BEIRUT: “The Merchant of Syria” is more than a history of survival, it interweaves the story of cloth merchant Mohammad Chaker Chamsi-Pasha with the development of Syria in an insightful look at the life of a successful businessman who expanded his trade from the Levant to the shores of the UK.
Author Diana Darke was introduced to the merchant, known as Abu Chaker, by his youngest son in 2005. During his lifetime, Abu Chaker refused to have a book published about himself, but after his death in 2013, his sons asked Darke to write the story of their father’s life.
The book alternates between the macro and the micro, with even-numbered chapters recounting the life of the illustrious merchant and odd-numbered chapters setting that story against the socio-economic history of Syria, from the end of the Ottoman Empire to the present day.
Abu Chaker faced a series of tragedies that reinforced his determination to succeed against all odds. His father died when he was ten-years-old, leaving him with a mother and seven unmarried sisters to support. He left school to earn a living in his uncle’s textile shop where he learned the ropes and eventually became a textile merchant.
After losing everything in Syria, then in Beirut, he left for London. He soon took over a Bradford-based textile plant and went on to build a multi-national empire. He had an innate sense of entrepreneurship, instinctively knew the right approach for each buyer and, above all, he had a knack for turning disasters into opportunities.
The author details his life using in-depth interviews with his children, friends and colleagues. It is, of course, difficult to gain a solid understanding of the man through the words of his acquaintances, but Darke does an admirable job of piecing together his journey.
If I had to recommend a single book for someone wanting to understand Syria, it would be this. The “Merchant of Syria” is a fascinating read that sews together the life of one man into a wider look at the history of a country that many seek to understand.
Book review: Weaving a cloth merchant’s story into the history of Syria
Book review: Weaving a cloth merchant’s story into the history of Syria
What We Are Reading Today: The World Atlas of Rivers, Estuaries, and Deltas
Authors: Jim Best, Stephen Darby, Luciana Esteves, & Carol Wilson
From the Congo and the Mekong to the Seine and the Mississippi, Earth’s rivers carve through landscapes before coursing into the world’s oceans through estuaries and deltas.
“The World Atlas of Rivers, Estuaries, and Deltas” takes readers on an unforgettable tour of these dynamic bodies of water, explaining how they function at each stage of their flow.
What We Are Reading Today: Money Capital
Authors: Patrick Bolton & Haizhou Huang
In this book, leading economists Patrick Bolton and Haizhou Huang offer a novel perspective, viewing monetary economics through the lens of corporate finance.
They propose a richer theory, where money can be seen as the equity capital of a nation, playing a similar role as stocks for a company.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘Crossing Thoughts’
Author: Sultan Ayaz
“Crossing Thoughts” is a fantasy novel in English by Saudi author Sultan Ayaz, published in 2017.
Ayaz’s novel is about humans defending their homeland against demon oppression. It is about the eternal fight between humanity and demons, and the person who stands between them.
The story begins with Drake, a child who lives a peaceful life with his family in a small town. However, a demonic attack destroys the village, but Drake somehow survives.
Three characters emerge: Aria, Ray and Amber, who study the nature of elements at the Grand College of Elements in the Kingdom of Iora, one of three kingdoms suffering demonic oppression. They learn to employ elemental magic as a weapon against their demonic opponents.
Aria (wind element user), Amber (fire element user) and Ray (thunder element user) end up fighting a sea demon and are discovered by a mysterious man called Soul, who admires their powers and helps them train to become “demon slayers,” to free humans from oppression.
There are many fight scenes in the storyline using magic and elements, and the book is full of drama, plot twists and terror.
What I liked about the narrative is how easy it is to read and follow, and the development of the world building —from the village to the Kingdom of Iora.
The female characters in the novel shine brighter and have distinct styles, making them more intriguing to read about, and each possesses a particular power.
It might be confusing for some readers that the story begins with Drake’s perspective and then cuts to the story of Aria, Amber and Ray. However, the more you read, the more intriguing the female storylines become.
The book has received four-plus star ratings on the Goodreads website and is simple enough to read in one sitting.
In 2020, Ayaz became one of the first Saudi novelists to have a fiction work in English published overseas when Olympia Publishers, a British publishing house, purchased the rights to “Crossing Thoughts.”
The novel is also set to be adapted into a Manga comic by Manga Arabia.
What We Are Reading Today: When the Bombs Stopped
Author: Erin Lin
Over the course of the Vietnam War, the United states dropped 500,000 tonnes of bombs over Cambodia—more than the combined weight of every man, woman, and child in the country.
Fifty years after the last sortie, residents of rural Cambodia are still coping with the unexploded ordnance that covers their land.
What We Are Reading Today: Father Time
Author: Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
It has long seemed self-evident that women care for babies and men do other things.
Puzzled and dazzled by the tender expertise of new fathers around the world— several in her own family—celebrated evolutionary anthropologist and primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy set out to trace the deep history of male nurturing and explain a surprising departure from everything she had assumed to be “normal.”
