I am currently reading Salma Abdelnour’s book ‘Jasmine and Fire’. Abdelnour is a New York based author of Lebanese origin who decided to spend some time in Beirut, the city of her birth.
While I was reading about her experiences, I found myself seeking out the very same places, the recipes of dishes, and the music that speckled the landscape of Beirut and thereabouts. I found that reading by those acts became a very different sensory experience.
Due to the explosion of the creator economy, the method of engaging with a place and time whilst reading has undergone a transformation. When I read non-fiction works on historical events, I often accompany my reading with viewings of those events on youtube. The easy access to multimedia content created by technologically empowered creators has shaped my reading of travelogues, memoirs, history, sports, and other non-fiction works.
I’ve never been to the Middle East, but I traveled vicariously and heard the sights and sounds of Beirut via this multimedia explosion, triggered by ‘Jasmine and Fire’.
I am amazed by this transformation. I recall a time just a decade or so ago, when I had to imagine what a city street looked and sounded like. A dish at a restaurant mentioned by a travel writer was mysterious. The garments of the natives exotic.
Perhaps, there was some virtue in these imaginings. A part of me laments that places are no longer exotic or mysterious. Virtually, everything has been catalogued. There is very little that can invoke a feeling of awe.
Maybe, this brave new world is a different version from that of which Emily Dickinson wrote;
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul –
A utilitarian might ask if all these meanderings have any value. Apart from broadening my mind, and giving me fleeting moments of joy, perhaps not. But then, the mere knowledge of an artiste, or the name of a dish, or a place, helps me connect with many people. We tend to be comfortable with those that look to weave common threads with us. Those that make connections from nothing that seems obvious. That is virtue in itself.
It is as Mary Oliver wrote;
What is the greatest gift?
Could it be the world itself—the oceans, the meadowlark,
the patience of the trees in the wind?
Could it be love, with its sweet clamor of passion?Something else—something else entirely
holds me in thrall.
That you have a life that I wonder about
more than I wonder about my own.
Oh, the places you will go.
Music
The trawling of the web triggered by ‘Jasmine and Fire’ led me to other virtual journeys, along the meandering paths of youtube and Spotify. So, here are the examples of some lovely mellow contemporary Arabic music spanning from North Africa to Western Asia that I serendipitously discovered recently. I've linked the youtubes for your enjoyment. Of course, I do not understand the language and google the English translations.
Zina is a song by the Algerian group Babylone, who like other bands from that country sing a mixture of classical Arabic, Algerian Arabic, Berber and other regional dialects. Considering that it comprised a dentist, a computer scientist and another university grad, they could have been a staple of college hallways. I'm glad someone discovered the. Check out their other recordings here. Then, Zina led to an Arabic & Hebrew version sung by an Orthodox Jewish singer from the audition round of the Israeli version of The Voice, a Coke Studio like version from the original band Babylone, and a brilliant version by Lebanese singer Carla Chamoun.
A Canadian oud player, Ali Omar El-Farouk gathered his friends to cover the classic Greetings. While you're at it, listen to the original by Hamza El Din, the Nubian electrical engineer who switched majors and went on to perform with the Grateful Dead etc)
I've been a fan of the gorgeous Algerian-in-exile Souad Massi since 2005. She did a live version of her signature Ghir Enta last year. Here is a recording from last year, Enta Wena.
Algerian Idir's older live version of A vava inouva, an Amazigh song (Berber) is quite fantastic - this one was with a singer called Karen Matheson (observe Zinadine Zidane in the audience around the 1.10 mark). A simple melody is such a uniter. Here's a demonstration of a large crowd humming the song as soon as he strums a few notes a year or two before he died in 2020. He also did a simple and beautiful version for TV with his original co-singer Dania Ben Sassi, a Libyan. She sounds so good!
That led me to Ruba Shamshoum whose Fuqaati (my bubble) is really good. Here's a wonderful live version. This is her song Sununu.
This young Jewish lady singing an Arabic (Moroccan dialect) song Muhal Nensah, with elders in a Jerusalem cafe. Perhaps, all first or second gen Moroccan emigres. Here’s the wonderful group A Wa comprised of Yemeni Jewish sisters singing Hana Mash Hu Al Yaman, about the difficulties her family had when they performed aliyah.
We have to end on a crescendo, no? Julia, live in Tyre, with Ghabet Shams. Here, the Lebanese crowd is phenomenal.
Recipes
There are many variations of Fattoush, a refreshing & flavorful salad, but I like Nadia Gilbert's Palestinian version.
There's a content creator called Anthony Rahayel who does videos of different restaurants/dishes in Lebanon. I liked this video of the Lebanese take on Ful Mudammas. That said, I am still loyal to this recipe by Somali-Canadian Xawaash.
The simple fried egg dish by Al-Sousi in Beirut.
I could eat Manoushe every day. I have a great Za'atar from Beirut via our local intl store, but you can also get Zaatar variations from different countries via Amazon.
I look forward to more sensory journeys in 2022.