Recently Published Books: Two Books by Anis Sayegh

Fertile production is a wellspring of hope — and what hope!

There have lately appeared from the Lebanon Presses two books by the young author Anis Sayegh: "Syria in Ancient Egyptian Literature" and "The Wall of Shame."

In the first book the author speaks of the cultural relationship between Egypt and Syria since the days of the Pharaohs, which has made "this literary 'kinship' at once a cause and a result of a prominent aspect of Syrian-Egyptian relations in history."

Beyond that, the book contains a bouquet of ancient literary and poetic texts whose lines carry a fragrance of legend and glimpses of delightful history.

As for the second book, "The Wall of Shame," what first arrests the reader is its title, original in both structure and sense. It is the story of Nahr al-Kalb and its wall, studded with documents and inscriptions that defy time and throw light upon stretches of a past heavy-laden with exclamation points and question marks.

At the close of the book the author calls for the founding of an association to care for this monument, which speaks aloud what the books keep silent.

For the wall of Nahr al-Kalb is, as he calls it, an open-air museum... of arts upon arts...

Nor has the author stinted us of expressive photographs, in which he surveys the whole face of Nahr al-Kalb.

As for his style in the two books, it is what we have come to know from him: the style of the historian, sober and engaging at once — and it is high time we lent scholarly studies a touch of grace and charm..

It remains for us to await the new books the author has promised us: "Syrian-Egyptian Relations in History" and then "The Druze and Egypt." May God be with his young pen.