Out of print for nearly three decades until the hardcover re-release last year, Ali and Nino is Kurban Said's masterpiece. It is a captivating novel as evocative of the exotic desert landscape as it is of the passion between two people pulled apart by culture, religion, and war.

• Kurban Said Ali And Nino Pdf To Excellent

Book Description:Ali and Nino is a novel published in German in 1937 under the alias 'Kurban Said,' a love story between a Muslim man and a Christian woman set in Baku, Azerbaijan, during World War I and the country's brief independence. It was a major success, translated into several other languages, but was forgotten by the end of World War II. Recent research by the journalist Tom Reiss has revealed the identity of the author as Lev/Leo Nussimbaum (1905-1942), a Jewish man born in Baku who converted to Islam, worked as a journalist in Berlin, and died forgotten in exile. Reiss's discovery has spurred new interest in the novel, as has the fact that the book prefigures today's perceived conflicts between East and West or Islam and Christianity, but also suggests a more peaceful model of intercultural living in multiethnic Baku's melting pot of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The present volume collects twelve new essays on different aspects of the text by scholars from a variety of disciplines and cultural backgrounds.

It is intended to showcase the suitability of Ali and Nino for inclusion in a curriculum focused on German, world literature, or area studies, and to suggest a variety of approaches to the novel while also appealing to its fans. Contributors: Sara Abdoullah-Zadeh, Cori Crane, Chase Dimock, Christine Rapp Dombrowski, Elizabeth Weber Edwards, Anja Haensch, Kamaal Haque, Lisabeth Hock, Ruchama Johnston-Bloom, Carl Niekerk, Elke Pfitzinger, Soraya Saatchi, Daniel Schreiner, Azade Seyhan.

Carl Niekerk is Professor of German with affiliate appointments in French, Comparative and World Literature, and Jewish Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Cori Crane is Assistant Professor in the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Kurban said’s novel Ali and Nino, first published in German in 1937, is not the kind of text to which one typically finds references in books on literary history, not even in the most comprehensive volumes. The novel is hard to categorize. It is, for instance, not clear to which national literature or cultural tradition the text should be assigned.

Although the novel was originally published in German and with a publishing house specializing in German-language texts, the E. Tal Verlag in Vienna, its author’s decision to go by the alias “Kurban Said” suggests to readers that his own. Many years ago in a different age and place, in a bookstore that carried English-language books in an upscale neighborhood of Ankara, I found a novel, titled Ali and Nino, by a certain Kurban Said, an author I had never heard of. The name was undeniably one of someone from the Middle East. Thus, I was surprised to find out that the book was translated from the original German.

Kurban Said was obviously a pseudonym, but whose? A few years later, this time as a graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle, I found another copy of Ali. Lev Nussimbaum—alias Essad Bey, alias Kurban Said—situated the eponymous hero and heroine of his 1937 novel, Ali and Nino, at linguistic, geographic, national, religious, and cultural crossroads. The love story begins in the city of Baku in the Caucasus, a region with a checkerboard of over fifty ethnicities, among them Armenians, Azeri, Daghestani, Georgians, Persians, Russians, and Turks. The Caucasus region is geographically situated along the historical borders between Europe and Asia, between Christianity and Islam, and between the Shi’ite and Sunni branches of Islam. Most of the action takes place in Azerbaijan with one significant sojourn into.

One of the characteristic features distinguishing one nation from another are the stereotypes peculiar to that nation. According to American sociologist Walter Lippmann, who introduced the term “stereotype” (from Greek words stereos—hard—and typos—the imprint) into the Western scientific literature, stereotypes are formed under the influence of an individual’s cultural environment.¹ Each person is an individual by her or his own nature. And as we have long known, character has social and psychological roots and thereby depends on one’s world outlook, one’s knowledge and experience, the moral principles one has learned,² the social groups in which one lives. Ali and Ninois a curious and most probably a rather rare example of a literary text both wittily denouncing Orientalist imagery tied to Western cultural hegemony while simultaneously weaving a tight net of Orientalist stereotypes itself when it comes to religion, gender, and race.

If Edward Said had known of the novel, he would, without a doubt, have included it in his analysis to show how literary works have contributed to the emergence of the discourse of Orientalism.¹ Also, he could have praised Ali and Ninoas a predecessor of his own enterprise to critique European cultural hegemony and. Religious, gendered, and cultural conflicts abound in Ali and Ninoand can be understood through the lens of honor, a foundational phenomenon in nearly every culture. Honor consistently plays a central role in defining the conflict between Ali, an Azerbaijani Muslim youth, and his Christian Georgian future wife, Nino. Their Romeo-and-Juliet love story explores the tensions inherent in these pairings. Honor is part of the conflict not just between two families, but also between complex, ever-changing pairings: male and female, public and private, Muslim and Christian, East and West. The conflicts about honor and shame in Ali and Ninooffer. Since Ali and Ninowas written in German and for a German audience attracted by exotic and oriental settings, Kurban Said’s book became well known in Western Europe.

It took a much longer time for the book to get its place within the Azerbaijani¹ canon of literature. Due to the international success of Ali and Nino, the book’s reputation expanded in the eyes of Azerbaijani readers so that for them the book is now increasingly seen as the country’s gift to world literature.

Although elements of the story are influenced by classical Azeri and Persian literature such as Nizami’s Layla. With just the title of his novel, Ali and Nino, Kurban Said constructs the first of several binary oppositions that structure the themes and plot of the story. Upon the characters of Ali and Nino, Said stages other cultural dichotomies that characterize turn-of-the-century Baku, including Orient/Occident, Islam/Christianity, tradition/progress, ancient/modern, and male/female. It is this final dichotomy, the gender binary, that Said returns to time and time again in the novel to personify aspects of these other oppositions that are not as readily comprehended on their own. He infuses these binaries with gendered affects, emotions, and desires so that the readers.

There is plenty to see in Ali and Nino. Let us therefore have a close look at how this love story of Ali Khan Shirvanshir, a Shi’ite Azerbaijani raised in a traditional Muslim family, and Nino Kipiani, a Christian Georgian raised in a European way, deals with the oppositions between Asia and Europe, Islam and Christianity, and antiquity and modernity. Each of these paired terms depends on its counterpart and thus defines itself at the same time as it gives contour to the other. While pressures from their own cultural backgrounds compel them to embody these opposites, Ali and Nino. On the cover of the most recent German edition of Kurban Said’s 1937 novel Ali and Ninois a black-and-white picture of a woman who is identified on the book’s copyright page as Elfriede von Ehrenfels von Bodmershof.¹ The same edition contains the following statement about the text’s author(s):Kurban Said is an alias for the publicist Elfriede von Ehrenfels, born in 1894, and presumably for the coffee-house-litterateur Lev Nussimbaum (1905–1942). Both moved in Vienna’s bohemian circles; the Jew Nussimbaum converted to Islam.

Who wrote which part of the love story will probably remain a mystery forever.²Kurban Said.

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'Ali andNino' by Kurban SaidInsidethe Soul of a CaucasianBookReview by Elin SuleymanovOther Related Articles1'2Entire edition of Azerbaijan International 15:2-43 about the research by Azerbaijan Internationalabout the authorship of 'Ali and Nino.' (AI 15:2-4)4 A Literary Excavationinto 'Ali and Nino' (AI 15:2-4)5 ­ Betty Blair (AI 12.2)6 ' - Fuad Akhundov and Blair (AI12.2)7: Baku 100 Years Ago at Peak of OilBoom and Today -2004 (AI 12.2)8 ­Blair (AI 12.3)9 - Leela Ehrenfels (AI 12.4)Above: From the movie 'GoldenPrecipice' (Gizil Uchurum) by Fikrat Aliyev (1980), a lovestory set at the same time as the novel, 'Ali and Nino'.Nearly everyone in Baku has heard of the love story of Ali andNino. These two names - one Azerbaijani and one Georgian - havebecome a natural combination, like Romeo and Juliet or Leyliand Majnun. Many Azerbaijanis know the outline of the story,in which the love of Ali and Nino - surrounded by the turmoilof early-20th-century Baku - tragically ends with the young man'sdeath and Russia's occupation of the Caucasus. Still, very fewhave actually read the book by Gurban Said (Kurban Said via Russian).And indeed, why read a book if you already know the story? Ithought so, too.

Kurban Said Ali And Nino Pdf To Excellent

Perhaps this made me hesitant to open the pagesof 'Ali and Nino' earlier. I also doubted that a mysteriousperson with the pen-name Gurban Said, whose origins and trueidentity were so unclear, could tell me anything new or interestingabout the place where I grew up.Well, now I wish I had read the book a long time ago, as it maybe a guide to the soul of the Caucasus, or even my own.

Hereis what someone from Azerbaijan - to be more precise, someonefrom Baku - thinks of this book that so many have heard aboutbut few have read.Historical SnapshotAli and Nino were both children of the Caucasus, and their lovewas born in the streets of Baku on the Caspian shores. I don'tknow what would have happened if Ali had managed to join Ninoand flee the Bolsheviks in 1920, but as Said knew only too well,Ali's death fighting for freedom was a natural, if tragic, ending.In fact, Said knew so much about the Caucasus and its neighborsthat it's hard to call him anything but a genius. By most accounts,including a long article published in The New Yorker magazine(October 4, 1999) by Tom Reiss, Gurban Said was a name used byLev Nussimbaum, of a rich Jewish family in Baku, who later emigratedto Vienna and then to Italy.

There are many parallels betweenSaid and Essad Bey, the Islamic name that Nussimbaum often wroteunder.Ali and Nino's passionate love is at the center of the book'sevents, yet this novel is more than a love story. When read withan open mind and without resorting to stereotypes, the storytakes you on a fascinating and remarkably insightful journeyto Baku, Tbilisi, the Karabakh, Tehran and the mountains of Dagestan.The book gives its reader a full picture: love and passion; warand revolution; honor and disgrace; mountains and deserts; cosmopolitanBaku, the streets of Tbilisi and ailing Tehran; Islam, Christianity,and newly born Bahaism; Europe and the Orient. Even the storyof the Caucasus' greatest warrior, Imam Shamil, is there. Saidknew, just as I know today, that no story of the Caucasus wouldbe complete without mentioning Shamil.The historical figures in Said's book include Fatali Khan Khoyski,a leader of the Orient's first Republic, which happened to beAzerbaijan, and oil baron Musa Naghiyev.

The places that Saiddescribes are still there - he even knows how to tell about thesoft touch of the Caspian Sea. Most strikingly, describing Ali'sthoughts, Said speaks of his love for the dry land around Baku.This is a sign of Said's love and understanding of Baku, hisability to see ancient beauty in the sands and never-ending windsof Absheron, the land that gave the Zoroastrians their sacredflames and Azerbaijan its name, the Land of Fire.When Nino tells Ali that for foreigners, his beloved Baku isjust a dusty town in the desert, Ali responds that this is 'becausethey are foreigners.'

Said's attention to detail is pointed out by every reviewer ofthe book. For me these details are precious because they includedescriptions of turn-of-the-century Baku, picnic grounds aroundShusha, even the narrow streets of Tbilisi. At one point, Saiddescribes the horse ride that Ali takes with his father throughthe Wolf's Gates (Qurd Qapisi) to the oil derricks of Bibi Heybat.Today, many drivers take that same shortcut to avoid the busystreets of downtown Baku.East-West IdentityYet it is important to look beyond these details into what Ithink is the main theme and the universal appeal of 'Aliand Nino' - the love of two people as each one strugglesto define his or her own identity at a time of turmoil.

The lovestory is universal, but the book is unique to the Caucasus. Onlysuperficially is this book about Europe and Asia, both termsbeing very misleading here. Nor it is really about the differencesbetween Islam and Christianity.Both Azerbaijan and Georgia are European in many ways, but inmany ways they are not. For those used to simple definitionsof geographic and cultural classifications, this may come asa disappointment.

It's not easy to define a place where differentcultures have been meeting and influencing each other for centuries.There's a simple Azeri saying about this region at the crossroadsof East and West: 'Bura Qafqazdir', meaning 'Thisis the Caucasus.' The union of Ali and Nino is not a unionof Europe and Asia, as an outsider may rush to conclude, buta union of two of the many distinct and yet related culturesof the Caucasus.Said reminds his reader about this again and again. Nino is horrifiedin Tehran, whereas Ali feels out-of-place at a party for theBritish at his new Baku home and refuses to go to Paris. He tellsNino: 'I'd be just as unhappy in Paris as you were in PersiaLet'sstay in Baku where Europe and Asia meet.'

More importantis something only implicitly hinted at by Said - that, whilenot as uncomfortable as Nino, Ali, too, is a stranger in Iran,and Nino's role as the hostess at a Western party is very mucha charade. However, they are both happy in Baku, Tbilisi, Shusha,and symbolically, a mountain village of Dagestan. This is becausethey are at home in the Caucasus.In general, the book is full of symbolism. Some of it is obvious;some of it will only be noticed by a person who knows the Caucasusand its legends well.

For instance, in an episode frequentlymentioned by reviewers, Ali chases Melik Nachararyan on a famousgolden horse from the Karabakh as Nachararyan speeds away withNino in his new car. The specially bred horses of the Karabakhhave long been the pride of the Caucasus, a symbol of honor andnobility. Nachararyan's shiny new car, on the other hand, isnot so much an attribute of Europe as it is a reflection of hisrejection of his own Caucasian identity. Nachararyan doesn'tfeel like someone from the Caucasus anymore, and that allowshim to do the unthinkable - betray his friend Ali and try tosteal his bride.Choosing SidesSaid brilliantly describes the birth of a new Caucasus. A brief,turbulent period in Azerbaijan's history shows the struggle ofvarious empires over the Caucasus. Russians, Persians, Turks,British - all of them appear in the story.For Ali's friends, who were eager to fight in World War I onthe side of the Russian Czar, Turkey's declaration of war againstRussia changes things dramatically. In one amazing moment inthe book, a devout Shiite named Seyid Mustafa doesn't know whetherto tell Ali to support the Czar or the Turkish caliph, who isa Sunni.Imperial politics enter the story again later when the Turkisharmy - seen as liberators by the people of Azerbaijan - has towithdraw from Baku and be replaced by the British because ofan agreement signed in the 'faraway port of Mudros'between the British and the Turks.Said's writing is also very prophetic.

It foresees historicalevents that happened long after the book was written. For instance,he saw the seeds of discontent in pre-Pahlavi Iran, which woulddefine its history throughout the 20th century.

In Iran, Alirealizes that despite a cultural affinity, he cannot live there- it is not the Caucasus. While the melodic poetry of MiddleEastern rubayyats is the entertainment of choice in Iran, inBaku a wild Caucasian dance - 'Shamil's Prayer' (Lezgian)- is danced at parties.' No, I was not made to display Ferdowsi's verses, Hafiz'sighs of love and Sa'di's quotations,' Ali thinks. 'Thefragrance of the Persian roses had suddenly vanished, and insteadthe clear desert air of Baku and faint scent of sea, sand andoil was around me.' New Azerbaijan and old Iran drift apart.Leaders of the short-lived independent Azerbaijan find theirrefuge in Istanbul, just like earlier Azerbaijani nobles lookedfor asylum in Iran.Ali returns to Baku and refuses his cousin Bahram khan's callto build a new, reformed Iran, despite the fact that both Aliand Bahram khan are of the same blood of the family of Shirvanshirs.A New AzerbaijanThe birth of a new Azerbaijan suddenly becomes another propheticelement of the book. Loyalty to this new independent Azerbaijanis what divides Ali and his father - not religion or tradition.For the father, who has always lived under imperial rule andwhose ancestors died leading soldiers of one empire, a new Azerbaijanis simply too unfamiliar. He says to Ali before leaving Bakufor Iran: 'I don't like our new flag, the noise of the newstate, or the smell of godlessness that hangs over the townIam an old man, Ali Khan.

I can't stand all these new things.You are young and brave, you must stay here. Azerbaijan willneed you.' Said also knew how to look far beyond the surface. One exampleis the character of the aforementioned Seyid Mustafa - strong,almost a fanatical follower of Shiite Islam. Mustafa's wordsare at times intolerant, yet he is also a spiritual and tactfulman. He is not a fanatic; he is 'the lonely guard on thethreshold of our True Faith.' Mustafa's views are very conservative,yet, unbelievably, he is the man who accompanies Nino on herjourney to be married to Ali.

He is even the one who presidesover their marriage. At the end of the book, it is not Mustafawho resorts to violence, but the Bolsheviks. They kill his father,beat him and stuff pork into his mouth at the doors of the mosquewhere he has come to pray. Mustafa's appearance in the book isjust another example of the depth of Said's writing.Despite the cultural differences described in the book, Ali andNino never feel alien to each other. Neither one is stronglyrejected by family or friends. It is the war - brought on byexternal powers - that separates Ali and Nino. Tolerance amongpeople with strong beliefs and ancient cultures is a very importantlesson of Said's book.Every time I am about to recommend 'Ali and Nino' tosomeone, I hesitate because I am afraid that the essence of thebook will be overlooked behind today's stereotypes, the convenientnotion that cultures clash rather than coexist and misleadingwords like 'Europe', 'Asia', 'West'and 'Orient'.

Many see the book precisely in that way.I even saw one review mentioning the gender aspects of the story,or Ali's death in ethnic conflict. As I said earlier, 'Aliand Nino' should be read with an open mind, without resortingto stereotypes and keeping in mind when it was written.When I say that 'Ali and Nino' is about the soul ofthe Caucasus, I mean that it brings up those questions that manyof us in the Caucasus ask ourselves as we try to define our ever-evolvingidentity. It is also about the choices we all make as we buildour new countries. The events described in this book strangelyresemble our own day. Just like the beginning of the 20th century,the beginning of the 21st is a trying time for the Caucasus.Let's hope that our own story does not have a tragic ending likethe one by Said.In the book's finale, Ali, a noble young man from Baku, dieson a bridge in Ganja, a city in northern Azerbaijan, just ashis ancestors from the House of Shirvanshir did defending thisland. Unlike them, Ali Khan Shirvanshir dies in Ganja - not fightingin an army of someone else's empire - but in the ranks of hisnew country, the first Republic of Azerbaijan. The book endswith a note written by Ali's friend Iljas Begh: 'Ali KhanShirvanshir fell at quarter past five on the bridge of Ganjabehind his machine gun.

The life of our Republic has come toan end, as has the life of Ali Khan Shirvanshir.' It was my republic, too.I'm not sure that the mystery of Said's true identity will everbe proven. Perhaps it is even better that way. This amazing bookbelongs to Said - whoever he is - a man who knew about love,about the Caucasus, who understood people around him better thanthey understood him, and who managed to look into my soul decadesbefore I was born.Elin Suleymanov lives in Washington,D.C.

'Ali and Nino' by Kurban Said was reissued byOverlook Press in 1999, with English translation by Jenia Graman.The book is now availableat our, clickENTER, then click on BOOKS. Writer Tom Reiss investigated the mysteriousauthorship behind 'Ali and Nino' for an article inThe New Yorker entitled 'The Man From the East' (October4, 1999, page 68).From AzerbaijanInternational(8.2) Summer 2000.© Azerbaijan International 2000. All rights reserved.Back to (Summer 2000).