 About This Man Called Ali
Amal Ghandour
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 978 1 906011 32 1
Genre: Biography, Islamic Interest New publications:
This title is published in May 2009. For more details on our new and forthcoming titles, please click here
Date of first publication: 2009
Eland publication date: May 1, 2009
Price: £18.99
Ali al Jabri was an Arab artist who was murdered in 2002, a violent and lonely end to a life of passionate creativity and a restless search for identity. Ali was stranded between an English education and a struggle to find relevance in his Arab homeland, caught between his talents and his insecurities, his sexuality and the claims of his distinguished family. Amal Ghandour's painstakingly researched portrait reaches beyond the angst of a troubled artist to illuminate a whole people and a lost era. She reveals the lasting effects of colonial attitudes, and how the twin brutalities of the Arab world – Islamic fundamentalism and nationalistic military regimes – have waged war against the cultural and political possibilites of the region. Ali refused to remain an Arab expatriate, an exile in the gilded drawing rooms of Manhattan, Paris and London, and for this he paid with his life. This fascinating, intimate and candid biography reveals more about the intricate realities of the Middle East than a dozen textbooks.
biography of Amal Ghandour
This vivid account of the life of the Arab artist Ali Jabri is more than a fascinating biography; it is a history of the Middle East told through the fortunes of a powerful Syrian family... It evokes a sensuous hedonistic world that is both lush and malign with the tense private realm of the Jabri dynasty mirrored in the public dysfunction of Arab politics. A heady cocktail of art, politics, literature and life and at its heart is a man whose background, sexuality and talents made him a casualty of time and history.
Helena Kennedy QC
‘The worlds of Lawrence of Arabia, of Cavafy and of contemporary art come together in this life of Ali Jabri, the first biography of a modern Arab artist.'
Philip Mansel
‘Ali was a scion of the ancient and decaying aristocracy in Aleppo, Syria, who sometimes styled himself, improbably and ironically, “the last descendant of Saladin”. ..his was a life of “parallel universes.” He found in these contrasting worlds ecstasy and inspiration, but also injury, frustration and fear…it's sadly ironic that Ghandour's amicable but unflinching work… should be coming out in Britain now, only weeks after Amnesty International denounced the murder of dozens of homosexuals in what the Bush administrations used to refer to as liberated Iraq.'
Newsweek, 27 April 2009
‘Ghandour paints a thrilling, infuriating, thought-provoking portrait of a family in decline and a people in chaos…Our encounter with Jabri is broad-brush, impressionistic…Beginning at the end, the book re-casts Jabri's life as an epic clash between a doting aunt and her brilliant nephew whose love is soured by unfathomable grief…her chaotic, opinionated exploration of Jabri's life brings us much closer to the artist than any objective, comprehensive summation ever could.'
The Daily Star, Beirut, 22 May 2009
‘Amal Ghandour does a stupendous task in piecing together the puzzle of Ali's life using…anecdotes, artworks and letter from diaries … she [reveals] the lasting effects of colonial attitudes and how the twin brutalities of the Arab world – Islamic fundamentalism and nationalistic military regimes – have waged war against the cultural and political possibilities of the region.'
Qind, June 2009
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