Memories of Ali Al-Tantawi 8 volumes

Book title: Memories of Ali Al-Tantawi Author: Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi Number of books: 8 Publisher: Dar Al-Manara The first part of the "Memories" begins with Ali Al-Tantawi's early childhood; from his elementary school days, even from the "kuttab" before that. It mentions the First World War and describes life in the Levant during those days. We follow young Ali Al-Tantawi as he moves from school to school, from era to era; from the Ottoman era to the Arab era to French colonization. We read about his days in "Maktab Anbar" (which is the high school) and about his teachers and mentors. Then we find that his father has died, which unsettles him, so he turns to trade for a short period, then returns to study. We see that he traveled after succeeding in high school to Egypt to study at Dar Al-‘Ilm, but he leaves after a year and returns to the Levant. He tells us — in scattered parts of this section — about his family origins, his father and grandfather, his mother, and his maternal family. Toward the end of this part, we read about the revolution against the French and many poems of this revolution. Then a new page of memories begins when Ali Al-Tantawi, at seventeen, publishes his first article in newspapers, marking the start of his journalism career. We read about the newspapers he worked for and the journalists he worked with. Then we read about the release of his first collection of writings, "Messages of Reform." Al-Tantawi says: "The benefit of publishing memories is that we compare what we are today with what we were yesterday. What have we gained, and what have we lost? The answer is with you." (p. 348) I see that as a great benefit, so what if we compare those memories with what Al-Tantawi was like when he wrote, and what we are like today? I find in these memories many benefits that I cannot attain at a university or other sources of knowledge, and I am only in the second part! And today, I am satisfied with Al-Tantawi because through him I get to know the Syria that the tyrant of the Levant stole from us, and I have no way to it except through what the writers have written and poets have composed, asking Allah Almighty to reform those lands and all Muslim countries. Quotes: "Therefore, I advise every reader of these chapters to take a notebook and write in it every evening what he saw in his day, not what he cooked or ate, nor how much he earned or spent. I do not want a restaurant list or a bank account. Rather, I want him to record the ideas that crossed his mind, the emotions stirred in his soul, and the impact of what he saw and heard on him. Not to print and publish them, for not everyone is a writer or a publisher, but so that one day he finds his lost self in them." "And beauty? The beauty of nature, the beauty of eloquence, the beauty of the wise sheikh, the beauty of the beautiful woman — is it one 'beauty'? Even if you brought a hundred beauties, you would find a hundred different beauties, each with its taste, its color, and its kind. And we have nothing for all this except one word." "The most beautiful works of a writer or poet are those he did not write. When did words encompass emotions and ideas?"