Recently Published Books

A renewed educational philosophy for a renewed Arab world:

A book issued last month by the Department of Education at the American University of Beirut, by a group of scholars of education in the Arab world.

The seminar was introduced by Dr. Charles Malik and by Dr. Habib Kurani, head of the department, and the leading figures of Arab education took part in preparing the studies: Messrs. Fuad Sarruf and Said Fahim, and Doctors Habib Kurani, Najib Sadaka, Fadil Jamali, Jibrail Katul, Muhammad Farid Abu Hadid, Muna Aqrawi, Jamil Saliba, and Constantine Zurayk. Thus it has come out a precious volume in its field.

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Our Literature and Our Men of Letters in the American Mahjar

— By Mr. George Saydah... being lectures delivered at the Institute of Higher Arab Studies of the League of Arab States.

Treatments of "Mahjar literature" have been many; but few indeed from that very generation itself have treated the question from its roots and analyzed the poets as he knew them in person — not merely as he knew them through their output.

Hence the view of the poet George Saydah was the view of one who knows, granted the chance to devote himself to studying the Mahjar literary renaissance at close range; and thereby he has added to the library a treasure of real weight.

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— There recently appeared from the Ahliyya Foundation the book Pavilion of Women by Pearl Buck, rendered into Arabic by Samira Azzam.

"Pavilion of Women" is the story of the "Chinese" woman — the Chinese harem — and how life runs its course in that calm Eastern atmosphere. What are their traditions and their customs, and how do they think? It is one of Pearl Buck's masterpieces, and Samira Azzam's graceful pen has succeeded in setting it within an engaging frame that draws the reader on to follow the events of the story to the very end with supreme pleasure.