MER Article American Magic in a Moroccan Town Fatna held up the knot of hair. It was a magic spell. “But what does it mean?” I asked, looking suspiciously at the neatly-tied brown square knot. “And whose hair is it?” “Why do you think Khadija has been coming over every day? She wants me to marry her brother Muhammad. This is probably her mothe Hannah Davis • 17 min read
MER Article Bedouins, Cassettes and Technologies of Public Culture Discotheques and taxicabs all over Egypt last January were playing the songs of a new pop star. No one knew exactly where “the Earthquake of ’88” (his biographer’s term) had come from, but everyone seemed to think Ali Hemida was a Bedouin. Some said he came from Sinai; others said Libya. His music w Lila Abu-Lughod • 16 min read
MER Article Culture Across Borders Salman Rushdie’s story of Ismail Najmuddin -- the former Bombay lunch-runner turned movie star, screen name Gibreel Farishta, the Muslim who played Hindu gods in numerous “theologicals,” migrant to London, victim of the bombing of flight AI-420, the man who fell from the sky and lived, only to dream Timothy Mitchell • 8 min read
MER Article From the Editors (July/August 1989) The events of the past year demonstrate the great need for independent critical reporting and analysis of the Middle East and US policy there -- reporting and analysis that only Middle East Report provides. The key word is independent. This is what allows Middle East Report to be critical, to speak The Editors • 2 min read
