New Middle East-Centered Story Books and Histories for Schools and Holiday Gift-Giving

By Betsy Barlow

Only 10 or 15 years ago history books or stories set in the Middle East designed for elementary, middle- or high school students were rare indeed. Now many new books have appeared. The remaining problem is to tell teachers and school librarians about these new resources so that they will be available for students. Parents could help by suggesting these books, and providing their sources.

One of the best collections is offered by AMIDEAST, which makes available well-illustrated books in English from several overseas publishers.

Suleiman the Magnificent and the Story of Istanbul by Julia Marshall is an addition to the “Treasures from the East” series. In its 47 pages Suleiman tells the story of his life to De Busbeq, the ambassador of Ferdinand I of Hungary.

The book’s illustrator is Joan Ullathorne, who also provided art work for Ibn Tulun: The Story of a Mosque, published recently. The story of Suleiman covers cultural advances, as well as the murders, for dynastic reasons, of Suleiman’s sons Muhammad and Bayazid.

The Last Quest of Gilgamesh, told and illustrated by Ludmilla Zeman, is the fourth and last book of this series retelling one of the world’s oldest tales. This rendition is suitable for elementary or lower middle students. The theme is how immortality is pursued and achieved.

The Silk Route: 7,000 Miles of History is an excellent geography book for the middle school level. Written by John S. Major and illustrated by Stephen Fieser, it describes a trip around 700 A.D. (during the Tang dynasty) from Chang’an through Dunhuang, Kashgar, Tashkent, Baghdad, Damascus, Tyre and finally to Byzantium. Life in each city is briefly described in words and pictures, as are the goods traded in each place.

Hannibal: The Challenge of Carthage, published in English in Tunisia, gives a more sympathetic portrait of Hannibal than one is accustomed to in the West. Although well-illustrated, it is harder to read, and is perhaps better suited to 9th and 10th graders.

The Lives of the Prophets, by Leila Azzam, has separate chapters for Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Job, Jonah, Zakariah, Jesus and Muhammad. It is an excellent present for young Muslim students from 8th or 9th grade up.

Another excellent book for gift-giving is Naomi Shihab Nye’s collection of poems and paintings from the Middle East, The Space Between our Footsteps. The editor has selected some of the best Arab, Hebrew, Turkish and Persian poets suitable for middle school and above (older readers will see and understand more in the poetry). The translations are felicitous and the illustrations engaging.

Young adult readers may enjoy novels set in the Middle East. Elsa Marston’s The Cliffsof Cairo is a suspenseful adventure story of a young teenager’s exploration of Cairo as she is beset by ruthless international art smugglers.

Marston also has written Free as the Desert Wind, excellent for middle school children, which takes place in a camel drive from northern Sudan to Egypt.

Frances Temple’s The Beduins’ Gazelle, set in the early 14th century, is an award-winning love story that may trigger interest in Middle Eastern history.

All of these books are available from AMIDEAST, 1730 M St. NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20036; phone (202) 776-9600; fax (202) 822-6563. Ask for their catalog, and enjoy seeing how much is now available for elementary, middle and high school students! Some of the same titles, and many others, also are available at discount prices from the AET Book Club catalog starting on p. 125 in this issue of the Washington Report, or on the Book Club Web site on the Internet <www.middleeastbooks.com>.

Conferences

An Arab Writers’ Conference, held in Chicago Oct. 8-10, allowed 145 participants to share their work. The M.T. Mehdi Courage in Writing Award was presented to seven people, periodicals and organizations. They were Salim Muwakkil, editor of In These Times magazine; Stephen Franklin, a reporter at the Chicago Tribune; Charley Reese, a columnist at the Orlando Sentinel;RAWI, the New York-based Arab writers’ organization; Joseph Zogby, former aide to Martin Indyk in the State Department who lost his job because of Zionist attacks; the Beirut Times, published in Los Angeles; and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, published in Washington, DC.

The awards were presented by Anisa Mehdi, daughter of Dr. M.T. Mehdi, a pioneer Arab-American activist for human rights in the U.S. and the Middle East who published Action newspaper between 1970 and the early 1990s.

Conference organizer Ray Hanania said, “I think we proved that Arab-American literature is alive, well and brimming with talent that not even the discrimination and bigotry of this country can keep silent!” Another conference is promised in either late June or September of the year 2000.

The University of Michigan was the scene of two programs, also in mid-October. Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine legislature and a long-time activist for peace with justice for Israel/Palestine, spoke to a crowd of 800 people on “The Requirements for a Lasting Peace Between Israel/Palestine.” In a press conference before the talk, Ashrawi said that the message she wanted students to take from her lecture was that each person can make a difference. “I am a firm believer in the responsibility of the individual, and that in history there are no spectators, there are shapers and there are victims,” she said. (See an additional account of the Ashrawi talk on p. 118of this issue.)

On the same weekend, 250 people from across the country gathered also in Ann Arbor for the first National Organizing Conference on Iraq. Participants included students from around the country, as well as longtime activists on the issue.

Kathy Kelly, head of Voices in the Wilderness and a keynote speaker at the conference, said that sanctions have directly led to the deaths of Iraqi children and to a rise in child prostitution. “The people who have no control over the situation are in fact paying the price,” she said.

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC and another keynote speaker at the event, said that the conference helped people get the information they needed to start changing policy on the sanctions. Deana Rabiah, one of the organizers of the event, said that the different groups now better understand each other and are ready for the next step in getting the policy changed.

Opportunities for Teachers

The Middle East Center at the University of Utah offered a workshop for the community, middle- and high school students and their parents as well as teachers on Oct. 15 and 16 with the theme “Middle Eastern Threads in Western Culture.” The goal was to increase the awareness of historical and cultural connections between the Middle East and contemporary America, such as geometric designs, architectural elements, medicine, and (especially for the American West) problems with water scarcity. The program received partial funding from the Utah Humanities Council.

Audrey Shabbas of AWAIR continues to conduct teacher workshops under the sponsorship of the Middle East Policy Council. These workshops are provided free for schools, school districts, county offices of education, colleges and universities. MEPC picks up all the costs for a program with a minimum of 30 teachers and a minimum of five hours of instruction.

The upcoming schedule includes: Mankato State University, Mankato, MN on Nov. 12; Jordan School District, Sandy, Utah on Nov. 13; University of N. Alabama, Florence, on Nov. 18; and Philadelphia on Dec. 4. Call Audrey Shabbas at (510) 704-0517 for details. Bookings for the year 2000 are filling up, so get in your request to host such a workshop by calling Jon Roth at the Middle East Policy Council, (202) 296-6767, or Audrey Shabbas at the number above.

Her AWAIR has produced a new catalog of books, which includes a Supplement to The Medieval Banquet inthe Alhambra Palace with more than 40 new “guests.” Also in the catalog are three PBS videos of Bill Moyers interviews: with Huston Smith on “Islam” ; with Coleman Barks reading the poetry of Rumi “Love’s Confusing Joy”; and with Naomi Shihab Nye, reading her own poetry “Welcome to the Mainland.”

The 24-page catalog is available for $2 by contacting AWAIR, 2137 Rose St., Berkeley, CA 94709 and will be on view at the National Association of Multicultultural Education in San Diego Nov. 12-14 and at the exhibit room of the Middle East Studies Association in Washington, DC Nov. 20-22.

Holiday Gifts

Sabeel, an ecumenical center for liberation theology in Jerusalem, has produced a calendar for the year 2000 using the theme of the rootedness of the olive tree and the Palestinian people in the land, and also a book, Our Story: The Palestinian People 1948-1998, including the 50 pictures from the photo exhibit which has toured the U.S., Canada, the UK, Sweden Australia, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. The cost of the calendar is $15 and the book $24; both are available from Friends of Sabeel-North America, Box 521, Chardon, OH 44024.

Betsy Barlow is the program coordinator for the University of Michigan’s Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies in Ann Arbor.