A book of adab, a term understood in modern times to specifically mean literature but in earlier times its meaning included all that a well-informed person had to know in order to pass in society as a cultured and refined individual.

An English translation of "Al-Iqd al-Farid", which is one of the classics of Arabic literature. Compiled in several volumes by an Andalusian scholar and poet named Ibn Abd Rabbih (246-328 H/860-940 CE), it is a mine of information about various elements of Arab culture and letters during the four centuries before his death.

An English translation of "Al-Iqd al-Farid", which is one of the classics of Arabic literature. Compiled in several volumes by an Andalusian scholar and poet named Ibn Abd Rabbih (246-328 H/860-940 CE), it is a mine of information about various elements of Arab culture and letters during the four centuries before his death.

This book focuses on contemporary Arab thought during the past twenty years, especially since the 1967 Arab defeat in the Six Day War. Well-known Arab writers are studied, and their unprecedented and anguished exercise of self-examination and self-criticism is explored. A number of Arab thinkers are presented for the first time in English. Here is an account of some of the most recent intellectual trends in the Arab world. As the writers grapple with the Arab desire for social change, with ideas of freedom and equality and social justice, and with the problem of accommodating Arab culture to modern times, their will to preserve their national identity is displayed. The role played by Islam in the current Arab discourse is analyzed as Arab intellectuals creatively interpret their present predicament in order to make it meaningful in the present day. Arab thought is seen here to be in crisis as it reflects this reality and questions the legitimacy of Arab political regimes. Much of the present turmoil in the Arab world can be better understood in light of this insightful treatment of contemporary Arab thinkers because it shows how the Arabs themselves feel, what they think about their own contemporary life, and how they envision their future.

To protect her daughter from the fast life and bad influences of London, her mother sent her to school in rural Ghana. The move was for the girl’s own good, in her mother’s mind, but for the daughter, the reality of being the new girl, the foreigner-among-your-own-people, was even worse than the idea. During her time at school, she would learn that Ghana was much more complicated than her fellow ex-pats had ever told her, including how much a London-raised child takes something like water for granted. In Ghana, water “became a symbol of who had and who didn’t, who believed in God and who didn’t. If you didn’t have water to bathe, you were poor because no one had sent you some.” After six years in Ghana, her mother summons her home to London to meet the new man in her mother’s life—and his daughter. The reunion is bittersweet and short-lived as her parents decide it’s time that she get to know her father. So once again, she’s sent off, this time to live with her father, his new wife, and their young children in New York—but not before a family trip to Disney World.

A mother shares with her daughter stories of the generations of women in their family as each individual has passed along the tales and a glittering necklace to her own daughter. Includes notes on the author's exploration of her ancestry.