Daughter of Damascus: A Memoir (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.26 (662 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0292781261 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 200 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-05-19 |
| Language | : | Arabic |
DESCRIPTION:
Eloquent author, excellent translator. Wonderful translation. A descriptive and eloquent remembrance of this amazing city. The forward is very informative, but Tergeman's voice is kept.I've read a number of authors who write about the city during this time frame. She reiterates (in the best way) so much of what they remember, but she adds so much more to her account. Each story, each character, each life is unique, even with shared history.I am overjoyed I bought this book.
And, through the words of her father, she describes the difficult period when Syrians were involved in the Balkans War and World War I. Siham Tergeman wrote this book to preserve the details of a "genuine Arab past" for Syrian young people. The introduction by anthropologist Andrea Rugh portrays Syrian social life for Western readers and points out some of the nuances that might escape the attention of those unacquainted with Arab culture.. General readers will find a charming story, while scholars can find source material for university courses in anthropology, sociology, family and women's studies, and Middle Eastern area studies. Daughter of Damascus presents a personal account of a Syrian woman's youth in the Suq Saruja ("old city") quarter of Damascus in the 1940s. All this wealth of ethnographic detail is set in real-life vignettes that make the book lively and entertaining reading.Little has been published about modern Syrian social life. In this English translation of an Arabic memoir originally published in Syria in 1978, Tergeman appeals to a wide audience. In it, she relates the customs pertaining to marriage, birth, circumcision, and death. She includes the well
. Author Tergeman wrote the original memoir, Ya Mal al-Sham, in Arabic to preserve the details of a genuine Arab past for Syrian young people and to help them appreciate the architecture of the old quarter with its reminders of earlier values. From the Back Cover This book presents a personal account of a Syrian woman's youth in the Suq Saruja (old city) of Damascus in the first half of this century