Letter to Professor Anwar Chejne

Alhambra at sunset, Feb 24, 2011

Dear Professor Chejne,

Today, I finally made it to the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. All those years ago, when I was in your course on Muslim Spain at the University of Minnesota, you told us how beautiful it was. You showed us achingly gorgeous slides of the palace and its grounds, for we were in your class long before the internet was invented. You explained the beauty of the place, its romance, all the arts and sciences that flowered here in Granada.  I still remember the day you wore a t-shirt in Arabic that said 'Long Live Ibn Hazm' and how we students laughed and laughed. How I wish I had a t-shirt like that today, for I would like to shout, "Long Live Ibn Hazm, Ibn al-Khatib, Ibn Zamrak, and all the poets of Al-Andalus!"

On my visit today, a sunny day in late February, the sky was blue, and it set off the buildings in the way it's supposed to. A quarter moon hung over the trees when I arrived. The palaces were stunning, even though the Court of Lions is still under repair. It is too early in the season for many flowers, just a few early bougainvelia, and primroses. But the migrating birds - finches and warblers, sang away happily. Another songbird woke me this morning in my tiny hotel room, just down the hill from the Alhambra. It sounded like an oriole of some kind. As I walked the grounds, the birds sang all around me. And the rushing water, in little courses on each side of some walkways, put the water sound into stereo mode that seemed to follow me throughout my visit. One steep stairway at the Generalife had watercourses on either side at hand level, so you could walk with your hands in a cool stream. That would be heavenly on a hot summer day. The sounds of water and the birdsong made a beautiful serenade, one I won't forget for a long time.

Thank you for being so smitten with al-Andalus, and waking us all to its splendors, Professor. I only wish I'd come here sooner.

Nothing is Written - Lawrence of Arabia - Film re-enactment in U.K. by Secret Cinema

I'm a long-time fan of the film, Lawrence of Arabia. In fact, that film awakened my love of all things Middle Eastern. Over the years, I've wondered what it was about the film that affected me so strongly. Certainly it's the film score by Maurice Jarre, full of micro-tones, Arab percussion lines, and sweeping melodies in the maqam of hijaz. It's also the scenery, and the spare, yet poetic dialogue. Underneath all that though, the film glows with an incandescent power, fired by Lawrence's affection for the Arabs with whom he fought, and his belief in the Arab army's cause of independence both from the Ottoman Empire and European powers. Even though Lawrence remains an enigmatic and controversial figure in history, the film, and his own life, influenced me a great deal.

I'm less embarrassed about my love of this film ever since I learned that Steven Spielberg decided to become a film director after seeing it. Diane Sawyer has a pillow embroidered with the words 'nothing is written' on her living room sofa. So it's not just me!

This video clip is amazing. It's of a re-enactment and screening of the film in the UK put on by Secret Cinemas. Only in the U.K. could you gather so many Lawrence fans for costumed mini-re-enactments of the film! Enjoy it...with the film score playing throughout.