TRAX, No. 1

TRAX is a new feature I’m adding to my blog as a way to share ideas and resources that, for lack of time, I can’t develop into a longer, single-themed post (though sometimes I might pick them up later). Every week or so I’ll collect a few resources that have fired up my neurons. I hope that you will enjoy them and find them useful. This feature will also allow me to update previous posts with the occasional stray item.

Here’s what HistoryLynx has tracked down for this week:

• In Memory of Anthony Shadid
• Documents for Sale  [Black History Month topic]
• History, Hockey, and the Holocaust

Sadly, this post begins with the passing of a talented journalist, whose dispatches from the Middle East I’ve listed many times in the RESOURCES and NOTES sections of previous posts.

In Memory of Anthony Shadid (1968-2012)

Thank you, Anthony, for all your great work.

My heartfelt sympathy to your family, especially to Nada and your children.

May all who mourn find peace and comfort.

Anthony Shadid was a hero, with a true calling. Intrepidly, to the very end, he reported from the frontlines of history--for the benefit of all of us. We could not ask for a more reliable witness. A hundred years from now historians will still probing the corners of the tragic conflicts, thwarted hopes, inspired awakenings, and amazing resilience of the people of our era. They will slip into the archives and find deeply moving stories of ordinary people, stories preserved only because Anthony Shadid listened to them. Then he shared their stories with us, planting seeds of empathy. His depth of knowledge about the peoples, cultures, and histories of the Middle East has enriched all who care about the heritage and the future of this region, where deep traditions converge and replenish each other.

  

"For the first time in a long time, we have the ability to imagine and, of course,

more importantly, to forge a new reality through that imagination."
 

Anthony Shadid, Address at the American University in Beirut (June 2011)

Eventually, I intend to write an extended essay about Shadid’s journalism–his storytelling, reporting, and analysis–and the debt future historians of the Middle East will owe to him. In the meantime, here are a few selected resources. Tributes abound on the Web–just Google "Anthony Shadid." Sample these and share excerpts with your students, or better yet, send your students to explore what Shadid’s friends and colleagues are saying about his work and its impact on their own endeavors.

　

RESOURCES: "Remembering Anthony Shadid." New York Times (Interactive): http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/02/17/world/middleeast/Anthony-Shadid-Remembrance.html?hp

• Tributes from friends and colleagues
• Links to Shadid’s articles in The New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe

TIMES TOPICS: "Anthony Shadid (1968-2012). New York Times: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/anthony_shadid/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=shadid&st=cse

Gladstone, Rich. "At Work in Syria, Times Correspondent Dies." New York Times (16 February 2012): http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/world/middleeast/anthony-shadid-a-new-york-times-reporter-dies-in-syria.html?ref=middleeast

"Anthony Shadid." Editorial. New York Times (17 February 2012): http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/opinion/anthony-shadid.html?scp=2&sq=shadid&st=cse

Farhi, Paul and Mary Beth Sheridan. "Correspondent Anthony Shadid, 43, Dies in Syria." Washington Post (16 February 2012): http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/correspondent-anthony-shadid-43-dies-in-syria/2012/02/16/gIQAo2NyIR_story.html?sub=AR

• Access to photo gallery (10 slides, links to discussion of Shadid’s work and to tributes from colleagues

Goodwin, Michele. "Goodbye, Anthony Shadid …" Chronicle of Education (17 February 2012): http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/goodbye-anthony-shadid%e2%80%a6/44130?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

• Heart-warming account by a close friend, who recalls t their undergrad days at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Johnson, Kayla. "Reporting Giant Anthony Shadid Dead at 43." Daily Cardinal (17 February 2012): http://host.madison.com/daily-cardinal/news/reporting-giant-anthony-shadid-dead-at/article_97a15b16-5941-11e1-9a0a-001871e3ce6c.html?tw_p=twt

• For photo of Shadid at work at the Daily Cardinal in the 1980s

Balaghi, Shiva. "Our Friend Anthony Shadid’s Stories." Jadaliyya (17 February 2012): http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/4417/our-friend-anthony-shadids-stories

• Nada Bakri (Shadid’s widow, also a New York Times reporter), responded to this piece: "Shiva, what you wrote is beautiful. I take so much solace in your words."
• "Jadaliyya is an independent ezine produced by ASI (Arab Studies Institute), the umbrella organization that produces Arab Studies Journal (www.ArabStudiesJournal.org)" and "combines local knowledge, scholarship, and advocacy with an eye to audiences in the United States, the Arab world, and beyond."  Published in Arabic and English.

Anthony Shadid’s memoir, House of Stone (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), will be released early, on February 28th. You can read an excerpt on the New York Times web site (published in the Sunday Review section on 18 February 2012): http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/opinion/sunday/house-of-stone.html

• It begins with the immigration of the Shadid family to America as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing–so a valuable primary source to use at that point in a WORLD HISTORY course or to bring the story of Arab immigrants into a UNITED STATES HISTORY classroom.

Also of special interest is the transcript of the speech he gave when awarded an honorary doctorate by the American University in Beirut: "Honorary Doctorate Recipient Anthony Shadid’s Address" (June 2011):
http://www.aub.edu.lb/commencement/program/Documents/Anthony-Shadid.pdf


Documents for Sale  
Whenever I hear that priceless historical documents are being foisted onto the auction block, I get a chill. Where will they end up? Will the integrity of a set of related documents be preserved for future historians and curators? Or will they float off to many different homes, making the work of future historians more difficult? If they land in the hands of private collectors, will they be misplaced or perhaps even forgotten?

On March 1st Swann Auction Galleries will offer for sale a treasure trove of documents collected by civil rights activists Clarence Mitchell, Jr., his wife Juanita Jackson Mitchell, and her mother Lillie Jackson. One folder of 200 documents is focused on the "Red Summer of 1919." There are also news releases and other items relating to the Joint Committee to Secure Equal Justice for Colored Riot Defendants and the National Conference on Lynching.

What makes these documents so special is that they have the potential to shed new light on events that occurred nearly 100 years ago. For example, original press releases may have hand-written notes or the published versions may not have survived.

Also for sale is a special "poster" created by Clarence Mitchell. He had received a copy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from Senator Claiborne Pell, one of its sponsors. Mitchell cut it into strips, then turned these into a collage for his office.   Art and politics and history–all hanging right on the wall.

Do your students think that the civil rights movement began in the 1950s? If they haven’t heard about the tumultuous events of 1919, send them to the Web to find out what transpired during the "Red Summer of 1919." Their research might focus on Chicago, Washington, DC, or Elaine, Arkansas (where the tenor to the times was explosive) or any of the nearly 40 cities where riots or outbreaks of violence occurred. Here is an opportunity to delve into local history so encourage research in local archives, copies of local newspapers, and documents residing in public libraries or historical societies. A project initiate now (after all, it is Black History month) can extend right to the end of the school year (research, drafting, revising, "publishing" the final product).

This is a topic for the WORLD HISTORY classroom, too, an excellent opportunity to link American history to a global context. Cameron McWhirter, in his recently published book Red Summer, argues that the awakening of 1919 was the birth of the civil rights movement. The global context is the dissatisfaction of black veterans after World War I and increasing tensions that had begun during the war years–when sharecroppers in the south had benefitted from higher cotton prices. Students can learn a great deal from listening to McWhirter talking about his book and from online book reviews. Teachers and advanced students may profit from listening to the longer Book TV program in its entirety.

RESOURCES:

"Papers Tell History of Civil Rights Era." New York Times (16 February 2012):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/arts/design/documents-of-the-civil-rights-era-all-about-rich-dogs.html?scp=1&sq=papers%20tell%20history%20of%20civil%20rights%20era&st=cse

"Red Summer (1919)." Part of the PBS webpage, "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow." PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_red.html

• Good place for students to start their research
• Box on right reminds teachers that Claude McKay’s poem, "If We Must Die," was inspired by the fatalities of 1919–so this is a topic for LITERATURE as well as HISTORY teachers (an excellent example of the relationship between history and the fine arts)
• Check out links to related pages (lower right-hand corner)
  　

  
"Red Summer of 1919." Wikipedia (last modified 31 January 2012): http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Red_Summer_of_1919&oldid=474245268

• Scroll down to "Chronology" section for list of cities where riots/confrontations occurred (then students can select any of these for more intensive research).
• "References" section includes links to large set of New York Times articles from 1919 (more convenient than searching the paper’s online archives–though such a exercise would sharpen students’ digital skills).
     

McWhirter, Cameron. Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America. New York: Henry Holt, 2011). Check out these reviews:

• Armstrong, Ken. The Seattle Times (16 July 2011): http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2015601697_br17redsummer.html
• Arnesen, Eric. Chicago Tribune (18 November 2011): http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-11-18/entertainment/sc-ent-books-red-summer-mcwhirter-20111118_1_black-labor-black-people-racial-violence
• Yardley, Jonathan. Washington Post (14 July 2011): http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/red-summer-by-cameron-mcwhirter-is-about-racial-violence-in-the-year-1919/2011/07/05/gIQAAfCmEI_story.html
• Taylor, Michael. Richmond Times-Dispatch (18 September 2011): http://www2.timesdispatch.com/entertainment/2011/sep/18/tdbook01-a-bloody-season-for-black-americans-ar-1309756/

"How the 'Red Summer' of 1919 Sparked the Civil Rights Movement." John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee interview with Cameron McWhirter. The Takeaway (19 July 2011): http://www.thetakeaway.org/2011/jul/19/how-red-summer-1919-sparked-civil-rights-movement/

• AUDIO: Just a few seconds over 9 minutes, so easily inserted into a lesson plan (for students a welcome change of pace)
  

"Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America." Book TV (2011?; 1 hour, 4 mins.): 
http://www.booktv.org/Watch/12746/Red+Summer+The+Summer+of+1919+and+the+Awakening+of+Black+America.aspx

• McWhirter, speaking in Atlanta at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum
• Too long for most typical classrooms but the first few minutes could introduce the topic (the author begins with Claude McKay’s poem and the experience that it encapsulates)–for example, in an American literature or history class

Especially for English/literature teachers: a new book of poems, Red Summer, by Amaud Jamaul Johnson (Tupelo Press, 2006): http://www.tupelopress.org/books/redsummer

• Five are poems reproduced on this page–for students to discuss along with Claude McKay’s classic

History, Hockey, and the Holocaust

In the sports section of Sunday’s New York Times there's a fascinating article about Evan Kaufmann, a young hockey player on the German national team. If you teach in any of the hockey-crazy communities of the US and Canada, you’ll hit the puck right into the net when you ask students to discuss Evan’s story. With this article you can craft a lesson about hockey, the Holocaust, identity, and forgiveness. (I’m recommending it for young people’s classes in synagogues and churches, not just for social studies and history in ordinary schools.)

 

Born in Minnesota, Evan Kaufmann played hockey for the University of Minnesota. When he didn’t get a spot on a National Hockey League team, he pounced on the chance to go pro in Germany. For Kaufman this was a return to the land of his ancestors–his Jewish ancestors. A great-grandfather and a great-grandmother died in the Holocaust, but his grandfather and great-aunt survived and emigrated to America.

 

Yet Evan Kaufman is proud to wear the German jersey, a jersey with the German flag on it. The Germans placed him on a fast-track to citizenship so, even though he admits to feeling more American--having lived in Germany for only four years, he is also committed to his new identity. That doesn’t mean he wants to forget the past: "Obviously, you never want to forget." But he can forgive: "I’m not going to hold it against a whole country for what happened long ago. You’re never going to move forward if you keep doing that."

 

RESOURCE: Jeré Longman, "A Jewish Hockey Player at History’s Indelible Crossroad," New York Times (18 February 2012): http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/sports/a-jewish-american-hockey-player-at-historys-indelible-crossroad.html?scp=1&sq=longman%20history's%20crossroad&st=cse

 

DISCUSS: What is life like for Evan and other Jews living in Germany? Is there a conflict between Evan’s Jewish identity and his German citizenship? What do other Jews think about his decision (play hockey in Germany, accept German citizenship)? What does Evan think his grandfather would approve or disapprove? What did his teammate Patrick Reimer mean when he said, "There is still a barrier in the head" ? Point out that Reimer doesn’t use the term Holocaust but refers to it as "what happened 70 years ago."

 

RESEARCH: The article mentions several Jewish athletes of the past and present (Germans or players on German teams): hockey player Rudi Ball, whose team won a bronze medal in 1932; soccer player Julius Hirsch, killed at Auschwitz; champion high jumper Margaret Bergmann Lambert, who was kept off the team in 1936 (now 97 and living in Queens, New York); swimmer Sarah Poewe (born in South Africa); soccer forward Itay Schechter, an Israeli. Send students to the web to find out about their stories and sports careers and then publish what they’ve learned on a class bulletin board (real or virtual). HINT: In additionto Googling, go directly to the New York Times site and search the archives (you’ll find several items about Margaret Bergmann Lambert).

   

Al Jadid: A True Gem

(This was supposed to be a short post, to fill in while I continued working on Part II of "Syria’s Ancient and Modern Mosaic." Like most recent posts it kept growing because I kept tracking down related items on the Web. Since summer is supposedly a good time to explore both online and offline, I hope you will take time to visit Al Jadid online, finding there not only its own riches but pathways to print media resources and novels, perhaps some you might find in your local library. Enjoy!)

UPDATE: I've added Mohammad Ali Atassi's eloquent, heart-wrenching but hopeful New York Times (June 27, 2011) op-ed piece to the Resources.

INTRODUCTION

"Shu iktashaft?" (What was your big discovery?). My big discovery last week was Al Jadid, a gem I found online while searching for sources on Islam in Syria.

Al Jadid is a quarterly print magazine devoted to Arab culture and the arts. It contains much topical material relevant to courses in world literature, art history, world history, and global affairs–much of it available in a very generous online archive. Its scope spans the Arab world, including the Arab diaspora. It is an excellent source of information about Arab-Americans, their literature, and issues related to being Arab or Arab-American (while living in the US and trying to connect or re-connect with Arab culture and history). Author Amy Wilentz discovered here "a wealth of opinion and information that no one else is publishing in English."

Elie Chalala, the editor of Al Jadid, was born in Lebanon, where he lived in Beirut until he left for the US about 30 years ago. He is a widely respected academic, with a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California Los Angeles. If you Google him, you’ll find not only his syllabi but long lists resources he has put online for his courses (see his Santa Monica College page: http://homepage.smc.edu/chalala_elie/).

Each issue has been put together, intentionally, to challenge conventional ideas about Arab culture, arts, and intellectual trends. The editor and staff are proud that Al Jadid has "covered scores of Arab intellectuals and artists under fire from the state or extremists" and that it has featured "lively debates between secular and religious, traditional and modernist voices" (see "About" on the home page). Elie Chalala is keenly aware of how context, and in particular politics and geopolitics, shapes cultural expression:

"In the U.S. we’ve had the demonizing and marginalizing of Arabs; in the Arab world, we have censorship issues, wars, civil strife, the vestiges of the colonial mentality, and the endless peace process. All of these factors impact and shape culture, and often find their most poignant, elegant expression in the arts."

For the current issue go to the home page (http://www.aljadid.com/). Running across the top is a menu from which you can access lists of essays and features, book reviews, interviews, and much more. Sample these lists and, thanks to serendipity, I bet you’ll find great material to consult as background when preparing lessons or that you can use directly with students (mostly high school and above). What’s most exciting (especially if you are unfamiliar with, for example, modern Arab literature in translation) is discovering the work of a new author or bumping into a fresh ideas. To entice you to explore Al Jadid, I’m going to present a few examples, but I won’t provide the URLs (so you’ll have to look for them on the site and, I hope, discover other useful items while you are there).

Essays and Features

When I printed the list (with a fairly small font), it ran to ten pages! There are numerous articles by Syrian writers, journalists, and academics. Scattered throughout the list are articles by Elie Chalala himself, a real boon since their peer-reviewed counterparts are mostly behind pay-walls or in JSTOR. (By the way, if you want to verify that Chalala is a real scholar, search Google Scholar.)

Another frequent contributor is Mohammad Ali Atassi, a Syrian journalist based in Beirut, whose comments on current events I’d already encountered in mainstream media (NPR, Los Angeles Times) and on the blog Syria Comment). Where did he fit into the spectrum of Middle East opinion? Curious to learn more about him, I searched the web and discovered that his family--prominent in Homs since the 16th century--included historical figures of major importance during much of the 20th century. (So I suggest sending students to do a similar search.)

The following articles give some sense of the variety of topics covered in Al Jadid:

1) Michael Teague’s "Syria Open Sesame?" is a timely piece for all of us who are current events buffs. Teague’s critique of four articles from the New York Times (a reputable newspaper despite its warts) reveals how media reaches out for a theme, ties it to a particular event or trend, and then adopts it as a framing device for a wild assortment of stories. This is a recurrent problem in US media, where reporters struggle to cast complex stories in terms that they imagine will make sense to ordinary Americans. Teague suggests that Kareem Fahim and other NYT journalists were so intrigued by signs that Syria was finally "opening up" that they ignored signs pointing in the opposite direction. Thus he finds Fahim’s reportage perceptive but out-of-balance. Only one of the four articles is properly described as "new analysis," however; the others are what we’d call human interest stories. Of course, when it comes to writing feature articles, journalists working for US media, must always ask themselves: What will catch the attention of American readers? In short, while I’d don’t entirely agree with Teague’s critique, I do think he raises very important issues, such as the influence of Washington and the US foreign policy establishment on media analysis of what’s happening in key regions or countries.

An additional benefit of using Teague’s article as a platform for a media literacy exercise (see Activities) is that it ties so directly into current events, especially the Fahim article about the Syrian government’s treatment of its resident Islamists.

2) An article of special interest to world literature and history instructors is Simone Fattal’s "The Passing of a Great Syrian Writer: Ilfat Idilbi, 1912-2007." Idilbi, born in Damascus and one of its beloved "cultural pillars," stands out as a pioneer among Arab women writers and as a nationalist and a feminist. Her novel Sabriya: Damascus Bitter Sweet is set during the revolt against the French in the 1920s (when Syria was a French mandate). The setting of her last book, The Story of My Grandfather, gives readers a vivid portrait of Ottoman Damascus during the late 19th century. I’m putting both books on my personal reading list, but I’ll start with Sabriya since it is easy to see how it would fit into a world history course (or a seminar in European imperialism), where it might be paired with a novel set in French Indochina or French West Africa. Both books are available in new and used copies from online vendors.
　

Interviews

1) For anyone wanting an introduction to Sufism, Sabah Zwein’s interview with Stefan Reichmuth is very informative. Reichmuth, a professor of Islamic Studies, gives a concise explanation of Sufi doctrine and clarifies the changing status of Sufism in the Ottoman Empire. What I found most valuable, however, was his brief discussion of Sufism as "a kind of civic organization" appealing to people outside the formal political structure but also serving as a bridging institution for immigrant communities. This approach to Sufism brings it into a broader analysis of civil society (where I now suspect it belongs).

2) Rebecca Joubin’s interview, "Syrian Artist Walid Agha Searches for the Spirit of the Letters," introduces the work of a fascinating artist. What intrigued me, as an instructor of world history, was Agha’s early exposure to a very deep tradition of Assyrian decorative art that, amazingly, he was exposed to as a child and his experimentation with Sumerian and Assyrian script in his highly original calligraphy. His work illustrates how cultural traditions are renewed through what Jan Vansina calls "repetition with difference."

Book Reviews

What makes this section invaluable are the reviews of books published in Arabic, whose content would otherwise be unavailable to many of us. In addition to the specialized information that we may glean from such reviews their true value lies in how they expose us the perspectives of books written for Arab audiences and thus shaped by concerns and issues that Arab writers and intellectuals deem important.

The list gives you the title of the review and its author--rather than title of the book under review and its author. So you’ll have to scan the lists and try to guess what the book may be about. This just makes exploring the list more enjoyable–though if pressed for time you might miss something good the first time around.

Here are three examples from the book review section:

1) Andrea Sahlal-Esa, "Rethinking the Mediterranean," reviews a book for all you world history fans (fanatics?). It was fairly easy to guess that the book itself might be a somewhat updated version of Breudel’s classic. Certainly, Iain Chambers's Mediterranean Crossings: The Politics of an Interrupted Modernity (Duke University Press, 2008) is a worthy companion and one with "a long overdue reclamation of the often hidden Arabic and Islamic history" of the region. If you haven’t already consulted this book, reading this review will convince you to put it high on your list.

2) In "Burdened Histories" Bhakati Shringarpure examines Anne Nivat’s The Wake of War: Encounters with the People of Iraq and Afghanistan (Beacon Press, 2005). Nivat is a reporter, as the reviewer puts it, "committed to long durations of travel and sustained conversations," which makes this book potentially a source of primary material for use in global studies as well as history classes. I also encourage language and reading teachers to take a look at this review and Nivat's book, where you’ll probably discover material adaptable to use in class.   The review leaves the impression that Nivat is a masterful writer of vignettes so doing an analysis of her craftsmanship might find a place in composition classes.

3) What drew me to Michael Najjar’s "Embracing Inbetweenness" was the title’s implicit mystery. In between what? This is a review of Sarah M. A. Gualtieri’s amazing book, Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora (University of California Press, 2009).

Now I’m generally familiar with how genes have flowed from nearly all directions into the Arab gene pool (an Arab being anyone who self-identifies as Arab). When I see curly-haired, café au lait Libyans, Yemenis, and Iraqis I suspect that this may be due to a remote genetic infusion from the Bilad as-Sudan or the Zanj coast or even further afield. (The Syrian firebrand, red-headed and fair-skinned preacher, Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, represents the other extreme of the continuum!) I was also generally aware of the racial conundrum that Middle Easterners and South Asians posed (still pose) in race conscious America. Yet this review refers briefly to an event in 1929 that I would not have imagined. Read the review and then get the book, where Gualtieri shares this and other horrifying stories.

ACTIVITIES

DISCUSS: Elie Chalala, when asked why he decided to make Arab literature and arts the focus of Al Jadid, gave this answer: "I think literature, anywhere in the world, provides an escape from political oppression. ... Literature remains the only area in society where individuals can escape the yoke of the state and express themselves." Use this quote to jump-start a discussion of any novel or short-story that reflects the experience of an author living in or writing about an authoritarian state.

MEDIA LITERACY PROJECT: First, assign Michael Teague’s article, "Syria Open Sesame?" DISCUSS the article to make sure that students understand Teague’s main points and can identify the issues he is raising. Then ask students to find and read the four NYT that he critiques (or three, if you want to omit Robert F. Worth’s article). If your students need to practice searching for specific items, send them to the NYT site to find and print the articles (rather than giving them the URLs, which are listed in Resources for your convenience). WRITE: After reading the NYT articles, students should evaluate Teague’s critique (that is, do a critique of the critique). Do they think Teague being fair in his analysis? Do they agree with Teague? Perhaps, they partly do, partly don’t. Ask students to write essays presenting their original analysis, stressing tha they must explain their points with specific reference to Teague and to the NYT articles. For advanced high school students this is a good exercise that will prepare them for critical reading and expository writing at the college-level.

RESEARCH: Explain to students that when evaluating online sources it is desirable to obtain background biographical information about the authors to have a better sense of what may be shaping their perspectives and opinions. Since Muhammad Ali Atassi is a frequent contributor to Al Jadid articles, send students to the Web to find out more about him and his family. Who was his father? Why is he based in Lebanon rather than Syria? What films has he made and what are they about?

I’d like to suggest that you PREVIEW/SELECT an excerpt from either of Atassi’s documentaries to show in class. However, a quick check online suggested that these are not (yet) readily available–though I suspect that a DVD of "Waiting for Abu Zayed" may soon appear (so keep checking).

DISCUSS: In "Waiting for Abu Zayd" Nasr Hamed Abu Zayd makes these provocative, insightful observations: "The intellectual who claims ownership of the Truth is the other leg of the dictator. When an intellectual claims to own the Truth he becomes the dictator’s servant."  The quote is from Jim Quilty’s film review (see Resources). What a piquant quote to turn students’ attention to the predicament of intellectuals in societieties where the cost of "speaking out" is so high! ASK: What does Abu Zayd mean by "ownership of the Truth"? Can you think of instances today or in the past where people assert (have asserted) that "own" the only true ideas? What kinds of service to a dictator is Abu Zayd talking about? ASK for historical examples (what popped into my mind was the book Theologians under Hitler by Robert P. Ericksen). Where is this happening today? (Perhaps in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad’s spokesperson Boutheina Shabaan’s intentions may be good but the results may prove tragic.). And aren’t there also insidious relationships between intellectuals and politicians in "democratic" countries, too?

SEARCH online for more information about Syrian writer Ulfat Idilbi. Note that "Ulfat" (the spelling you will find online) is the transliteration used when her novels were translated and published in English. Students should find, rather easily, the obituary published in The Guardian. Ask them to read it to discover why, when she married at age 17, she decided to use her husband’s name. (Note that the Al Jadid article does not appear in a Google search unless you switch to the alternate spelling.)

FIND/EXAMINE closely online examples of the art work of Walid Agha. DISCUSS: What makes Agha’s art both traditional and modern at the same time? Refer to clues in the interview but try to connect these to visual elements in the examples.

RESOURCES

Al Jadid: A Review & Record of Arab Culture and Art: http://www.aljadid.com/

Gheytanchi, Elham. "More Than That." Interview with Elie Chalala. The Iranian (December 23, 2002): http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2002/December/Chalala/index.html

　
Mohammad Ali Atassi

Atassi,Mohammad Ali.  "My Syria, Awake Again After 40 Years."  New York Times (June 27, 2011):
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/opinion/27Atassi.html?scp=1&sq=mohammad%20atassi&st=cse

"Syria Steps Up Crackdown on Protesters." NPR (April 25, 2011): http://www.npr

• Michele Norris, speaking with Deborah Amos and Mohammed Ali Atassi about a letter signed by more than 100 Syrian journalists and intellectuals (both inside/outside the country) in which they condemn the violence in Syria

Atassi, Mohammad Ali. "What the People Want ..." Heinrich Böll Stiftung North America: Perspectives: http://www.boell-meo.org/downloads/Perspectives_02-04_Mohammed_Ali_Atassi.pdf

• Atassi discusses the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, putting these into a larger context and taking issue with certain conventional views about Arab politics, the potential for revolution, and the Islamist factor. Translated from Arabic.
• "We are a political non-profit organization striving to promote democracy, civil society, equality and a healthy environment internationally. Headquarterd in Berlin/Germany, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung has 28 offices worldwide and cooperates with more than 200 partners in more than 60 countries."

Wright, Robin. Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East. Penguin, 2008.   Partially available at Google Books: search Atassi.

• Wright reveals that he is the son of Nurreddin al-Atassi, the president of Syria who was ousted by Hafez Assad in 1970 (p. 214)

"Atassi." Abitabout: http://www.abitabout.com/Atassi

• Family history based (apparently) on information from the Atassi family site; this family claims descent from Prophet Muhammad; their roots in Homs, where they were the recognized muftis, go back to the 16^th century.

FILM: "Ibn al-Aam." A documentary by Mohammad Al Atassi, 2001.

• About Riad al-Turk, a Syrian communist turned social democrat, whose life of political dissent and years of imprisonment shed much light on decades of Syrian politics. (An online search will bring up his commentary on recent events in the Middle East.)

FILM: "Waiting for Abu Zayd." A documentary by Mohammad Al Atassi. 2010. Arabic with English subtitles. 82 minutes.

• Atassi’s "portrait of a liberal Islamic scholar who dared to challenge conservative Islamic trends from within Islam." After Abu Zayd was "condemned for apostasy in Egypt on the grounds of his rational writings on the Qur’an, in which he places the religious text in a historical and cultural context," he and his wife left for the Netherlands, where he taught at Leiden University. Using footage shot over six years, Atassi strove to capture both Abu Zayd’s ideas and his interaction with the media. Abu Zayd died suddenly in 2010, shortly after the film was completed.
• For a brief biographical note on Atassi and a photo: http://www.dox-box.org/2011/index.php?ang=2&&page=show&dir=items&ex=2&year=2011&cid=7&fid=57 (also the source of the info/quotes in previous bullet).

FILM REVIEW: Jim Quilty, "Putting Flesh and Blood into a liberal Vision of Islam." The Daily Star: Lebanon (September 18, 2010): http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Film/Sep/18/Putting-flesh-and-blood-into-a-liberal-vision-of-Islam.ashx#axzz1QKpn4y62


Articles Critiqued by Michael Teague

Fahim, Kareem. "Syria’s Solidarity With Islamists Ends at Home." New York Times (September 3, 2011): http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/world/middleeast/04syria.html?scp=3&sq=kareem%20fahim%20syria%202010&st=cse

Fahim, Kareem, and Nawara Mafoud. "Damascus Journal: Evenings of Poetry Provide a Space for New Voices." New York Times (September 19, 2010): http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/world/middleeast/20poetry.html?scp=2&sq=kareem%20fahim%20syria%202010&st=cse

Fahim, Kareem. "Doors Start to Open to Activists in Syria." New York Times (August 28, 2011): http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/world/middleeast/29syria.html?scp=1&sq=kareem%20fahim%20syria%202010&st=cse

Worth, Robert F. "The Saturday Profile: Syrian Actress Tests Boundaries Again." New York Times (October 1, 2010): http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/world/middleeast/02actress.html?scp=1&sq=robert%20worth%20syrian%20actress&st=cse

　
Ulfat Idilbi

Clark, Peter. "Ulfat Idilbi: Renowned Syrian Fiction Writer, Lecturer and Feminist." The Guardian (April 19, 2007): http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/apr/19/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries/print

Moubayed, Sami. "Farewell Sabriya." Mideast Views: http://mideastviews.com/print.php?art=196

McPhee, Jenny. Review of Sabriya: Damascus Bitter Sweet. New York Times (September 7, 1997): http://nytimes.com/books/97/09/07/bib/970907.rv104334.html

Mohja, Kahf. "The Silence of Contemporary Syrian Literature." World Literature Today (2001). URL: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/Print/Article.aspx?id=80500168

• For discussion of Idilbi’s work go to the section "The Poetics of Syrian Silence" (about half-way through the article).
• An article for teachers and advanced students.

Walid Agha

Albareh Art Gallery: Walid Agha. http://www.albareh.com/Albareh/Walid%20Agha.html

• For a detailed list of Agha’s numerous exhibitions and six examples of his work.

Syrian Art Directory. http://www.syriaart.com/new/index.php?page=viewArtist&id=51

• Photo of the artist (list of exhibitions, same as above) and four examples of his work.

Hisham Matar: What Happened to My Father?

(In "Libya: Pain, Patience, and Now Action" I wrote about Libyan novelist Muhammad al-Asfar, whose brother was killed in the Abu Salim massacre. My point of departure was al-Asfar’s essay in the New York Times. That piece was translated by Libyan novelist Hisham Matar, whose family’s tale of sorrow takes us into another Libyan experience.)

Today Ajdabiya is in the hands of forces loyal to Muammar el-Qaddafi, opening the way to Benghazi, a rebel stronghold that may fall in a matter of days. Tony Birtley, Al-Jazeera’s correspondent in Benghazi, thinks that rebels in this city of more than 800,000 will "fight this every inch of the way" for "they know they have a lot to lose" (1).

I can’t imagine what Libyans living in exile are feeling. While the rebels were pushing westward, they were so elated, "filled with pride that a new country is being born" (2). Writing in the New York Times, Hisham Matar was convinced that history was on the rebel side, that "the courage and humanity of Libyans has been extraordinary" (3). Now hope is ebbing–amid fears of a bloodbath and brutal recriminations against all those who have opposed Qaddafi’s regime. These fears are very real. People will disappear--to be imprisoned and tortured or killed (4). Children will lose their parents and some, like Hisham Matar, will not know what has happened to them.

Hisham Matar, who lives in London, has not set foot in Libya since 1979. He was only eight years old when his father Jaballa Matar was listed as an enemy of the regime and had to flee Libya. His father returned briefly, allowing his wife and sons to leave, and eventually the family was reunited in Egypt. In Cairo, Jaballa Matar, a former UN diplomat, turned to political activism. In 1990 he was abducted from their home by the Egyptians, who returned him to Libya. He was put in prison, with no means of contacting his family except for two letters smuggled out, the last one in 1995. Another political prisoner reported seeing him in 2002. Now, just as Mohammad Al-Asfar’s daughter asks about her uncle, Hisham Matar’s niece asks him, "Uncle, where is Granddad?" (5). For Matar, this is an arrow through the heart, the question he cannot answer. Is his father dead or alive?

Embedded in Matar’s fiction is the impact of more than twenty years of separation from his father. In his stunning debut novel, In the Country of Men, short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, a young Libyan boy must cope with life after his father, an anti-Gaddafi activist, flees the country. While the novel evokes Tripoli in the 1970s, as Matar remembers it, he did not intend it to be "about Libya." The story began "with the voice of the boy, and then it became a book about love, betrayal and powerlessness" (6). In his second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance (published this month) Nuri, whose mother died when he was eight, struggles to understand the sudden disappearance--for no apparent reason–of his father. This is coming-of-age-story, complicated by Nuri’s relationship with his stepmother. As an adult he learns that his father was very unlike the man he had supposed him to be. One reviewer finds "the novel’s strength is its examination of the impact of absence for those left behind" (7).

That this is fiction reflecting personal experience, Matar freely admits. As he put it in an interview: "There’s something very bizarre about having a father who has disappeared" and the reason is that "this is so unfamiliar and unexpected." Is this why he turned to fiction? "I sometimes wonder if I would have become a writer if what happened to my father hadn’t happened" (8).

For years Matar has sought information about the fate of his father, yet he also moved on with his life. And he is not seeking retribution. Instead, he poses for all of us a challenging question: "How do we remain whole and free from hate, yet truthful to our memory?" (9).

ACTIVITIES

READ: Put In the Country of Men on your priority or summer reading list and consider making it part of a World History or World Literature course in the near future.

CURRENT EVENTS: If you want to bring a Libyan point of view to a discussion of the Libyan revolution, assign Cressida Leyshon’s e-mail interview with Matar, posted on The New Yorker blog page.

READ/DISCUSS: Students read Hisham Matar’s moving account, "I Just Want to Know What Happened to My Father."  How has the history of Libya intersected with Hisham's life? How does the experience of his family explain the fervor of the Libyan rebels? 

LISTEN/WATCH: Prepare students for a writing exercise by playing "Looking for Jaballah Matar" or showing "Hisham Matar’s Search for His Missing Father." In addition (or as an alternative) give them time to EXPLORE the Free Jaballa Matar web site. WRITE: If you were Hisham what would you be doing to find out what had happened to your father?

READ: Matar says that "For years after I lost him I wondered if all of his activism and sacrifice was for nothing." How does he feel now?  Read "Libya Calling" to find the answer.

RESEARCH: First have students read an excerpt from Matar’s account in The Independent (first five paragraphs) as preparation. Then ask them to find online sources about Muammar el-Qaddafi’s repressive tactics during the late 1970s: the Revolutionary Committees, attacks on the press, book burning; and the persecution of intellectuals, students, and well-to-do businessmen. They might search the New York Times archive, for example.

RESEARCH: Students read "The Men Over the Hill," a short non-fiction narrative about an encounter a five-year old Matar had with the Leader (el-Qaddafi) and President Idi Amin of Uganda. Find out why Libya and Uganda established such close relations (10).

RESOURCES

Free Jaballa Matar. http://freematar.org

• For many links see the "News" page of this web site: http://freematar.org/?page_id=14

LISTEN: "Looking for Jaballah Matar." BBC World Service Radio Documentary (April 21, 2010): http://freematar.org/?p=311

• "In this special documentary, Razia Iqbal reports on the human cost of abduction and disappearance against the backdrop of delicate diplomatic relations and serious trade and business interests."

WATCH (television interview): "Hisham Matar’s Search for His Missing Father." BBC World News (February 25, 2010): http://freematar.org/?p=303

LISTEN (podcast: 36 mins.): "Guardian Books Podcast: Imagining Libya with Hisham Matar, and World Book Day." The Guardian (March 4, 2011): http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2011/mar/04/hisham-matar-world-book-day-podcast

• Here Matar shares his views "about the perils of mixing fact and fiction" in the first part of the podcast.

Matar, Hisham. "Hisham Matar: ‘I Just Want to Know What Happened to My Father.’" The Independent (July 16, 2006): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/hisham-matar-i-just-want-to-know-what-happened-to-my-father-407444.html

Matar, Hisham. "The Men Over the Hill." Words Without Borders (2007): http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/the-men-over-the-hill/

Matar, Hisham. "Seeing What We Want to See in Qaddafi." New York Times (2-5-2007): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/opinion/05matar.html

Matar, Hisham. "After Tunisia: Hisham Matar on Egypt." The Guardian (January 27, 2011): http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/28/after-tunisia-hisham-matar-libya

Matar, Hisham. "Hiding Out." Slate (February 26, 2011): http://www.slate.com/id/2286553/

Matar, Hisham. "Hisham Matar on Libya." Posted by Cressida Leyshon. The New Yorker (March 7, 2011): http://www.newyorker.com/online blogs/books/2011/03/hisham-matar-on-libya-1.html

Matar, Hisham. "Libya Calling." New York Times (March 10, 2011):
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/opinion/10matar.html

Derbyshire, Jonathan. "The Books Interview; Hisham Matar." New Statesman (January 25, 2011): http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2010/01/interview-father-prison

Nakhoul, Samia. "Libyan Exiles See the Birth of a New Nation." Reuters (March 10, 2011): http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/10/libya-exiles-idUSLDE7271WA20110310
Truth and Justice Can’t Wait: Human Rights Developments in Libya Amid Institutional Obstacles

FICTION BY HISHAM MATAR

In the Country of Men.  Viking, 2006.  dial Press, 2007.

• Widely-acclaimed novel, translated into more than 20 languages. It was put on the short list for both the Man Booker Prize (2006) and The Guardian First Book Award. In 2007 it won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize.
• Extract: "Mother’s Ruin," The Guardian (December 2, 2006): http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/dec/02/featuresreviews.guardianreview14?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
• Review: Stephen Moss, "Love, Loss and All Points in Between," The Guardian (June 29, 2006): http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/jul/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview19?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
• Review: Oscar Turner, "Muammar, We’re All Crazy Now," The Observer (July 16, 2006): http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/jul/16/fiction.features2?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
• Review: Lorraine Adams, "The Dissident’s Son," New York Times (March 4, 2007): http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01EEDA133EF937A35750C0A9619C8B63&scp=2&sq=hisham%20matar&st=cse
• Article: Richard Lea, "Matar’s Tale of Latterday Libya Takes Ondaatje Prize," The Guardian (May 3, 2007): http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/may/03/news.ondaatjeprize

Anatomy of a Disappearance.  Viking, 2011.

• Review: The New Statesman (March 10, 2011): http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/03/father-nuri-disappearance
• Review: Tim Adams, The Guardian (March 6, 2011): http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/mar/06/hisham-matar-anatomy-disappearance-libya?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

"Naima." The New Yorker (January 24, 2011). Also online: http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2011/01/24/11024fi_fiction_matar

NOTES

1) "Gaddafi’s Son: Battle for Libya Almost Over." Al Jazeera (March 16, 2011): http://english.aljzeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/201131614230683317.html

2) For the views of Hisham Matar and Huda Abuzeid (whose father, also a dissident, was killed by Qaddafi’s thugs in London) see Samia Nakhol, "Libyan Exiles See the Birth of a New Nation," Reuters (March 10, 2011): http://af.reuters.com/article. Matar’s paternal roots are in Ajdabiya, a town with a long history of resistance and opposition. His grandfather was wounded in a battle against Mussolini’s forces (see "Hisham Matar on Libya" in RESOURCES). Now that Qaddafi’s troops have re-occupied Ajdabiya, any remaining relatives are in danger. Also check Matar’s Twitter account http://twitter.com/hishamjmatar. For other exile responses, see for example, these blogs: Anglo-Libyan (http://www.anglo-libyan.com/); White African (http://whitelibyanafrican.blogspot.com/).

3) Matar, "Libya Calling" (see RESOURCES).

4) See the Human Rights Watch report, Truth and Justice Can’t Wait (see RESOURCES). For arecent traumatic discovery in Benghazi see Sudarsan Raghavan, "In Libya, an Underground Jail a Daunting Reminder of Moammar Gaddafi’s Grip, Washinton Post (March 12, 2011): http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-libya-underground-jail-a-daunting-reminder-of-moammar-gaddafis-grip.  Also Richard Cohen, "Gaddafi Has Long History as a Killer–and Must Be Stopped," washington Post (March 14, 2011): http://washingtonpost.com/opinions/gaddafi-has-a-long historya-as-a killer-and-must-be-stopped.

5) Hisham Matar, "I Just Want to Know ..." (see RESOURCES); the niece is the daughter of his brother Ziad (see quotation near end of the piece). Matar describes Ziad’s frightening encounter with Libyan agents in Switzerland in the first half of "Hiding Out" (see RESOURCES).

6) Richard Lea, "Matar’s Tale of Latterday Libya," The Guardian (May 3, 2007): http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/may/03/news.ondaatjeprize.

7) Samira Shackle, "In the Name of the Father," New Statesman (March 10, 2011): http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/03/father-nuri-disappearance

8) Jonathan Derbyshire, "The Book Interview" (see RESOURCES).

9) Matar, "I Just Want to Know ..."

10) "Libyan Ventures in Sub-Saharan Africa" (http://countrystudies.us/libya/33.htm) includes some information on Libyan-Uganda relations in the 1970s. Another source is Helen Chapin Metz, Libya (reprint edition: Kessinger Publishing, 2004), available as at Google Books: http://books.google.com; search the book for "Uganda." 

Libya: Pain, Patience, and Now Action

Eloquent even in its English translation, "Libya’s Patient Revolutionaries" is a tribute by Libyan novelist Mohammad al-Asfar to his only brother, who was killed at Abu Salim prison in 1996 (1). The essay begins with a little girl, trying to find out why her beloved uncle is missing: "Where’s Uncle, Daddy?" And so it is that al-Asfar takes the reader into the deepest corner of a mourning heart.

This piece, appearing in yesterday’s New York Times, is essential for anyone trying to imagine the human dimension of Libyan experience. "Mohammed Al-Asfar’s writing has been described as an expression of the grief of living under dictatorship. In this way, his work describes the unsaid and unmentionable. His characters are a terrible expression of how coded and ambiguously allegorical art often is forced to become under state censorship" (2). He tells us that his first, second, third novels had their source in the trauma of the Abu Salim massacre, on June 29, 1996, when more than 1200 prisoners were executed by machine-gun toting troops under the command of Abdullah Sanussi (al-Qaddafi’s brother-in-law).

What triggered the Libyan protests was the arrest on February 15 of an intrepid and persistent lawyer, Fathi Terbil, whose efforts on behalf of the families of those massacred had angered Muammar al-Qaddafi. What needs more recognition, however, are the four years of protests in Benghazi prior to the those that turned into the current uprising. In these smaller protests--persistently and patiently--families had gathered every Saturday to demand answers: Who had died? Where were the bodies buried? Would the government hold anyone responsible? Would the perpetrators be punished? Patient but no longer passive, these protesters prepared the way for an uprising that has turned into an incipient civil war (3). Now is the time of action ... and perhaps liberation for all of Libya.

Fathi Terbil’s story, Mohammad al-Asfar’s story, and many others help us to understand the suffering of the Libyan people during the nearly 42 years of Muammar al-Qaddafi’s regime. Such stories may evoke empathy in even the most stubbornly parochial American students, breaking through their indifference to an understanding of what their peers have to endure in lands ruled by tyrants.

Al-Asfar is master of literary craft. Teachers in a language arts or world literature course have an opportunity here to showcase not only the artistry but the commitment of a Libyan author. Bringing al-Asfar’s work into the classroom–while Libya’s future is still so uncertain (tragedy? chaos? democracy?)– will connect current events to the world of literature. In this way students will learn about the relevance and relatedness of literature to the lives of real people.

Two of al-Asfar’s short stories, translated from Arabic into English, are online at Words Without Borders (4). These are very short (only a page or two of printed text), making it easy to insert either or both into the classroom without crowding out other material. They could be added, for example, to a unit focused on short stories (keep them in mind for next year if you can’t use them right now).

For more about Libyan literature (translated into English) go to the Arabic Literature (in English) web site.  See its summary of a special issue of the journal Banipal, devoted to Libya authors (https://arablit.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/who-will-you-find-in-banipal-40-libyan-fiction/).
　　
Al-Asfar in the Classroom

ANALYSIS: Print copies of "Libya’s Patient Revolutionaries" and ask students to do a close reading. First toss out a few questions to check on students’ comprehension of the piece. Then divide the class into groups of 3-4 to analyze its rhetoric and structure. What makes it so effective? How do al-Asfar’s writing strategies evoke empathetic response in his readers?

FICTION AS A REFLECTION OF EXPERIENCE: In a literature class assign one or both of al-Asfar’s stories. To appreciate these stories students do not need to read the more difficult "Libya’s Patient Revolutionaries" but the stories do help us to imagine the kind of patience that he writes about in the essay. A teacher can read the essay as part of his/her preparation, then share its theme with students. ASK: Are the characters in the story being patient? How do we know this? Why are they patient? From the author’s tone, can we tell whether he was discouraged or hopeful when he wrote these stories?

COLLABORATE: Team up with a language arts teachers (or a social studies teacher) to assign either "Libya’s Patient Revolutionaries" or one/both of the short stories. Do the writing analysis or read the stories as a break from the usual curriculum in language arts/literature. Then in the social studies class take up events in Libya or in a history class pursue the historical background.

Current Events and Research Skills

References to key events in Libya’s modern history are woven into "Libya’s Patient Revolutionaries." For Mohammad al-Asfar and his family the most personal of these events is the 1996 prison massacre, but he also draws readers’ attention to Libyan resistance to Italian colonialism and its martyr, Omar al-Mukhtar. For nearly twenty years al-Mukhtar fought the Italians, until they captured and hanged him in 1931 (5).

Al-Asfar mentions other events suitable for online research--for which agents of the Libyan government have been held responsible (the disappearance of a prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric in Libya in 1978, the Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie in 1988).  Given the relevance of the Abu Salim massacre to the current uprising, I’m going to suggest using it as a topic in a lesson designed to develop research and media literacy skills.

Basically, either of two strategies could be followed, depending on time available and students’ present skill level.

OPEN-ENDED/INDEPENDENT WORK: If students are familiar with doing online research, you can send them to Google or another search engine to find out more about the prison massacre.  Probably this will be more successful if you first discuss what to type into the search box. IN-CLASS: students search, select and read for part of the class and then report back orally (briefly at the end of class or during the next class). This can be converted to a written homework assignment. If possible students should print-out articles to hand-in so you can check what they say/write against the sources.

STRUCTURED SEARCH EXERCISE: Use a worksheet that requires students to perform specific search and evaluation tasks. Here’s one possibility that begins with a search at the New York Times archive:

1) Use any NYT search box to get started by typing in "abu salim prison libya"; on the results page select "Since 1981" and click search again (for 6 hits but only 5 are relevant):

• #1: "Libya’s Patient Revolutionaries"
• #2 and #3: references to Abu Salim in recent news articles (February 17, 2011; February 18, 2011)
• #4: op-ed essay by Hisham Matar (Feb 5, 2007)
• #5: reference to Abu Salim in article by reporter Anthony Shadid (February 20, 2011)

3) Find out if the massacre was reported in the NYT at any time it occurred or within a year of the event. First, click "Advanced" and set range to "From June 1, 1996 to June 1, 1997" (no hits).

4) Find out what stories about Libya were covered in the NYT during this same timeframe. Sample the results (first 2-3 pages). List these topics.

5) Click back to the "abu salim libya" results page and change the search to "abu salim libya 1996" and click search (no results); then scroll down to bottom of page and click on "Search the web for abu salim libya 1996"

• This web search brings up several pages of results. The purpose of this task is to point out a very handy feature of the NYT archive.

6) Evaluate the potential usefulness of the resources on the first page (or first/second pages) of these results.

• These are mostly informative and reliable resources. #1 is the Human Rights Watch report listed in the Resources section of this post.

7) Go to Google or Bing or another search engine and search "abu salim prison libya 1996" and compare these results with those from the NYT search.

8) Students WRITE a report based on what they have learned about the Abu Salim massacre. Require a set number of sources (at least three). It is strongly recommended that students explain why they selected these sources (using an annotated bibliography OR footnotes or an short appendix).


Resources for the Abu Salim Prison Massacre

Use these resources for preparation or assign as an alternative to student research. The Lindsey Hilsum video, including interviews with relatives of those killed at Abu Salim and with their lawyer Fathi Terbil, is excellent–for usein any classroom where events in Libya are being discussed.

"Libya: June 1996 Killings at Abu Salim Prison," Human Rights Watch (June 28, 2006). http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2006/06/28/libya-june-1996-killings-abu-salim-prison

• You can download a PDF but this is not necessary: simply click "Read the report" and print.
• Check links at end of report for related content from the National Front for the Salvation of Libya and from Libyan Human Rights Solidarity.

"Libya Urged to Thoroughly Investigate 1996 Mass Prison Killings." Amnesty International (June 29, 2011): http://www.amnestymaroc.org/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=95:libya-urged-to-thoroughly-investigate-1996-mass-prison-killings&catid=1:latest-news

Abdurrahman, Najla. "What If Libya Staged a Revolution and Nobody Came?" Foreign Policy (February 17, 2011). http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/17/what_if_libya_staged_a_revolution_and_nobody_came

Hilsum, Lindsey. "Meeting the Families Left Behind by Gaddafi’s Prison Massacre." Channel 4 (March 1, 2011): http://blogs.channel4.com/world-news-blog/meeting-the-families-left-behind-by-gaddafis-prison-massacre/15306

• Scroll down to find the video. Access also from Andrew Worthington’s post (where Hilsum’s text is appended).

　
Matar, Hisham. "Seeing What We Want to See in Qaddafi." New York Times (2-5-2007).

Roth, Kenneth. "Don’t Let Libya Off the Hook." New York Times (1-29-2006).

Worthington, Andrew. "How the Abu Salim Prison Massacre in 1996 Inspired the Revolution in Libya" (March 2, 2011): http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2011/03/02/how-the-abu-salim-prison-massacre-in-1996-inspired-the-revolution-in-libya/

　
Notes

1) Mohammad al-Asfar. "Libya’s Patient Revolutionaries." New York Times (3-3-2011): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/opinion/03asfar.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

2) Text for Words Without Borders: http://wordswithoutborders.org/contributor/mohammed-al-asfar/

3) For a detailed account see "Libya: June 1996 Killings at Abu Salim Prison," Human Rights Watch (June 28, 2006).  Andrew Worthington argues that the Abu Salim massacre has served as Libya’s "symbolic trigger" in a manner similar to that of Sidi Bouzid’s self-immolation (Tunisia) or the brutal murder of Khaled Said (Egypt). See "How the Abu Salim Prison Massacre in 1996 Inspired the Revolution in Libya" (March 2, 2011): http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2011/03/02/how-the-abu-salim-prison-massacre-in-1996-inspired-the-revolution-in-libya/

4) "Wet Sleeves" and "Mint Flavored Hiccups" are available on the Mohammed al-Asfar page of Words Without Borders: http://wordswithoutborders.org/contributor/mohammed-al-asfar/

5) Italy took Libya from the Ottoman Empire in 1911. Finding it difficult to occupy the country, the Italians used force to "pacify" and unify its three parts (Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and the Fezzan). Al-Muktar’s resistance began in 1912 and continued after the 1920 Treaty of ar-Raima whereby Italy recognized the nominal local authority of the head of the Sanusiyya (a Sufi brotherhood). From 1931 to 1933 the Italians dealt with any residual resistance. In the late 1930s Mussolini sent about 30,000 Italian settlers to Libya. The movie "Lion of the Desert" (1981, starring Anthony Quinn) tells al-Mukhtar’s story. See Joseph A. Kechichian, "Omar Al Mukhtar: The Teacher Turned Freedom Fighter" (http://libyamonitor.blogspot.com/2008/11/omsr-al-mukhtar-teacher-turned-freedom.html); originally part of a longer article in Weekend Review (http://gulfnews.com/about-gulf-news/al-nisr-portfolio/weekend-review/articles/sceptre-that-yielded-to-dictates-of-intellect-1.40994).  For Al-Qaddafi’s appropriation of this national iconic figure see "Colonel Gaddafi Reminds Italy of Arrest of Omar al-Mukhtar." Timesonline (June 11, 2009): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6474121.ece.