Stories Imagined was created to have a voice in woman's fiction. Writing about an age group of women who are on their second wind. Ready to take on the world how they see fit. The juggle and struggle of womanhood, sexuality, motherhood and coming back to self.
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IMANZI Press is a Rwandan publishing house established in 2017 and has published more than 20 children's books in Kinyarwanda and has translated them into English and French. The publishing house has worked with partners like World Vision International and the Rwandan government. IMANZI Press is planning to publish eight children’s books during this year and is working on a cartoon project, that is a challenging entrepreneurship in Rwanda.
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24 LEGENDS. 14 STORYTELLERS. 10 COUNTRIES. 1 MASTERPIECE. Dragons, or 'Naga' as they are known in Southeast Asia, continue to exist in our legends long after we have embraced modern ideas and technology. They are beings that are both mystical and all-knowing. Until today, dragons still take on our emotions; our deepest joy and darkest fears, true love, and fleeting desires. DRAGONLORE, conceptualised by Ninot in 2012, features stories from many regions of the world of Southeast Asia, Australia, the Far East, Europe, ancient worlds, and mythology. Edited by Ninot and Johnny Gillett, award-winning writers Samuel Peralta (Canada), Cora Wang (China), Helmut Kunkel (Germany), Anna Kordzaia-Samadashvili (Georgia) Imam Qalyubi (Indonesia), Renato Ghezzi (Italy), Rita Angelelli (Italy), Arian Tejano (Philippines), Minah Sintian (Malaysian) Teoh Choon Ean (Malaysia), Can Yigit Tuncmann (Turkiye), Ruby Yusuf ( Malaysia) , The Journey Man (UK) join Ninot Aziz in this amazing journey chasing dragons around the globe. With Malaysian and Southeast Asian legends, the gorgeous retelling of the Inuit legend of Palraijug to the delightful folktale of the Filipino, Bakunawa enchant readers. The twist in the tale of the Lyminster Knucker to the mystical dragon painter from China. We join Ajetis as he battles evil hidden in the Bosphorus Sea. Twenty-four in all, each story is unique, bringing us to a different part of the world, and meeting wonderful characters along the way. The significance of legends and folklore in imparting important lessons is more evident than ever. The lessons conveyed through these stories often resonate deeply with the present era, offering invaluable insights into our challenges. From the Malay Archipelago to the Far East, the Arctic Circle to Down-under Australia, Europe, and beyond, legends and folklore possess a remarkable ability to capture the essence of our collective consciousness. By delving into these ancient narratives, we gain a broader perspective on the challenges that have plagued humanity throughout history. In the context of today's world, which grapples with urgent environmental concerns, stories from the past offer unyielding wisdom on sustainable living and the consequences of neglecting our planet. These narratives serve as a bridge between the past and the present, weaving together timeless wisdom and modern challenges into a cohesive narrative that resonates with a wide audience and ensures the continuity and survival of such legends.
Zahir, Syed and Ake are inhabitants of low-cost flats in a Malaysian city. The three men embodied different ideologies: Zahir is an elder who depicts the conservative society, Syed is a progressive man trapped in the dust of modernity, while Ake is a 90s guy preoccupied with anarchy. They became part of a new community that struggles to survive while adapting to modernity. Unwittingly, these three men are sucked into the vortex of reformation which shaped Malaysia’s modern history. Tales of their daily lives are often ignored and forgotten by history; much like the frothy waves that eventually disappeared after crashing against the shores.
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What does the life of a modern poet look like? What dream, imagination, emotion or malaise give him the fuel to live, give him the taste of dark death? How much is he related, or not related, to life? Is life a clichéd dirty clothing to him which can be donated to his servant easily? Is it better not to be born or to die in the very first age of life? How much is a modern poet man, or eunuch? How much is he sentenced? After passing boyhood, the main protagonist of the book, Hasan Rashid, a young poet, goes ahead to poetry. He rejects an average mediocre life and chooses the impossible life of art. Beauty, continuous stir and nectar-like poison are always here. The violent antagonistic life of art takes extreme revenge on Hasan Rashid and makes him a eunuch. At last, Hasan yields to a life which is more tragic than death and more woeful than tragedy. Himself a poet, Humayun Azad explores the inner and outer object of the life of a modern poet. The Poet or the Condemned Eunuch is at the same time a poem and novel of unparalleled anguish. Novels with the name of poet are aplenty in Bengali language, but one on a real poet was very rare before this novel of Azad.
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He was a professional boxer who loved to box because it made him feel powerful. But the day came when there was nothing left for him to box, no one applauded for him or praised him or came to watch him anymore. One day, he began to think about his loneliness and his worn-out gloves and he wondered why his boxing no longer made people or even himself happy… AWARDS & RECOGNITION: Biennial of Illustration Bratislava GRAND PRIX International Youth Library White Ravens Catalog Sharjah Children’s Illustration Exhibition
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Investing in agriculture is one of the most effective ways of reducing hunger and poverty, promoting agricultural productivity and enhancing environmental sustainability. Covering the development of sustainable agriculture, food production and food security, this paper explains the relationship between all levels of investment and their interdependence to be successful. It also describes how to drive increased investment, at what stage and where, providing a useful overview of investment in agriculture for policymakers and researchers.
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Vom Leben auf dem Landgut der Familie angeödet, begleitete der junge Lew Tolstoi 1851 seinen ältesten Bruder Nikolai, der im Kaukasus dient, an seinen Einsatzort – Starogladkowskaja, eine Kosakensiedlung am Terek. Seit Jahrzehnten führte das russische Imperium in der Region Krieg. Erst 1859 gelingt es, die von Imam Schamil geeinten muslimischen Kaukasusfürstentümer zu besiegen. Doch um welchen Preis! Tolstoi, der als Fähnrich an Gefechten teilnahm und verwundet wurde, kennt den Krieg und seine Akteure aus eigener Anschauung. Er beschreibt die Tragödie aus allen Perspektiven: an der Seite russischer Soldaten, die zum Freizeitvergnügen ein tschetschenisches Dorf zerstören, und neben den untröstlichen Überlebenden, die in den Trümmern ihrer Behausungen hocken. Mit scharfer Beobachtungsgabe und ethnographischem Blick schildert er die Faszinationsgeschichte der »Kaukasier«, der russischen Abenteurer, die sich, bestrickt von der stolzen Schönheit und Unbezwingbarkeit der Bergbewohner, auf ein Leben einlassen, an dessen Fremdheit sie scheitern. Ein Werk mit dem Titel »Krieg im Kaukasus« hat Tolstoi nie geschrieben. Aber er hat sein Leben lang über den Kaukasus geschrieben. Der Band konfrontiert den frühen mit dem späten Tolstoi. Von der nüchtern protokollhaften frühen Prosa von Überfall (1852) und Holzschlag (1855) bis zu den romanhaft farbigen Kosaken (1863), dem harten mündlichen Duktus des Gefangenen im Kaukasus (1872) und dem in Montagetechnik verfassten Hadschi Murat (postum 1912) – in Rosemarie Tietzes Neuübersetzung werden sie erstmal in ihrer stilistischen Bandbreite und ihrem sprachlichen Reichtum erfahrbar.
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It is a coming-of-age story for Generation Z. How to grow up or even live in a world where no steady jobs are available, you can’t pay your rent and can’t afford medical or living expenses. Moreover, it touches on how to be a socially engaged artist in such a world, and more so, a woman in a post-me too world? Dijana, a daughter of working-class immigrants, tells the story of her difficult childhood and adolescence, how should became a journalist and later a writer in a society full of prejudices, glass ceilings and obstacles. How she gradually became a stereotypical ‘success story’, even though she still struggles with writing, because she can’t afford a ‘room of her own’. Dijana is a daughter of working-class immigrants, who came to Slovenia in the eighties in search of a better future. The family is building a house but is made redundant from the local factory when Yugoslavia is in the midst of an economic crisis. When her parents get divorced, Dijana, her older sister and mother struggle with basic needs. She is ashamed of their poverty, her classmates bully her because of her immigrant status, but mostly because of her being ‘white trash’. In the local school she meets teachers with prejudices against immigrants, but is helped by a librarian who spots her talent. When Dijana goes to secondary school, she moves in with her older sister who lives in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Her sister is into rave culture and Dijana starts to explore experimenting with drugs, music and dance. At the secondary school, she is again considered ‘the weird kid’, as she isn’t enough of a foreigner for other immigrant kids because she is from the country, yet she isn’t Slovenian enough for other native kids. She falls even deeper into drug addiction, fails the first year of school and has to move back to live with her mother. She takes on odd jobs to make ends meet. Whilst working as a waitress she encounters sexism and sexual violence from customers and abuse from the boss. She finishes night school and graduates. She meets many ‘lost’ people of her generation along the way, who tell her their stories about precarious, minimum wage jobs, lack of opportunities, expensive rent, etc. Dijana writes for numerous newspapers but loses or quits her job, because she isn’t allowed to write the stories she wants or because of the bad working conditions or the blatant sexual harassment. Due to the high rent in the capital, Dijana has to move to the countryside to live with her mother. She feels lonely there, struggles with anxiety and cannot write a second book, because she is constantly under pressure to make a living. She realises that she must persevere regardless of the obstacles, she must follow her inner truth and by writing about it, try to create a community of like-minded people, a community of people who support each other – all literature/art is social.
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Inspired by the life story of Palestinian artist, Tamam Al-Akhal, The Lilac Girl is the sixth book for younger readers by award-winning author, Ibtisam Barakat. The Lilac Girl is a beautifully illustrated short story relating the departure of Palestinian artist and educator, Tamam Al-Akhal, from her homeland, Jaffa. It portrays Tamam as a young girl who dreams about returning to her home, which she has been away from for 70 years, since the Palestinian exodus. Tamam discovers that she is talented in drawing, so she uses her imagination to draw her house in her mind. She decides one night to visit it, only to find another girl there, who won’t allow her inside and shuts the door in her face. Engulfed in sadness, Tamam sits outside and starts drawing her house on a piece of paper. As she does so, she notices that the colors of her house have escaped and followed her; the girl attempts to return the colors but in vain. Soon the house becomes pale and dull, like the nondescript hues of bare trees in the winter. Upon Tamam’s departure, she leaves the entire place drenched in the color of lilac. As a children’s story, The Lilac Girl works on multiple levels, educating with its heart-rending narrative but without preaching, accurately expressing the way Palestinians must have felt by not being allowed to return to their homeland. As the story’s central character, Tamam succeeds on certain levels in defeating the occupying forces and intruders through her yearning, which is made manifest through the power of imaginary artistic expression. In her mind she draws and paints a picture of hope, with colors escaping the physical realm of her former family abode, showing that they belong, not to the invaders, but the rightful occupiers of that dwelling. Far from being the only person to have lost their home and endured tremendous suffering, Tamam’s plight is representative of millions of people both then and now, emphasizing the notion that memories of our homeland live with us for eternity, no matter how far we are from them in a physical sense. The yearning to return home never subsides, never lessens with the passing of time but, with artistic expression, it is possible to find freedom and create beauty out of pain.
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An egg has hatched, and what comes out of it? A chicken? No. A turtle? No. It’s a dinosaur. But where is his family? The little dinosaur searches the animal kingdom for someone who looks like him and settles on the giraffe. In this picture book by educator and author Hessa Al Muhairi, with illustrations by Sura Ghazwan, a dinosaur sets out in search of animals like him. He finds plenty of animals, but none that look the same...until he meets the giraffe. This story explores identity and belonging and teaches children about accepting differences in carefully crafted language.
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Kuwaiti children’s book author Lateefa Buti’s well-crafted and beautifully illustrated children’s book, Hatless, encourages children (ages 6-9) to think independently and challenge rigid traditions and fixed rituals with innovation and creativity. The main character is a young girl named Hatless who lives in the City of Hats. Here, all of the people are born with hats that cover their heads and faces. The world inside of their hats is dark, silent, and odorless. Hatless feels trapped underneath her own hat. She wants to take off her hat, but she is afraid, until she realizes that whatever frightening things exist in the world around her are there whether or not she takes off her hat to see them. So Hatless removes her hat. As Hatless takes in the beauty of her surroundings, she cannot help but talk about what she sees, hears, and smells. The other inhabitants of the city ostracize her because she has become different from them. It is not long before they ask her to leave the City of Hats. Rather than giving up or getting angry, Hatless feels sad for her friends and neighbors who are afraid to experience the world outside of their hats. She comes up with an ingenious solution: if given another chance, she will wear a hat as long it is one she makes herself. The people of the City of Hats agree, so Hatless weaves a hat that covers her head and face but does not prevent her from seeing the outside world. She offers to loan the hat to the other inhabitants of the city. One by one, they try it on and are enchanted by the beautiful world around them. Since then, no child has been born wearing a hat. The people celebrate by tossing their old hats in the air. By bravely embracing these values, Hatless improves her own life and the lives of her fellow citizens. Buti’s language is eloquent and clear. She strikes a skilled narrative balance between revealing Hatless’s inner thoughts and letting the story unfold through her interactions with other characters. Careful descriptions are accompanied by beautiful illustrations that reward multiple readings of the book.
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‘In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat’ is a book that traces the life of an unknown Egyptian writer who died in 1963, four years before the release of her only novel. The book does not follow a traditional style to present the biography of Al-Zayyat, or to restore consideration for a writer who was denied her rights. Mersal refuses to present a single story as if it is the truth and refuses to speak on behalf of the heroine or deal with her as a victim, but rather takes us on a journey to search for the individuality that is often marginalised in Arab societies. The book searches for a young woman whose family burned all her personal documents, including the draft of her second novel, and was completely absent in the collective archives. The narration derives its uniqueness from its ability to combine different literary genres such as fictional narration, academic research, investigation, readings, interviews, fiction, and fragments of the autobiography of the author of the novel. The book deals with the differences between the individuality of Enayat, who was born into an aristocratic family, graduated from a German school and wrote her narration during the domination of the speeches of the Nasserism period, and that of Mersal, a middle-class woman who formed her consciousness in the 1990s and achieved some of what Enayat dreamed of achieving but remained haunted by her tragedy. The book deals with important political, social and cultural issues, as we read the history of psychiatry in modern Egypt through the pills that Enayat swallowed to end her life on 3 January 1963, while her divorce summarises the continuing suffering of women with the Personal Status Law. We also see how the disappearance of a small square from her neighbourhood reveals the relationship between modernity and bureaucracy, and how the geography of Cairo changes, obliterated as the result of changes in political regimes. In the library of the German Archaeological Institute, where Enayat worked, we find an unwritten history of World War II and, in her unpublished second novel, we see unknown stories of German scientists fleeing Nazism to Cairo. We also see how Enayat’s neglected tomb reveals the life story of her great-grandfather, Ahmed Rashid Pasha, and the disasters buried in the genealogy tree.
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In his first YA novel, cultural journalist and author Abdo Wazen writes about a blind teenager in Lebanon who finds strength and friendship among an unlikely group. Growing up in a small Lebanese village, Bassim’s blindness limits his engagement with the materials taught in his schools. Despite his family’s love and support, his opportunities seem limited. So at thirteen years old, Bassim leaves his village to join the Institute for the Blind in a Beirut suburb. There, he comes alive. He learns Braille and discovers talents he didn’t know he had. Bassim is empowered by his newfound abilities to read and write. Thanks to his newly developed self-confidence, Bassim decides to take a risk and submit a short story to a competition sponsored by the Ministry of Education. After winning the competition, he is hired to work at the Institute for the Blind. At the Institute, Bassim, a Sunni Muslim, forms a strong friendship with George, a Christian. Cooperation and collective support are central to the success of each student at the Institute, a principle that overcomes religious differences. In the book, the Institute comes to symbolize the positive changes that tolerance can bring to the country and society at large. The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air is also a book about Lebanon and its treatment of people with disabilities. It offers insight into the vital role of strong family support in individual success, the internal functioning of institutions like the Institute, as well as the unique religious and cultural environment of Beirut. Wazen’s lucid language and the linear structure he employs result in a coherent and easy-to-read narrative. The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air is an important contribution to a literature in which people with disabilities are underrepresented. In addition to offering a story of empowerment and friendship, this book also aims to educate readers about people with disabilities and shed light on the indispensable roles played by institutions like the Institute.
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Adopting the story-within-a-story structure of Arabian Nights, author Osama Alaysa weaves together a collection of stories portraying centuries of oppression endured by the Palestinian people. This remarkable novel eloquently brings together fictional characters alongside real-life historical figures in a complex portrayal of Bethlehem and the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank. The common thread connecting each tale is madness, in all its manifestations. Psychological madness, in the sense of clinical mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, finds expression alongside acts of social and political madness. Together, these accounts of individuals and communities provide a gateway into the histories of the city of Bethlehem and Palestine. They paint a picture of the centuries of political oppression that the Palestinian people have endured, from the days of the Ottoman Empire to the years following the Oslo Accords, and all the way to 2012 (when the novel was written). The novel is divided into three sections, each containing multiple narratives. The first section, “The Book of a Genesis,” describes the physical spaces and origins of Bethlehem and Dheisheh Refugee Camp. These stories span the 19th and 20th centuries, transitioning smoothly from one tale to another to offer an intricate interpretation of the identity of these places. The second section, “The Book of the People Without a Book”, follows parallel narratives of the lives of the patients in a psychiatric hospital in Bethlehem, the mad men and women roaming the streets of the city, and those imprisoned by the Israeli authorities. All suffer abuse, but they also reaffirm their humanity through the relationships, romantic and otherwise, that they form. The third and final section, “An Ephemeral Book,” follows individuals—Palestinian and non-Palestinian—who are afflicted by madness following the Oslo Accords in 1993. These stories give voice to the perspectives of the long-marginalized Palestinian population, narrating the loss of land and the accompanying loss of sanity in the decades of despair and violence that followed the Nakba, the 1948 eviction of some 700,000 Palestinians from their homes. The novel’s mad characters—politicians, presidents, doctors, intellectuals, ordinary people and, yes, Dheisheh and Bethlehem themselves—burst out of their narrative threads, flowing from one story into the next. Alaysa’s crisp, lucid prose and deft storytelling chart a clear path through the chaos with dark humor and wit. The result is an important contribution to fiction on the Palestinian crisis that approaches the Palestinians, madness, and Palestinian spaces with compassion and depth.
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On a nice fall day of 1988, Zakiya Zaghwani was found lying dead at the edge of the desert, giving way to a quest to discover the circumstances surrounding her death. While looking for whoever was involved in the death of the young singer, nearby residents discover bit by bit their involvement in many things other than the crime itself. ///The story takes place in a town near the desert. And as with Khatibi’s previous novels, this one is also marked by a tight plot, revolving around the murder of a singer who works in a hotel. This sets off a series of complex investigations that defy easy conclusions and invite doubt about the involvement of more than one character. /// Through the narrators of the novel, who also happen to be its protagonists, the author delves into the history of colonialism and the Algerian War of Independence and its successors, describing the circumstances of the story whose events unfold throughout the month. As such, the characters suspected of killing the singer are not only accused of a criminal offense, but are also concerned, as it appears, with the great legacy that the War of Independence left, from different aspects.///The novel looks back at a critical period in the modern history of Algeria that witnessed the largest socio-political crisis following its independence in 1988. While the story avoids the immediate circumstances of the war, it rather invokes the events leading up to it and tracks its impact on the social life, while capturing the daily life of vulnerable and marginalized groups. /// Nonetheless, those residents’ vulnerability does not necessarily mean they are innocent. As it appears, they are all involved in a crime that is laden with symbolism and hints at the status of women in a society shackled by a heavy legacy of a violent, wounded masculinity. This approach to addressing social issues reflects a longing to break loose from the stereotypical discourse that sets heroism in a pre-defined mold and reduces the truth to only one of its dimensions.
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Since ancient times, people found fossilized bones and shells of strange creatures. For thousands of years they did not understand who these remnants belonged to, and tried to explain their findings somehow: these bones belonged to giants and monsters, or to antediluvian fauna. Gradually, scientists began to understand that such remains belonged to animals, and finally they declared: long before the appearance of people, these bizarre animals, fishes and lizards existed on Earth, and those fossils were their remains.
Akash Amay Vorlo Aloy talks from an individual’s perspective about the politics of the undivided India, the partition, the great liberation war, and the movement against communalism and fundamentalism in post-liberation Bangladesh.
This book comprises the biographies of the twelve Shi’a Imams (a) in brief in order to acquaint the readers with certain aspects of their personality as well as the ethical virtues they exercised during their lifetime. The contents of the book include short biographies of Imam Ali, Imam Hasan, Imam Hosein, Imam Sajjād, Imam Sādeq, Imam Musā Kāzem, Imam Rezā, Imam Hasan Askari, and the Imam of the Age, the awaited Mahdi (a). The book begins with a brief discussion on the concept of “Taqiyyah”.
Imam Chamenei besucht seit Jahrzehnten die Familien der Märtyrer der Heiligen Verteidigung, des Verteidigungskrieges gegen den Überfall von Saddam (1980–1989). Darunter sind auch christliche Familien, deren Söhne ihr Leben zur Verteidigung der jungen Islamischen Republik gaben. Imam Chamenei beehrt die Hinterbliebenen der armenischen und assyrischen iranischen Märtyrer traditionell zu Weihnachten. Die Augenzeugen jener Besuche berichten in diesem Buch von höchstem Respekt Imam Chameneis für die christlichen Märtyrerfamilien, seiner Anteilnahme und seiner Liebe für sie sowie von seinem vorbildlichen Umgang mit ihnen. Außerdem bezeugen diese Berichte über die christlichen Märtyrer deren Gottesnähe und Opferbereitschaft, die nur wenigen zuteil wird. Diese authentische Sammlung von atemberaubenden und zu Tränen rührenden wahren Geschichten der Jahre 1984 bis 2015 beweist die mit Opfern bekundete Liebe der Gottesehrfürchtigen und ihrer Familien jenseits der Grenzen der Religionen. Format: 13,5 x 21 cm, Softcover, mit vielen FarbfotosSeiten: 351Ort, Jahr: Bremen, 2019ISBN 978-3-946179-24-5In Kooperation mit der Kulturabteilung der Botschaft der Islamischen Republik Iran in Berlin www.irankultur.com
Welche Rolle spielt der Glaube an Tauhid und die Einzigkeit Gottes im Leben des Einzelnen und im sozialen Leben? Und warum wurde dieses Thema von den Propheten Gottes (a.) so sehr betont, und zwar so sehr, dass sie dieses Thema an die Spitze ihres Aufrufes zu Gott stellten und dass der Heilige Prophet des Islam (s.) und die zwölf reinen Imame (a.) die äußersten Anstrengungen vollbrachten und viele Härten ertrugen, um das Thema und dessen Dimensionen zu erklären. Autor: Imam Zain-ul-Abidin (a.)Format: DIN A5, RückstichheftungSeiten: 23Ort, Jahr: Bremen, 2011ISBN 978-3-939416-53-1 In Kooperation mit der Kulturabteilung der Botschaft der Islamischen Republik Iran http://www.irankultur.com
Aus dem Vorwort Imam Chamene’is: In unserer Zeit ist es sehr bedauerlich, dass trotz all dieser Botschaften zur Befreiung des Menschen eine katastrophale Situation beobachtet werden muss, und zwar eine Fehlinterpretation des Inhaltes des Monotheismus, d.h. die falsche Auslegung des grundsätzlichen Inhalts der Religionen. Es gibt eigentlich keinen anderen Begriff, der im Laufe der gesamten Geschichte in solch einer Dimension zur Erlösung des Menschen und als Überbringer der frohen Botschaft für die unterdrückten Völker beigetragen hat. Autor: Imam Sayyid Ali Chamene’iFormat: DIN A5, PaperbackSeiten: 50Ort, Jahr: Bremen, 2009ISBN 978-3-939416-23-4 In Kooperation mit der Kulturabteilung der Botschaft der Islamischen Republik Iran http://www.irankultur.com
