Eqbal Ahmad: Critical Outsider in a Turbulent Age - Hardcover

Schaar, Stuart

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231171560 ISBN 13: 9780231171564

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Eqbal Ahmad

About this title

Review:

This book is full of remarkable original primary material on the life and writings of an intellectual and activist well deserving of a biography.--Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University

Eqbal Ahmad was a brilliant and penetrating critic and analyst, a courageous fighter for justice and freedom in much of the world, steeped in humanistic understanding, warm and compassionate, a dear friend. His accomplishments ranged from demolishing self-serving dogmas about the Cold War to such constructive work as bringing Indians and Pakistanis together in a search for an amicable settlement of a tragic conflict, and far too much more even to try to mention. His life, achievements, and legacy are vividly portrayed by his close friend Stuart Schaar in this outstanding study, a fine tribute to one of the most remarkable people I've been fortunate enough to know, or even to know about.--Noam Chomsky

Eqbal Ahmad was a remarkable human being as well as a seminal progressive political thinker. In this illuminating intellectual biography, Stuart Schaar, brings his subject to life, drawing on their long, intimate friendship and shared scholarly engagement with the politics of the Middle East and the Islamic world. Above all, Ahmad grasped the toxic interplay between the maladies of postcolonialism and the persistent imperial ambitions of the West better than any of his contemporaries.--Richard A. Falk

By taking readers across the entire fascinating range of Ahmad's preoccupations and passions, Schaar has made his subject accessible to all those who never had the privilege of knowing him. In a fairly short, fluently written work, Schaar has done his old friend proud, and shed light on a thinker, an engaged activist and a wonderful man.--Irfan Husain "Dawn "

Schaar has done us a service in providing an introductory overview of Eqbal Ahmad's life and thought, unveiling the man's humanity, frustrations, foibles, brilliance, and even his culinary talents (an appendix provides a recipe for a "Chicken Tikka Masala Marinade").--Friday Times

Short but poignant . . . Schaar does a wonderful job capturing the special relationship and bond between Ahmad and Said.--Journal of Palestine Studies

Essential.--The National

This book is essential for understanding the intellectual prowess and legacy of one of the great minds of our times.--Muslim World Book Review

About the Author:

Stuart Schaar is professor emeritus of Middle East and North African history at Brooklyn College, CUNY. His most recent publication is The Birth of the Arab Citizen and the Changing of the Middle East. He lives in Rabat, Morocco.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0231171560
• ISBN 13: 9780231171564
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240