White Mosque. The World That Survived. Where the Silk Road Leads
39.99 €
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White Mosque. The World That Survived. Where the Silk Road Leads
39.99 €
This is a very real story. Sophia Samatar, the author of this book, is a Swiss-American mother from North Dakota, a Mennonite Christian, and her father is a Somali Muslim. They met in Somalia, where Sophia's mother had come as a missionary to teach English and her father taught the local language to newcomers (though he himself was a shepherd in the desert). They fell in love, went to America, and Sophia was born.
Many years later, a successful writer, professor of English, African and Arabic literature Sophia Samatar receives a book "The Great Migration of Russian Mennonites to Central Asia, 1880-1884" as a gift (Mennonitism emerged in the XVI century as a result of the reformation of the church in Europe; Mennonites were forced to emigrate, including to Russia), and she will discover an incredible story, about which she knew nothing. And so she embarks on a journey to Uzbekistan, through Tashkent, Samarkand, and Khiva, retracing the journey that her Mennonite ancestors made at the end of the nineteenth century. The story of the migration of these religious exiles to Central Asia, the way they sincerely believed that the Savior would come to the very settlement they were going to, the fact that the Muslim-Uzbeks gave them a small white mosque so that the Mennonite Christians would have a place to pray, and then the Mennonites themselves built their own temple, which the locals nicknamed "the white mosque" - all of this is as unusual as Sophia's own origins. Perhaps that's why she decided to take this adventure, traveling halfway around the world for it.
Many years later, a successful writer, professor of English, African and Arabic literature Sophia Samatar receives a book "The Great Migration of Russian Mennonites to Central Asia, 1880-1884" as a gift (Mennonitism emerged in the XVI century as a result of the reformation of the church in Europe; Mennonites were forced to emigrate, including to Russia), and she will discover an incredible story, about which she knew nothing. And so she embarks on a journey to Uzbekistan, through Tashkent, Samarkand, and Khiva, retracing the journey that her Mennonite ancestors made at the end of the nineteenth century. The story of the migration of these religious exiles to Central Asia, the way they sincerely believed that the Savior would come to the very settlement they were going to, the fact that the Muslim-Uzbeks gave them a small white mosque so that the Mennonite Christians would have a place to pray, and then the Mennonites themselves built their own temple, which the locals nicknamed "the white mosque" - all of this is as unusual as Sophia's own origins. Perhaps that's why she decided to take this adventure, traveling halfway around the world for it.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series The genius of the place