Ayoon Wa Azan (New books)

When I returned to Beirut, I found new books waiting for me. Of these I choose three to write about today: The Memoirs of a Shiite Woman, by Dr. Rajaa Nehmeh: The book is an autobiography that starts in Sour (Tyre), moves to Paris, specifically the Sorbonne, and then to several Arab countries, including Egypt and Yemen, before settling all the way in the United States. She is a Shiite woman who has the hobby of collecting icons of the Virgin Mary. She is a leftist with Palestine always in her heart, and the recipient of a Ph.D. in literature that put on her on the same footing as the leading thinkers of the era in France and beyond. I promise the reader that he would enjoy and benefit from reading the memoirs of Rajaa Nehme, and if not, then I promise to refund the reader the price of the book. Since I can only be brief, I choose the following highlights from the book: - Tyre is a city inhabited by 15,000 people, the majority of whom are Shiite, with one predominantly Christian district. There was also once a neighborhood called al-Masarwa (the Egyptians), and it was said that its inhabitants were Sunnis who came from Egypt with the military campaign of Ibrahim Pasha. Today, Tyre includes 200,000 inhabitants. - Her grandmother Zahia wanted to go to Haifa to get a checkup with a German doctor who is an expert on epilepsy. The grandmother asked about the distance between Haifa and Jerusalem, and said that visiting Al-Aqsa Mosque was a thousand times greater than visiting the doctor, adding that only pilgrimage to Mecca offered was equal to it in reward. - (When the author was young) the traditional Muslim headscarf began to disappear among the Muslim population. In Tyre and even in its countryside, rarely was a young woman seen wearing it, whether fully or slightly drawn back. (After returning from France) she found that headscarves in south Lebanon have become almost mandatory, and there is a danger that this will spread everywhere in the country. - People of Tyre, our Arab brothers, people of magnanimity and dignity, rise up to help our people fleeing Palestine. The Muezzins from the minarets, the church bells, the heralds in the streets, are all announcing the tragedy: the people of Haifa, Jaffa, the people of the cities and the countryside, and the people of Jerusalem, Christians and Muslims, have all been expelled from Palestine. - Jacques Berque was an Orientalist with encyclopedic knowledge. He was very smug and did not hide it. Exiled Iranian student Abolhassan Banisadr once told Berque: the political regime in Iran is on the verge of collapse, and will change at the hands of the Islamic movement. Berque mocked him and said he was ignorant of the conditions of his own country. Less than a year later, the Iranian regime fell, and Banisadr became the first president of the first Islamic republic in the modern era. It is a very good book that I will no doubt read again. I turn to an important – and difficult – book, titled Let’s Try This Man, by Dr. Mohammad Matouk. The book contains a collection of studies into the thought of Antoun Saadeh. I knew Dr. Matouk as a friend, colleague, and academic. His book borders on being philosophical, as it explains Saadeh’s ideas. He also responds to those who rebelled against him or those he expelled from the party, and his arguments are always strong. The book is meant for interested academics and researchers, and perhaps members of the party who are keen to know the facts behind the major transformation it has seen. Mohammad Matouk, Rest in Peace, noted in his book how the party was right-leaning and hostile to communism in the 1950s, and how it became a leftwing party after the failed coup attempt in 1961-1962, and then the imprisonment and release of its members near the end of that decade. I interviewed Dr. Abdullah Saadeh, head of the party at the time, immediately after his release from prison. A few days later, I attended his press conference at the Beau Rivage Hotel, which he began by saying: We start with the right, because the right is older, and we finish with the left, because the future belongs to the left. So I asked him: Doctor, your party was named the Syrian Nationalist Party, and became the Syrian Social National Party. Its founder was known as “the leader,” and now as the “founding leader.” You were on the right, and now you are on the left. Do you think that if Antoun Saadeh were to return to life, he would be able to identify his party? Dr. Abdullah’s response was that the founder had told the members that he trusted them blindly, and urged them to use their minds. I conclude with a book as nice as its author, which is a collection of poems titled A Woman for All Eras by poet Celia Hamada, who once was a contributor to Al-Hayat. I had obtained the book in Beirut, and when I returned I found a copy waiting for me with a dedication from the poet Celia. Every reader who loves poetry and life will love her book. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.