Asmahan's Secrets : Woman, War, and Song (Middle East Monograph Series, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin) (CMES Middle East Monograph Series)

This book is not a work of translation! It is an original biography which took nearly ten years to write partially because Americans were not interested in Arabic singers (I was told I should write about Golda Meier instead) and because the Arabic sources are so filled with errors, innuendo, rumors and completely vacuous gossip that it took a lot of work, including review of official archives to uncover this fascinating woman's life story. This process taught me that journalists and others tend to copy whatever they read uncritically. The buzz in the Arab world was that Asmahan was a spy! The truth? Read the book.If you want to read about a woman who defied her family's expectations for her, and brought a unique quality to thestage and the screen, decide for yourself and ignore the reviews - particularly by the person who admits he hasn't read the book.Arabic readers -- you can find the book in Arabic as published by Dar al-Mada and Dar Madbouli.UT Press has copy editors and I thank them for their hard work. Neither they, nor I are perfect. However one set of lyrics that were critiqued are not even translated in the book but were instead provided in Arabic along with the musical notation.Brothers and sisters, do you want to tear down your fellow Arabic music lovers (without reading the book as one reviewer admitted) or do you want Americans to learn about Asmahan?

The bad news: criticisms expressed in other reviews are quite valid. The good news: this is a fascinating account of an extraordinary 20th-century life, and you won't find anything like it anywhere else in English, or possibly even in Arabic. The author brings to it her sensitivity as a scholar, a woman, and a musician and thus writes a fuller and more convincing account of Asmahan's life than any of her male, Arab biographers have done. If you have been mesmerized by Asmahan's voice, this book is a great way to find out what lay behind it.I think the criticism of the book should mainly be directed at UT press: the book simply wasn't copyedited. How can they expect to retain a reputation as a scholarly press if they don't bother to have someone read, fact-check, and correct the titles they produce? Hopefully the book will survive to a second edition and and the various problems pointed out can be put right.

what an amazing book, scientifically presented material only a great academic could do, and a book of history of the middle east in the first half of the 20th century.

Really liked it but it's slightly expnsive.

this book was truly excellent and thorough. however, some of the translations of the lyrics were horrendous and totally destroyed the true meaning of the songs.with a book so well-researched, this is not an acceptable mistake and greatly detracts from its value. otherwise, a great book.

The Hassaniens and el Badrawis were wealthy families with serious interest in art.Their houses outside Cairo were meeting points for many musicians as well as politicians (Egyptian politicians).Amal el Atrash (Asmahan) met people, both here and at other stops in Egypt and the Lebanon.Jussuf Wehbe (Beik) is Egypt's born Theatre Stage Star for whom the best Egyptian authors wrote his first Stage appearance. Asmahan was one of the devotees of Wehbe's performances and with whom she would remain in contact for the rest of her life.Also Naguib el Rihani and Georges Abyyad (all were labeled: Shawaams - Syrians/Lebanese/Iraqis), as they had one common credo: they were apolitical i.e Politically neutral.There is absolutely no evidence that Asmahan had ever been an allied agent. Although she comes from Al Atrash family in the Lebanon, known for its role in the resistance against the French mandate in the 1920s, Asmahan never indulged herself in politics.(Her father held a number of public offices in Ottoman Turkey and Syria.)""A British Agent!!!"" Such description would be too much to carry.Asmahan was not in a position to shoulder her way into the WWII crowd. Her education and experience, her background were just not up to such junctures as she had always had an impulse to leave when felt in danger (that's why she ""abandoned"" Lebanon in the first place).So,describing her as Allied Agent is a sheer hypothesis that has been formed by speculating or conjecturing (with no hard evidence)

I just purchased Asmahan's book by Sherifa Zuhur and did not read it fully, However skipping between the pages I found some very wrong translations of song lyrics from Arabic to English.If there would be any other future edition of this book, Those mistakes should be fixed, the difference with the right translation is awfully distant.I wonder how an academic author of Arabic origins as the name tells could make those terrible mistakes and why Arab linguistics obvioulsy were not involved in the translation.Following are 2 examples, I am sure there are plenty more as I did not read the book yet.Example 1, Page 84:"Asqaniha bi abi inta wa ummi"Was translated : "forgive her for the sake....." . While the correct translation should be " Pour me a drink for the sake ......"and to follow pronounciation it should have been writtem "Asqeniha" not "Asqaniha"also : "fa laqad nam al-nadami"Was transalted : "for the remorcseful slept" . Nadami are the drinking companions, and in old ages the servants who pour the wine, common work in "Jahily" poems. and to follow pronounciation it should have been writtem "fa laqad naman Nadama" not "al-Nadami". That's wrinting the letters as they are written in Arabic not as they are pronounced.Example 2: page 179:"Mithla ar-ridha ma narkhasak bi'uthman" is terribly wrong there is no "Uthman" and translated to "Ottomans" what a great leap.it says "Ma Narkhasek Ba-Athman" , Meaning (our home land) you are priceless, any price is too cheap for you. The Ottomans appear in many other poems but where the Ottomnas come into the picture in the mentioned lyrics should be only the writer's imagination.Thank you.

Not the best of writing styles, and often attempting to sound a bit too erudite for her own good, which made the book a bit of a plod at times. But if you like Asmahan's singing, she was an interesting subject, with her Druze background and the intrigues of the War. The author could have done much better in the photography department. We were frequently reminded of Asmahan's beauty, but most of the images of her in the book were of a very plain, ordinary-looking woman, rather than of the femme fatale she actually was. Also disappointing was how Zuhur rather skimmed over her death and the aftermath.

Cet ouvrage semble destiné plutôt à des lecteurs comprenant l'arabe . Il manque souvent des traductions anglaises de mots ou expressions cités en arabe . C'est dommage car le livre est très bien documenté .