Description
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"... But above all Essad Bey was a brilliant, intoxicating stylist. Bey's writing is of a kind that hardly exists among contemporary non-fiction writers, even less so among experts on Islam. It has rhythm and uses harmonious imagery; it is rich in semantic and syntactic variations; he understands the arc of suspense so well that it sometimes carries the author away from historical facts towards possible but not proven fiction. His biography on Mohammed has perhaps no place in scientific libraries - but one could not think of a more entertaining depiction, one which captures the spirit of early Islamic history above and beyond that of any source-critical monograph." Navid Kermani
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Essad Bey was born in 1905, his birth was registered in Kiev. He grew up in Baku. His father gained his wealth in the oil business. When the Russian Revolution broke out, both fled their home country and arrived 1921 in Berlin. Lev converted to Islam in 1922 and assumed the name Essad Bey. Before he died in Italy in 1942 at the age of 36 years, he'd written 16 books, among with are two novels under the pseudonym of Kurban Said, "Ali and Nino" and "The Girl from the Golden Horn". He also wrote countless articles for newspapers and many adventure stories for magazines.
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plications of Buerger's disease. After Ali and Nino, Mohammed is his most popular and best-known book.
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