November/December 2020
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NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2020 42928araD2R1.indd 1-3 10/27/20 12:16 PM 6 Sitar Master 10 A League 16 The Future’s of Maryland of Their Own Golden Fiber Written by Larry Luxner Written by Dianna Wray Written by Tristan Rutherford Photographed by Eric Kayne Photographed by Lisa Krantz Jute grows in tropical wetlands With a lifetime of training from leading In the era when baseball emerged as “America’s worldwide but nowhere as plentifully as virtuosos, Alif Laila is one of few women National Pastime,” the sons of Syrian Lebanese in the deltas of Bangladesh and India, to achieve international recognition with immigrants were smitten by the sport too— where its golden-hued fibers are inspiring the mesmerizing instrument whose including a leftie slugger in Port Arthur, Texas, a new generation of biodegradable sound evokes the musical identity of the named Bill Anawaty. products from carpets to car seats, greater Indian subcontinent. She is as clothing to bioplastic grocery bags. passionate about music as she is about encouraging other women. 2 FIRSTLOOK 4 FLAVORS 38 REVIEWS We distribute AramcoWorld i n p r i n t a n d o n l i n e t o i n c r e a s e c r o s s - c u l t u r a l u n d e r s t a n d i n g b y broadening knowledge of the histories, cultures and geography of the Arab and Muslim worlds and their global connections. November / December 2020 | Vol. 71, No. 6 Front Cover: William “Bill” Anawaty’s Port Arthur baseball team won the Syrian State Champion- ship in 1932, and he and fellow players along the Gulf Coast founded the league that grew to become aramcoworld.com one of the largest Arab American social and service associations in the us. Photo by Lisa Krantz. Back Cover: “I miss you. Can you teach me not to miss you?” “Did you wash your hands first?” translates the dialogue in Arabic in a covid-19-themed digital collage by Jiddah-based artist Shahad Nazer. 42928araD2R1.indd 4-6 10/22/20 4:14 PM 22 Artists Answer 32 The Westward CALENDAR INSERT COVID-19 Journeys of Buttons Flavors Written and curated by Beliz Tecirli Written by Caroline Stone 2021 Gregorian and 1442–1443 Hijri Calendar Amid travel bans, museum and gallery We all use them. Most fasten; some decorate. closures, lockdowns, quarantines, and A search for origins points toward the Indus Valley Introduction by Leyla Moushabeck social distancing, visual artists are and China. By the Middle Ages, buttons reached Cooking at home: Many of us are doing responding with fresh imagery and Europe along with other garment techniques and more of it than ever. Stories and recipes creative collaborations across new fashion influences from lands east. Their stories selected from our regular “Flavors” platforms to articulate this moment and are as interwoven as the textiles they make section show just how delicious carry culture forward into the next. possible and as varied as their designs. 12 months of discovery can be. 40 EVENTS 41 E-NEWSLETTER Online CLASSROOM GUIDE Publisher: Aramco Americas | President and ceo: Mohammad S. Alshammari | Director, Public Affairs: Abdulrahman A. Bayounis | Editor: Richard Doughty | Managing Editor: Jennifer Mathlouthi | Assistant Editor: Alva Robinson | Digital Media Editor: Johnny Hanson | Administration: Sarah Miller | Print design: Graphic Engine Design | Printing: RR Donnelley / Wetmore | Web design: eSiteful Corporation | Mobile design: Herring Design Subscriptions: www.aramcoworld.com | Editorial: [email protected] Mail: AramcoWorld, Post Office Box 2106, Houston, Texas 77252-2106, USA 14: SYED ARIFUL ISLAM / MAJORITY WORLD; 22: DAAYNA / MOSAIC ROOMS; 32: FROMDEPT LEFT TOP, OF ARCHAEOLOGY TO RIGHT: AND MUSEUMS, PAKISTAN / HARAPPA ARCHAEOLOGICALJ. M. KENOYER; RESEARCH THE PROJECT MET (6); LACMA; / CALENDAR: JAMIE ORLANDO SMITH issn: 1530-5821 42928araD3R1.indd 1 10/26/20 9:31 AM 2 AramcoWorld 42928araD4R1.indd 2 10/19/20 7:53 PM FIRSTLOOK East Coast of Saudi Arabia, Circa 1952–1964 Photograph by Mary Elizabeth Hartzell “Enclosed please find 59 negatives in various holders. These photos were in the possession of my aunt,” wrote Margaret Hartzell in a letter accompa- nying a small green box she donated five years ago to the archives of the King Abdulaziz Center for World Cul- ture in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Her aunt was Mary Elizabeth Hartzell, who passed away in 2009 at age 94. From 1952 to 1964, Mary Elizabeth, as she was known, worked for Aramco as the librarian of the Arabian Research Division, a job for which she had been recruited from the American Geographical Society in New York; she had already been taking Arabic language classes at the Asia Institute. “She was intrepid for a single woman of that time,” says Margaret. Mary Elizabeth took her photos with a twin-lens Rolliflex camera, and most of the five dozen images in the box show scenes such as this wintertime weekend excursion of expatriate em- ployees along the east coast of Saudi Arabia. While she is remembered at the library for her meticulous expan- sion of its collections in both English and Arabic, her carefully composed photos remained largely uncaptioned and undated. November / December 2020 3 42928araD4R1.indd 3 10/22/20 4:40 PM FLAVORS Tamia are similar to falafel. Tamia—Falafel An easy Sudanese recipe for this great snack or mezze/appetizer that is probably as popular in the Recipe by West as in the Middle East, where it originated. Troth Wells Photograph courtesy (Makes 24) Kam & Co. Denmark 1 can garbanzos/ 2 tablespoon cilantro/ 1 teaspoon baking chickpeas coriander, chopped juice powder of ½ lemon 2–4 cloves garlic Oil 1 slice bread 1 onion Salt and pepper 2 tablespoons flour 1 green bell pepper, chopped 1 teaspoon sesame seeds plus 1 tablespoon 1 teaspoon coriander sesame seeds seeds Drain the garbanzos/chickpeas and put them in a blender with the garlic, onion, bell pepper, coriander seeds and cilantro/coriander. Pour the lemon juice on a plate and soak the bread in it, then squeeze out any excess liquid. Crumble the bread into the mixture. Stir on blend again, then add flour, the teaspoon of sesame seeds, salt and pepper. Set aside for 10 minutes. When ready, add the baking powder and mix it in well. Adjust the flavoring and seasoning to taste. Take up small amounts and shape with your hands into flattish rounds. Scatter the remaining tablespoon of sesame seeds on the patties and then fry these for 2–3 minutes on each side until lightly browned. Serve with pita bread, salad and yogurt. Reprinted with permission from Troth Wells is an Oxford-based food writer and cookbook One World Vegetarian Cookbook author. She has written several cookbooks, including most recently One World Vegetarian Cookbook, Global Vegetarian Troth Wells Cooking: Quick and Easy Recipes from around the World, 2011, Interlink Books, 978-1-56656-834-0, $35 hb, and Small Planet, Small Plates: Earth-Friendly Vegetarian www.interlinkbooks.com. Recipes, all published by Interlink Books. 4 AramcoWorld 42928araD5R1.indd 4 10/19/20 8:11 PM PDF-1 November / December 2020 5 42928araD5R1.indd 5 10/26/20 8:11 AM instrument. Speaking about more than just the flora, Laila says hers is a garden “where the seeds of South Asia’s cultural SITAR heritage grow lusciously, thousands of miles away from home.” She is especially passionate, she says, about encouraging young women to take MASTER up the sitar, as even today Laila stands out as one of few women in the world to achieve fame with the instrument. “The sitar is mysterious and mesmeriz- of Maryland ing. You’re in a spell. You can’t figure out what it is,” she says, describing the sitar’s tantalizing ability to produce sounds that WRITTEN BY LARRY LUXNER appeal to ears not only in the subcontinent PHOTOGRAPHED BY ERIC KAYNE and parts of Asia but also across the world. Beginning in the 1960s, she explains, “it was the sitar that opened the doors to n her home studio in Silver Spring, country of her birth, Bangladesh. A virtu- meditation [and] yoga.” Maryland, Alif Laila’s vibrant murals oso of the sitar who has earned the master Often compared to an expanded I and watercolor paintings adorn each musician’s title Vidushi, she steps out version of a classical lute—to which it is wall. It’s a space she has grown into from the studio into a well-tended garden. distantly related—the sitar’s distinctively over decades, a creative refuge for living, There among greenery and stones, she chimeric sound comes from its combina- working, meditating, painting and, most teaches children and adults of various cul- tion of plucked strings with sympatheti- of all, playing and teaching music, all tural backgrounds how to pluck and pick cally tuned, reverberating drone strings. amid kaleidoscopic decor inspired by the her beloved, long-necked, gourd-shaped Paired with a tabla (hand drum) to 6 AramcoWorld 42928araD6R1.indd 6 10/22/20 4:46 PM “complete the essence of the music,” the “I strongly believe woman—has been pioneering. And yet sitar’s sound evokes history and spiritu- she found her way. ality. Laila explains that the sitar has no that through the sitar It was her late mother, Laila says, who one place of origin. Rather, it “developed I’m spreading universal inspired her. Her mother had wanted to over eras in which national borders were learn the instrument herself when she not so defined as today,” amid lands that peace and unity.” was growing up in Kolkata, India. But in are today Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pa- —Alif Laila the 1930s and 1940s, it was considered kistan, India and Bangladesh.