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Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land
by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
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"Writing with an intimacy and a depth of knowledge gained through thirteen years among the Yemenis, Mackintosh-Smith proves himself a traveling companion of the best sort - erudite, witty, and eccentric. Crossing mountain, desert, ocean, and three millennia of history, he portrays a land that, in the words of a contemporary poet, has become the dictionary of its people. In Yemen: The Unknown Arabia, we witness the extraordinary in the ordinary: men who chew leaves and camels that live on fish; a city that seems to have been baked, not built, of iced gingerbread; not to speak of shepherdesses who tend their flocks in gold sequinned dresses. Yemen is a part of Arabia, but it is like no place else on earth."--BOOK JACKET.
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"A better starting point is Tim Mackintosh-Smith ’s Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land . Tim is an interesting, eccentric and wonderfully erudite British man who has lived in Yemen for many years. He has mastered Arabic, both classical and colloquial, and he writes Yemeni and classical poetry. He has a remarkable feel and sensibility for Yemeni culture and aesthetics. Witty and funny, he picks out historical anecdotes, stories and poems that illuminate many aspects of Yemeni life. You learn how the country works politically. You also see how Yemenis interact with one another and how different everyone is. It’s a country of many distinctive cultures. For example, the coastal area by the Red Sea is very different to that facing the Indian Ocean. These contrast with the interior of the country, with its deserts, highlands, terraced agriculture and farming communities. The book brings out that variety. Yemen is, historically, an extremely literary country. It has a remarkable scholarly culture, brought out in the book. There’s a great one about learning Arabic at Oxford, and a very funny section on how Arabic words have different meanings. It’s good at showing the complexity of the Arabic language: how it’s been used and manipulated."