Jabra Ibrahim Jabra was a sophisticated writer whose works include novels, short stories, essays, poetry, literary and art criticism, and Arabic translations of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets as well as over thirty Western literary classics. Jabra died in Baghdad on December 12, 1994.
Issa J. Boullata is a professor of Arabic Literature and Language at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Born in Jerusalem in 1929, he is a United States citizen, educated at the University of London, receipient of numerous awards and recognitions, and author of several books in both Arabic and English.
With a Proustian attention to details, Jabra, a prominent Arabic author who died in Iraq in 1994, recaptures his youth in British-mandated Bethlehem and Jerusalem, where he attended Greek Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, and ``National'' schools. With humor and tenderness, Jabra recalls the old caravansary or khan where he lived, with the church upstairs and ``the scent of incense'' which ``had the kindness to come down to us''; the shock of going to school at five with ``fifty boys of different ages,'' some of whom wore ``large boots left to their parents by the Ottoman army''; and acquiring a love for the Arabic language and stories, whose ``words glowed in my mind; they glittered like gold and sparkled like jewels. I imagined myself walking on colored silk carpets spread over the waves of a wondrous sea of dreams.'' There are a lot of firsts here: first fights with school playmates, first school indoctrinations about serving ``the idea of Arabism'' and ``the Arabism of Palestine.'' In the end, however, readers may find Jabra's book too self-absorbed and superficial in its treatment of the politics of the times. Other readers will be offended by Jabra's casual, uncritical reference to Jewish ritual murder: ``Our mothers continually warned against those Jews, saying they kidnapped children in Jewish festivals, in order to slay them and mix their blood in the dough of unleavened bread.'' (Nov.)
Episodic and plainly narrated, this memoir of 1920s Bethlehem and Jerusalem draws the American reader into the ordinariness of an exotic world and the universal enchantments and disenchantments of childhood. Young Jabra is a middle child of a poor, spirited Christian family who move frequently as he fills the "first well" of childhood with play, mischief, a blossoming love of learning, and a hint of adult sorrow. He lives among memorable teachers and neighbors, including the crippled teenager Naoom, devotee of games and sideshows, and admired visitor Miquel, who shocks the neighborhood with sudden violence. Most affecting is Jabra's father, ailing from Parkinson's disease yet tenacious and devoted enough to chase a runaway tire, dropped by his son, down an impressively long valley. Jabra, who died in 1994, wrote extensively in various literary genres and criticism; portions of his work have been translated into English. A suitable purchase wherever there is an interest in Arabic life and literature.‘Janet Ingraham, Worthington P.L., Ohio
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