Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys : Points of View

338 p.
"Growing up in Pakistan, Aasmaani Inqalab, 31, was no stranger to government corruption and intrigue. Her heroes were her mother, an outspoken activist, and her mother's lover, a poet known for his criticism of bureaucracy. Far from a stable influence, though, the couple had a pattern of disappearing into exile when the government drew too close and reappearing months or years later. When she was a teen, the Poet was beaten to death, and her mother vanished shortly afterward. Aasmaani assumed that this disappearance was like all the others, and that her mother would reappear without apology one day. But when she begins receiving coded messages that suggest that the Poet's death was staged as part of a government plot, she is drawn into a web of intrigue in which her own life may be in danger."--Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA. School Library Journal

242 p.
"Every once in a while, a childhood memoir effortlessly transports us to another world in which we dwell happily for the duration of the book. From its opening--'I was born in a harem in 1940 in Fez, a ninth-century Moroccan city'--to its closing questions about the nature of power between men and women, this one reads as part fairy tale, part feminist manifesto. Sociologist and scholar Mernissi vividly paints an unforgettable world of women who created a rich life behind closed doors."--Mary Ellen Sullivan, Booklist
Fatima Mernissi is a Moroccan sociologist.

311 p.
"Anthony Shadid’s beautifully rendered memoir is a rich account of a man’s gradual immersion into the world of the Middle East and the culture of the Levant, a kingdom almost unrecognizable today, where the rooms and hallways of his great-grandfather’s house tell stories that will linger with every reader for decades." —André Aciman, author of Out of Egypt
Anthony Shadid "was an unparalleled chronicler of the human stories behind the news. He gained attention and awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, for his front-page reports in the Washington Post from Iraq. More recently, as Middle East correspondent for The New York Times, he covered the Arab Spring from Egypt to Libya ... to Syria. In 2010, he earned his second Pulitzer. Tragically, on February 16, 2012, he died while on assignment in Syria."

264 p.
"...Matar's debut novel tracks the effects of Libyan strongman Khadafy's 1969 September revolution on the el-Dawani family, as seen by nine-year-old Suleiman, who narrates as an adult. Living in Tripoli 10 years after the revolution with his parents and spending lazy summer days with his best friend, Kareem, Suleiman has his world turned upside down when the secret police–like Revolutionary Committee puts the family in its sights—though Suleiman does not know it, his father has spoken against the regime and is a clandestine agitator—along with families in the neighborhood."--Publishers Weekly
Hisham Matar is a Libyan author. His debut novel, In the Country of Men, was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize.

153 p.
"Marji tells of her life in Iran from the age of 10, when the Islamic revolution of 1979 reintroduced a religious state, through the age of 14 when the Iran-Iraq war forced her parents to send her to Europe for safety. This story, told in graphic format with simple, but expressive, black-and-white illustrations, combines the normal rebelliousness of an intelligent adolescent with the horrors of war and totalitarianism."--Susan H. Woodcock, Fairfax County Public Library, Chantilly, VA. School Library Journal
Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran. She grew up in Tehran, where she studied at the French school, before leaving for Vienna and Strasbourg to study decorative arts. She currently lives in Paris.

A 90-minute documentary of stunning breadth and beauty, narrated by Susan Sarandon, transports viewers over nine countries and across 1,400 years of cultural history to reveal the astonishing riches of Muslim arts, crafts, and architecture. Exploring distant locations and many rare pieces of art, the film illuminates the history of a global culture, reflecting the Islamic world as it developed over centuries and as it is today. Originally broadcast on PBS in 2012.

447 p.

Islamic Arts, a comprehensive survey covering a thousand years, highlights those characteristics that connect the various arts of the Islamic lands without minimizing the differences. The book is divided into three time periods - 600-900, 900-1500 and 1500-1800 - and each section analyses architecture, the arts of the book, decorative and applied arts. Islamic Arts brilliantly captures the essence of Islamic culture.