Mark Rizk Farag > Recent Status Updates

It is an interesting idea to begin the book with an overview of Egyptian history, however despite the author of the section being Egyptian, it stinks a little of Liberal and Western condescension.

We persevere nonetheless.

Unique perspective and mode of story telling! Very compelling so far and... I truly love the front cover.

Dostoevsky mentioned 🗣️ 🗣️ 🗣️ 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥

'He felt sick at the entire human race: its civilization, industry, arts, and philosophers and moralists- for what use were they? She seemed to have read them all and yet none of them has managed to convince her that human beings were something else other than spurts of ejaculate and receptacles for it. Maybe none of them was genuine enough to convince her.'

Beautiful, vivid and fascinating so far...

Why call it the 'Distinctly African Church' and not Donatism? An interesting choice of words

The coloniser romance feels really forced

This book could have been 300 pages or so shorter to it's own benefit 😭

Pausing your plots relating to war and espionage between nations, genocide, and so on to spend 100 or so pages on a cooking contest in a random restaurant with a new ensemble or characters is wild.

Me: it's been a long day at work, let me read to wind down.

The book: INFANTICIDE, MASS KILLING, COLONIALISM.

well shit...

I picked this book up reluctantly and now it's way past my bedtime and I can't put it down 😭

'Creating social capital out of suffering means that we have a perverse incentive to hold onto our victimhood, rather than work together to change the conditions that created it. It's an inherently minority endeavour, breaking us down into the most powerless political unit of all: the lonely, frightened and untrusting individual. '

The British empire burning, looting and destroying Benin City, and Kumasi and engaging in slavery while labelling African civilisations as backwards and primitive is very audacious hypocrisy...

"There has been little, if any, meaningful discussion in Arab countries on the subject. Arab society and civilisation bencfited tremendously over the centuries from the blood,. sweat and tears of African labour and there has not been a public debate about slavery reparations to mirror the-one in Europe and North America...The Arabs are in denial about thcir prolific and long-lasting slave trade. '

'How the fortunes of the Sahel have changed since Mansa Musa...'

It is so depressing to read about the glory of the Songhai and Mali empires in comparison to the current state of the region...

The fact that the author, who is of Muslim heritage, pauses before describing the advent of Islam into North Africa, to describe the Jews and Christians of the region is so admirable.

It was also spectacular to learn more about Amazigh history.

It is so brilliant to read about the civilisations of Kush and Aksum, which have always captured my awe and fascination - in a Sunday Times Best Selling book!

Very thorough and succinct coverage of ancient Egyptian history!

Also covers the 'race controversy' really well. Some of us do in fact identify more as North African than as Arab, but I suppose we are the minority.

Bro, Confucius should have sued for libel 😂

The writing style remains fascinating, despite the ideas not really resonating with me.

The best written book of the series so far!

This book has motivated me to read Chinese history and philosophy

The most impressive thing about the book is it's writing style. The philosophical views expressed in my opinion have as much valuable content as poorly argued or problematic content.

An ideal Daoist sage would face natural death and loss of loved one with no emotional turmoil.

But seemingly, would use none of this strength to challenge oppression or do good for those around them.

This book and series, legitimately deserve to be as big as the biggest in the fantasy genre.

This is easily one of the most bizarre books I have ever attempted to read, and I don't mean that in a bad way.

Beautiful and quite cataclysmic in its apophatic nature

Loving this a lot more than I expected to

Most of the book is brilliant - but I hated one chapter so far

The love of Rumi for Hafez/Shams el Din is so evident across the centuries, through the stylistically unique references he leaves to him in his poetry!

Part of what makes this book so beautiful, is the vastly varying perspectives on the life of Jesus.