Tag Archives: Literature
A Review of A Sultan in Palermo
- Thursday, 01 December 2005 11:26
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A Sultan in Palermo reviewed by Sara Powell for The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2005.
READING any work by Tariq Ali is a treat, be it politics or fiction. Ali’s readers know that his deep knowledge of history isn’t limited to the Middle East and Europe, but extends to South Asia and the Americas as well, with forays into the rest of the world. A favorite subject—and clearly a crucial one in today’s world—is the convergence of the Christian and Islamic worlds.
In the first three novels of Ali’s “Islam Quintet,” the Muslim and Christian religions cross paths in the fall of Al Andalus/Reconquista Spain (Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree), in the Crusades (The Book of Saladin) and in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire (The Stone Woman). In A Sultan of Palermo, the long-awaited fourth volume, Ali revisits the medieval era, this time in Sicily—and during a less well-known period of tension between Islam and Christianity. Ali’s subtlety in introducing readers—who may just want to enjoy a good read—both to little known aspects of Islamic culture (at least to his U.S. audiences) and to various historic clashes of Christian and Islamic fundamentalisms, provide a context in which to view the current political situation. Nor does Ali resort to didacticism, instead treating his readers to tales of love and death, power and suspense, human frailty and great courage. read more
‘Mystic River’
- Sunday, 13 November 2005 16:09
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‘Mystic River’, a review by Tariq Ali of Amartya Sen’s The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity for The Nation, November 17, 2005
The sage of Bengal has pronounced. Pluralism, we are informed, has an ancient pedigree in Indian history. It is embedded in the oldest known texts of Hinduism and, like a river, has flowed through Indian history (including the Mughal period, when the country was under Muslim rule) till the arrival of the British in the eighteenth century. It is this cultural heritage, ignored and misinterpreted by colonialists and religious fanatics alike, that shapes Indian culture and goes a long way toward explaining the attachment of all social classes to modern democracy. The argumentative tradition “has helped to make heterodoxy the natural state of affairs in India,” exerting a profound influence on the country’s politics, democracy and “the emergence of its secular priorities.” This view informs most of the thought-provoking essays in Amartya Sen’s new book, a set of reflections on India written in a very different register from his other books on moral philosophy and poverty. It is designed not so much for the academy but as a public intervention in the country of his birth, to which he remains firmly attached despite the Nobel Prize and his latest posting at Harvard as a Boston Brahman. read more
A Sultan in Palermo - Islam Quintet IV
- Saturday, 01 January 2005 22:02
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Published by Verso, 2005
The fourth and penultimate novel in Tariq Ali’s celebrated Islam Quintet
A Sultan in Palermo is set in medieval Palermo, a Muslim city rivaling Baghdad and Cordoba in size and splendor. 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. A Sultan in Palermo is a mythic novel in which pride, greed, and lust intermingle with resistance and greatness. Though set in the past, it has haunting resonance today.
Buy from Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
Reviews: The Guardian, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
Socialism Today reviews The Clash of Fundamentalisms
- Monday, 01 September 2003 11:53
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The Clash of Fundamentalisms reviewed by Jim Horton for Socialism Today, September 2003.
TARIQ ALI’S Clash of Fundamentalisms, recently re-published in paperback, is a welcome contribution to the post 9/11 debates taking place on left.
Tariq Ali has been prominent in the anti-war movement and his book gives vent to his anti-imperialism. Targeting particularly “the most dangerous ‘fundamentalism’ today – the ‘mother of all fundamentalisms’,” US imperialism, Tariq explains how it has used the tragedy of 9/11 to pursue a traditional far-right Republican agenda.
Written before the recent bloody assault on Iraq, Tariq’s book attacks Bush and Blair’s justifications for the war; and, anticipating current arguments over weapons off mass destruction, Tariq mockingly declares that all “the talk of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ consists of fairy tales designed to frighten the children/citizens at home”. read more
‘On the Death of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’
‘On the Death of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’ by Tariq Ali for Counterpunch, May 2, 2006
The death of the writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who died in Jakarta on April 30, is an enormous loss to world literature. He was a leading intellectual of the Indonesian left and a brilliant writer of fiction, always in pursuit of a time that never came. Sometimes he would think he had glimpsed the future and this immediately became magnified and was reflected in his fiction. His passion for radical politics was never hidden. Author of the ‘Buru Quartet’, he spent 15 years in prison—first under the Dutch, then under Suharto.
In “Diajang menjerah”, “She Who Gave Up”, a short story published in a 1952 collection (Tjerita dari Blora, “Stories from Blora”), he wrote:
Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, once contained the largest Communist Party outside the actual world of Communism. read more