CM09: The Maghreb

Robin Yassin-Kassab has an enlightening sojourn in Morocco, Robert Irwin argues that the great historian Ibn Khaldun was a Sufi, Marcia Lynx Qualey is dazzled by the transformative power of Maghrebi poetry, Julia Melcher explores the absurd world of exiled western writers in Tangiers, Hicham Yezza stands up for the Berbers Rights Movement, Louis Proyect reads recent histories of the Maghrebi Jews, Jamal Bahmad deconstructs revolutionary films that predicted the ‘Arab Spring’, Anita Hunt tackles Mauritanian social norms, John Liechty attempts to get a US visa for his Moroccan wife, Barnaby Rogerson goes souk shopping, Suhel Ahmed watches the classic French-Moroccan film, A Prophet, and Cécile Oumhani’s keeps a record of daily life during the Tunisian revolution.

Also in this issue: Extracts from a new novel by Lina Sergie Attar, a fresh short story by Aamer Hussein, Samia Rahman on Wadjda, the first film to come out of Saudi Arabia, Ziauddin Sardar on winning, Naziha Arebi’s photographs of Libya after the revolution, poems by George Szirtes and Sarra Hennigan, and our list of ten Moroccan oddities.