The Islam Quintet

Author : Tariq Ali
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 1701 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2014-01-14
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781480448582

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The Islam Quintet by Tariq Ali Pdf

Five nuanced and powerful historical novels depicting the clashes among Muslims, Christians, and Jews from the Crusades to twenty-first-century London. Celebrated British-Pakistani journalist and author Tariq Ali takes a mind-expanding journey through the ages with these five acclaimed works of fiction, available now in one collection. Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree: “Ali captures the humanity and splendor of Muslim Spain” in “an enthralling story, unraveled with thrift and verve” (The Independent). For the doomed Moors, the fall of Granada and the approaching forces of Christendom bring not peace but the sword. The Book of Saladin: After Saladin reclaims the holy city of Jerusalem from the Crusaders, he turns to a Jewish scribe to record his story, which Edward Said calls “a narrative for our time, haunted by distant events and characters who are closer to us than we had dreamed.” The Stone Woman: “Ali paints a vivid picture of a fading world,” proclaims the New York Times Book Review, as a distant descendant of an exiled Ottoman courtier suffers a stroke in Istanbul, and his family rushes to his side to hear his last stories. A Sultan in Palermo: In “a marvelously paced and boisterously told novel of intrigue, love, insurrection and manipulation,” cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi is caught between his friendship with King Roger of Sicily and the resentments of his fellow Muslims (The Guardian). Night of the Golden Butterfly: A Lahore-born writer living in London is called back to his homeland by an old friend who, at seventy-five, has finally fallen in love. “If Pakistan is a land of untold stories,” writes the New Statesman, Ali is “the country’s finest historian and critic.”

Author : Tariq Ali
Publisher : Verso Books
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2015-07-07
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781781680032

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The Book of Saladin by Tariq Ali Pdf

The Book of Saladin is the fictional memoir of Saladin, the Kurdish liberator of Jerusalem, as dictated to a Jewish scribe, Ibn Yakub. Saladin grants Ibn Yakub permission to talk to his wife and retainers so that he might present a full portrait in the Sultan’s memoirs. A series of interconnected stories follows, tales brimming over with warmth, earthy humor and passions in which ideals clash with realities and dreams are confounded by desires. At the heart of the novel is an affecting love affair between the Sultan’s favored wife, Jamila, and the beautiful Halina, a later addition to the harem. The novel charts the rise of Saladin as Sultan of Egypt and Syria and follows him as he prepares, in alliance with his Jewish and Christian subjects, to take Jerusalem back from the Crusaders. This is a medieval story, but much of it will be uncannily familiar to those who follow events in contemporary Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad. Betrayed hopes, disillusioned soldiers and unrealistic alliances form the backdrop to The Book of Saladin.

Author : Tariq Ali
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 420 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2013-10-15
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781480448551

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The Stone Woman by Tariq Ali Pdf

DIVDIVThe story of a dying man and a waning empire/divDIVThe Stone Woman has stood on the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul for generations. The ancient pagan icon has become a confessor, allowing people to release their guilt without consequence. Close to the Stone Woman is the family home of Iskander Pasha, a distant descendant of an exiled Ottoman courtier. When the aged Iskander suffers a stroke, his family rushes to his side to hear his last stories./divDIV /divDIVAs the dying man revisits his life, a complex family drama emerges, tracing the labored final breaths of an empire in decline. Through the diverse Pasha clan, Tariq Ali reveals sexual intrigue, political unrest, and domestic tension simmering in the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. In the third book of his acclaimed Islam Quintet, Ali draws a nuanced and powerful portrait of the Muslim world./div /div

Author : Tariq Ali
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 402 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2013-10-15
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781480448537

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Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree by Tariq Ali Pdf

“Tariq Ali captures the humanity and splendor of Muslim Spain . . . real history as well as fiction . . . a book to be relished and devoured” (The Independent). The savagery of the Reconquest tore apart the world of the Banu Hudayl family. For the doomed Muslims of late-fifteenth-century Spain, the approaching forces of Christendom bring not peace but the sword. Capturing the brutality of a war both military and cultural—and the price paid by the innocent—Tariq Ali opens his Islam Quintet with a harrowing and profound historical fiction.

Author : Tariq Ali
Publisher : Verso Books
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2015-07-07
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781781689301

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A Sultan in Palermo by Tariq Ali Pdf

The fourth novel in Tariq Ali’s ‘Islam Quintet’ charts the life and loves of the medieval cartographer Muhammed al-Idrisi. Torn between his close friendship with the sultan and his friends who are leaving the island or plotting a resistance to Norman rule, Idrisi finds temporary solace in the harem; but his conscience is troubled... A Sultan in Palermo is a mythic novel in which pride, greed, and lust intermingle with resistance and greatness. It echoes a past that can still be heard today. Praise for the Islam Quintet: “A richly woven tapestry that even before its completion meritscomparison with Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo trilogy.” Kirkus Reviews

Author : Tariq Ali
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2013-10-15
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781480448575

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Night of the Golden Butterfly by Tariq Ali Pdf

DIVDIVThe Islam Quintet concludes with a powerful portrait of life and love/divDIVTariq Ali’s epic quintet, which began on the streets of medieval Granada, culminates in present day with Night of the Golden Butterfly. The story darts between the past and present of Dara, a Lahore-born writer who now lives in London. Dara is called back to his homeland by an old friend, the hot-tempered and mysterious Plato, who, at seventy-five, has finally fallen in love. Dara is to help Plato’s newfound inamorata to write a book about his friend’s life./divDIV /divDIVDara retraces not only Plato’s steps but also his own, meeting old friends across the world as they retread the paths of their lives. Night of the Golden Butterfly is a gorgeous and lyrical capstone that finds heart and humor in the passage of time, the practice of reconciliation, and the irresistible draw of home./div /div

Author : Tariq Ali
Publisher : Verso Books
Page : 611 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2020-05-05
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781789608533

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The Clash of Fundamentalisms by Tariq Ali Pdf

The aerial attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, a global spectacle of unprecedented dimensions, generated an enormous volume of commentary. The inviolability of the American mainland, breached for the first time since 1812, led to extravagant proclamations by the pundits. It was a new world-historical turning point. The 21st century, once greeted triumphantly as marking the dawn of a worldwide neo-liberal civilization, suddenly became menaced. The choice presented from the White House and its supporters was to stand shoulder-to-shoulder against terrorism or be damned. Tariq Ali challenges these assumptions, arguing instead that what we have experienced is the return of History in a horrific form, with religious symbols playing a part on both sides: 'Allah's revenge,' 'God is on Our Side' and 'God Bless America.' The visible violence of September 11 was the response to the invisible violence that has been inflicted on countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Palestine and Chechnya. Some of this has been the direct responsibility of the United States and Russia. In this wide-ranging book that provides an explanation for both the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and new forms of Western colonialism, Tariq Ali argues that many of the values proclaimed by the Enlightenment retain their relevance, while portrayals of the American Empire as a new emancipatory project are misguided.

Author : Tariq Ali
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:718263650

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Islam Quintet by Tariq Ali Pdf

Author : Tariq Ali
Publisher : Verso Books
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2021-11-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781839768170

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The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan by Tariq Ali Pdf

The occupation of Afghanistan is over, and a balance sheet can be drawn. These essays on war and peace in the region reveal Tariq Ali at his sharpest and most prescient. Rarely has there been such an enthusiastic display of international unity as that which greeted the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Compared to Iraq, Afghanistan became the “good war.” But a stalemate ensued, and the Taliban waited out the NATO contingents. Today, with the collapse of the puppet regime in Kabul, what does the future hold for a traumatised Afghan people? Will China become the dominant influence in the country? Tariq Ali has been following the wars in Afghanistan for forty years. He opposed Soviet military interven- tion in 1979, predicting disaster. He was also a fierce critic of its NATO sequel, Operation Enduring Freedom. In a series of trenchant commentaries, he has described the tragedies inflicted on Afghanistan, as well as the semi-Talibanisation and militarisation of neighbouring Pakistan. Most of his predictions have proved accurate. The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle Foretold brings together the best of his writings and includes a new introduction.

Author : Arundhati Roy,Pankaj Mishra,Hilal Bhatt,Angana P. Chatterji,Tariq Ali
Publisher : Verso Books
Page : 156 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2011-10-24
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781844677351

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Kashmir by Arundhati Roy,Pankaj Mishra,Hilal Bhatt,Angana P. Chatterji,Tariq Ali Pdf

Kashmir is one of the most protracted and bloody occupations in the world—and one of the most ignored. Under an Indian military rule that, at half a million strong, exceeds the total number of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, freedom of speech is non-existent, and human- rights abuses and atrocities are routinely visited on its Muslim-majority population. In the last two decades alone, over seventy thousand people have died. Ignored by its own corrupt politicians, abandoned by Pakistan and the West, which refuses to bring pressure to bear on its regional ally, India, the Kashmiri people’s ongoing quest for justice and self- determination continues to be brutally suppressed. Exploring the causes and consequences of the occupation, Kashmir: The Case for Freedom is a passionate call for the end of occupation, and for the right of self- determination for the Kashmiri people.

Author : ʻAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf
Publisher : Jonathan Cape
Page : 650 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 1988
Category : Arabic fiction
ISBN : UOM:39015066016703

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Cities of Salt by ʻAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf Pdf

Spell-binding evocation of Bedouin life in the 1930s when oil is discovered by Americans in an unnamed Persian Gulf kingdom.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:649071837

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Islam Quintet by Anonim Pdf

Author : Tariq Ali
Publisher : Verso
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2015-07-07
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 178168006X

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Night of the Golden Butterfly by Tariq Ali Pdf

Night of the Golden Butterfly concludes the Islam Quintet—Tariq Ali’s much lauded series of historical novels, translated into more than a dozen languages, that has been twenty years in the writing. Completing an epic panorama that began in fifteenth-century Moorish Spain, the latest novel moves between the cities of the twenty-first century, from Lahore to London, from Paris to Beijing. The narrator is rung one morning and reminded that he owes a debt of honour. The creditor is Mohammed Aflatun—known as Plato—an irascible but gifted painter living in a Pakistan where “human dignity has become a wreckage.” Plato, who once specialized in stepping back from the limelight, now wants his life story written. As the tale unravels we meet Plato’s London friend Alice Stepford, now a leading music critic in New York; Mrs. “Naughty” Latif, the Islamabad housewife whose fondness for generals leads to her flight to the salons of intellectually fashionable Paris, where she is hailed as the Diderot of the Islamic world; and there’s Jindie, the Golden Butterfly of the title, the narrator’s first love. Interwoven with this chronicle of contemporary life is the turbulent history of Jindie’s family. Her great forebear, Dù Wénxiù, led a Muslim rebellion in Yunnan in the nineteenth century and ruled the region from his capital Dali for almost a decade, as Sultan Suleiman. Night of the Golden Butterfly reveals Ali in full flight, at once imaginative and intelligent, satirical and stimulating.

Author : Tariq Ali
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2006-01-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 8170462983

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Sultan In Palermo: by Tariq Ali Pdf

The fourth novel in Tariq Ali s Islam Quintet is set in Palermo, a Muslim city rivaling Baghdad and Cordoba in size and splendour. The year is 1153. The Normans are ruling Siqqiliya, but Arab culture and language dominate the island and the court. Sultan Rujari (King Roger) surrounds himself with Muslim intellectuals, several concubines, and an administration presided over by gifted eunuchs. The bishops, expecting to be at the pinnacle of power, are angered by the decadence of the court. In this captivating novel, Tariq Ali charts the life and loves of the medieval cartographer Muhammed al-Idrisi. Torn between his close friendship with the sultan and his friends who are leaving the island or plotting a resistance to Norman rule, Idrisi finds temporary solace in the harem; but, confronted by the common people of Noto and Catania, his conscience is troubled.

Author : Neil Murphy,Wai-chew Sim
Publisher : Cambria Press
Page : 438 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : History
ISBN : 9781604975413

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British Asian Fiction by Neil Murphy,Wai-chew Sim Pdf

In this outstanding collection of essays, editors Neil Murphy and Wai-chew Sim seek not so much to demarcate the field of British Asian fiction, but to offer due acknowledgment of the artistic merit of the works of selected authors and simultaneously register their cultural significance. This volume demonstrates in situ the virtues of commentary that engages in a substantial manner with formal and aesthetic considerations, even as it implicates the discourses of alterity that dominate contemporary cultural criticism. Additionally, the essays delineate the complex subject positions explored by authors and texts, and focus on the way writers negotiate the exigencies of their location within and between different social formations. If it is the case that British literature can no longer be discussed in monocultural terms because of the impact of the writers under consideration, it is also the case that the diverse trans-cultural positions they explore are often less specified than proclaimed. Addressing difference, commensurability, and form-related notions of "truth-content," these essays enlarge our understanding of the range of British (and affiliated) identities, as well as the cultural contexts from which they arose. Working as academics and critics from Singapore, a useful vantage point, Murphy and Sim have extended the parameters of "British Asian" to include, not just writers from South Asia as is traditionally the case, but writers whose parents, or who themselves, have migrated to Britain from other regions of Asia, for example, Japan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. This initiative has made it possible for professors Murphy and Sim to bring together, first, an interestingly varied group of authors, among them those who came to prominence in the 1980s--Salman Rushdie, Timothy Mo, Kazuo Ishiguro---as well as their younger contemporaries--Meera Syal, Romesh Gunesekera, Monica Ali, Hari Kunzru, Ooi Yang-May; and, second, a broad and diverse range of novels that span Timothy Mo's Sour Sweet (1982) and Tariq Ali's A Sultan in Palermo (2005), the fourth volume in his Islam quintet.