Phone from Andalusia

Author's name: Ali Al-Jarim

Who said that man lives only in the present? Isn't the present part of the past? Isn't remembering, like forgetting, an innate human trait? Is there a human being outside of time?! Can man find no alternative but to yearn for the past and recall memories?

In this work, the great poet Ali Al-Jarim recalls the memories of the Andalusian Islamic civilization on a historical narrative ground, as Al-Jarim weaves the threads of his novel from Andalusia, that lost paradise, in terms of time, place, events, and people. The novel tells us the life of the poet Ibn Zaydoun in the Andalusian lands, who was destined to be a preacher for “Walada ibn al-Mustakfi” and to work as a minister and writer for Ibn Jahwar. However, things did not always go as planned. After Ibn Zaydoun was the spoiled youth of Andalusia, close to the palace, circles of haters and envious people turned against him, and they began to plot conspiracies and intrigues against him. Problems rained down on him from every side. Al-Jarim narrates this novel in a distinctive artistic style and a beautiful language that indicates his grasp of the language and his ability to tame it.