Alamut, the fortress of the Assassins - Vladimir Bartol

Alamut - The Fortress of the Assassins by Vladimir Bartol ... In a splendid translation spanning 632 pages by the Tunisian poet Ashraf Al-Qarqani, this week the novel "Alamut" or "The Fortress of the Assassins" is published and soon will be in the most important Arab bookstores. It is mentioned in the cover letter of the novel by the translator Ashraf Al-Qarqani: What have you done with the Hassan al-Sabbah, Vladimir Bartol? And what luminous fictional world have you drawn with this pitch-black color of history? And how did the story of the Ismaili leader turn into an epic blending the breaths of great Greek legends with Muslim poetry, news, and their fiery blood? It is one question with three heads, united by a strict unity, just as the elements of this complex novel united to form a literary entity full of beauty and uniqueness. From questions of emotion and genuine human motives to the confusion of man and his burning, painful preoccupations, and to what is hidden in the soul and relentlessly seeks words to give it a glance, the novel "Alamut" or "The Fortress of the Assassins" stands as a great literary edifice based on the rocks of talent, delicate feeling, and wise, calculated mind. They are stones from which much water gushes, pouring into our modern times through its largest channels, so that the present echoes the past, and the past is a mask for the present, with conflicts and wars fueled by humans, and humans are their main concern.