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Presented by National Endowment for the Humanities in cooperation with American Library Association and Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies, George Mason University this perspective, virtually the only possibility the artist the sixteenth century, this empire had faded into distant seems to exclude is the presence of any people other than memory. But in our painting, its cultural legacy can still the Spanish themselves. And in this sense, for all its be seen in the sweeping zigzag of the landscape, and the exuberance, his painting conveys an image of history that angular energy of the rocks and trees—both features is anything but connected, one in which Europeans are the highly evocative of Chinese visual styles. only real protagonists, and the world exists only for them Such details helped to ensure that our painting would to explore—and, eventually, to conquer. appeal to Sultan Murad, a famously generous patron of But look again—for this painting, much like history the arts with the tastes of a connoisseur. But why, from itself, holds many lessons to uncover, some obvious at first the comfort of his palace in Istanbul, would the sultan glance and others scribbled in the margins or hidden just have been interested in a book about Spanish America beneath the surface. To begin with, look at the unfamiliar in the first place? The answer is to be found not in the writing at the top of the page. It is obviously not Spanish. painting itself, but in the sweeping political events of that Nor is it Arabic, although it might seem so at first glance moment in world history. to the untrained eye. Instead, it is Ottoman Turkish—the Specifically, in 1578—just a few years before The language of the only sixteenth-century ruler who could History of the West Indies was composed—the dashing but legitimately vie with the king of Spain for the title of reckless King Sebastian of Portugal had fallen in battle “World Emperor.” In other words, The History of the West while on a crusade in Morocco. Because Sebastian was a Indies was a work produced not in any Western capital, young man and left no children, his death paved the way but in the imperial workshops of Istanbul’s Topkapı for King Philip II of Spain, his closest living relative, to Palace, where it was prepared in 1584 for the reading inherit both Portugal and its many new colonies in India. pleasure of the Ottoman sultan, Murad III. And since Philip, already the most powerful sovereign in This unexpected provenance helps to explain the Europe, was Sultan Murad’s most feared Western rival, painting’s distinctive visual style, itself the product of a his accession to the Portuguese crown was a matter of long history of cultural influence that began not in the the utmost concern in Istanbul—raising the specter of West, but, rather, far to the East. For during the sixteenth Spanish attacks not only from the Mediterranean, but century, the artists of the Ottoman Empire had fallen from the Indian Ocean as well. under the spell of a particular style of miniature painting This brings us once more to The History of the West perfected in neighboring Persia (the Persians being the Indies, whose author introduces his work in a most acknowledged artistic masters of the Islamic world in unexpected way: with a proposal to build a Suez canal, muchNEH the same Bridging way that the painters Cultures of Renaissance Italy which would enable the Ottomans to send a fleet from were regarded as standard-bearers by their European Istanbul directly to the Indian Ocean and seize control contemporaries). But in one of history’s many twists, LET’S TALK ABOUT IT:of the Portuguese colonies there before the Spanish could this Persian style of painting was, in turn, heavily do so. Indeed, it is this proposal that gives meaning to influenced by the artistic traditions of China—a direct the rest of the book, which outlines the activities of the consequence of the Mongol conquests of an earlier age, Spanish in the New World in order to convince the sultan when both China and Iran were incorporated into the of the global reach of King Philip’s power—and of the transcontinental empire established by Genghis Khan. By Muslim consequentJourneys necessity of building a canal across more Points of View Deborah Amos • National Public Radio bridgingcultures.neh.gov/muslimjourneys | 1 Points of View by Deborah Amos © Omar Chennafi In a 2011 survey of Muslim Americans conducted by the Muslim-majority societies. The novels and memoirs presented Pew Research Center, respondents cited negative views about demonstrate the rich diversity of experience, the variety of Muslims as the single greatest challenge facing their com- Muslim opinions, and confirm our shared values. The books munity. This is hardly an unfamiliar finding. Many other do not represent the full spectrum of dialog in these societies, immigrant communities have expressed similar grievances as nor offer a definitive portrait of Islamic culture. That would be they integrated into mainstream America and shed an “Old impossible. Rather, they reveal the universally human rhythms World” culture. But Muslim Americans are not from just one of everyday life in societies typically presented to us only ethnic group or just one “Old World.” They are, rather, part of through news headlines about war, turmoil, and unrest. a vibrant community and culture comprising the 1.5 billion In the Arab Islamic world, the literary tradition has its people worldwide who call themselves Muslims. deepest roots in poetry. But substantive additions to the canon The five titles gathered under the heading of “Points of are now being made in the genre of the novel, as the Points View” on the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf offer a corrective to of View selections In the Country of Men and Broken Verses some of the misunderstandings that confront the Muslim com- show. The graphic novel, a fairly new genre even to Western munity in America. These books, both novels and memoirs, readers, is represented here by Persepolis: The Story of a Child- open doors to the experiences of adults and children living in hood. In the memoirs House of Stone and Dreams of Trespass, 2 | LET’S TALK ABOUT IT: Muslim Journeys two writers, one a Lebanese American Christian and the that crosses Hell Eternal to deliver the faithful to Paradise. other a Moroccan Muslim, use family history to show We all will have to cross it someday, and some of us won’t that the changes that have swept the Muslim world in the make it.” Suleiman wants to make it to Paradise, but he last 125 years are not only political but personal. These finds himself dwelling on more immediate, more universal journeys, struggles, and successes are universal to compel- concerns: Who will he become as a man? Has his charac- ling storytelling, which is an integral part of a culture that ter been shaped by his father? “How much of him is there reveres the word as part of its Islamic tradition. These in me? Can you become a man without becoming your titles also provide readers with an opportunity to engage father?” Suleiman’s parents are defiant in different ways. more deeply and understand unseen dimensions of recent, His mother, in an alcoholic haze, told him that she defied dramatic events such as the Arab Spring and ongoing ten- her parents by holding hands in public with a young sions in South Asia. man in a neighborhood café. When her cousin betrayed her, she was forced into an immediate marriage with a stranger, his father, to wipe away the family shame. In the Country of Men Suleiman’s relationship with his father grows more By Hisham Matar complex as the seemingly conventional businessman is gradually revealed to be an underground revolutionary Nominated in 2006 for the prestigious Man Booker Prize, who is campaigning for Libyan democracy. In the Country of Men is a coming-of-age story set in Trip- oli, the Libyan capital. Events both grand and small are Suleiman learns the price of such defiance firsthand seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy, Suleiman. when a beloved neighbor, Ustath Rashid, a brilliant It is 1969, and in the wider world a young army officer, scholar and his father’s co-conspirator, is arrested and Muammar al-Qaddafi, has just seized power in a revolu- publicly pressured to reveal his accomplices. tion that toppled the Libyan monarchy and began an era Fascinated by televised interrogations of dissidents, of brutal dictatorship. Suleiman’s father is a businessman Suleiman nonetheless comes to realize that Rashid, or and provides the family a good life despite his frequent even his own father, could be next. “I had heard it many absences. His mother is struck by bouts of melancholy times before that no one is ever beyond their reach, but when her husband is away. She turns to illicit alcohol for to see them, to see how it can happen, how quickly, how comfort. She turns to her son for solace. there’s no space to argue, to say no, made my belly swim,” Suleiman is an only child, a rarity in Libya’s conser- he says. It is a moment of revelation, beyond the lessons vative Muslim culture. He understands the message his about good and evil learned from Mustafa, his old teacher. status sends about his family: “Parents with only one Insensible to the cause of her son’s sudden distress, Sulei- offspring were always at risk of leading people to believe man’s mother washes his face and fixes soup and tea, “as if that either the woman was no longer good, or, God I had the flu.” forbid, both the mother and the father were objecting Not a book to resort to abstractions, In the Country to God’s will.” of Men vividly depicts the hard choices that individuals— The novel is filled with subtle references to Islam as even children—must make when they find themselves part of everyday life.

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