Latest from Mahmoud Habboush
A Rupture in the History of Consciousness
Over the centuries, layers of interpretation have mediated our experience and separated the self from the world, but glimpses of an older mode of consciousness can still be found. Even modern literature that is transfixed by the self and immersed in its workings can fleetingly reveal the older intimacy.
The Lost Consciousness of Pre-Islamic Arabic Poetry
A century ago, a vital debate was ignited over the authenticity of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. Among the many reasons to accept the antiquity of much of this body of verse is the distinct mindset it reveals, in which humans stand fully within the natural world.
Medieval Arabic Culinary Literature Offers Lessons for the Present
Excess was in vogue at the zenith of the Abbasid Empire. The wedding of its seventh caliph, al-Mamun, cost 50 million dirhams, according to the historian al-Tabari. It required 140 mules to make three trips a day for an entire year to transport wood for the stove. It then took two days and nights to burn through all the wood as the food cooked above it.