For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson in Travels with a Donkey Few of us have the panache to put in our papers, free ourselves from our desks, and take off on a half-year-long trip along the coastal necklace of peninsular India. This richly-flavoured travelogue combines adventure, serendipity, food, and sheer joie de vivre. The narrative irresistibly draws us in as benevolent observers of the many facets and foibles of humanity. Living out of a backpack, in budget lodgings, and eating bananas as a staple, only add to the heady challenges that stimulate the spirit of wanderlust of this maverick-explorer. The tour diary, starting from the remote north-western coastal tip and climaxing, rather precariously, way above sea-level at the potentially sinister Indo-Tibetan border, is an engrossing chronicle of discoveries about the desires, views, tribulations, joys, and sheer zest for living, of the teeming millions of India. Thrown in for good measure, in a refreshingly tongue-in-cheek style, are recipes for some of the gastronomic delights offered in the places traversed. Itinerant sidelights about people of all classes and creeds – fishermen, seafarers, rickshaw-drivers, priests, salesmen, radicals, typical and atypical families, and all the rest – create a colourful kalaidescope that is quintessentially India. This book is as enjoyable and energising as a good cup of chai...
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson in Travels with a Donkey Few of us have the panache to put in our papers, free ourselves from our desks, and take off on a half-year-long trip along the coastal necklace of peninsular India. This richly-flavoured travelogue combines adventure, serendipity, food, and sheer joie de vivre. The narrative irresistibly draws us in as benevolent observers of the many facets and foibles of humanity. Living out of a backpack, in budget lodgings, and eating bananas as a staple, only add to the heady challenges that stimulate the spirit of wanderlust of this maverick-explorer. The tour diary, starting from the remote north-western coastal tip and climaxing, rather precariously, way above sea-level at the potentially sinister Indo-Tibetan border, is an engrossing chronicle of discoveries about the desires, views, tribulations, joys, and sheer zest for living, of the teeming millions of India. Thrown in for good measure, in a refreshingly tongue-in-cheek style, are recipes for some of the gastronomic delights offered in the places traversed. Itinerant sidelights about people of all classes and creeds – fishermen, seafarers, rickshaw-drivers, priests, salesmen, radicals, typical and atypical families, and all the rest – create a colourful kalaidescope that is quintessentially India. This book is as enjoyable and energising as a good cup of chai...
Beirut is a tour de force that takes the reader from the ancient to the modern world, offering a dazzling panorama of the city's Seleucid, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, and French incarnations. Kassir vividly describes Beirut's spectacular growth in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, concentrating on its emergence after the Second World War as a cosmopolitan capital until its near destruction during the devastating Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990. --from publisher description.
In spite of the importance of the Jordan River dispute, there has been no comprehensive and systematic study of the problem. What few articles have been written so far have been fragmentary and essentially dealt with the history of the dispute. M. G. Ionides, in "The Disputed Waters of Jordan," Middle East Journal, Vol. 7 (I953), pp. I53 ff., Georgiana Stevens, in the "Jordan River V alley," International C on ciliation, No. 506 (I956), and more recently, Kathryn B. Doherty, in "The Jordan Waters Conflict," International Conciliation, No. 533 (I965), elaborate this theme. H. A. Smith, in the "Waters of the Jordan: a Problem of International Water Control," International Affairs, Vol. 25 (I949), pp. 4I5 ff. has been the exception. However, his work is outdated in that many other factors have entered the picture since I949. My purpose in writing this study is twofold. First, I have sought to update the writings in this field. Second, it is hoped that the findings of this study will give a clearer and a more objective insight into the problems involved. Primary sources for this study include United Nations documents, Arab and Israeli government publications, federal and international law cases dealing with river disputes, treaties, and newspapers. Sec ondary source materials include books, articles in learned journals, and others.
The aim of the book is to examine the possibility for Christians and Muslims of different sects to live side by side in harmony, taking into account the considerable development of the society and sciences since the advent of these two religions. There are many similarities between the Bible and the Quran, as Prophet Muhammad had knowledge of the Bible due to his contacts with the Christian Clergy and Jewish Rabbis. Prophet Muhammad with his logical analytical mind discussed the different interpretations of the Evangels with Christians of different sects and later discussed the Torah with Jewish Rabbis in Yathrib (Medina), and reached certain conclusions that he expressed in a book "revealed" to him in Arabic language where he tried to correct the misinterpretations of the Bible by others, to serve as a guide for his people. An in-depth reading of the Bible and the Quran reveals the difference in Prophet Muhammad's life in Mecca before the death of his first wife Khadija and her uncle the Arian Christian priest Waraka, when he followed the Christian approach in peacefully calling for the belief in a Single God, lead a monogamous life, and after his migration to Medina where he had as neighbours the Jewish Rabbis. Here the lifestyle of Prophet Muhammad witnessed a deep transformation, thereafter emulating that of Israeli Prophets/kings David and Solomon, in his polygamous marriages and his wars to establish an earthly Muslim Arab State, in sharp contrast with the Heavenly Kingdom preached by Jesus Christ. In spite of the "improvements" entered into the Quran over those of the Torah, the Quran remains a constitution that appropriated much of its components from Moses Law. Even if the ideas In the Torah and the Quran were inspired by God, the tools who revealed them to mankind were humane, using the reasoning and language expression capabilities of human imperfect persons, the level of their scientific knowledge and the traditions of their societies. They were written with the level of writing skills of their time, mostly from memories, tens and hundreds of years after the death of Moses, Jesus Christ and Muhammad. Hand copying these scriptures and translating them during centuries, many mistakes must have occurred. The above leads us to conclude that the Bible and the Quran cannot be literally the words of God. Christians and Muslims should strive to interpret the Bible and the Quran basing their interpretation on reason, logic and nowadays scientific knowledge, and where necessary deleting the incorrect insertions. As we cannot accept many rules of Moses's Law, similarly we cannot accept the Quran's Shari'a Law covering wars of conquest in Allah's name, the notion that the Muslim Nation is the best nation, killing the apostate, payment of tribute by non-Muslims, plunder of women, slavery, polygamy, inequality between men and women in tribunals and inheritance, lashing adulterers, cutting hands and feet. Ignorance is the main cause of human misery.
Should wisdom be judged by the answers we give to life's greatest questions? Or conversely, should wisdom be judged by the profundity of our questions? In The Chain, author Samir Morcos inspires us to begin our search for insight by first acknowledging our ignorance. He then guides us through the philosophical and theological maze he refers to as a puzzle. One piece of the puzzle may trigger us to question how our bodily form came into existence. Another piece may activate our curiosity about the ebb and flow of the ocean's tides. Everywhere we look, from the color of our eyes to the people in our lives, we see questions, and we are propelled by our inner longing to seek satisfying answers. The Chain reveals startling revelations about age-old reflections. It takes its readers on the journey of their lives-and beyond Life challenges inspired author Samir Edward Morcos to become intensely interested in some tough topics, like guilt, evil, and truth. His drive to unravel the uncertainty of the universe, and to share what he has learned, impelled him to write The Chain. While he lives in the real world, he is inspired by the ethereal.The Chain will clear your confusion through logic, wisdom, and knowledge. Morcos was born in Cairo, Egypt, and now lives in Fairfax, Virginia. Publisher's website: http: //www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TheChain.htm
Through focusing on the unintended by-products of New England Puritanism as a cultural transplant in the Levant, this book explores the socio-historical forces which account for the failure of early envoys’ attempts to convert the ‘native,’ population. Early failure in conversion led to later success in reinventing themselves as agents of secular and liberal education, welfare, and popular culture. Through making special efforts not to debase local culture, the missionaries’ work resulted in large sections of society becoming protestantized without being evangelized. An invaluable resource for postgraduates and those undertaking postdoctoral research, this book explores a seminal but overlooked interlude in the encounters between American Protestantism and the Levant. Using data from previously unexplored personal narrative accounts, Khalaf dates the emergence of the puritanical imagination, sparked by sentiments of American exceptionalism, voluntarism and "soft power" to at least a century before commonly assumed.
The Bourj in central Beirut is one of the world's oldest and most vibrant public squares. Named after the mediaeval lookout tower that once soared above the city's imposing ramparts, the square has also been known as Place des Canons (after a Russian artillery build-up in 1773) and Martyrs' Square (after the Ottoman execution of nationalists in 1916). As an open museum of civilizations, it resonates with influences from ancient Phoenician to colonial, post-colonial and, as of late, postmodern elements. Over the centuries it has come to embody pluralism and tolerance. During the Lebanese civil war (1975-90), this ebullient entertainment district, transport hub and melting-pot of cultures was ruptured by the notorious Green Line, which split the city into belligerent warring factions. Fractious infighting and punishing Israeli air raids compounded the damage, turning the Bourj into a no-man's-land. In the wake of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri's assassination (14 February 2005), the Bourj witnessed extraordinary scenes of popular, multi-faith and cross-generational protest. Once again, Samir Khalaf argues, the heart of Beirut was poised to re-invent itself as an open space in which diverse groups can celebrate their differences without indifference to the other. By revisiting earlier episodes in the Bourj's numerous transformations of its collective identity, Khalaf explores prospects for neutralizing the disheartening symptoms of reawakened religiosity and commodified consumerism. 'A timely and informative study on Beirut's pre-eminent patch of public space.' The Daily Star 'Khalaf has arguably contributed more fine studies on the history and sociology of modern Lebanon than has any other scholar alive.' Foreign Affairs 'A spirited guide to Beirut's (re)development, lively in style, rich in illustration and perceptive in analysis.' Frederick Anscombe, Birkbeck College, University of London
The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, the Afghan conflict, waves of migration, and the presence of twelve million Muslims in the European Union: these are just a few of the things that have helped contribute to a growing interest in Islam, its culture, and its followers. They awaken old and new questions about a religious, cultural, and political reality that 1,200,000,000 people consider themselves a part of. This book is the result of a series of extended interviews between an internationally acclaimed expert on Islam and two journalists who have dedicated themselves for many years to studying key themes of Islam and analyzing the possibility of coexistence between people of different faiths and cultures. How was Islam born? What does the Qur'an represent for Muslims? What relationships have developed between Islam and violence, between Islamic culture and the West? How can a real integration of Islam take place in European societies? What are the conditions for a constructive encounter between Christians and Muslims? Samir Khalil Samir one of the world's leading experts on Islam responds to these questions in an in-depth interview that can help one learn and judge for oneself, without prejudice or naivete. This is a contribution in the spirit of the realism needed in order to build adequate ways of living with those who have become our new neighbors.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.