3/4: A Beginner's Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious Hardcover – Deckle Edge, March 16, 2021. by Roya Hakakian (Author)
Jun 05, 2021, 12:47 AM
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Photo: Qashqai-migration.
Qashqai are is a conglomeration of tribes in Iran consisting of mostly Turkic peoples but also Lurs, Kurds and Arabs. Almost all of them speak a Western Oghuz Turkic dialect known as the Qashqai language, which they call "Turki", as well as Persian (the national language of Iran) in formal use. The majority of Qashqai people were originally nomadic pastoralists, and some remain so today. The traditional nomadic Qashqai traveled with their flocks twice yearly to and from the summer highland pastures north of Shiraz roughly 480 km or 300 miles south to the winter pastures on lower (and warmer) lands near the Persian Gulf, to the southwest of Shiraz. Historically, of course they travelled by horse, on foot, or occasionally by camel.
"To survive, nomads have always been obliged to fight. They lead a wandering life and do not accumulate documents and archives. But in the evenings, around fires that are burning low, the elders will relate striking events, deeds of valour in which the tribes pride themselves. Thus the epic tale is told from father to son. Though versions differ, we believe that the arrival of our Tribes in Iran coincided with the conquests of Ghengis Khan, in the thirteenth century."
Qashqai are is a conglomeration of tribes in Iran consisting of mostly Turkic peoples but also Lurs, Kurds and Arabs. Almost all of them speak a Western Oghuz Turkic dialect known as the Qashqai language, which they call "Turki", as well as Persian (the national language of Iran) in formal use. The majority of Qashqai people were originally nomadic pastoralists, and some remain so today. The traditional nomadic Qashqai traveled with their flocks twice yearly to and from the summer highland pastures north of Shiraz roughly 480 km or 300 miles south to the winter pastures on lower (and warmer) lands near the Persian Gulf, to the southwest of Shiraz. Historically, of course they travelled by horse, on foot, or occasionally by camel.
"To survive, nomads have always been obliged to fight. They lead a wandering life and do not accumulate documents and archives. But in the evenings, around fires that are burning low, the elders will relate striking events, deeds of valour in which the tribes pride themselves. Thus the epic tale is told from father to son. Though versions differ, we believe that the arrival of our Tribes in Iran coincided with the conquests of Ghengis Khan, in the thirteenth century."
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3/4: A Beginner's Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious. Hardcover – Deckle Edge, March 16, 2021. by Roya Hakakian
CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor
CBS Audio Network
@Batchelorshow
3/4: A Beginner's Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious. Hardcover – Deckle Edge, March 16, 2021. by Roya Hakakian
https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-America-Immigrant-Curious/dp/0525656065/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1622853677&sr=1-1
A stirring, witty, and poignant glimpse into the bewildering American immigrant experience from someone who has lived it. Also, a mirror held up to America.
Into the maelstrom of unprecedented contemporary debates about immigrants in the United States, this perfectly timed book gives us a portrait of what the new immigrant experience in America is really like. Written as a "guide" for the newly arrived, and providing "practical information and advice," Roya Hakakian, an immigrant herself, reveals what those who settle here love about the country, what they miss about their homes, the cruelty of some Americans, and the unceasing generosity of others. She captures the texture of life in a new place in all its complexity, laying bare both its beauty and its darkness as she discusses race, sex, love, death, consumerism, and what it is like to be from a country that is in America's crosshairs. Her tenderly perceptive and surprisingly humorous account invites us to see ourselves as we appear to others, making it possible for us to rediscover our many American gifts through the perspective of the outsider. In shattering myths and embracing painful contradictions that are unique to this place, A Beginner's Guide to America is Hakakian's candid love letter to America.