Here are posts labelled "Middle East" on The Guide
Just the Facts:
- Name: Constantine Peter Cavafy
- Known as: C. P. Cavafy
- Birth: April 29, 1863, Alexandria, Egypt
- Death: April 29, 1933, Alexandria, Egypt
- Language: Greek
- Who he was: Egyptian Greek poet and journalist best known for Ithaca
- Included in lists (What's This?): Bloom
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: Nicomachus of Gerasa
- Dates: 60-120
- Place: Born Jerash, Jordan (then the Roman Province of Syria); place of death unknown
- Language: Greek
- Who he was: Syrian-born Greek mathematician who wrote Introduction to Arithmetic and Manual of Harmonics, both in Greek. As a Neopythagorean, he also wrote about the mystical properties of numbers.
- Included in lists (What's This?): GBWW (+10YP)
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: Paul Bowles
- Birth: December 30, 1910, Jamaica, Queens, New York City, USA
- Death: November 18, 1999, Tangier, Morocco
- Language: English
- Who he was: American author; The Sheltering Sky; The Delicate Prey and Other Stories
- Included in lists (What's This?): Bloom
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: Albert Camus
- Birth: November 7, 1913, Dréan, Algeria
- Death: January 4, 1960, Villeblevin, France
- Language: French
- Who he was: French philosopher, author, and journalist; The Stranger; The Plague; The Myth of Sisyphus; Nobel Prize in Literature, (1957)
- Included in lists (What's This?): LRP; Bloom; GC
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
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| Dede ("Grandfather") Korkut, the narrator |
Just the Facts:
- Name: Kitab-i Dede Korkut
- Known as: The Book of Dede Korkut
- Dates: 15th century
- Place: Central Asia (?)
- Language: Oghuz Turkish
- What it is: collection of Turkmen epics
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: Muhammad bin Suleyman
- Known as: Fuzuli
- Dates: c. 1494-1556
- Place: Karbala, Iraq
- Language: Azerbaijani, Persian, and Arabic
- Who he was: Turkmen (Azerbaijani) poet and philosopher; Layla and Mejnun
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: George Ivanovich Gurdjieff
- Known as: G. I. Gurdjieff
- Birth: January 13, 1866, Gyumri, Armenia
- Death: October 29, 1949, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
- Language: Armenian, Greek, Russian, Turkish, English (?)
- Who he was: Armenian philosopher and mystic; Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson ; Meetings with Remarkable Men; Life is Real Only Then, When 'I Am'
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
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| ...bored by beauty? |
Just the Facts:
- Name: Khwaja Shams-ud-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi
- Known as: Hafez (or Hafiz) of Shiraz
- Dates: c. 1325-c. 1390
- Place: Shiraz, Iran
- Language: Persian
- Who he was: Persian poet known for his ghazals (lyric poems)
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
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| sculpture by Patrick Morelli |
Just the Facts:
- Name: Abū Zayd 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun al-Hadram
- Known as: Ibn Khaldun
- Birth: May 27, 1332, Tunis, Tunisia
- Death: March 19, 1406, Cairo, Egypt
- Language: Arabic
- Who he was: North African Muslim historian; Muqaddimah (part I of a history of the world, Kitāb al-'Ibar)
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: Nasreddin Hodja
- Known by multiple names across many cultures
- Dates: died c. 1280
- Place: Turkey
- Language: Turkish (?)
- Who he was: Turkish Muslim holy man and funny man, subject of thousands of stories
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: Yunus Emre
- Dates: 1238-1320
- Place: Turkey
- Language: Turkish
- Who he was: Turkish poet and Sufi mystic; mystical poetry
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhī
- Known as: Rumi (also Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī)
- Birth: September 30, 1207, either in Wakhsh, Balkh, Tajikistan, or Balkh, Afghanistan
- Death: December 17, 1273, Konya, Turkey
- Language: Persian
- Who he was: Persian poet and mystic who wrote Masnavi (Rhyming Couplets of Profound Spiritual Meaning); Diwan-e Kabir (also called Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, or The Works of Shams Tabrizi) ; Fihi Ma Fihi (It Is What It Is)
- Included in lists (What's This?): GC
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
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| from a Mughal manuscript of Gulistan, c. 1645 |
Just the Facts:
- Name: Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī
- Known as: Saadi Shirazi, or Saadi of Shiraz
- Birth: Unknown Date, 1210, Shiraz, Iran
- Death: December 9, 1291, Shiraz, Iran
- Language: Persian
- Who he was: Persian poet; Bustan (The Orchard); Gulistan (The Rose Garden)
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
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Averroes, detail of Raphael's fresco The School of Athens |
Just the Facts:
- Name: Ibn Rushd
- Known as: Averroes
- Birth: April 14, 1126, Córdoba, Spain
- Death: December 10, 1198, Marrakesh, Morocco
- Language: Arabic
- Who he was: Andalusian polymath; Tahafut al-tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence); Kitab fasl al-maqal (The Harmony of Religion and Philosophy)
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: Moshe ben Maimon
- Known as: Maimonides
- Birth: Unknown Date, 1135, Córdoba, Spain
- Death: December 13, 1204, Fustat, Egypt
- Language: Judeo-Arabic
- Who he was: medieval Jewish philosopher; The Guide for the Perplexed; "Oath of Maimonides"
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī
- Known as: Nizami Ganjavi
- Birth: Unknown Date, 1141, Ganja, Azerbaijan
- Death: March 12, 1209, Ganja, Azerbaijan
- Language: Persian
- Who he was: Persian Muslim poet; Panj Ganj (The Five Jewels) or Khamsa, five long narrative poems
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī
- Known as: Al-Ghazali
- Birth: Unknown Date, 1058, Tous, Iran
- Death: December 19, 1111, Tous, Iran
- Language: Persian
- Who he was: Persian mystic and philosopher; Tahafut al-Falasifa (Incoherence of the Philosophers); Kimiya-yi Sa'adat (Alchemy of Happiness); Munqidh min al-dalal (Deliverance from Error--autobiography); Ihya' Ulum al-Din or Ihya'u Ulumiddin (The Revival of Religious Sciences)
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
Just the Facts:
- Name: Ghiyāth ad-Dīn Abu'l-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Khayyām Nīshāpūrī
- Known as: Omar Khayyam
- Birth: May 18, 1048, Nishapur, Iran
- Death: December 4, 1131, Nishapur, Iran
- Language: Persian
- Who he was: Persian poet and scientist; The Rubaiyat (Quatrains)
- Included in lists (What's This?): LRP
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
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illustration by Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti from a 1237 manuscript of the 7th Maqāma of Al-Hariri |
Just the Facts:
- Name: Abū Muhammad al-Qāsim ibn Alī ibn Muhammad ibn Uthmān al-Harīrī
- Known as: Al-Hariri of Basra
- Birth: Unknown Date, 1054, Basra, Iraq
- Death: September 10, 1122, Basra, Iraq
- Language: Arabic
- Who he was: Arab poet and scholar; Maqamat al-Hariri (The Assemblies of al-Hariri)
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!
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Scheherazade and the Sultan
by Ferdinand Keller |
Just the Facts:
- Name: One Thousand and One Nights
- Dates: 12th century
- Place: India? The Middle East?
- Language: Arabic, then French, then English; but perhaps many other languages before Arabic
- What it is: story collection that may have started in India, then traveled through Persia into Arabic-speaking lands. It has taken many forms, throughout centuries, but this date is as good as any. The frame story is of the woman Scheherazade using "cliff-hangers" to keep the Sultan at bay for just one more night...
- Included in lists (What's This?): LRP; HC; Bloom; GC
Let's consider this a placeholder as I build out the site.
Once that's done, I'll be back to fill in the details--an essay,
links to online and Amazon books, and more. I'll be posting
updates on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along!
Until I get to it, there's always Wikipedia!