When Peter Clark arrived in Damascus 1992 to open the new British Council office, he was not to know that the next five years were to give him an unique window on the upper echelons of Syrian society in the last few years of Hafez Al-Assad’s rule. Here we see the dramas and routines of […]
Oblivious to the invasions, massacres and religious fanaticism that characterise the 15th century, a young girl falls in love with a noble Arabian tribal leader. But all eyes are on the Portuguese fleets in the Arabian Gulf, intent on securing the profitable spice trade. Abdulaziz Al Mahmoud weaves a tapestry of momentous historical events with […]
Grippingly told, brilliantly paced, remarkably convincing in his historical depiction of a fateful relationship, it is a narrative for our time, haunted by distant events and characters who are closer to us than we dreamed. EDWARD W. SAID Ali overturns demonising stereotypes of Salah-al-din, portraying instead the ‘barbarian’ Western invaders. Whether depicting erotically charged harem […]
Hunayn ibn Ishaq (803-873 AD) was a Christian physician of Arab descent. He, with other Nestorian physicians, practised the medicine taught by the Ancient Greeks. He was personal physician to eight caliphs and rose to such prominence that his contemporaries dubbed him ‘a source of science and a mine of virtue’. He transmitted to the […]