Two Thousand and One Syrian Nights
Samir Twair
Pat McDonnell Twair
2018, 978-172-907957-7, $20.90 pb.
Pat McDonnell was a journalist, archeologist, activist and native of California who, not long after arriving in Syria in 1977 for doctoral research, fractured her ankle at an archeological site. The mishap led her to her future husband, Samir Twair, and she went on to live in Syria through 1983 and publish some 1,800 stories—quite possibly as the only self-employed American in the entire country. She passed away in January 2018, and this is a posthumous collection of her writings from those years—from falling in love and getting to know her husband’s family to the epochal history of Syria, modern social life, relationships, women, artists and politics. It is a story of two people from two cultures meeting where East and West have met for centuries, a story that, in her case, has a happy ending.
You may also be interested in...
Umayyad Family Dynasty Creates Unprecedented Empire
Explore the development and history of the Umayyad Caliphate, one of the most consequential empires the world has ever known.
In the Aftermath of Rome's Collapse, These Communities Shaped the Mediterranean
Three regions of the post-Roman Mediterranean, from 400 CE to 1000 CE—the Latin West, Byzantium and the early Islamic world—are the focus of this work.
Noorjahan Bose: A Life of Learning
Taking inspiration from her now-deceased mother, Noorjahan Bose, a daughter of the Agunmukha, Bangladesh, now shifts her energy toward empowering other daughters.