The apparent contempt that the author has for his subject, Islam and the Muslim world, makes this an unfortunately one-dimensional book, lacking in both insight and sensitivity. Through his highly subjective choice of photographic material the author has succeeded in heightening every prejudice, reinforcing every misconception, and exacerbating the deepening divide between the Islamic and Western worlds. The subject of Abbas' interviews implies that Muslims the world over are as ignorant as they are belligerent. He certainly confirms his reputation as "one of the few photographers who can raise photojournalism to an art form" but the only cost of sensationalism is honesty. A small price to pay for the artist who would rather 'inspire' than depict the truth in all its banality. He states that "poverty is not natural" and maintains that "young people find refuge in the Koran and in Islamist institutions when racism and chronic unemployment become unbearable." The shallow implication of this statement being that those who can attain relative gains (i.e. people with jobs) will not need the emotional and spiritual crutch provided by religion. But does spiritual hunger always arise from material limitation and need? Caricatures will suffice for the childish mind. Black and white photography dramatises contrast. It is my hope, however, that there will be readers who realise that not everything is black and white.

The Iranian-born photographer Abbas, a staff photographer for Magnum Photos in Paris, travelled in twenty-nine Muslim countries from West Africa to China in an effort to try the pulse and flavor of fundamentalist Islam. Abbas, who makes no bones about the fact that his religion is artistic creativity, finds the whole phenomenon slightly repulsive even as it fascinates him.

The hundreds of black-and-white pictures in "Allah O Akbar" will likewise repulse and fascinate the reader, as will Abbas's fast-moving, intelligent text telling of his experiences as a photographer. Violence and death features prominently in these pictures, from the Qur'anic teacher in the Sudan bearing a whip to a profusion of slaughtered animal parts to the appalling parade of young Iranian men triumphantly carrying the corpse of a prostitute they had burnt to death. Many fascinating pictures concern women: one very modestly covered Algerian art student diligently paints a naked male statue while an Egyptian zoology student covered from head to toe (including black gloves) looks from under her cowl into a microscope. An Afghan bride participates in a marriage ceremony at which the groom is represented only by his picture (he's off in Germany); a belly dancer performs in a social club at a Renault company social club in France; and two women sit together on a Moroccan beach, one veiled and the other in a tanktop swimming suit.

Middle East Quarterly, June 1995

This beautiful coffee--table book of black and white photos is not well-represented by the excerpts available. Yes, the section on Iran has many pictures of frothing-at-the-mouth mobs surging through the streets, brandishing fists and assault rifles. No, the rest of the book is nothing like that. There are some ghastly pictures of war dead in the section on Kuwait, and the inevitable images of uzi-toting worshippers at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, but nothing else like the featured parts. The book is much more sensitive and insightful than that.

Iran-born Magnum photographer Abbas traveled through the Islamic world, searching for manifestations of militant Islam. (It's too bad he didn't collaborate with V. S. Naipaul in his research on the very similar subject of Islam in non--Arabic countries.) What he came up with were images that show the unifying (or uniformity-imposing, if you prefer) power of Islam. Everywhere he goes, he finds the same images: Schoolchildren bobbing and chanting over their Korans, tumbledown cemeteries where the dead are honored on Fridays, funerals, women and girls in hijab going about their daily business, men lolling on carpets in mosques reading the Koran, people stopping in their tracks to perform their prayers, and etc.

There are also many delightful surprises: Schoolgirls in hijab cloaks playing basketball, ballerinas in a muslim former Soviet republic, a long--haired dervish in full flight with drum and tambourine leggings, a emotional Kuwaiti woman talking with an almost as emotional female American soldier after the liberation of Kuwait City, a bearded elder walking past a clutch of Pakistani teens in Britain who radiate "Cool Britannia".

Some of the surprises are not delightful. We see a Christian in Sudan being tried and then flogged in a shariah court for drinking alcohol. A sheep in an English barbershop, cows in Indonesia, and camels in the pilgrimage places in Saudi Arabia are all sacrificed in performance of Islamic rites. Shiite Muslims lashing and lacerating themselves in one of their ceremonies.

But throughout there are many images of pure photographic beauty. Baobab trees are shown in spiky, inky silhouette above a cemetery. Rows of white--cloaked women at prayer in Jakarta stretch beyond the border of the photo. Young Senegalese men pose in front of a tangle of limbs and vines after an initiation ceremony. Really gorgeous stuff, quite beyond the power of this amateur.

The unobtrusive text tells of Abbas' travels among these peoples. He strikes out in the U. S. with the Nation of Islam, who quickly clam up and deny him access. He gets along fine with the Indonesian Muslims, and even has to coax statements of discontent out of them. (This visit was before the eruption of religious rioting in that country). His lack of religion causes him to frequently despair of understanding his subjects--a lack of confidence thankfully not shared by his camera.

I was largely disappointed with this book - I expected an autobiographical glimpse into the life of a pioneering feminist Iranian princess and her family. What I got was a "dear diary"-style mess penned by a selfish and astonishingly conceited young woman. Princess Taj al-Saltana's memoir of her life in her father's harem is loaded with self-aggrandizing statements and little else. Granted, the princess' spoiled brat mentality and overblown self image are undoubtedly products of her coddled earlier life as the daughter of the Shah, however, the constant self promotion makes for terribly boring reading. Taj rehashes the same themes and stories time and again, all while constantly paying homage to her own alleged beauty and intellect. I am sorry to say that the princess' method of relating her story was tiresome, and I couldn't wait for it to end. I found myself rolling my eyes each time I came across a ludicrous reference to her great beauty or amazing mental capacity -- her photographs and her actions do not quite measure up to her excessive claims. I was also disappointed by the lack of information regarding harem life. For example, while she writes of the rituals involved with marriage, her disjointed writing style and intense self-focus give the reader only a fleeting idea of what actually happened during her marriage ceremony. The princess' writing is unfocused and often skips back and forth in time, making her story difficult to follow. The reader is provided with very little useful information about royal harem life. The princess' interest in civil rights for Iranian women is overshadowed by her greater interest in her own freedom to do as she pleases.

The book was edited by Abbas Amanat, who provides a dry and lengthy prologue (of just over 100 pages) which sets the stage for the princess' memoir. I found it puzzling at first that the prologue was so long, however, I soon recognized the need for it. The princess provides very little historical orientation in her memoir, and it is necessary for the editor to fill his readers in with pertinent information regarding the political and social atmosphere in turn-of-the-century Iran. While I agree that the intended topic of "Crowning Anguish" is fascinating, those interested in learning about harem life would be better off skipping this book.

I was required to read this book for a class on the history of the modern Middle East. I thought this would be one of the more interesting textbooks that I have to read this semester. I was wrong; this thing is painful.
I've been informed by a friend of mine from the area that it probably loses something in the transition from Arabic to English, but to me the whole thing is overwritten, self centered and features the "heroine" blaming her problems largely on society. Of course she does go into detail about that society, providing the historical value, but still. In places it reads like a manuscript rejected from Harlequin Romance Novels.
If you really want a picture of life in the Middle East. read "Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East" by Edmund Burke. Gives a better pictue.

A truly tragic account of the life of a Persian Princess in the nineteenth century, this book will touch nerves even today. But aside from recounting a life, Taj Al-Saltana's memoir makes three significant contributions to the history of Persia. First and foremost, it is an original and quite possibly the first modern-day feminist book by a Persian woman on the condition of women in Taj's era. Second, her memoir is immensely important to understanding life in the Qajar Dynasty's royal harem. Finally, this book allows the most private look into King Nassir Al-Din's life. Nassir Al-Din ruled Persia for nearly one half of the nineteenth century.

This book comes with a detailed introduction from its editor Professor A. Amanat of Yale University. The intro is in-depth, reader friendly, and helps set the stage for understanding Taj's era and life in Persia. I would highly recommend the Book "Pivot of the Universe" also by Amanat, on the life of Taj Al-Saltana's father, King Nassir Al-Din Qajar.

I was disappointed. This dictionary is probably useless to the English speaking beginner in Hebrew. The definition to common words used in every day phrases such as Hebrew blessings are impossible or nearly impossible to find. If a person is not fluent in Hebrew, there is no alphabetical order to the Hebrew words. A person cannot go from the English spelling to the Hebrew word definition. Many words lack English pronunciation. For the english speaking apprentice Hebrew student, this is not a tool. I returned the book.

The main problem I have with this dictionary is that it is confusing to follow. For example, the English word "Have" has 10 to 20 different possible translations to Hebrew (I say 10 to 20 because the list is jumbled and individual words/phrases are not distinct). You'd think that the first word listed was the common Hebrew word to be used. Unfortunatly, it's not. The word is "HYH" (hi-YA), which means to be or to have been (I was taught the latter). And that's just one example. I have spent hours attempting to translate one paragraph from English to Hebrew simply because I had to go thorugh a very long list of words to get a translation I wanted, and sometimes you don't get it at all. The Meridian needs some very, very substantial revisions so that it can be more eaisly used by students at all levels of fluency. On the other hand, it's not a total wast because it does go from Hebrew to English relativly smoothly, although it does not list verbs with thier shoresh or the binyan and gizrah they are in, something that really is necessary if you're taking Hebrew above the gramer school level (I, personally, started in college). If it did, it might be a little more helpful. Overall, I recomend that you try another dicitionary, preferably one a little easier to read.

I have had the original version of this dictionary since 1980. It was then called the Signet H/E E/H Dictionary and cost $1.95. I am quite fluent in conversational Hebrew and generally use the dictionary for reference. I read Israeli newspapers (Maariv, Haaretz) on the Internet and decided it was time to replace my by now quite worn-out dictionary. I extensively reviewed the Ben Yehuda, the Bantam-Megiddo, and the Compact English-Hebrew Dictionary by Shimon Zilberman as well as my original Signet. Of the four, I found the Compact and the Signet to be the best. The Compact is hard to find so if you do find it, go with it. The Meridian is exactly the same as the Signet and in my opinion is also very good. The Ben Yehuda and the Bantam-Meggido have been around a long time (1964, 1975 respectively). The translations in these are quite literal and not always Modern Hebrew (i.e., what you read in the newspaper). The Compact and the Meridian are based on modern Hebrew and therefore much more useful. For example, the word "mabsut", which is actually Arabic and means "satisified" is found in the Compact and the Meridian. It is not found at all in Ben Yehuda or Bantam-Meggido. The word "Pigua", which we see in the newspapers unfortunately too often now means an "attack" and is translated as such in Compact and Meridian. Ben Yehuda and Bantam-Meggiddo say it means "hit". So while that is still correct, in the context of how it is used conversationally, the translation is lacking. Unfortunately, the Meridian is no longer a pocket dictionary. It is now much larger and more expensive than Ben Yehuda and Bantam-Meggido, so I guess that'a a factor too.

This book has great information in it BUT it is so poorly organized and written that a reader can't absorb it. The book is so repetitive and wordy that the key points are often obscured. The diagrams are the saving grace of the book -- these are well-drawn and easy to understand. I resorted to looking at the diagrams and reading the chapter intros and summaries to try and get what I needed out of the book. However, that wasn't enough and I got so frustrated with an immuno final exam looming that I purchased another book. I recommend looking elsewhere especially if you are new to immunology.

i just want to read the 2nd chap

I have 4 favourite cities in the world. Bombay being one of them. (I was born and brought up in Bombay). The book does no justice to the title. Most of the book covers the author's travels, his film making history and other mudane stuff. Nothing on the Real, Live City of Bombay I know so well and have lived in for 25 years.

I read this book along 2 other books That Gharabaghi has written about the same subject(s). In his book he tries very hard to misguide the readers on what really happened. General Gharabaghi held many key positions during his 42 years in the Shah's Imperial Army. In the last 9 months of 1978, he became minister of war, minister of interior and chairman of joint chiefs of staff. Gharabghi had the opportunity and the absolute military power to save Iran from falling in the hands of the fundamentalists. Instead he used his power to misguide other military leaders who were loyal to H.I.M. Shahanshah. Had the Shah selected General Oveisi as the supreme commander of impeial armed forces instead of Gharabaghi, the uprising would have been crushed and all other conspirators would have been arrested or defeted. British MI-6 had a lot to do with what really happened and advised the Shah to install Gharabghi who was weak and always known as an outsider in the imperial court and spoke Farsi with a strong turkish accent. Iranin people must know that General Abbas Gharabaghi was one of the Persia's worst traitor who joined the oppositions and ordered the military to surrender rather than joining the other military leaders like Lt. General Rahimi, Lt. General Badrei and Major General Naji to carry out the "Operations Abortion" and crush the uprising in 1979.