My speech upon receiving the Lokman Slim Prize in Beirut on Sunday. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrGj...
Alex Rowell's Lokman Slim Prize speech, 2 February 2025
YouTube video by Alex Rowell
youtube.com
Alex Rowell
@alexjrowell.bsky.social
Senior editor at @newlinesmag.bsky.social. Author of "We Are Your Soldiers: How Gamal Abdel Nasser Remade the Arab World" (2023) and "Vintage Humour: The Islamic Wine Poetry of Abu Nuwas" (2018). https://linktr.ee/alexrowell
An immense honour to be awarded the Lokman Slim Prize in Beirut on Sunday. If Lebanon's new leaders are serious about change, they must bring Lokman's killers to justice.
Just finished and I am so grateful you wrote it. What an amazing book, putting together an incredible overview of events in the Middle East during Nasser’s time and beyond. Illuminating is the word, and it really reads like a thriller. Couldn’t recommend it more
The @economist.com kindly suggests my book as one of four "to help understand the [Middle East] region". "An engaging tome ... provides many lessons for understanding the Middle East today."
The alcohol question is not a frivolous one - it strikes at the core of the debate about the nature of Syria's new state, argues @theactualammar.bsky.social in @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/spotlight/th...
newlinesmag.com
Impossible revolutions and psychedelic mysteries: @newlinesmag.bsky.social editors' best books of 2024 newlinesmag.com/spotlight/im...
Impossible Revolutions and Psychedelic Mysteries: Our Best Books of 2024
In our annual tradition, New Lines' editors choose their favorite reads of the past year
newlinesmag.com
On the occasion of World Arabic Day, no better time to revisit the verse of the 8th-century poet, libertine and Umayyad Caliph al-Walid ibn Yazid:
Invigorating read by Karam Nachar, titled, "Syrian Democrats, This Is Our Moment!" Rather than split into rival camps of optimists v. pessimists, he says Syrian democrats should embrace the contradictions and take an active part in shaping the new era. aljumhuriya.net/ar/2024/12/1...
"Between hope and despair, everyone is searching for truth and justice." Chilling photos and reporting from inside Syria's Sednaya Prison by Aubin Eymard and Cian Ward for @newlinesmag.bsky.social: newlinesmag.com/spotlight/ho...
Hope and Despair at Assad's 'Human Slaughterhouse'
New Lines reports from Sednaya Prison, where Syrians brave horrors in a desperate search for lost loved ones
newlinesmag.com
A short thread on Syrian vexillology: The below was not (as many are calling it) the "Baathist" flag, nor an invention of the Assads. It was the flag of the United Arab Republic, the union between Nasser's Egypt and Syria (represented by the two green stars) from 1958-61.
Great essay on Naguib Mahfouz, “Children of the Alley” and “how a largely secular authoritarian regime was able to exploit a religious controversy to stifle the voice of a highly influential writer who was expressing his discontent with the political situation of Egypt under Nasser’s rule.”
What the Stabbing of a Nobel Prize-Winning Novelist Tells Us About Power in Egypt
While the attempted assassination of Naguib Mahfouz 30 years ago is usually seen as a story of Islamist extremism, the original controversy surrounding his work was rooted more in politics than religi...
newlinesmag.com
Alex Rowell@alexjrowell.bsky.social · 2y agoWhile the stabbing of Naguib Mahfouz is often seen as nothing more than a story of Islamist extremism, the original controversy around his work was also an attempt by Nasser to deflect political criticism, writes @cosenote.bsky.social in @newlinesmag.bsky.social: newlinesmag.com/essays/what-...
While the stabbing of Naguib Mahfouz is often seen as nothing more than a story of Islamist extremism, the original controversy around his work was also an attempt by Nasser to deflect political criticism, writes @cosenote.bsky.social in @newlinesmag.bsky.social: newlinesmag.com/essays/what-...
What the Stabbing of a Nobel Prize-Winning Novelist Tells Us About Power in Egypt
While the attempted assassination of Naguib Mahfouz 30 years ago is usually seen as a story of Islamist extremism, the original controversy surrounding his work was rooted more in politics than religi...
newlinesmag.com
A tone of cautious optimism from Syria's Yassin al-Haj Saleh, who is no fan of HTS or the SNA but notes several positives from recent days: release of prisoners from Assad's dungeons, return of displaced civilians and relative discipline of fighters, so far. www.alquds.co.uk/%d9%87%d9%84...
هل من كسر للبنية الدموية في سوريا؟ | ياسين الحاج صالح
هل تُحوِّل تطورات الأيام الأخيرة بيئة الصراع في سوريا على نحو يفتح الباب لتغيرات سياسية أوسع، تفاوضية أو غير ذلك؟ هل تكسر هذه التطورات نسقاً استقر طوال سنوات، نسق أحداث بلا تغير، أو أحداث عقيمة سياسيا...
alquds.co.uk
"An absolute treasure ... as gripping as it is illuminating." Humbled to see "We Are Your Soldiers" on @ginoraidy.bsky.social's list of recommended books from 2024. Follow Gino here & on Instagram for sharp and extremely entertaining Middle East commentary. ginoraidy.substack.com/p/15-books-f...
15 Books from 2024
My Recommendations of Fiction and Nonfiction
ginoraidy.substack.com
"Kyiv was meant to fall in three days, not Aleppo." A tour de force by @hhassan.bsky.social and @michaeldweiss.bsky.social on the stunning takeover of Syria's second city, how it happened, who did it, and the many headaches it creates for Assad, Putin and Iran. newlinesmag.com/reportage/th...
The Backstory Behind the Fall of Aleppo
New Lines reports exclusively on the details leading up to the city's stunning capture
newlinesmag.com
Hizbullah officially declares it has attacked an Israeli military position in the Kfar Shouba hills, calling it an "initial defensive response" to Israel's "repeated violations" of the ceasefire. (Pic from al-Manar website.)
If you’re in London, come and discuss the epic year of news that was 2024 - and which is still happening, with immense change in Syria right now. Stephen Sackur has interviewed so many key global players over the years - come and hear him review the year @newlinesmag.bsky.social reserve your spot👇
Faisal Al Yafai@faisalalyafai.bsky.social · 2y ago2024 has been a year of profound and seismic events. To unpack them, next week we're welcoming the grand inquisitor himself Stephen Sackur to the Frontline Club to review the news and personalities of the year | @newlinesmag.bsky.social | Sign up here and join us: www.eventbrite.com/e/a-year-of-...
The date of the inscription, 26 September 1963, is the first anniversary of the Free Officers' coup in Yemen.
Andrew Simon@simongandrew.bsky.social · 2y agoThere’s a lot to unpack in this video, starting with why Anwar Sadat gifted Gamal Abdel Nasser a Rolex watch in 1963 with his name, as opposed to Nasser’s name, inscribed on the back. The watch is set to be auctioned off by Sotheby’s next week. youtu.be/y6N1SSZut6c?...
Some quick thoughts on the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire deal:
This by @alexjrowell.bsky.social is highly recommended, a deep dive into Nasser’s malign impact on the de-colonising states of the Middle East & how the brutal dysfunction lingers: Libya, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan all covered - indispensable in understanding the ME conflict
"Imagine getting to the end of one sentence like that and having to read another just as bad. And then another ... for more than five hundred pages." At least @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social gets paid to suffer Jordan Peterson's prose. Why anyone else would do it is an enduring mystery.
“Ever since Israel killed Hezbollah’s spiritual father and military guru in an airstrike on Sept. 27, the group has been on the back foot.” newlinesmag.com/argument/hez...
Hezbollah’s Bureaucrat-in-Chief
The group’s new leader Naim Qassem is underwhelming at best and shows how far it has fallen
newlinesmag.com
Excited to announce that we’ve won an Eppy award — under the category of Best Magazine Website.
Will Climate Concerns Push Scotland To Change Its Famous Whisky Taste? The Edinburgh government is mulling a ban on the sale of peat, a vital carbon store that also puts the signature smoke in Scotch By @alexjrowell.bsky.social in @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/reportage/wi...
Will Climate Concerns Push Scotland To Change Its Famous Whisky Taste?
The Edinburgh government is mulling a ban on the sale of peat, a vital carbon store that also puts the signature smoke in Scotch
newlinesmag.com
My 5th archaeology story for @newlinesmag.bsky.social but this time it's a story of destruction, not excavation. We don't even know what's being destroyed by Israeli bombs in Lebanon- but here's what we do know. History as well as lives are being destroyed. newlinesmag.com/reportage/le...
Lebanon’s Heritage Is Disappearing Under Israel’s Bombardment
The war has already damaged many lesser-known antiquities and poses a threat to sites of global importance
newlinesmag.com
Lebanon’s Heritage Is Disappearing Under Israel’s Bombardment Important read by @newlinesmag.bsky.social's culture editor @lsmwilson.bsky.social on recent damage to UNESCO World Heritage Sites, plus countless other historic buildings and indeed entire villages. newlinesmag.com/reportage/le...
Lebanon’s Heritage Is Disappearing Under Israel’s Bombardment
The war has already damaged many lesser-known antiquities and poses a threat to sites of global importance
newlinesmag.com