, non apologetica, quanto piuttosto una rivista che celebra gli aspetti critici e umani della cultura Araba e Arabo-Americana.
01.05.2009
by Simone Stevens
Nazik al-Malaika, one of Iraq’s most famous poets, died June 20, 2007, at the age of 83. Al-Malaika was best known for her role as a pioneer of the free verse movement, making a sharp departure from the classical rhyme form that had dominated Arabic poetry for centuries.
01.05.2009
by Hilary Hesse
One of the world’s more ghastly cultural traditions, honor killing is practiced in many parts of the Middle East and surrounding areas. In its most common incarnation, a woman is murdered by a male relative upon suspicion of having committed a sexual indiscretion with a man to whom she is not married. Her murder is meant to correct the misdeed and restore the family’s “honor.”
01.05.2009
by Rebecca Joubin
You were born and raised in Karbala, a city revered by Shiite Muslims. Can you recall the first moment theater touched your life as a child?
The religious rituals of Ashura, the tenth day of Muharram, took on a special significance in Karbala and inspired my childhood.
01.05.2009
by Etel Adnan
I just read Miriam Cooke’s “Dissident Syria” and feel that this work has to be brought to the attention of specialists of Arab and Middle Eastern studies, students of literature and the general public.
01.05.2009
by Mohammed Ali Atassi
Sexual harassment of women in Egypt is one of many social problems that politicians and the media have tended to treat as an instance of individual, abnormal behavior. Because they treat it as an isolated aberration from proper social norms – falling outside the path, principles and traditions of a sanctioned way of life – Egyptian society as a whole does not need to confront it.
01.01.2009
By Zaid Shilah
The poetry of Mahmoud Darwish is as fundamental a gift to the Arab world as Wole Soyinka’s work is to Nigeria or Derek Walcott’s poems are to the West Indies. However, Darwish is not as well known in the U.S. as they are, which makes Fady Joudah’s translation of “The Butterfly’s Burden” all the more important. It acts as a conduit, inviting the reader of English to take a journey into the consciousness and history of the Arab and Palestinian people.
01.01.2009
By Habeeb Salloum
Abu al-Walid Muhammad Ibn Rushd, better known in the West as Averroës, but also in medieval times as Avén Ruiz and Averrhoes, was born in 1126 A.D. in Cordova, once the illustrious capital of Moorish Spain. The descendant of a distinguished Cordovan family of scholars, he was the third generation of his lineage to hold the office of qadi [judge]. One of the foremost figures of Arab civilization, he became known as the "Prince of Science"-the master of jurisprudence, mathematics, medicine and, above all, philosophy.
01.10.2008
By Nouri Al-Jarrah
Mahmoud Darwish returned in May 1996 to Haifa, his first home in Palestine, to sip his mother’s coffee, and to touch the bread wrought by her hands. He is, judging by his biography, a son who expresses more eloquently than most the Palestinian odyssey – with its ships that attempt to cast their anchors on the shores of those who await; does his “symbolic” return therefore signal the realization of an event which has hitherto been mythical, the emergence of a rock from an idea, and the possibility of the return of that idea to the rock?
01.05.2008
by Mahmoud Saeed
Yes, the Arab book market is flooded, and few books in this deluge merit note. A few new books deserve priority placement on readers' and libraries' book shelves.
01.03.2008
by Elie Chalala
Would you please introduce yourself, and give us some idea of your background?
My name is Usama Muhammad. I was born in 1954 and am from Latakia, Syria. I graduated in 1979 from Moscow University as a film director. I wrote and directed some short films and worked in Syrian cinema with my friends and colleagues either as a scriptwriter, or in what is called in Syria an "artistic cooperation practice" in which two directors cooperate to make the film of one of them.
01.07.2007
by Faraj Bayrakdar
I’m not sure whether I’ve been a success or a failure at being a father.
In truth, my circumstances have not made it possible for me to delve thoroughly into this topic. I went into hiding as soon as my daughter was born, and I was arrested before she was four years old. I spent the first five years of my detention with no access to news and no visits. In spite of all that, I feel that I am a father to the point of tears.
01.12.2006
by Lami'ah Abbas Amarah
01.10.2006
Recalling Poet, Playwright, Critic as the Authentic Modernist
by Mohammed Dakroub
Even in his early writings, which were mainly poems, Issam Mahfouz used to “create a sublime and penetrating theater of dialogue,” says Lebanese poet Shawqi abi-Shaqra about his friend. It is a disservice to Mahfouz to sum up his contributions in generalities.
20.07.2005
di Tariq Ramadan
La notizia degli attentati di Londra è un nuovo trauma. La nostra condanna è una volta di più netta e assoluta. Gli autori di questi attentati sono assassini dai quali non si possono accettare, e neanche ascoltare, improbabili giustificazioni in nome di un'ideologia, di una religione, di una causa politica.
