Recent Stories

Lebanon Still Overshadowed by Oblivion As Port Blast Aftermath Enters Fourth Year

Art has played an influential role in making sense of the loss felt after the August 4 explosion. Tom Young’s “Strong Angels” and other paintings show a human dimension of the tragedy and its civilian heroes, who “join forces to lift the city’s grief,” writes Darine Houmani of Diffah Three (The New Arab). “Despite all its devastation, the August 4 explosion brought greater impetus to preserve our heritage and brought about a database of our historical buildings that hadn’t been done before,” states Mona Hallak, an architect, heritage activist, and director of the American University of Beirut’s Neighborhood Initiative, as cited in The New Arab. Several weighed in on the rebuilding efforts, including Lebanese architect Jad Tabet, who proposed “rehabilitation” rather than “reconstruction,” focusing on preserving the city’s existing social fabric and inhabitants alongside the architecture (for further reading on Jad Tabet and architectural heritage, see Al Jadid, Vol. 4, No, 25, Fall 1998; Vol. 5, No. 26, Winter 1999; and Vol. 24, No. 79, 2020). As art historian and gallery owner Andrée Sfeir-Semler says, “You need to nourish people with art and culture because that is what feeds their souls.”

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Despite Far-Flung Distances, Lebanese Expatriates Witness and Live the Anxieties and Fears of Lebanon’s War

By Elie Chalala
 
The Lebanese at home and abroad have been glued to their television and social media screens since September 23, awaiting news of the military operations that went beyond the bordering southern villages and reached areas as far as the deep south, the Bekaa Valley, and the southern suburbs of Beirut. Mount Lebanon, Central Beirut, and even the north of the country were not spared from Israeli raids.
Essays and Features

A Rush to Safeguard History and Heritage as a Close Call with Israeli Aerial Strikes Threatens Lebanon’s Ancient Baalbek Castle

By Naomi Pham
 
Plumes of black and gray smoke billow behind the outline of Baalbek’s historic Temple of Jupiter like a foreboding shroud, disrupting the blue of the skyline with heavy, hazy air. That the ancient Roman ruin’s brush with destruction left it seemingly unscathed offers little reassurance, overshadowed by more pressing fears that the city and its cultural heritage won’t be so lucky next time.
Essays and Features

Is Fascination with Al Andalus' ‘Golden Period’ Escapism or a Solution to the Tumultuous Turmoils of Modern Arab Society?

By Al Jadid Staff
 
There is much nostalgia and reverence for "golden age" periods like Al-Andalus, especially in art and literature, which are always invoked during conflicts like the Arab-Israeli wars. The "Golden Age" of Al-Andalus (Andalusia) is often associated with the 10th and 11th centuries, particularly during the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba, which represents one of the most culturally and intellectually vibrant eras in European and Islamic history. Students and scholars of Arab and Islamic history often focus on the peaceful coexistence between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. They also reference the growth of art and literature. At the same time, historians warn against romanticizing the past because contemporary problems cannot be solved by looking backward.
Essays and Features

Three Lives, One Melody

Two Refugees Build a Rhapsodic Connection Despite Oceans of Difference and Time
By Lynne Rogers
 
Pauls Toutonghi dedicates his thoughtful novel “The Refugee Ocean” to his cousin Marguerite, one of three main characters whose life Toutonghi skillfully interweaves with the story of Naim, a young Syrian boy. Confronted by the loss of several members of his family and his fingers in a bombing, Naim experiences the war with his mother and an elderly American model who faces her death with benevolent grace. Artfully crafted, Toutonghi twines these disparate three lives under the universal reaffirmation of music and the disastrous global ramifications of the tobacco industry.
Books

An Algerian Intellectual on Once-‘Arab Leftist Radicals’!

The Modern Arab Intellectual Forsakes Ideological Integrity, Following the Footsteps of Previous Enemies Who Accuse Him of Takfir and Treason
By Elie Chalala
 
Were I to sum up Amin Zaoui’s position on the Arab leftist intellectuals, who nowadays are considered part of the mumanah alliance — that is, Arab intellectuals who support the positions of Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen — a word of caution about the terminology used must be clarified: a distinction exists between today’s leftists and those of the 1960s, 1970s, and even part of the 1980s. Today’s leftists tend to be vulgar and lack the theoretical sophistication of their previous iterations. These critiques by Amin Zaoui, an Algerian novelist and essayist whose commentaries appear weekly in Independent Arabia, analyze the two mumanah generations, particularly emphasizing the contemporary generation of leftists who grew up in the new millennium and its current trends.
Essays and Features

For a Friend Sorely Missed

Moayyad al-Rawi (1939-2015)
By 
Elie Chalala


This brief column can only begin to do justice to Iraqi poet and critic Moayyad al-Rawi. A longer tribute will appear in Al Jadid’s next issue later this year (Vol. 23, No. 77, 2019).

Moayyad, who died in 2015, fled the Iraqi dictatorship in 1970 for Lebanon, making it his first stop in a life in exile; it is there I met him. Imprisonment and repression following the 1963 Baathist coup forced him to leave Baghdad and Kirkuk, which he loved, and which figured prominently in his writings.

Ali al-Shawk in the Eyes of One Acquaintance

By 
Mahmoud Saeed


Ali al-Shawk’s death leaves an empty space that no one can fill. He was prolific, thoughtful, articulate, and of high manners. Personally, I thought of him as one of the most cultured intellectuals I have met inside or outside of Iraq. His cultural depth owed to the greatness and diversity of his reading, which included his fluent command of English, from which he translated several books.

‘Sexuality in the Arab World’: Book Attempts to Shed Multi-Faceted Light on Subject Long in the Shadows

Forthcoming in Al Jadid
By 
Al Jadid Staff


“Sexuality in the Arab World” has fascinated many Western scholars, though not as many Arabs, mainly for political and cultural reasons. Edited by Samir Khalaf and John Gagnon, this book first appeared in English in 2005 and then was published in Arabic by Dar al-Saqi in 2015, translated by Osama Manzalji. Novelist and critic Mahmoud Houjeiri has reviewed this book in Arabic, a review that offers an Arab perspective which is worthy of sharing and translating. 

Mustafa Khalifa’s ‘The Shell’ Latest Example of Literature Offering Insight of Syrian Ordeal

Forthcoming in Al Jadid
By 
Al Jadid Staff


A mere glance at the most notorious prisons in the world, Assad’s Tadmur moves to the forefront, ranking 2nd on a list of the 10 worst prisons. This is the prison which “hosted” Mustafa Khalifa, the author of “The Shell” for more than 13 years, and which Fawaz Azem reviews for the next issue of Al Jadid.

Prolific in Exile: An Appreciation of the Life and Work of Ali al-Shawk

Forthcoming in Al Jadid
By 
Al Jadid Staff

A prolific author and reader, Ali al-Shawk embodied scholarship, transforming himself into a veritable encyclopedia of intellectual knowledge. His humility endeared him to his friends and set a worthy example for others. He remains particularly known for being a good listener and for his non-confrontational ways, listening “to you until you finished talking before offering his own opinion,” according to Mahmoud Saeed. His writings encompassed the topics of mathematics, music, painting, literature, etymology, mythology, and science, and he wrote continuously until his death in his London home this year.

New Book Places Famed 20th Century Lebanese Beauty and Unappreciated Intellectual May Ziadeh at Center of Controversy Now as Then

Forthcoming in Al Jadid
By 
Elie Chalala

Twenty-years ago, Al Jadid published “The Victim Of Beauty: Reviving the Literary Legacy of Mai Ziadeh” by Ghada Samman. The issue we tackled then was how Ziadeh's talents and skills were overlooked because of her gender, and even worse, how highlighting her personal life at the expense of her intellect distorted her legacy. One Lebanese critic was emotionally overwhelmed by the recent book, “May: The Nights of Isis Copia” (Dar al-Adab, 2018) by Waciny Laredj, expressing her appreciation for this kind gesture by the Algerian-French novelist and academic toward a fellow “Lebanese.” However, an Egyptian critic takes issue with the new book. The same concerns which fueled early criticism of how Ziadeh was treated did not escape the notice of Sharif al-Shafei's thoughtful essay in Al Modon newspaper.  

May Menassa (1939-2019): Journalist, Novelist Wrote in the Black Ink of War and Tragedy

Forthcoming in Al Jadid
By 
Al Jadid Staff


The Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) spurred the production of a vast literature. Yet only a small fraction of these books, novelsand memoirs are available in English. An even smaller portion received wide attention through reviews or publicity campaigns. This leaves a void in the English language about the literature of this war. This essay highlights one novelist’s contributions in the Arabic literature of the war as well as a brief glimpse into her life.

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