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Show "YW> ^nn Cl*i . Columbia (Hniter^itp DEPARTMENT OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES lith Febry 1959 Dear Dr Atiya, Your- letter came two days ago with the last mail from the East, and I was delighted to hear from you. Surely t It will be a pleasure to review your b;.:ok here in this country,in order toget it before the interested scholars,though this is not my native country,and 1 am almost as much an alien here as you WOUXQ be. There are several historical Journals, and so I shall enquire from my colleagues which would be the most useful for getting the book known • To my shame 1 must confess that I have not yet read your book. I seem to be reading ail say and half the night as it is, without getting through ail the material that is appearing ,.n the subjects I am supposed to teach ^without more than skimming the surface of related subjects. Quite recently 1 have had two books to review,the Arab Awakening oy George Antonius,for which Asia wanted a review of not more than 300 words.I i was agreeably surprised by the book* which I had been led to expect would be no more than a tirade against tne English. He has^however, given a very interesting account of the political side of the Arab movement?and made as clear and persuasive a presentation of what the araos claim to be their case against the English and French,as could be expected. I am afraid that many of his conclusions are going to be challenged,and I have heard that some of those documents which King Hussain used to show to sympathisers were concocted after the event,out at least the Arao case is now adequated presented to the public. The other was a French book on the Egyptian fellahin by one Henri Habic Ayrout.I'hat surely is a Syrian name,out he claims to oe an Egyptian,and tv have been brought up among the people. Do you think George Antonius would dare to have his oook put into Arabic without change? It would be a hard jolt to some of my Muslim friends to read that they owe the beginnings of their awakening to Christian and Missionary influences. Things are very quiet here in the realm of Oriental studies,the major interest at the moment being in the Far Eastern section. We have had a Chine® cultural group oering over a Cninese film Sable Cicada, and a stage performance A Might in Old Cathay,both of which took this city by storm. ;iailey of Cambridge is coming to visit us here during Easter vacation. 1 have had no outstanding students at the University this year. Here at the Seminary for second Semester I am taking over Dr Kraeling's course on the Psalms. He has broken in health and his work has been distributed.lt is good for my soula, but never having lectured upon the Pslam? before it means a lot of work.You would not believe the number of new books there are on the Psalter which one has to know at least v;e±l enough to direct students to or warn them against. Kindest regards for the new post in the saw year, Sincerely yours j |