Modern City in an Ancient land

Asgabat, Ashkhabad, Ashgabad; there are many ways to spell the name of this city, the capital of Turkmenistan. Transliteration is never a straightforward task but one reason it is particularly onerous here perhaps, is that in less than 80 years Turkmenistan has gone from using Arabic script for its language, Turkmen - a Turkic tongue - to Latin, Cyrillic and now back to Latin. Although the site of the capital is ancient - neolithic settlements have been discovered in the foothills of the Kopet Dag range around the capital and Ashgabad itself was probably founded around the 3rd century BC - it was only after the Russians arrived in 1881 that the city began to take the form it has today. But in 1948 Ashgabad was virtually leveled by an earthquake and as Turkmenistan was then officially the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic not only did the outside world not hear much about it, but the re-building was of the decidedly drab until the advent of independence, oil and president for life Sapurmarat Niyazov, also known as Turkmenbashy, or Father of the Turkmen.

The Yacoubian Building, Talaat Harb and Divagation

1. The Yacoubian Building
A book which has been causing considerable chatter in Cairo of late is The Yacoubian Building written by Alaa Al-Aswany. It is only causing a fuss now because an excellent movie has been made that faithfully reproduces the contents of the book. First published in 2002 - it was translated into English in 2004 - the book is a portrait of modern Egypt. Using the lives of the residents of the Yacoubian Building as the vehicle, the author weaves a tale incorporating Islamic extremism, vote-rigging, corruption, police brutality, secret second marriages and homosexuality. Mostafa Bakri, an MP and editor-in-chief of El-Osbou newspaper, raised objections to certain scenes especially those concerning the homosexual character, who in the book is the editor of a newspaper, and it was suggested to the parliamentary committee concerning culture, media and tourism that they consider censoring the film. Fortunately the People’s Assembly did not, and after much discussion the film continues to take Cairo by storm - unedited.

Maybe no longer quite so 'soignee', Talaat Harb square nonetheless ages gracefully.