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Amin Maalouf

Amin Maalouf Books

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Leo Africanus

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Samarkand

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Ports of call

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Leo The African

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“« Plus personne ne pouvait dire "Allahou akbar" sur le sol de l’Andalousie, cette terre où, pendant huit siècles, la voix du muezzin avait appelé les fidèles à la prière. Plus personne ne pouvait réciter la Fatiha sur la dépouille de son père. Du moins en public, car ces musulmans convertis par la force refusaient de renier leur foi. »”

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Book:Leo The African
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“People often see themselves in terms of whichever one of their allegiances is most under attack. And sometimes, when a person doesn't have the strength to defend that allegiance, he hides it. Then it remains buried deep down in the dark, awaiting its revenge. But whether he accepts or conceals it, proclaims it discreetly or flaunts it, it is with that allegiance that the person concerned identifies. And then, whether it relates to colour, religion, language or class, it invades the person's whole identity. Other people who share the same allegiance sympathise; they all gather together, join forces, encourage one another, challenge "the other side," For them, "asserting their identity" inevitably becomes an act of liberation.”

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Book:الهويات القاتلة
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“Quand je suis arrivé dans ce pays, je ne parvenais pas à comprendre que de grands messieurs barbus sanglotent et s'affligent pour un meurtre commis il y a mille deux cents ans. Maintenant, j'ai compris. Si les Persans vivent dans le passé, c'est parce que le passé est leur patrie, parce que le présent leur est une contrée étrangère où rien ne leur appartient. Tout ce qui est pour nous est symbole de vie moderne, d'expansion libératrice de l'homme, est pour eux symbole de domination étrangère : les routes, c'est la Russie ; le rail, le télégraphe, la banque, c'est l'Angleterre ; la poste, c'est l'Autriche-Hongrie...”

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Book:Samarkand
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“Pour l'envahisseur, apprendre la langue du peuple conquis est une habileté; pour ce dernier, apprendre la langue du conquérant est une compromission, voire une trahison. De fait, les Franj ont été nombreux à apprendre l'arabe alors que les habitants du pays, à l'exception de quelques chrétiens, sont demeurés imperméables aux langues des Occidentaux.”

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Book:Les croisades vues par les Arabes
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“Me irritan muchísimo quienes nos preguntan, con mirada fingidamente horrorizada: "¿No me estará usted juzgando?". Pues sí, claro que lo juzgo, lo juzgo continuamente. (...) Concedo mi estima, o la retiro, dosifico mi amabilidad, dejo en suspenso mi amistad a la espera de pruebas complementarias, me distancio, me acerco, me aparto, concedo un aplazamiento, hago borrón y cuenta nueva, o finjo que lo hago. La mayoría de los interesados ni se dan cuenta. No comunico las sentencias, no doy lecciones, la observación del mundo no tiene en mí más consecuencia que un diálogo interior, un diálogo interminable conmigo mismo".”

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Author:Amin Maalouf
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“Mosul, the native city of the historian Ibn al-Athir, was the capital of Jazira, or Mesopotamia, the fertile plain watered by the two great rivers Tigris and Euphrates. It was a political, cultural, and economic centre of prime importance. The Arabs boasted of its succulent fruit: its apples, pears, grapes, and pomegranates. The fine cloth it exported - called 'muslin', a word derived from the city's name - was known throughout the world. At the time of the arrival of the Franj, the people of the emir Karbuqa's realm were already exploiting another natural resource, which the traveller Ibn Jubayr was to describe with amazement a few dozen years later: deposits of naphtha. This precious dark liquid, which would one day make the fortune of this part of the world, already offered travellers an unforgettable spectacle.”

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Book:The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
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“Kansan sisin on sen kirjallisuudessa. Siinä se paljastaa intohimonsa, toiveensa, haaveensa, turhaumansa, uskomuksensa, maailmankatsomuksensa ja näkemyksensä itsestä ja muista, myös meistä itsestämme.”

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Book:Le Dérèglement du monde (Le Livre de Poche) (French Edition) [Mass Market Paperback] [2010] (Author) Amin Maalouf
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“Nothing is born of nothing, least of all knowledge, modernity, or enlightened thought; progress is made in tiny surges, in successive laps, like an endless relay race. But there are links without which nothing would be passed on, and for that reason, they deserve the gratitude of all who benefited from them.”

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Book:Origins: A Memoir
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“What makes me myself rather than anyone else is the very fact that I am poised between two countries, two or three languages, and several cultural traditions. It is precisely this that defines my identity. Would I exist more authentically if I cut off a part of myself”

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Book:In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong
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“People sometimes imagine that just because they have access to so many newspapers, radio and TV channels, they will get an infinity of different opinions. Then they discover that things are just the opposite: the power of these loudspeakers only amplifies the opinion prevalent at a certain time, to the point where it covers any other opinion.”

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Author:Amin Maalouf
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“Taking the line of least resistance, we lump the most different people together under the same heading. Taking the line of least resistance, we ascribe to them collective crimes, collective acts and opinions. "The Serbs have massacred…", "The English have devastated…", "The Jews have confiscated…", "The Blacks have torched", "The Arabs refuse…". We blithely express sweeping judgments on whole peoples, calling them "hardworking" and "ingenious", or "lazy", "touchy", "sly", "proud", or "obstinate". And sometimes this ends in bloodshed." – Amin Maalouf "On Identity”

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Author:Amin Maalouf
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“let us thank God for having made us this gift of death, so that life is to have meaning; of night, that day is to have meaning; silence, that speech is to have meaning; illness, that health is to have meaning; war, that peace is to have meaning. Let us give thanks to Him for having given us weariness and pain, so that rest and joy are to have meaning. Let us give thanks to him, whose wisdom is infinite.”

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Book:Leo Africanus
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