Tripoli of all eras

Description

LebanonPostcard presents the Book: University of Balamand – Tripoli of all eras

Hardcover book – 253 pages, 2.50 kg, 30 x 31 x 2.5 cm – In English and Arabic

Contents:

This Book – Preface – Tripoli, City of all eras – The Citadels – House of Worship (Mosques and Churches) – Souks, Khans and Hammams – Stairs and Alleyways – Squares, Places, Houses and Gardens – Gates and Windows – Arts and Crafts – Cafés – Figures and Faces – Cultural Centers and University Campuses – Al-Mina, Tripoli’s Gate to the Sea – General Scenes

Here some small extracts of the book:

I have been watching the city of Tripoli from atop the beautiful Balamand Hill ever since my appointment as President of the University in the early 1990s. Tripoli is where I studied as an adolescent; and I yearn to visit it again, to walk along its streets and alleyways and to enjoy its special traditional restaurants.

I had been thinking of writing a book about the city, a coffee-table book that would attract tourists, a book with images speaking volumes about a city known for its rich historical heritage.

People talk about Tripoli as the second capital of Lebanon after Beirut, or as the city that comes before Sidon and Tyre, and so on, As far as I am concerned, however, Tripoli has been the City, the Capital and the apple of my eye since I was a child. I used to hear my father say “Let’s go to the City” without needing to name it, because “the City” simply meant Tripoli…

Elie A. Salem

This book seeks to give a comprehensive and authentic view of a city whose present showcases the successive historical eras that left their mark on it, and that endured and triumphed over history’s trials and tribulations. It is a city that never severed its links with the past, nor sought refuge in its windy alleyways, turning its back on everything new that links it to today’s multi-dimensional world.

It is a city forever of the present and forever of the past; a present that simultaneously showcases the vestiges of the past and the promise of the future. It is the embodiment of the universal era as St. Augustine defined it in his “Confessions”: There are three times, past present and future; but perchance it might be fifty said: There are three times; a present of things past, a present of things present, and a present of things future”. Tripoli is a city of the present which compresses all time into one, a place rich with dreams and memories from which we can perceive the past and the future, all at the same time.

From it, life shines and takes on shapes, characteristics, aspects, forms and images, images that we tried to capture in this book to express not only the city’s complex reality but its simple reality, as well.

LebanonPostcard will be responsible for sending the book you order, through fast courier with a tracking number, guaranteeing reception of the package. The book may take between two and five days to arrive, according to the country it is sent to.