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In an old mansion in Cennethisar, a former fishing village near Istanbul, an old widow Fatma awaits the annual summer visit of her grandchildren. She has lived in the village for decades, ever since her husband, an idealistic young doctor, first arrived to serve the poor fishermen. Now mostly bedridden, she is attended by her faithful servant Recep, a dwarf and the doctor's illegitimate son. Under the creeping shadow of right-wing nationalism and political revolution, they share memories, and grievances, of the early years, before their home became a high-class resort. Her visiting grandchildren are Faruk, a dissipated failed historian; his sensitive leftist sister, Nilgun, has yet to discov...
The book describes the confusing, contradictory and individualized musicscape in Turkey around the turn of the twenty-first century, including its prehistory throughout the twentieth century and sometimes beyond. Its focus lies on the recent tendency towards a disintegration of musical traditions into internationalism and multiple musical hybrids which might be described as a process of individualization. The category of individual as used here includes individual musicians, individual music pieces, individual life experiences, identities and approaches to music, individual musical projects, individual CDs and concerts, even individual concepts of music theory, conferences or research projec...
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER *One of the BBC's '100 Novels that Shaped the World'* "Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough . . ." Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella's life - an emptiness once filled by love. So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, her world is turned upside down. She embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work. It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into an exotic world where faith and love are heartbreakingly explored. . . 'Enlightening, enthralling. An affecting paean to faith and love' Metro 'Colourfully woven and beguilingly intelligent' Daily Telegraph 'The past and present fit together beautifully in a passionate defence of passion itself' The Times
The tales in this book were told to the renowned author and academic Aziza Jafarzade by her mother "Grandmother Boyukhanim" when she was a child in Azerbaijan in the first half of the last century. In later life she faithfully wrote them down and preserved them for posterity in the collection "My Mother's Tales" published in Baku in 1982. They are a joy to read. Influenced by fairy tales and folklore they are rich in mysticism, metaphor, allegory and magic. With dragons and serpents, speaking animals, flying horses and other strange creatures, every story has a strong moral element to it. Good usually triumphs over evil, but not always, for - like all good fairy tales - there is a dark side to them. All aspects of human life are addressed with consummate skill and these stories will appeal to both children and adults alike. This universal appeal and timelessness is best summed up by Professor Maharramova: "She used the language of the marvellous to mirror the hopes and fears of our own world".
Presenting a critical, yet innovative, perspective on the cultural interactions between the "East" and the "West", this book questions the role of travel in the production of knowledge and in the construction of the idea of the "Islamic city". This volume brings together authors from various disciplines, questioning the role of Western travel writing in the production of knowledge about the East, particularly focusing on the cities of the Muslim world. Instead of concentrating on a specific era, chapters span the Medieval and Modern eras in order to present the transformation of both the idea of the "Islamic city" and also the act of traveling and travel writing. Missions to the East, whethe...