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Description
In Ismail Gaspirali’s 1890s story The Muslims of Darürrahat, (the Peaceful Country) the not entirely intrepid narrator Mullah Abbas Efendi arrives in the imaginary land of Darürrahat. He has been led there by mysteriously appearing guides, who take him from Alhambra palace in Andalusia through an underground tunnel, where he emerges in Darürrahat to find a Muslim utopian country filled with progressive people and dotted with beautiful Islamic architecture and technologically advanced cities. As in most works of utopian imagination which are also aimed squarely at social critique of the author’s present day, there is nothing simple about this world or this literary work.
The Muslims of Darürrahat first appeared in serialized form in the widely circulated Central Asian newspaper Tercüman, which was edited and largely written by Crimean Tatar educator, journalist and Muslim reformer Ismail Gaspirali. This is the full story’s first appearance in English, translated by Çiğdem Pala Mull and the centerpiece of a book edited by Sharon Carson to include introductory materials, a contextual timeline, and three interpretive essays exploring the story as a work of nineteenth century utopian imagination which has some compelling resonance in our time.
Çiğdem Pala Mull is Professor of English and the Chair of the Western Languages and Literatures Department at Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Turkey. She is also the translator of Harold Bloom’s Western Canon.
Sharon Carson, is Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of English at the University of North Dakota, where she teaches American literature, transnational studies, and comparative religions and literature.
ISBN
979-8-9891912-9-1
DOI
10.31356/dpb030
Publication Date
2024
Publisher
The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota
City
Grand Forks, ND
Recommended Citation
Gaspirali, Ismail, "The Muslims of Darürrahat" (2024). Digital Press Books. 30.
https://commons.und.edu/press-books/30
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.