You Can't Make Mistakes.

My friend and colleague Amanda Propst wrote a brilliant limerick this evening about the 6th Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim. He is the clear front-runner in my in my list of favorite historical figures. Amanda mentions in her introduction the the poem that he is probably in hiding. What she forgot to mention, though, is that he is perhaps also a vampire. Only time will tell.

Enjoy the limerick.

http://amandapropst.com/2010/12/14/al-hakim-limerick/

Raymond Stock, translator of Arabic literature and an author in his own right was denied entry to Egypt this week. He was traveling to Cairo for a visit and to give a talk over the holidays while on a break from teaching Arabic Literature at Drew University. Upon arrival he was detained and then denied entry and put on the next British Airways flight back to London, whence he had arrived.

He has translated a good number of the novels of Naguib Mahfouz and has lived and worked in Cairo for 20 years. He recently left to take up a post at Drew University.

A Washington Post article about the incident:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/10/AR2010121004492.html