{"id":1971,"date":"2011-11-15T13:51:05","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T17:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.arts.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=1971"},"modified":"2011-11-15T13:51:05","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T17:51:05","slug":"books-in-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2011\/11\/15\/books-in-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Books in the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the most part, it seems as though the vast majority of novels and non-fiction books we read growing up in the United States were from either American or European authors.\u00c2\u00a0 However, the Middle East has a rich literary tradition to rival the West\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s with famous poets like Hafez, Rumi, and Khalil Gibran and novelists like Elias Khoury, Tahar Ben Jelloun, and Kahled Hosseini, famous for writing The Kite Runner<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 The Middle East is often stereotyped as having heavy restrictions on intellectual pursuits and freedom of speech, which in some cases is true, there are many writers who are internationally renowned.\u00c2\u00a0 There is even a high school in Brooklyn named after Khalil Gibran and English translations of Rumi have sold over half a million copies worldwide, him being one of the highest selling poets in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When I am with you, we stay up all night.
\nWhen you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep.<\/p>\n

Praise God for those two insomnias!
\nAnd the difference between them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

-Rumi<\/p>\n

Middle Eastern nations have embraced many Western authors as well.\u00c2\u00a0 Though a good deal of the books have to be pirated, some of the best selling writers in Iran are John Grisham, Danielle Steel, and Harry Potter is a favorite of young people, just as it is here, same with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pinocchio\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for young children.\u00c2\u00a0 There has also been a longstanding divide between Israeli books and those from other Middle Eastern nations which, in recent years, has seen some progress.\u00c2\u00a0 In 2009, Israel overturned a law from World War II which banned books from or translated in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hostile countries\u00e2\u20ac\u009d like Syria and Lebanon.\u00c2\u00a0 This means that Israeli citizens will now be able to access a much larger selection of Arabic writings, which will hopefully add to some form of open dialogue in the region.<\/p>\n

Americans often have a very one dimensional way of viewing daily life in the Middle East, and usually focus on aspects related to violence, insurrection, Islam, terrorism, and sexism.\u00c2\u00a0 The region is viewed as a place of constant turmoil, where daily life is shattered by suicide bombings and oppressive military presence.\u00c2\u00a0 These generalizations overshadow the culture that continues to grow out of a historically literary, but diverse, place.\u00c2\u00a0 There have been many writers who encourage the de-stigmatization of the Middle East, like Reza Aslan, Edward Said, and Tariq Ali.\u00c2\u00a0 Literature is important in spreading this awareness because it allows for a personal aspect of Middle Eastern life to be shared globally in an enjoyable manner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the most part, it seems as though the vast majority of novels and non-fiction books we read growing up in the United States were from either American or European authors.\u00c2\u00a0 However, the Middle East has a rich literary tradition to rival the West\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s with famous poets like Hafez, Rumi, and Khalil Gibran and novelists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1971"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1976,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971\/revisions\/1976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}