Most recent articles by Stefan Weidner
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Third Karachi Literature FestivalLong on Talent, Short on Time
Despite ongoing political difficulties in Pakistan, a thrilling but all-too-brief literature festival took place on 11 and 12 February in the nation's largest metropolis. Impressions from Karachi by Stefan Weidner
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PEN Award for the Egyptian Publisher Mohammed HashimA Father of the Revolution
The publisher Mohammed Hashim has been awarded the Hermann Kesten Prize of the German PEN Club. Hashim has not only distinguished himself as a publisher, he has also been directly and substantially involved in supporting the Egyptian revolutionaries. Stefan Weidner sends us this tribute
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Goethe Prize Awarded to Syrian Poet AdonisHonouring Condescending Scepticism
It's the wrong time for the Goethe Prize winner Adonis to be criticizing the protests in his homeland, writes Stefan Weidner, Adonis's German translator, in his commentary
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After the Massacre in NorwayCritics of Islam Face a Dilemma
The massacre in Norway reveals just how wrong critics of Islam have been: it wasn't a Muslim who went to war against the West – it was one of their own, someone who shared many of their views. That has made it clear: the true enemies of the anti-Islam movement are not the Muslims, but its own supporters. By Stefan Weidner
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German Peace Prize for Boualem SansalA Good, Cowardly Choice
Awarding Boualem Sansal with the German Peace Prize is in fact not as courageous as it seems, writes Stefan Weidner: the Algerian author is one of those critics of Arab-Islamic conditions who make it easy for us to follow him, Weidner says
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Obituary for Fuad Rifka
The Advocate of Lyrical Attentiveness
The renowned Lebanese poet Fuad Rifka died last Saturday at the age of 80. Alongside Adonis and Mahmud Darwish he was one of the great revivers of Arabic poetry, yet among those of his own generation he remained unique until the end. An obituary by Stefan Weidner
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The Koran as a text from late antiquityA European approach
In her comprehensive Koran study, Angelika Neuwirth, Director of the research project Corpus Coranicum, interprets the Koran as a text that was developed in the milieu of Late Antiquity theological debates. Stefan Weidner introduces the book and project
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The Legend of Lawrence of ArabiaThe Recalcitrant Hero
With the benefit of hindsight, there is something superhuman about his character. However, more than almost anyone else, Lawrence embodies the transformation from hero to anti-hero that shaped literature in the twentieth century. By Stefan Weidner
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Poems from Guantanamo
"Will Ya Ever Go Jihad Again?"
The book "Poems from Guantanamo" is a phenomenon: out of thousands of poems written by the detainees, 22 made it past the US censors. Now it's clear that the Islamists have also arrived on the Modernist poetry scene.