In My Library

In this section are reviewed such works as are presented to the library of "The Woman's Voice."

I offer you, Madam, this month, three books. The first of them is "The Palestine Question" by Dr. Najib Sadaka. Publishers: Dar al-Kitab in Beirut. Its pages number 420, and the price of a copy is 5 Lebanese liras.

I read this book with close attention, and my admiration for it and for its author grew with every line. By the time I had finished it I was convinced — rationally, and not merely emotionally — of the Arabs' full and complete right to Palestine; of the aggression of Zionism, and of the states that have sided with it, against that right; of the imminent danger of Zionism to the destiny of all the Arab peoples; and of the necessity of sacrificing everything, even lives, for the sake of this vital, sacred part of our greater homeland.

I believe, sincerely and disinterestedly, that this book ought to be read by every citizen in this Arab world; and that it ought to be translated — and I have learned that it is now being translated — into English and French at the least, so that acquaintance with it may spread, and so that it may help, more than any other verbal means, to form a world public opinion not influenced to this degree by the erroneous Zionist point of view.

The second book is "The Philosophy of Legislation in Islam" by Dr. Subhi Mahmasani. Publishers: Maktabat al-Kashshaf in Beirut. Its pages number 350 and its price is 12 Lebanese liras.

This book, as may be seen from its title, is a scholarly juridical study. The author has described it as "an introduction to the study of the Islamic Sharia in the light of its various schools and in the light of modern laws," to be followed by another book now in press.

It was my good fortune to study under Dr. Mahmasani at the American University of Beirut, when he delivered this book to us chapter by chapter while it was still among the manuscripts. I marveled at the Doctor's depth and his mastery of jurisprudence and law as much as I marveled at his independence of opinion, his liberality, and his freshness.

It is a good thing for this country that Dr. Mahmasani should crown his practical life by devoting himself to writing, and so fill, in Arabic letters,

a gap that many could scarcely fill with the like of the faithfulness, sincerity, and understanding for which he is known, whether in this book of his, in his other writings, or in his practical life.

As for the third book, it is on another plane. It is a story, entitled "The Belle of Lebanon," by Mr. Farid Mudawwar. Publishers: Dar al-Kitab. Its pages number 192, and its price is two Lebanese liras.

In this splendid popular story the Lebanese stamp shines forth: it reflects Lebanese life and treats a problem you may call, if you will, the struggle between village life and city life. I have not yet read, among all that I have read, a long Arabic story that pulses with reality and makes the reader live in it as this story does. It is a singular color of narrative literature, reminding us to a great degree of Walter Scott and Dickens — that living, realistic color in which there is no straining and no affectation.

No doubt whoever knows Mr. Mudawwar through his plays will not find the atmosphere with which this story is suffused strange to him.

Mr. Mudawwar has, beyond question, carried the banner of the Lebanese play; will he now, in "The Belle of Lebanon," carry the banner of the Lebanese story as well?

However that may be, there is in this singular realistic story what should win the reader's admiration and stir in him both pleasure and profit. It is enough that it is an attempt at the long story, of whose like our Arabic literature stands in want.