Category Archives: Literature

I Read It in the TLS

Books You Should Read, Humor and Satire, Literature, Orientalism, Teaching Resources

A very positive review of Daniel Martin Varisco’s recent book Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid (University of Washington Press 2007), appears in this week’s issue of the prestigious Times Literary Supplement. In his examination of the evidence and logic of Edward Said’s argument in his classic book Orientalism, first published in 1978, Varisco provides an evenhanded exploration of the subject, thirty years on.

Aside from minor quibbles concerning Varisco’s tendency to pun (a common trait, regretfully, among scholars associated with the University of Chicago’s Anthropology Department), Robert Irwin, the Middle East editor of the TLS, praises the book’s careful research and insight. “Varisco’s book,” he concludes, referring in part to its magnificently detailed and informative footnotes, “makes for exhilarating reading.”

Given the tendency of right-wing pundits to claim that contemporary academe has fallen for Said hook, line, and sinker, what is one to make of a thoughtful and sensitive critique from within? Could it be that the field of contemporary Middle East Studies is no more homogenous and globally misguided than the field Said himself identified as “Orientalism”?

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #21

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the 21st in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #21

Al-Ma’qil, 9/17/1964

My Brother, Adunis. Dearest Beloved (along with Muhyi al-Din Muhammad). May I be lucky enough to find Muhammad.

O Dearest Friend,

How are you? Correspondence between us has stopped for about nine months now. The two reasons for this are bad luck and my incurable disease. My general health is not bad, but my two paralyzed legs are still the same. My soul is overflowing with poetry, but it is poetry that flows from the fountain of deep pain and dejection, not of delight. Just yesterday, I wrote a poem void of sadness, despair, and pain because our brother, ‘Ali al-Sabti, met with my loved ones in Lebanon and carried joyful news about them to me with a promise that they will send me a letter. Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #21 →

If Lincoln Had Seen Aladdin

Literature, Orientalism


Grover’s Theater, Washington D.C.

April 14, 1865. For Americans, at least above the Mason Dixon line, this is one of those dates that live in infamy. John Wilkes Booth, a rather bad actor on the stage, shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre. According to an account by Mrs. Helen Palmes Moss in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine for 1909, Lincoln had the option of going to a rival theatre, the National or Grover’s, that night where a private box had been prepared for him by Mr. C. D. Hess, the co-manager. Apparently Booth had planned to attempt the assassination at whichever theater Lincoln attended. He much preferred Ford’s, since he had no inside help at the National and would have to shoot Lincoln as he stepped out of the carriage. What does this fateful event have to do with the Middle East? If Lincoln had attended the National Theatre and J. Wilkes Booth had missed, the President would have seen a dramatization of the Arabian Nights tale “Aladdin.” Would that Lincoln had been more of an Orientalist… Continue reading If Lincoln Had Seen Aladdin →

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #20

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the 20th in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #20

al-Ma’qil 10/15/1963

My Dear Brother Jabra (Ibrahim Jabra),

Welcome to Iraq. I hope you enjoyed your summer in Lebanon. I am certain that you continued your literary activities while there. Besides Taoufiq Sayigh and Yusuf al-Khal, with whom did you meet? Did you see Salma al-Khadra’ al-Jayusi and Laila ba’albaki? Can you write me the details of the different phases of literary activities in Lebanon?

I heard, actually, I read, that you are going to deliver a series of literary lectures on Baghdad Radio. This is a good thing. Something like rust has begun to cling to literary life here, and it is the duty of great writers to remove this now when the field is wide open for those who are creative and innovative. Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #20 →

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #19

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the 19th in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #19

Basra 9/11/1963

My Dear Brother ‘Asim (al-Gindi),

I have been silent too long because I have been going through the final stages of treatment. Neither British nor French medicine has been able to cure my illness, so I finally resorted to popular Arabic medicine, and I followed the saying of our noble Prophet: (cauterization is the last resort of treatment). Yes, I have tried it with hot metal skewers at the hands of a Bedouin healer. The complete results of this treatment have not appeared yet because the wounds caused by cauterization have not healed in spite of the twenty days that have passed. Nevertheless, there is a glimpse of hope. Let us leave all this behind. Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #19 →

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #18

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the 18th in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #18

al-Ma’qil
20 July, 1963

My Dear Brother Abu Arwad (Adunis),

Your letter made me very happy because it came to me from my dearest friend after a long interruption. It also brought me the news that I have long been hoping for. It is rather a pity, Adunis, that the starlings should soar in the sky of poetry while the eagles remain with their wings folded and for no good reason other than incrimination and falsification.

My health is improving extremely slowly; nevertheless, there is an improvement. I hope it improves enough so I can come to Beirut this winter.

Currently, I am not writing anything. I am experiencing a period of stagnation after the period of that worthy activity in England where I produced “ Manzil al-Aqnan,” which has already been published. I will send your copy as soon as my personal copies arrive. I also have a new poetry collection still waiting for a publisher.
Perhaps it will be the best that I have written so far. [He is referring to “Shanashil Ibnat al-Halabi.”] Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #18 →

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #17

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the 17th in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #17

Basra…..(1)

My Brother Jabra (Ibrahim Jabra),

Only yesterday I received your letter dated, 4/ 29/1963. I was overjoyed especially because your news has been disrupted for a while now. In a letter to me from Taoufik Sayigh, he inquires about the reason for your absence from him and from “Hiwar.” I hope you will write to him.

I continue to improve, but at the same slow pace. I am still waiting for my improvement to reach a certain stage so I can come to Baghdad and remain for a week or two.

Bahij ‘Uthman has not yet sent me my personal copies of “ al-Ma’bid al-Ghariq” and “Manzil al-Aqnan.” Perhaps they will arrive soon, and then I will send you your two copies.

Enclosed with this letter, you will find two new poems which I hope will earn your approval. I am ready to translate any article you send. Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #17 →

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #16

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the 16th in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #16

al-Ma’qil 3/ 29/1962

My Dear Brother Mr. Jabra (Ibrahim Jabra),

Is it possible for any Iraqi to visit the beautiful Baghdad and to intentionally leave it? I will certainly try to arrange for “many visits” there in the summer beginning in June, God willing. However, this letter is devoted to business, to the story of Oxford that is long overdue, and not for chatting. The important thing is that I have a lot of new poetry that I will recite to you when we meet.

The following are my responses to the questions of Professor Hurani. I write it in Arabic so you may translate it according to how you see fit. You have the absolute right in responding as you wish:

1- Yes. I wish to study at any university other than Oxford, on the condition that I obtain an acceptance through the mediation of professor Hurani.
2- I was supposed to begin last academic year, but I postponed it until next year (next October), and I believe that it is difficult to postpone it a second time.
3- I prefer to write a thesis in the field of Arabic Studies or in Comparative Literature between Arabic and English Literature. Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #16 →