You have to be dedicated, or perhaps suffering jet lag, to get up to watch Michael Singh's excellent documentary at 08:00 on a Sunday morning. The time was a function of the setting: this was the annual conference of MESA, the Middle East Studies Association, and Valentino's Ghost was making a debut showing. It's all … Read more Valentino’s Ghost: Hollywood & TV Imagine Arabs
The Knife Sharpener of Tangier This being the eve of the Aïd, the culmination of the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca, knives are being sharpened all over the Muslim world, in preparation for the sacrifice of millions of sheep. BBC has a nice explanation of the feast. We wish our Muslim friends عيـــد مبــــارك سعيــــــد … Read more Sheep Tales
We've seen films-within-films before, usually films about making films. La mosquée, a little gem featured at the 2011 Moroccan National Film Festival, is different. It's a sort of "post-production" film: what happens after the film crew leaves a small Moroccan village? From the director, Daoud Aoulad-Syad, at last November's Damascus International Film Festival: For the … Read more La mosquée at Tangier’s Moroccan National Film Festival
From Wikipedia: Tu Bishvat (Hebrew: ט״ו בשבט) is a minor Jewish holiday, usually occurring in late January or early February, that marks the "New Year of the Trees." Tu Bishvat is one of four "New Years" mentioned in the Mishnah. Customs include planting trees and eating dried fruits and nuts. In Israel, the flowering of … Read more Tu Bishvat in Tangier
Usually, I content myself with wishing everyone a happy month of Ramadan and proceeding to other matters. This time, living in the medina of Tangier and observing the month of Ramadan as respectfully as a non-Muslim can, I want to carry it a step further. Which is why we carried out a Big Clean of … Read more Ramadan Karim, Ramadan Karcher
