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Das Geheimnis des Kalligraphen
In Damaskus macht ein Gerücht die Runde: Nura, die schöne Frau des berühmten Kalligraphen Hamid Farsi, sei geflüchtet. Warum hat sie ein Leben, um das viele sie beneiden, hinter sich gelassen? Oder war sie Opfer einer Entführung der Gegner ihres Mannes? Schon als junger Mann wird Farsi als Wunderkind der Kalligraphie gefeiert. Nun arbeitet er verbissen an Plänen für eine radikale Reform der arabischen Sprache, nicht ahnend, dass zwischen Nura und seinem Lehrling Salman eine leidenschaftliche Liebe ihren Anfang nimmt - die Liebe zwischen einer Muslimin und einem Christen. Der neue Roman des deutsch-syrischen Autors ist ein großer Bilderbogen der syrischen Gesellschaft, der alle Sinne der Leser anspricht.
464 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
42 people are currently reading
935 people want to read
About the author
Rafik Schami
108 books489 followersBorn in Damascus, Syria in 1946, Rafik Schami (Arabic: رفيق شامي) is the son of a baker from an Arab-Christian (originally Aramaic) family. His schooling and university studies (diploma in chemistry) took place in Damascus. From 1965, Schami wrote stories in Arabic. From 1964-70 he was the co-founder and editor of the wall news-sheet Al-Muntalak (The Starting-Point) in the old quarter of the city. In 1971 Schami moved to Heidelberg and financed further studies by typical guest worker jobs (factories, building sites, restaurants). He earned his doctorate in chemistry in 1979 and began career in the chemical industry. In his spare time, he co-founded the literary group Südwind in 1980 and was part of the PoLiKunst movement. Schami became a full time author in 1982. He lives in Kirchheimbolanden with his Bavarian wife and son and he holds dual citizenship. Schami's books have been translated into 20 languages
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
October 15, 2013
Had Rafik Schami written the One Thousand and One Nights, it would be thrice as long. Schami is a compulsive story teller. Whenever he mentions a new person in his novels, another full story shots on the side and blossoms under his pen. These side stories are always lively and entertaining, full of exotic flavors and images, but they do not necessarily add much to the rather simple main plot of the novel. They may detract from cohesiveness.
Schami (a Christian) brings in again his favorite themes: love, (read: love that crosses religions, in particular between a Muslim woman and a Christian man--not the other way around); street life in busy, noisy and colorful Damascus; social and family interactions in modern Syria; corruption amongst the country’s political class; religious tensions. What is new in this book is his presentation of the art and history of the Arabic alphabet and calligraphy.
Aside from his usual topics, what also characterizes Schami is his particular tone. He is capable of narrating with a sweet tone some charming scenes (he has also written books for children) and then brings in, abruptly, incidents of sudden brutality (could anything ever happen in Syria without any hint of violence?). I find this very peculiar.
This will be my last Schami. I have enjoyed his depictions of life in Damascus, and learning about the complex history of modern Syria in The Dark Side of Love, but I have reached my saturation point. His characters remain flat and do not emerge beyond those in a tale. I wonder whether he will ever write about what is happening in Syria these days.
Schami (a Christian) brings in again his favorite themes: love, (read: love that crosses religions, in particular between a Muslim woman and a Christian man--not the other way around); street life in busy, noisy and colorful Damascus; social and family interactions in modern Syria; corruption amongst the country’s political class; religious tensions. What is new in this book is his presentation of the art and history of the Arabic alphabet and calligraphy.
Aside from his usual topics, what also characterizes Schami is his particular tone. He is capable of narrating with a sweet tone some charming scenes (he has also written books for children) and then brings in, abruptly, incidents of sudden brutality (could anything ever happen in Syria without any hint of violence?). I find this very peculiar.
This will be my last Schami. I have enjoyed his depictions of life in Damascus, and learning about the complex history of modern Syria in The Dark Side of Love, but I have reached my saturation point. His characters remain flat and do not emerge beyond those in a tale. I wonder whether he will ever write about what is happening in Syria these days.
March 23, 2014
Well. It's hard to know what to think--this novel is all over the place. While I appreciate that in many ways this is deliberate, it's still hard to read and often not worth the effort. Schami has a gift for describing all things Syrian as well as fleshing out characters. The problem lies in stringing lush, poetic characters and events into a cohesive plot. Schami likes to digress and introduce tangentials, much like Scheherazade, but his spells do not bind. The Christian/Muslim star-crossed love plot does not work, despite the charm of both characters. Hamid, (the calligrapher), had more potential, but one cannot be drawn as a villain for an entire first half of a novel, only to become the hero of the second half. His traits do not hang together, and his actions (seen mostly in flashbacks) and motives are inconsistent. I feel like with a bit more work, this could have been a novel to rival A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Sadly, it is not. I enjoyed reading and learning about Arabic calligraphy, and I am interested in novels about the ME, but I won't be rereading this one. I give 3 stars for the richness of language and for the window into 1950s Damascus, but not for the novel as a novel.
August 20, 2016
A veces es necesario leer a escritores arabes como Schami para ver la imagen distorsionada que tenemos de las culturas diferentes a la nuestra y los muchos prejuicios que tenemos por toda la información que nos llega constantemente donde solo lo negativo es protagonista. Si todos nos molestaramos mas en conocernos nos daríamos cuenta de lo iguales que somos todos.
April 6, 2013
Had potential to be an awesome book...Some parts to vulgar for my taste...felt like a "syrian Musalsal" (soap opera/drama show)
On a positive note, I liked how captivating and twists and turns the author offered.
On a positive note, I liked how captivating and twists and turns the author offered.
May 31, 2018
This book brought me back to Damascus, which I missed so much. I wandered its streets, houses, smelled its scents, and saw its people...
The writer has gradually unfolded his characters and events so that the reader felt unable to stop reading.
The writer has gradually unfolded his characters and events so that the reader felt unable to stop reading.
July 4, 2016
I intended to write a review for New York Journal of Books, but it turns out that one of my colleagues already did that back in 2010. So I wrote a review that appeared in a different and now defunct publication, which begins with the next paragraph.
Syrian expat fiction: Rafik Schami's prescient novel The Calligrapher's Secret
The Calligrapher’s Secret, the 28th fiction book by Rafik Schami, the pen name (meaning Damascene friend) of the Syrian Christian German writer Suheil Fadél, is a pessimistic plea for diversity and pluralism that predates yet anticipates Syria’s current civil war between a brutal dictator and an opposition dominated by equally violent religious extremists. The novel is set in Damascus in the 1940s and 1950s where Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities and individual Damascenes coexist while privately disliking one another.
I requested the book with the intention of reviewing it for New York Journal of Books on the publication date of what I mistakenly thought would be a forthcoming new edition not realizing that Gabriel Constans, one of my NYJB colleagues, had already reviewed the novel when the first edition was published in 2010. I agree with Constans' positive review and also refer readers to the informative review on Edith’s Miscellany by the Austrian book blogger who writes under the pseudonym Edith LaGraziana and to the more harshly critical review by Damian Kelleher that appears in The Quarterly Conversation.
As other reviewers point out the novel appears to target a western readership. It portrays parents who encourage their children to drop out of elementary school to work and apprentice themselves to artisans (boys) and to study domestic arts such as cooking and sewing (girls). For those who do stay in school instruction largely comprises rote memorization. Marriages are arranged shortly after children reach puberty, and in the case of girls (who must endure virginity examinations) often to much older men. The inference is that abbreviated education and childhood are to blame for Arab countries' low literacy rates, educational attainment levels, and standards of living. In an age when the world is increasingly dividing into technologically competent haves and technologically illiterate have nots this should be distressing.
Schami also demonstrates that Muslim violent religious fanaticism is not a recent development in reaction to contact and conflict with western modernity but has existed at least since the imprisonment and mutilation of Tenth Century statesman and calligrapher Ibn Muqla who like the novel’s fictional Twentieth Century calligrapher Hamid Farsi wanted to reform the Arabic alphabet, and whose opponents then and now (whom Schami refers to as “The Pure Ones”) insist that if it was good enough for The Prophet it’s good enough for them.
In the novel as relations between religious communities begin to deteriorate Shimon the Jewish greengrocer “escapes” to Israel in the mid-1950s. Towards the end of the novel a Muslim character recalls how in the 1930s a female relative married a Jew and the couple immigrated to Palestine. Note how “immigrating” in the 1930s French mandate becomes “escape” in the 1950s dictatorship; what was once a choice becomes the only alternative. In the decades since the Arab countries drove out their Jewish citizens many of their Arab Christian compatriots have also been coerced into leaving (though Schami left Syria and switched languages for freedom of expression).
Schami seems attracted to the idea of pairing Muslim women with non-Muslim men (a capital offense in Islam). After following both characters’ childhoods and coming of age tales the novel’s central love story features an unhappily married Muslim woman who falls in love with a Christian man. Later the cuckolded husband’s story becomes a narrative of ideas which explores the history and art of Arabic calligraphy in detail similar to Philip Roth’s description of glove making in American Pastoral and Herman Melville’s description of cetacean anatomy and physiology in Moby Dick.
Whether the disparate parts of the novel succeed as a whole is debatable, but I enjoyed and enthusiastically recommend The Calligrapher’s Secret to readers who want to immerse themselves in a foreign culture.
Syrian expat fiction: Rafik Schami's prescient novel The Calligrapher's Secret
The Calligrapher’s Secret, the 28th fiction book by Rafik Schami, the pen name (meaning Damascene friend) of the Syrian Christian German writer Suheil Fadél, is a pessimistic plea for diversity and pluralism that predates yet anticipates Syria’s current civil war between a brutal dictator and an opposition dominated by equally violent religious extremists. The novel is set in Damascus in the 1940s and 1950s where Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities and individual Damascenes coexist while privately disliking one another.
I requested the book with the intention of reviewing it for New York Journal of Books on the publication date of what I mistakenly thought would be a forthcoming new edition not realizing that Gabriel Constans, one of my NYJB colleagues, had already reviewed the novel when the first edition was published in 2010. I agree with Constans' positive review and also refer readers to the informative review on Edith’s Miscellany by the Austrian book blogger who writes under the pseudonym Edith LaGraziana and to the more harshly critical review by Damian Kelleher that appears in The Quarterly Conversation.
As other reviewers point out the novel appears to target a western readership. It portrays parents who encourage their children to drop out of elementary school to work and apprentice themselves to artisans (boys) and to study domestic arts such as cooking and sewing (girls). For those who do stay in school instruction largely comprises rote memorization. Marriages are arranged shortly after children reach puberty, and in the case of girls (who must endure virginity examinations) often to much older men. The inference is that abbreviated education and childhood are to blame for Arab countries' low literacy rates, educational attainment levels, and standards of living. In an age when the world is increasingly dividing into technologically competent haves and technologically illiterate have nots this should be distressing.
Schami also demonstrates that Muslim violent religious fanaticism is not a recent development in reaction to contact and conflict with western modernity but has existed at least since the imprisonment and mutilation of Tenth Century statesman and calligrapher Ibn Muqla who like the novel’s fictional Twentieth Century calligrapher Hamid Farsi wanted to reform the Arabic alphabet, and whose opponents then and now (whom Schami refers to as “The Pure Ones”) insist that if it was good enough for The Prophet it’s good enough for them.
In the novel as relations between religious communities begin to deteriorate Shimon the Jewish greengrocer “escapes” to Israel in the mid-1950s. Towards the end of the novel a Muslim character recalls how in the 1930s a female relative married a Jew and the couple immigrated to Palestine. Note how “immigrating” in the 1930s French mandate becomes “escape” in the 1950s dictatorship; what was once a choice becomes the only alternative. In the decades since the Arab countries drove out their Jewish citizens many of their Arab Christian compatriots have also been coerced into leaving (though Schami left Syria and switched languages for freedom of expression).
Schami seems attracted to the idea of pairing Muslim women with non-Muslim men (a capital offense in Islam). After following both characters’ childhoods and coming of age tales the novel’s central love story features an unhappily married Muslim woman who falls in love with a Christian man. Later the cuckolded husband’s story becomes a narrative of ideas which explores the history and art of Arabic calligraphy in detail similar to Philip Roth’s description of glove making in American Pastoral and Herman Melville’s description of cetacean anatomy and physiology in Moby Dick.
Whether the disparate parts of the novel succeed as a whole is debatable, but I enjoyed and enthusiastically recommend The Calligrapher’s Secret to readers who want to immerse themselves in a foreign culture.
October 9, 2021
This book is lauded, by some critics, as the great Arab novel, however, it was written in German, by a Syrian expatriate. The distance, I feel, makes it in some ways a European novel.
The novel gives a winding, diffuse story line, with characters appearing and disappearing. It also gives a detailed view of the art of Arabic calligraphy, as learnt through apprenticeship in a traditional workshop. These are attractive aspects of the story.
But the novel seems limited in the way that the female characters appear so simple, as if drawn only in outline. The major part of the second half of the book is a love story, but it is unconvincing, one is never sure why those two fall in love, and novel gets more interesting when they finally run off, leaving the stage to the ex-husband.
There were several points of improbability, and what seemed like errors in the plotting. There is no reason given why the main character had no children, although he had one wife who died, then married another. The novel says vaguely that he would have liked to have children. But his childless state, in Damascus in the 1950s, would have been a matter for endless comment by his family and those around him. Yet no one seems to notice.
The other aspect of the unwinding of the plot, where the calligrapher is hired to write letters to a mystery woman, who turns out to be his own wife, is explained in a very clumsy manner. It is unclear when his wife realises this, and when he realised it, and how this contributed to the dissolution of his marriage. In his later musing on how his wife left him, he never even mentions it. Eh?
The novel gives a winding, diffuse story line, with characters appearing and disappearing. It also gives a detailed view of the art of Arabic calligraphy, as learnt through apprenticeship in a traditional workshop. These are attractive aspects of the story.
But the novel seems limited in the way that the female characters appear so simple, as if drawn only in outline. The major part of the second half of the book is a love story, but it is unconvincing, one is never sure why those two fall in love, and novel gets more interesting when they finally run off, leaving the stage to the ex-husband.
There were several points of improbability, and what seemed like errors in the plotting. There is no reason given why the main character had no children, although he had one wife who died, then married another. The novel says vaguely that he would have liked to have children. But his childless state, in Damascus in the 1950s, would have been a matter for endless comment by his family and those around him. Yet no one seems to notice.
The other aspect of the unwinding of the plot, where the calligrapher is hired to write letters to a mystery woman, who turns out to be his own wife, is explained in a very clumsy manner. It is unclear when his wife realises this, and when he realised it, and how this contributed to the dissolution of his marriage. In his later musing on how his wife left him, he never even mentions it. Eh?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 30, 2010
Jetzt daß ich dieses Buch fertig gelesen habe, glaube ich daß der Titel ein Irrtum ist. Eher soll er lauten: „Die am meisten uninteressanten Geschichten aus den Leben mehrerer dürftig verbundenen Leuten aus Damaskus, oh ja, ich hab fast vergessen, einer von ihnen ist ein Kalligraph, der ein kleines Geheimnis verschweigt - mehr oder weniger - das völlig unaufregend ist und braucht nur ungefähr einen Absatz zu erklären.“ Ich gebe freilich zu, mein Titel mangelt ein bißchen an Knappheit, doch er würde den Leser viel genauer darüber informieren, worin er gerät, wenn er dieses buch aufschlägt. Nichtsdestotrotz muß ich gestehen, daß ich bleibe ein Verehrer von Rafik Schami. Seine Art von Erzählen ist so hineinziehend wie erwartet und, eigentlich, muß so sein; ansonsten hätte ich dieses Buch nie zu Ende gelesen. Sein lebendes Bild von Damaskus der 50er Jahren kommt diesem amerikanischen Leser exotisch und gleichseitig bekannt vor und in Zeiten sowie dieser, es ist eine Erleichterung, eine Geschichte aus dem Nahosten zu lesen, die nicht politisch ist und geht einfach um Leute, mit all ihren Schwächen, Stärken, Fehlern, und Eigenarten.
Kurzum, freue ich mich schon auf das nächste Buch Schamis, das ich lesen werde. Ich habe es nur nicht eilig.
Kurzum, freue ich mich schon auf das nächste Buch Schamis, das ich lesen werde. Ich habe es nur nicht eilig.
September 1, 2021
A gifted apprentice is sent to the best calligraphy studio in Damascus and encounters the Master Calligrapher's enchanting wife. A love affair begins, unfolding tragic events and secret societies. Much preferred the action-packed second half to the slower paced first half.
September 13, 2022
Στις πρώτες 150-160 σελίδες ο συγγραφέας δημιουργεί το σκηνικό του μυθιστορήματος και εισάγει συνεχώς καινούργιους χαρακτήρες χωρίς εξέλιξη στην πλοκή. Αν κάποιος έχει την υπομονή να φτάσει μέχρι εκεί θα ανταμειφθεί στη συνέχεια. Σελίδα με τη σελίδα ζωντανεύει ένας ολόκληρος κόσμος, με τις γειτονιές του, τις συνοικίες με τα διαφορετικού τύπου μαγαζια , τα ήθη και τα πάθη του, την κουλτούρα χριστιανών κ μουσουλμάνων στη Δαμασκό της δεκαετίας του 50 κυρίως. Η μία ιστορία μπλέκεται μέσα στην άλλη και το αποτέλεσμα είναι ένα πολυεπίπεδο μυθιστόρημα που δίνει στο Σαφικ την ευκαιρία να μιλησει για την ιστορία της Συρίας και για διαχρονικα θέματα/προβλήματα της χώρας που γεννηθηκε όπως τη θέση της γυναίκας στο ισλάμ, τον φονταμενταλισμό, την πατριαρχική οικογένεια, την εκπαίδευση, την τεχνη και όλα αυτά με βάση την ιστορία της εξέλιξης του αραβικού αλφαβήτου και εξαιρετικές λεπτομέρειες για την τέχνη της καλλιγραφιας. Τα πλέκει με μαεστρία και υπομονή έχοντας ακριβώς αυτές τις ικανότητες που ειναι απαραίτητες κ σε έναν καλλιγράφο. Η πλοκή κλιμακώνεται μέχρι την τελευταία σελίδα.
March 4, 2024
Es war immer wieder schwer für mich die Übersicht über die Handlung zu behalten.
March 25, 2023
It took me a while to get into this book, as there are a lot of characters and you follow the background stories of the two main characters at length before the characters actually meet and form the main romantic storyline. Then, after the romantic storyline, it felt tedious to also get the background story of the calligrapher in the final parts of the book.
Still, I'm very happy that I read this book, giving me a glimpse into the life in Syria in the 1940s and 50s, a country I know nothing about. The love story between the Muslim woman and Christian man was cute and I loved this storyline the most. The other main storyline around the calligrapher's secret ambition probably has some political nuances around Arabic culture and language that perhaps I am unable to fully understand and appreciate because of my lack of knowledge of the field.
I picked this book up initially to start to try to understand the cultures where many refugees come from to Sweden and I am happy to have started that process through this book not just dwelling on the political or violent issues but more on how normal, everyday life looks and the culture around it.
Still, I'm very happy that I read this book, giving me a glimpse into the life in Syria in the 1940s and 50s, a country I know nothing about. The love story between the Muslim woman and Christian man was cute and I loved this storyline the most. The other main storyline around the calligrapher's secret ambition probably has some political nuances around Arabic culture and language that perhaps I am unable to fully understand and appreciate because of my lack of knowledge of the field.
I picked this book up initially to start to try to understand the cultures where many refugees come from to Sweden and I am happy to have started that process through this book not just dwelling on the political or violent issues but more on how normal, everyday life looks and the culture around it.
March 4, 2022
En la primera parte descubrimos la vida en Damasco en los 1950's y la trama romántica: 3,5 estrellas.
En la segunda parte se desvelan los misterios de la caligrafía árabe: 4,5 estrellas. Es que soy profesora de idiomas y estudiantes de farsi/dari :-)
En la segunda parte se desvelan los misterios de la caligrafía árabe: 4,5 estrellas. Es que soy profesora de idiomas y estudiantes de farsi/dari :-)
July 19, 2013
Many Westerners think that One Thousand and One Nights is a classic of Arabic literature, but the truth is that until its popularization in the West, it was largely unknown in the East. Poetry, not prose, has been the queen of Arabic literature. What we call non-fiction was largely the domain of the coffee shop (for men) and coffee/tea get-togethers among women at home. The "story-teller" (Hakawati, in Arabic; also the title of a 2009 novel by Rabih Alameddin) was a performance artist, an entertainer.
Rafik Schami, the author of The Calligrapher's Secret keeps alive the now dying oral tradition created by the Hakawati, but in print. Schami (whose surname means "Damascene")was born in Damascus in 1946, a Christian, and since 1970 has lived in Germany, where he has become a successful author of children's books written in German.
On the surface,The Calligrapher's Secret is made up of a delightful and lively assortment of characters, whose interactions, told in a collection of shaggy-dog stories that ultimately resolve themselves. Schami's Damascus is that of the 1940s and 1950s, still in the wake of the Ottoman Empire and subsequent French Mandate, where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in a relative harmony (for the Ottoman dealt harshly with those who disturbed social tranquility) that seethed with prejudice beneath the surface. Politically, Syria was struggling to find itself politically, between democracy and strong-man dictators (which, sadly, it is still doing).
The sub-plot is the obsessive love of a calligrapher, Hamid Farsi. for the Arabic alphabet. Schami has gathered much history and lore about Arabic calligraphy, which is the supreme plastic art-form in the Islamic world, and woven it into the plot.
(As one who studied Arabic for over 40 years, I understood (as best as possible) Hamid's obsession, and I marveled over how well Schami captured quintessence of Arabic calligraphy.)
But the book's final chapter, which recounts Hamid downfall, is perhaps the books raison d'être. It is a trenchant and not-so-veiled criticism of Syrian society's mores and politics, one that is set in the 1950s, but is especially applicable today.
Schami wrote this gem in German, rather than his native tongue, for a Christian writing such a book in Arabic, in which many sacred cows are gored, would arose the ire of Islamic fundamentalists perhaps not seen since Salman Rushdie.
It is a four hundred plus page book, with shaggy dog stories throughout - which have led some reader/reviewers to abandon it. My advice is, if you enjoy colorful vignettes of the vagaries of daily life, you might come away as enchanted as I.
Rafik Schami, the author of The Calligrapher's Secret keeps alive the now dying oral tradition created by the Hakawati, but in print. Schami (whose surname means "Damascene")was born in Damascus in 1946, a Christian, and since 1970 has lived in Germany, where he has become a successful author of children's books written in German.
On the surface,The Calligrapher's Secret is made up of a delightful and lively assortment of characters, whose interactions, told in a collection of shaggy-dog stories that ultimately resolve themselves. Schami's Damascus is that of the 1940s and 1950s, still in the wake of the Ottoman Empire and subsequent French Mandate, where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in a relative harmony (for the Ottoman dealt harshly with those who disturbed social tranquility) that seethed with prejudice beneath the surface. Politically, Syria was struggling to find itself politically, between democracy and strong-man dictators (which, sadly, it is still doing).
The sub-plot is the obsessive love of a calligrapher, Hamid Farsi. for the Arabic alphabet. Schami has gathered much history and lore about Arabic calligraphy, which is the supreme plastic art-form in the Islamic world, and woven it into the plot.
(As one who studied Arabic for over 40 years, I understood (as best as possible) Hamid's obsession, and I marveled over how well Schami captured quintessence of Arabic calligraphy.)
But the book's final chapter, which recounts Hamid downfall, is perhaps the books raison d'être. It is a trenchant and not-so-veiled criticism of Syrian society's mores and politics, one that is set in the 1950s, but is especially applicable today.
Schami wrote this gem in German, rather than his native tongue, for a Christian writing such a book in Arabic, in which many sacred cows are gored, would arose the ire of Islamic fundamentalists perhaps not seen since Salman Rushdie.
It is a four hundred plus page book, with shaggy dog stories throughout - which have led some reader/reviewers to abandon it. My advice is, if you enjoy colorful vignettes of the vagaries of daily life, you might come away as enchanted as I.
September 5, 2016
When a Christian Man loves a Muslim Woman in 1950s’ Damascus:
The Calligrapher’s Secret by Rafik Schami
Abridged version of my review posted on Edith’s Miscellany on 20 September 2013
Rafik Schami (رفيق شامي) is a friend of Damascus and also a friend from the Syrian capital as his Arabic penname proves when translated into English. He loves telling stories and taking his readers to the Damascus of his childhood and before. Consequently his novel The Calligrapher’s Secret is set there.
The Calligrapher’s Secret begins in April 1957 when rumour spreads in Damascus that Noura, the beautiful wife of the famous and rich calligrapher Hamid Farsi, has run away. In an Arabic, more precisely a Muslim environment this is a life-threatening crime for a woman to commit, even more so in the novel’s time period. People say that Noura felt insulted by the ardent love letters from Nasri Abbani which the womanizer known all over town and almost illiterate had ordered from her unknowing husband to seduce her, but there’s much more behind it. Her fairly modern education and a strong will to take life into her own hands play an important role just like her encounter with her husband’s Christian apprentice and errand-boy Salman. And then there’s Hamid Farsi’s passion for Arabic calligraphy and his attempt to reform the script which leads to his disgrace and subsequent fall.
It’s a complex and interlocked story which Rafik Schami unfolds in The Calligrapher’s Secret. The book is a little different from what we are used to today, since its author isn’t just a novelist, but a story-teller who combines the best of Arabic oral tradition and western literary skill. Language and style are modern and accessible. The setting gives the novel the touch of a fairy-tale from the Arabian Nights. At the same time Rafik Schami isn’t sparing of criticism.
I passed a good time reading The Calligrapher’s Secret. For me it has been a very enjoyable read which helped me to understand the Arabic mind a little better. Highly recommended.
For the full review please click here to go to my blog Edith’s Miscellany. I hope you'll like it!
The Calligrapher’s Secret by Rafik Schami
Abridged version of my review posted on Edith’s Miscellany on 20 September 2013
Rafik Schami (رفيق شامي) is a friend of Damascus and also a friend from the Syrian capital as his Arabic penname proves when translated into English. He loves telling stories and taking his readers to the Damascus of his childhood and before. Consequently his novel The Calligrapher’s Secret is set there.
The Calligrapher’s Secret begins in April 1957 when rumour spreads in Damascus that Noura, the beautiful wife of the famous and rich calligrapher Hamid Farsi, has run away. In an Arabic, more precisely a Muslim environment this is a life-threatening crime for a woman to commit, even more so in the novel’s time period. People say that Noura felt insulted by the ardent love letters from Nasri Abbani which the womanizer known all over town and almost illiterate had ordered from her unknowing husband to seduce her, but there’s much more behind it. Her fairly modern education and a strong will to take life into her own hands play an important role just like her encounter with her husband’s Christian apprentice and errand-boy Salman. And then there’s Hamid Farsi’s passion for Arabic calligraphy and his attempt to reform the script which leads to his disgrace and subsequent fall.
It’s a complex and interlocked story which Rafik Schami unfolds in The Calligrapher’s Secret. The book is a little different from what we are used to today, since its author isn’t just a novelist, but a story-teller who combines the best of Arabic oral tradition and western literary skill. Language and style are modern and accessible. The setting gives the novel the touch of a fairy-tale from the Arabian Nights. At the same time Rafik Schami isn’t sparing of criticism.
I passed a good time reading The Calligrapher’s Secret. For me it has been a very enjoyable read which helped me to understand the Arabic mind a little better. Highly recommended.
For the full review please click here to go to my blog Edith’s Miscellany. I hope you'll like it!
July 31, 2011
I'm torn on this one. There were aspects I really loved, but something else that kept niggling me, preventing me from truly escaping into the story.
First, what I loved:
- Damascus! I don't know much about this city, but I've definitely gotten an intriguing taste of this complex, cruel, and beautiful place.
- The intricacies of calligraphy are fascinating, and learning about the craft of calligraphy makes me incredibly curious to find out more.
- Embarrassingly enough, I don't know as much about Islam and the life of Muslims as I should. This gave me definite insight into a complicated religion and lifestyle and inspired me to learn much more.
What I didn't really love:
- It takes a looooong time for things to happen. While I loved meeting all the characters, eventually I started wondering when they were going to meet and the real plot of the book would get started.
- Dropped plotlines. What about Pilot the dog? What about Noura's neighbor Maurice? I felt like I kept getting invested in characters only to have them inexplicably disappear or fade away without ceremony.
- This is a little one, but *SPOILER* ....I felt like Noura and Salman fell in love in such a strange, quick way. All of a sudden, after never even talking much, Noura decides she loves Salman and he quickly agrees. What? Of course, there's always the possibility that there was some underlying theme that I failed to pick up on and this makes sense in a fabulous, literary way and I'm just completely obtuse, but it bugged me and didn't really allow me to engage with them as a couple.
First, what I loved:
- Damascus! I don't know much about this city, but I've definitely gotten an intriguing taste of this complex, cruel, and beautiful place.
- The intricacies of calligraphy are fascinating, and learning about the craft of calligraphy makes me incredibly curious to find out more.
- Embarrassingly enough, I don't know as much about Islam and the life of Muslims as I should. This gave me definite insight into a complicated religion and lifestyle and inspired me to learn much more.
What I didn't really love:
- It takes a looooong time for things to happen. While I loved meeting all the characters, eventually I started wondering when they were going to meet and the real plot of the book would get started.
- Dropped plotlines. What about Pilot the dog? What about Noura's neighbor Maurice? I felt like I kept getting invested in characters only to have them inexplicably disappear or fade away without ceremony.
- This is a little one, but *SPOILER* ....I felt like Noura and Salman fell in love in such a strange, quick way. All of a sudden, after never even talking much, Noura decides she loves Salman and he quickly agrees. What? Of course, there's always the possibility that there was some underlying theme that I failed to pick up on and this makes sense in a fabulous, literary way and I'm just completely obtuse, but it bugged me and didn't really allow me to engage with them as a couple.
October 10, 2016
La novela, como su nombre lo indica, tiene como tema importante la caligrafía árabe, su técnica, su valor como arte en países en los que está prohibido el arte figurativo, su ambigüedad y excesos, las luchas entre su actualización y conservación. Pero también muestra la vida en Damasco a mediados de los '50, donde conviven en relativa armonía musulmanes, judío y cristianos, a través de una serie de personajes, a los que se otorga sucesivamente el protagonismo, permitiendo ver los mismos hechos desde distintos ángulos. Y, en forma inquietante, presenta a los puristas de la defensa literal del Islam, violentos e intolerantes, cuya historia parece remontarse en el tiempo, hasta el mismo origen del Islam. Por todo ello, constituye una novela ambiciosa y de gran valor instructivo.
Pero la construcción de la historia me pareció desordenada, y con la inclusión de anécdotas y diálogos que no contribuyen a la riqueza de trama, que se vuelve por momentos tediosa.
El arte de la escritura está dado en gran parte, no por lo que se incluye, sino por lo que se suprime.
Pero la construcción de la historia me pareció desordenada, y con la inclusión de anécdotas y diálogos que no contribuyen a la riqueza de trama, que se vuelve por momentos tediosa.
El arte de la escritura está dado en gran parte, no por lo que se incluye, sino por lo que se suprime.
August 28, 2012
This book lacked focus, or perhaps focused on too many characters that it got me lost. Besides learning a bit about calligraphy which, and I emphasise the word bit because he failed to captivate me even with the very long descriptions.
What I enjoyed most about the book, were the female characters, who I really liked because of the different dynamics they all had in their relationships. The dynamics were so different and yet this was 1950 Damascus, fascinating and interesting.
What I enjoyed most about the book, were the female characters, who I really liked because of the different dynamics they all had in their relationships. The dynamics were so different and yet this was 1950 Damascus, fascinating and interesting.
August 22, 2014
I never really warmed to this book - but there was a lot of interesting information in it, so perhaps the translation wasn't up to scratch. It reminded me of one of those Indian village sagas that build up to a violent political crescendo - but this one lacked the fiery ending.
For a book about the art of writing, the prose and the structure were often quite artless - but once again, this could be the partly the fault of the translation.
For a book about the art of writing, the prose and the structure were often quite artless - but once again, this could be the partly the fault of the translation.
August 23, 2011
well, i have read this book for a long time. it was a really well written book. sometimes kind of difficult passages because there are so many background history.
me personally, i like the story because it is somthing new. other than the always the same storys
me personally, i like the story because it is somthing new. other than the always the same storys
October 14, 2012
I just couldn't finish this book. I gave it my best try, and I loved the descriptions of Damascus and life therein, but there were too many characters to keep straight, too many stories to follow. It's a shame, too, because I really wanted to love this book.
December 11, 2012
Very well written and told. It gives a good impression of the setting but somehow looses the flow once it comes to the second part of the story. The different parts of the story seem to be linked a bit artificially.
March 19, 2011
Liked it while reading, but it really went nowhere.
August 13, 2012
A rambling book which seems to go off on a tangent ever so often. Makes it hard to focus and be invested in the characters.
Read
October 16, 2012Liked it a lot. Good insight into middle eastern culture and ideas.
February 18, 2015
Story was all over the place, hard to keep track of characters and events. Main characters were engaging but plot difficult to keep a handle on. Would not recommend.
May 12, 2017
It started so good and interesting, but the end was just too slow. I had to force myself to finish the book.
February 22, 2023
Citaat : Kalligrafie was als het fotograferen van woorden, zei ze, en ze hield meer van kalligrafie dan van alle mannen ter wereld.
Review : Rafik Schami is in 1946 in Damascus, hoofdstad van Syrië, geboren in een christelijk-aramees gezin. In 1970 verliet hij Syrië om de militaire dienst te ontlopen en ook omdat de censuur hem dreigde te verstikken. Zijn muurkrant (al-Muntalaq, het Vertrekpunt) was in dat jaar door de autoriteiten verboden. Sinds 1991 is Schami getrouwd met de illustratrice en schrijfster Root Leeb, die een groot aantal van zijn boeken heeft geïllustreerd en vormgegeven.
Helemaal in beslag genomen door zijn verbeten strijd om het Arabische schrift te moderniseren –wat recht tegen de opvattingen van de heersende politieke en religieuze macht indruist– merkt de beroemde kalligraaf Hamid Farsi niet dat zijn verwaarloosde vrouw Nura verliefd wordt op een andere man, een christen nog wel. Uiteindelijk plannen Nura en haar minnaar een roekeloze vlucht, waarna het leven en werk van de beroemde kalligraaf ineenstorten.
In een zinnelijke stijl schetst Rafik Schami het leven in Damascus rond 1950, met zijn kleurrijke bewoners, de rijkgeschakeerde verhalen die rondzoemen in de nauwe steegjes, de politieke en religieuze conflicten, en de kunst van de kalligrafie. Rafik Schami, die in 1971 zijn geboorteplek Damascus ruilde voor een leven in Duitsland, zet een intrigerend portret neer van de Syrische hoofdstad zoals ze er een halve eeuw geleden uitzag.
Salman is een arme christen, hij wordt smoorverliefd op de waanzinnig mooie vrouw van zijn baas, een bekende kalligraaf: Hamid Farsi, een groot kunstenaar en een liefdeloze echtgenoot. Bovendien voelt de kalligraaf zich geroepen om het geheim uit de titel van het boek te verwezenlijken: het complexe Arabische schrift aanpassen aan de twintigste eeuw. Dat ligt gevoelig in sommige kringen, want het Arabisch is ook de taal van de Koran.
Het geheim van de kalligraaf is een wervelende roman die ons binnenleidt in een facinerende Arabische wereld waar homoseksualiteit en andere seksuele omgangsvormen heel uitgebreid aan bod komen. De auteur benadert de Arabische wereld heel kritisch maar wel met kennis van zaken.
Review : Rafik Schami is in 1946 in Damascus, hoofdstad van Syrië, geboren in een christelijk-aramees gezin. In 1970 verliet hij Syrië om de militaire dienst te ontlopen en ook omdat de censuur hem dreigde te verstikken. Zijn muurkrant (al-Muntalaq, het Vertrekpunt) was in dat jaar door de autoriteiten verboden. Sinds 1991 is Schami getrouwd met de illustratrice en schrijfster Root Leeb, die een groot aantal van zijn boeken heeft geïllustreerd en vormgegeven.
Helemaal in beslag genomen door zijn verbeten strijd om het Arabische schrift te moderniseren –wat recht tegen de opvattingen van de heersende politieke en religieuze macht indruist– merkt de beroemde kalligraaf Hamid Farsi niet dat zijn verwaarloosde vrouw Nura verliefd wordt op een andere man, een christen nog wel. Uiteindelijk plannen Nura en haar minnaar een roekeloze vlucht, waarna het leven en werk van de beroemde kalligraaf ineenstorten.
In een zinnelijke stijl schetst Rafik Schami het leven in Damascus rond 1950, met zijn kleurrijke bewoners, de rijkgeschakeerde verhalen die rondzoemen in de nauwe steegjes, de politieke en religieuze conflicten, en de kunst van de kalligrafie. Rafik Schami, die in 1971 zijn geboorteplek Damascus ruilde voor een leven in Duitsland, zet een intrigerend portret neer van de Syrische hoofdstad zoals ze er een halve eeuw geleden uitzag.
Salman is een arme christen, hij wordt smoorverliefd op de waanzinnig mooie vrouw van zijn baas, een bekende kalligraaf: Hamid Farsi, een groot kunstenaar en een liefdeloze echtgenoot. Bovendien voelt de kalligraaf zich geroepen om het geheim uit de titel van het boek te verwezenlijken: het complexe Arabische schrift aanpassen aan de twintigste eeuw. Dat ligt gevoelig in sommige kringen, want het Arabisch is ook de taal van de Koran.
Het geheim van de kalligraaf is een wervelende roman die ons binnenleidt in een facinerende Arabische wereld waar homoseksualiteit en andere seksuele omgangsvormen heel uitgebreid aan bod komen. De auteur benadert de Arabische wereld heel kritisch maar wel met kennis van zaken.
August 5, 2017
"Ogni sera mia madre ingoia la sua gelosia e decide di fidarsi di mio padre, ma di notte la gelosia sbuca fuori di nuovo dalla sua bocca aperta e, non appena mio padre esce di casa,la mattina presto, salta agilmente sulle spalle di mia madre e le sussurra che i suoi timori erano giustificati. E lei nutre quell'orribile piattola come un animale domestico. Ora di sera è diventata grande quanto un pollo. E quando mio padre ritorna a casa stanco dal lavoro, mia madre si vergogna e gli dà un bacio, piena di rimorsi di coscienza. Allora macella la sua gelosia e se la mangia di nuovo".
Inizia in modo confusionario, la narrazione passa velocemente da un personaggio all'altro illustrando in modo sommario le vite di tutte le persone che popolano il quartiere in cui vive Salman e, solo con il passare del tempo, si focalizza su alcuni personaggi ben precisi.
Già dalle prime pagine viene svelato l'epilogo della storia con risultati, a mio avviso, demotivanti.
Le pagine scorrono e la lettura prosegue, più per inerzia che per vero interesse.
Tutto sommato, un bel ritratto della Damasco anni '50.
Un po' noiose le ultime cinquanta pagine interamente dedicate alla scrittura araba e alla calligrafia.
Ma, neanche a dirlo, il titolo originale del libro non ha nulla in comune con quello italiano (Das Geheimnis des Kalligraphen ).
Come ci si può dunque lamentare di quelle ultime pagine quando sarebbe bastata una traduzione corretta?
Inizia in modo confusionario, la narrazione passa velocemente da un personaggio all'altro illustrando in modo sommario le vite di tutte le persone che popolano il quartiere in cui vive Salman e, solo con il passare del tempo, si focalizza su alcuni personaggi ben precisi.
Già dalle prime pagine viene svelato l'epilogo della storia con risultati, a mio avviso, demotivanti.
Le pagine scorrono e la lettura prosegue, più per inerzia che per vero interesse.
Tutto sommato, un bel ritratto della Damasco anni '50.
Un po' noiose le ultime cinquanta pagine interamente dedicate alla scrittura araba e alla calligrafia.
Ma, neanche a dirlo, il titolo originale del libro non ha nulla in comune con quello italiano (Das Geheimnis des Kalligraphen ).
Come ci si può dunque lamentare di quelle ultime pagine quando sarebbe bastata una traduzione corretta?
February 25, 2025
Being diesem Buch war ich wirklich hin und hergerissen, wieviele Sterne ich geben soll.
Der Anfang des Buches sind ganz klar 4 ⭐️, der Autor schaffst unglaublich atmosphärisch zu schreiben, man fühlt sich als würde man selbst die Straßen Damaskus entlang laufen.
Der Kalligraph selbst spielt eher eine Nebenrolle als schlechter Ehemann für Nura.
Nach der Flucht von Nura und Salman hätte Dan das Buch für mich enden müssen, denn alles was danach kam war einfach so garnicht zusammenhängend mit dem ersten Teil des Buches.
Plötzlich wird der Kalligraph als der Gute dargestellt, der nur auf die Fallen der Reinen reingefallen ist?! Ne er war einfach oft ein Arschloch da haben die Reinen nichts mit zutun. Generell diese ganze Geheimbund Sache fande ich etwas erzwungen und viel zu übereilt das nochmal in 100 Seiten genau erklären zu wollen.
Und am Ende bleibt es trotzdem alles irgendwie offen, war der Teeverkäufer jetzt einer der Reinen? In wiefern macht das überhaupt Sinn? Ist der Kalligraph geflohen? War wirklich alles in langer Hand geplant?
Die Idee mit der Erneuerung der Schrift und konservative Kräfte die sich dagegen wehren finde ich an sich eine spannende Grundlage für ein Buch. Diese Feindschaft kann für viele moderne Konflikte übertragen werden und nicht zuletzt führen wir hier in Deutschland einen ganz ähnlichen Diskurs um das Thema Gendern.
Schade das es dem Autor diesmal nicht ganz so gut gelungen ist.
Der Anfang des Buches sind ganz klar 4 ⭐️, der Autor schaffst unglaublich atmosphärisch zu schreiben, man fühlt sich als würde man selbst die Straßen Damaskus entlang laufen.
Der Kalligraph selbst spielt eher eine Nebenrolle als schlechter Ehemann für Nura.
Nach der Flucht von Nura und Salman hätte Dan das Buch für mich enden müssen, denn alles was danach kam war einfach so garnicht zusammenhängend mit dem ersten Teil des Buches.
Plötzlich wird der Kalligraph als der Gute dargestellt, der nur auf die Fallen der Reinen reingefallen ist?! Ne er war einfach oft ein Arschloch da haben die Reinen nichts mit zutun. Generell diese ganze Geheimbund Sache fande ich etwas erzwungen und viel zu übereilt das nochmal in 100 Seiten genau erklären zu wollen.
Und am Ende bleibt es trotzdem alles irgendwie offen, war der Teeverkäufer jetzt einer der Reinen? In wiefern macht das überhaupt Sinn? Ist der Kalligraph geflohen? War wirklich alles in langer Hand geplant?
Die Idee mit der Erneuerung der Schrift und konservative Kräfte die sich dagegen wehren finde ich an sich eine spannende Grundlage für ein Buch. Diese Feindschaft kann für viele moderne Konflikte übertragen werden und nicht zuletzt führen wir hier in Deutschland einen ganz ähnlichen Diskurs um das Thema Gendern.
Schade das es dem Autor diesmal nicht ganz so gut gelungen ist.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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