Ali and Nino

Mar 02, 2010 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century-early-to-mid, fiction, inshallah, east-and-central-asia, identity-crisis, grand-opera

There is a large genre of novels related to WWI that deal in the heartbreak of "the last summer" before the storm, the coming death of the old world and the founding of the new (Le Grand Meulnes, which is still the quintessential French coming of age novel, is one example). The histories on this theme are scarcely less legion.

This novel is both a part of that genre and so much more than that. It is told from the first person perspective of Ali Khan Shirvanshir, who has turned a request from the...more There is a large genre of novels related to WWI that deal in the heartbreak of "the last summer" before the storm, the coming death of the old world and the founding of the new (Le Grand Meulnes, which is still the quintessential French coming of age novel, is one example). The histories on this theme are scarcely less legion.

This novel is both a part of that genre and so much more than that. It is told from the first person perspective of Ali Khan Shirvanshir, who has turned a request from the town gossip to "write down what a hero's feelings are," into a personal diary. Ali Khan is a Muslim growing up in Baku, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, in what is at the time a Russian possession. He is in love with Nino Kipiani, a Georgian Christian who becomes a Georgian Princess through the courtesy of the Czar. If you're thinking that this will turn out to be a typical star-crossed lovers meet at garden walls and ne'er dare speak their love, you'd be wrong. For this is a melting pot of a society, an oil-boom town, where Georgians, Armenians, Westerners, Persians and Muslims (who, interestingly, are the group referred to by their religion, not their nationality- they are called "Mohammedans") all mix together. Everyone does have a place, but there are many factors which factor into deciding who matters, who is where on the social scale- schooling, family, money, and family history.

No, the book focuses on the much more interesting task of how one makes a cross-cultural life in a world that is becoming ever more divided along every line possible- religion, politics, economics, and of course the powerful new god of Nationalism.

This is, more than anything else, a meditation on definitions, explanations, lines and musings on Who I Am and Who I Am Not, and perhaps more importantly for geopolitics, Who We Are and Who We Are Not. Ali visits many towns around his area and they all have some great story of their background, a legend that makes where they live the best place on earth, and no one seems to mind that the next town over also claims that they’re the best ever. Not in this melting pot of an area. Everything that everyone does seems to have to be attributed to some part of their background or heritage- such as: there’s a moment where Ali goes wild with fury after a friend of his kidnaps his fiancée (after seducing her with the idea of living in Europe and escaping the Asia that scares her) and he kills the man while taking a bite out of his throat, and afterwards says, “I am an Asiatic, not a European. I never mastered the art of hitting below the belt. I can only go mad like the desert wolf.” In this charged atmosphere, every action is a statement, every minute one chooses sides in this meeting place of “Asia and Europe”. Everyone judges those actions to determine which side you are on. Ali is a man caught by this transformative moment in time- 1914. He is a man who is “Asiatic in his blood” and yet is in love with a woman who loves Europe and by extension does many things that might make him seem to lean towards Europe for the sake of “putting the smile back in Nino’s eyes”… and yet, and yet. He cannot let go of the desert, and freaks out at the possibility of being posted to Paris where he cannot ride out into the desert, or stand on top of his roof looking over the sand.

There are many quotes here where people try to philosophize their way to a solution to what makes people so different, and how this Asia and Europe is divided. People at the time weren’t quite sure what to make of it, where the line was. And so conversations like these happened:

“What have you against trees? To me they are the embodiment of life fulfilled.”
“Ali Khan is afraid of trees the way a child is afraid of ghosts,” said Nino

“It’s not as bad as that. But what you feel for trees I feel for the desert,” I replied

Dadiani’s childish eyes blinked. “The desert,” he said, “fallow bushes and hot sand.”

“The world of trees perplexes me, your Highness. It is full of fight and mystery, of ghosts and demons. You cannot look ahead. You are surrounded. It is dark. The sun’s rays are lost in the twilight of the trees. In this twilight everything is unreal. No, I do not love he trees. The shadows of the wood oppress me, and it makes me sad to hear the rustling of the branches. I love simple things: wind, sand and stones. The desert is simple like the thrust of a sword. I lose my way in the woods, your Highness.”

Dadiani looked at me thoughtfully: “You have the soul of a desert man,” he said. “Maybe that is the one real division between men: wood men and desert men. The Orient’s dry intoxication comes from the desert, where hot wind and hot sand make men drunk, where the world is simple and without problems. The woods are full of questions. Only the desert does not ask, does not give, and does not promise anything. But the fire of the soul comes from the wood. The desert man- I can see him- has but one face, and knows but one truth and that truth fulfills him. The wood man has many faces. Maybe that is the main difference between East and West.”

The example there would seem to have quite the Western interpretation, but there’s just as many conversations the other way. And I wonder if I only see the representative of the “East” coming off worse there because of my own Western or modern biases about tolerance. I don’t know. But if this all seems too much just remember this was written in 1937, by a man who was born in Baku in 1904, and who therefore must be presumed to know what he is talking about. He gives all sides a voice, lets everyone express both their superiority and their shortcomings in more or less equal measure- no one group is allowed to be pure. For instance, our hero repeatedly thinks about killing Westerners for looking at his wife’s shoulders or and is shocked by them asking about her in conversation- interest in another man’s wife being indecent in his society. While at the same time he is the man who gives up the most of himself for love, tries his best to do whatever makes Nino happy even at the cost of his own identity, and is generally the most honest, kind, and reflective character in the book. Characters representing the West are often shown to have the most drive, the most passion, and the clarity to see the way the world works, and yet they’re also shown to be hypocritical, and of course.. the horror of WWI. Sadly, the author only has to conjure up the image of the machine gun or say the word “trenches,” to condemn what all the “civilization” of Europe has come to. The fact that he wrote this on the eve of yet another world war is even more poignant. I’ve heard that this is considered the Azeri national novel- I’d believe that. It gives a visceral picture of the history, culture and every day life of the area at the time, and more than that deals with the larger conflicts that still plague the region today. And not only the region- elsewhere in the world as well.

The story of the author ties in to the theme of this work. As fascinating as the novel, really. He was born a Ukranian Jew, converted to Islam and became Essad Bey, and published under the name of Kurban Said. He lived in Baku (left for Berlin after the Russian Revolution), Berlin (until Hitler), Austria and Italy. There is evidence, actually, that the Austrian baroness he became friends with in the 1930s deserves co-authorship of this book- it is certainly based on his interactions with her, as is the other novel published under his name, The Girl From the Golden Horn. This was a man who was used to trying on different identities and seeing what became him, what came closest to his Self, and a man who would know what it was like for someone to tell you what you were when you didn’t consider yourself to be anything of that kind.

Reading this, I often had to remind myself that it was written in 1937. All of these things are still immediately important now- East v. West, the answer to the question ‘What is Europe?’, the balance between preservation of culture and the natural progress of society, societal structures in a mixed religious society, the problem of what identity one really wants to fix one’s Self to. The questions of the twentieth century aren’t over yet, not by a long shot, and it is truly amazing how far we have not come from the days of this novel.
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Oct 09, 2011 Chrissie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Chrissie by: Inder

Shelves: hf, soviet-union, azerbaijan, georgia, iran, text-checked, favorites

I hesitate to write any review b/c I feel I cannot do this book justice. I simply adored it. Probably the best book I will read this year!!! Of course it is a love story, but so much more too. It is a love story between a Georgian Christian girl and a Mulim boy from an historically famous family from Azebaijan. Their love explores how dramatically different cultures can be blended given the right circumstances - in this case true love. West meets East in this novel. You explore both ways of look...more

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Dec 30, 2007 Inder rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: culture, read-2007, 20th-century, fiction, mid-east, russia

I devoured this in one day, on a plane flight back from Maui.
This is a book about a certain place and moment in time, but the love story is timeless. The story is set in the Caucacus, on the Caspian Sea in what is now Azerbaijan, on the eve of World War I. Ali Khan, a muslim boy, loves Nino, a Georgian Christian girl. Somehow, their love survives their cultural differences, family hostilities, blood feuds, and never-ending war. By the end of the book, I knew more than I ever imagined about the...more

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Jan 15, 2009 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, lincoln-park-group

In pre-World War I Azerbaijan the cultural chasms are as deep as the oil wells that surround the city. Muslim Ali Khan, the scion of the wealthy and powerful Shirvanshir family, has fallen in love with Princess Nino Kipiani, the daughter of a rich Christian merchant family. Their courtship, opposed by family and friends, is disrupted by the outbreak of war. A time of great change is coming for Russia and for the Middle East, and the young lovers must decide whether they belong to Europe or Asia....more In pre-World War I Azerbaijan the cultural chasms are as deep as the oil wells that surround the city. Muslim Ali Khan, the scion of the wealthy and powerful Shirvanshir family, has fallen in love with Princess Nino Kipiani, the daughter of a rich Christian merchant family. Their courtship, opposed by family and friends, is disrupted by the outbreak of war. A time of great change is coming for Russia and for the Middle East, and the young lovers must decide whether they belong to Europe or Asia. Rich with depictions of the people of the Caucasus and affecting in its portrayal of youthful romance, Ali and Nino has been called “a jewel of a book” by the New York Times Book Review. This is not just a simple love story. But it is a romance, and a journey through the Caucasus, and a love story of operatic proportions. Ali & Nino by Kurban Said is all of these things presented as a somewhat traditional novel by a very nontraditional author. It is a romance in the tradition of great romantic literature. Ali Kahn, the narrator and hero, becomes a hero conquering his enemies in love and in war. As a national hero he is portrayed as growing into the position of national icon, the sort of mythic hero about whom wonderful stories are told. We are fortunate to read his own story. The novel shows us the Caucasus of the early twentieth century as it undergoes tremendous political change and must react to world events of war and revolution that impinge on the life of the local culture. It is a culture for which blood feuds are as important as international news. We see new nations in the process of formation: Georgia, Azerbaijan and modern Iran. At the center of the novel is the love story of Ali Kahn Shirvanshir and Nino Kipiani, one Muslim and one Christian, whose love transcends religion and culture and national borders. The author develops these characters with depth so you know them and share in their feelings. They live in the real world of the Orient but share in Western culture as naturally as they adapt to the change from the rustic village in the Caucasus to the luxurious palace in Muslim Azerbaijan. One reads of Western Opera, Faust & Eugene Onegin, being as much a part of their culture as the great Islamic poets. This made the book more engaging than any simple love story. Kurban Said, who was himself something of a mystery, created a lasting work to read again and again in Ali & Nino.
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Apr 27, 2013 M M rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Caucasus, exemplified by its mountains and the hardy folk that dwell in them, is intrinsically a schizophrenic condition. Assertions and contradictions abound in it. Famously it is supposed to divide Europe from Asia, but nobody is quite sure where it itself belongs. Its people are riven by religion, language, tribal mores, and yet they subscribe to the same sacred creed of hospitality to all guests. Blood feuds extend across countries and time. Ancient hatreds consume the present. And casti...more The Caucasus, exemplified by its mountains and the hardy folk that dwell in them, is intrinsically a schizophrenic condition. Assertions and contradictions abound in it. Famously it is supposed to divide Europe from Asia, but nobody is quite sure where it itself belongs. Its people are riven by religion, language, tribal mores, and yet they subscribe to the same sacred creed of hospitality to all guests. Blood feuds extend across countries and time. Ancient hatreds consume the present. And casting a dark shadow over it all is the humiliation and loss, and the piecemeal degradation of its character caused by the long arm of Russia.

You see some of this schizophrenia reflected in its literature. One of the most famous works to come out of the region is Ali And Nino: A Love Story by Gurban Said. It is a beautiful novel set in a romantic early 20th century Baku, and tells the ultimately tragic tale of the love of Ali Khan Shirvanshir, an Azerbaijani Muslim, and Nino, a beautiful Georgian Christian. Many commentators have called this book a wonderful evocation of the pre-revolutionary cosmopolitan Caucasus, and extolled the accuracy of the writer's observations of the customs and culture of the period. This review, written by an Azerbaijani, calls it a glimpse into the soul of his homeland. And yet, nobody knows who Gurban Said was. There's some evidence that he might have been Lev Nussimbaum, a scion of a prominent Jewish family from Baku. Others claim that Nussimbaum was a fraudster copying stories from better writers, and that the book was really penned by Yousif Chamanzaminli, a famous Azeri writer.

Fascinatingly, this tale asserts a series of stereotypes common in the region. From an Azeri perspective, Ali Khan is a hero of staggering manliness and grace. He wins the heart of the lovely princess Nino and marries her despite opposition from all sides. Nino loves Ali, but she is not blind to the problems facing an inter-faith marriage. She can see the evident hypocrisy that promises death for Ali's sister who wants to marry out of the faith. Still, she marries Ali and is then slowly sapped of vitality by the restrictions placed on her by his family. Perhaps in succumbing to the muscular Ali, Nino represents Georgia in Azeri eyes - beautiful, yes, but ultimately a push-over.

Mediating between the two is Ali's Armenian friend, Nachararyan. Initially he claims that only intermarriage between the Muslims and the Christians could sow peace between them; later, stricken by the slaughter of his compatriots by the Turks, he decides that there is no hope, and acts in a manner most perfidious towards his old friend. The calumny here is obvious - the Armenians are to the Caucasus as the Jews are to Europe: the butt of cruelty, envy and hatred. Furthermore, Armenians and Azeris are ancient enemies, and clearly the latter see the former as treacherous, no matter how many protestations of friendship they might make.

Now this may be pointing out a superficiality in the novel. After all, the warring tribes in the Caucasus had been forced into mutual accommodation by a brutal overlord, which could have led to occasional bursts of friendship and possibly even love. Still, one can't escape the feeling that they basically hate each others guts. Gurban Said may have only meant the stereotypes ironically; possibly, overall, his narrative is accurate and representative of the times. Wendell Steavenson points out in her wonderful Stories I Stole, most of the details are right, but the incidents and characters are all taken from local legend, almost as if it were a guidebook in disguise. Everything is at its most obvious, almost Caucasian cliches.

For instance, Steavenson points out that Ali's name Shirvanshir arises from the Khanate of Shirvan that ruled in Baku at the time. Nino's name is the traditional Georgian one, after St. Nino. The stories recounted by Ali are all available in 19th century travel guides, especially the ones about Imam Shamil. On the other hand, there are startling errors - Nino declares herself a Greek Orthodox Christian, which coming from a Georgian is peculiar, to say the least; Ali is said to speak Tartar, whereas his language would have been Azeri, a dialect of Turkish.

None of this, of course, takes away from the lovely tale. A perfect little gem.(less)

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Apr 18, 2013 Erik Bloom rated it 5 of 5 stars

(From my Amazon.com review)

Ali and Nino is brillant novel that focuses on love and honor on many levels, set largely in Baku, Azerbaijain. The protaganist, Ali Shirvanshir, is a young Azeri prince in the final days of imperial Russia. He falls in love with Nino, a Georgian princess who also lives in Baku and who studies in a nearby school. The novel is a love story that captures the politics in the Caucusus region (Armenia, Azerbaijain, and Georgia) as the countries and people try to redefine th...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Rick Skwiot rated it 4 of 5 stars

Set largely in Baku at the outbreak of World War I, this sprightly and intriguing novel, first published in 1937, gives a revealing view of Shiite Muslim traditions, values and practices—both in the Azerbaijani capital and in Iran—that divided East and West, and still do. The relationship between the Mohammedan Ali and his Christian beloved Nino effectively dramatizes the differing and oft incompatible sexual mores of their two traditions.

While Ali’s love of Baku and the nearby desert, of carav...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: eastern-eur-fic-lit, fiction

This is a beautiful story which is as intriguing as its author. It's a story of nationalism, the clash of cultures, the dislocation of war and the transitory nature of life. The prose, at times is like poetry.

Ali, a Mohammedan, has deep roots in Baku. His heroic ancestor has been written out of history by the Russians who control the town at the story's beginning. The Russian occupation is a light handed, there are schools, operas, and peace. Ali's family is rich, is steeped in old religious way...more

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Dec 12, 2011 Darrell Delamaide rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: around-the-world-in-52-books, historical-fiction

This novel by Kurban Said is subtitled "A Love Story" and it has something of a cult following. It is a remarkable and unusual book. The love story of Ali Khan Shirvanshir and Nino Kipiani begins in their school days in Baku and survives ethnic animosity, kidnapping, exile and even revolution. This relatively short novel has all the epic sweep of a Doctor Zhivago, painting whole new worlds for the reader to explore.

Azerbaijan was the Saudi Arabia of the first half of the 20th century, supplying...more This novel by Kurban Said is subtitled "A Love Story" and it has something of a cult following. It is a remarkable and unusual book. The love story of Ali Khan Shirvanshir and Nino Kipiani begins in their school days in Baku and survives ethnic animosity, kidnapping, exile and even revolution. This relatively short novel has all the epic sweep of a Doctor Zhivago, painting whole new worlds for the reader to explore.

Azerbaijan was the Saudi Arabia of the first half of the 20th century, supplying a good portion of the world's oil. Shiite Muslims predominated in the Turkic-speaking country, which bordered on Christian Georgia and on Iran. The capital, Baku, located on a windy peninsula on the Caspian Sea just south of the Caucasus Mountains had a mixed population living in relative harmony. Ali was Muslim with Persian roots and Nino was Christian with Georgian roots.

Their meeting with each other's families had more comedy than tragedy as the two young people were fully exposed to the divergent traditions of the more European Christians and the more Asiatic Muslims. It is the tension between these two cultures -- wine, beds, tables and silverware on the one side and tea, divans, carpets and fingers on the other side -- that surfaces in various forms in the novel.

Though young, Ali and Nino cannot escape their cultural heritage. While his love for Nino is unshakeable, Ali cannot shake his culture's attitude toward women or the role of men in society. Nino is horrified about the possibility of having to wear a veil or become part of a harem. In cosmopolitan Baku, they can juggle these differences. But the onset of World War I, disrupting the Czar's distant rule of Azerbaijan, also interrupts this comfortable state of affairs.

The first sign of real trouble is when a rich Armenian, who had won Ali's friendship by interceding with Nino's family to permit their marriage to go ahead, kidnaps Nino and flees with her in his motor-car. Hot-blooded Asian Ali pursues, catches up with them and kill his erstwhile Armenian friend, plunging a dagger into his chest just above the heart. Nino confesses that she was complicit in the abduction, at least in part, because of the Armenian's arguments about what would happen to her if the Ottomans took over Azerbaijan. Ali can forgive, but when his father asks him why he did not also slay the girl, all he would say is that he was too exhausted.

The couple enjoys an idyll in a mountaintop retreat where Ali is "hiding" from retribution for the murder, but after their return to Baku they are forced into a more serious exile to Teheran, where they live in princely comfort among their relatives but where Nino is forced to abide by Muslim strictures and not show herself in public. Ali feels the tug of his Muslim roots and, partly to settle his Muslim identity, takes part in a primitive ritual of self-flagellation that horrifies and repels Nino.

Even so, they return together to Baku when Azerbaijan celebrates its brief period of independence. That dream comes crashing to an end when the new Red Army arrives to seize Baku's oil after the overthrow of the czar.

It is a love story that goes beyond Romeo and Juliet because these are not feuding families in a settled culture, but two radically different cultures mixed together at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. It is enchanting, not only in it depiction of the tender love between the two protagonists, but because of its loving description of the complex world they live in.

The identity of the author, Kurban Said, has become a minor saga in its own right. Tom Reiss, first in an article for The New Yorker and then in his biography The Orientalist makes the case that Lev Nussimbaum, a Jewish emigre born in Baku in 1905, is the author behind the pseudonym, though this is disputed.

It is a fascinating story, but another story. You don't need to know anything about the author to enjoy Ali and Nino. It sweeps you into an exotic, at times terrifying new world that is as old as the sands of Central Asia. It is an historical saga that is totally satisfying as a novel, and it will enrich your understanding of the cultural rift between two worlds.(less)

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Jul 07, 2011 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Why I Chose This Book

Book club book! It’s the one I voted for, actually, because I already had a copy of Dead Until Dark lying around the house that I know I’ll get to one day, and I didn’t really want to read The Distant Land of My Father because, well, I thought it was a memoir and was not in a memoir mood. I’ve since become more intrigued by it, but what can you do now?

Nutshell Review of the Book

The story was pretty good to OK, but shines as an artifact. It was written in the 1930s as a histo...more

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Sep 07, 2010 محمد rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. أعتقد أن الرواية مثالية لصاحب مزاج غريب مثلي و لكل من يبحث عن نكهة شرقية و أخرى غربية في رواية واحدة.إنها رواية الأذربيجاني قربان سعيد أو أسعد بيه و هو الاسم الذي اعتنقه المؤلف بعد تحوله من اليهودية إلى الإسلام ، عاش الرجل حياة حافلة بحثا عن الحرية و كتب أكثر من كتاب أغلبها سير ذاتية و لم يكتب سوى روايتين هما علي و نينو و الفتاة ذات البوق الذهبي.
الصدفة وحدها هي التي كشفت تلك الرواية المجهولة و انتشلتها من النسيان إذ عثرت عليها جنيا جرامان بين كتب مستعملة في أحد أكشاك بيع الكتب في برلين.
تحكي الرو...more أعتقد أن الرواية مثالية لصاحب مزاج غريب مثلي و لكل من يبحث عن نكهة شرقية و أخرى غربية في رواية واحدة.إنها رواية الأذربيجاني قربان سعيد أو أسعد بيه و هو الاسم الذي اعتنقه المؤلف بعد تحوله من اليهودية إلى الإسلام ، عاش الرجل حياة حافلة بحثا عن الحرية و كتب أكثر من كتاب أغلبها سير ذاتية و لم يكتب سوى روايتين هما علي و نينو و الفتاة ذات البوق الذهبي.
الصدفة وحدها هي التي كشفت تلك الرواية المجهولة و انتشلتها من النسيان إذ عثرت عليها جنيا جرامان بين كتب مستعملة في أحد أكشاك بيع الكتب في برلين.
تحكي الرواية عن باكو عاصمة أذربيجان تلك الأرض البكر التي لوثتها منصات البترول ، تحكي عن قصة حب جمعت بين علي المسلم الشيعي و نينو المسيحية الأرثوذكسية الجورجية ، البطل يتصرف كأوروبي في كثيرمن الأحيان لكن من داخله هو آسيوي صرف ، يعقد دوما المقارنات بين الشرق و الغرب فالمرأة الشرقية قد لا يرى وجهها لكنه يعرف روحها و عاداتها و تقاليدها ، بينما المرأة الغربية قد يرى منها الكثير و هي تسير في الشارع لكنه لا يستطيع أن يعرف عن روحها شيئا.تدور بنا أحداث الرواية فترة الحرب العالمية الأولى بين أذربيجان و داغستان و فارس ، بطلها علي خان شرفانشير سليل عائلة المحاربين الذين ماتوا فداء لما يعتقدون دفاعا عن بلدهم و نينو التي تحب علي و لكنها لها تطلعات أوروبية جامحة و سيد علي مصطفى الملا الشيعي المتعصب الذي يراه علي خان الحافظ الوحيد لإيمانهم الصافي نتنقل بين مشهد الأوبرا الغربية و المواكب الجنائزية ليوم عاشوراء ، بين الحياة في جبال داغستان حين يطارد علي بتهمة القتل و بين الحياة الرغيدة في فارس و الاحتفالات الأرستقراطية التي تنشد فيها الرباعيات و أبيات حافظ انتهاء بحفلات الدبلوماسيين في بيت علي خان في مناخ أوروبي بحت بعد استقلال أذربيجان تحت حماية الانجليز ، ثم الانسحاب الانجليزي و الاجتياح الروسي ليموت علي خان خلف بندقيته الآلية ميتة يراها حتمية لسليل عائلة شارفانشير.
الحقيقة أن جو هذه الرواية يناسبني أكثر من تلك الروايات الواقعية السحرية التي تنهب الصفحات نهبا لتظفر بهذه الجملة أو تلك ، رواية علي و نينو رواية بسيطة دون افتعال أو محاولة للتظاهر بالعمق.
أنصح بها و ربما ابدأ البحث عن رواية الفتة ذات البوق الذهبي.
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Aug 04, 2010 Salma rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

قصة حب جمعت بين علي المسلم الأذربيجاني و نينو المسيحية الجورجية في باكو عاصمة أذربيجان حيث الأعراق و الأثنيات و الصراعات و المطامع و الخلافات زمن الحرب العالمية الأولى و اكتشاف النفط و السلطان التركي و القيصر الروسي و شاه إيران و الثورة البلشفية... قصة جميلة و رقيقة و حزينة و مليئة بالتفاصيل عن عادات و حيوات تلك الشعوب... نشأت القصة في أحضان التشتت بين الشرق و الغرب... بين آسيا و أوروبا... بين الصحراء و الغابة... بين عادات الدماء و الثأر... بين الماضي و الحاضر... بين التقاليد و الحداثة... بين ال...more

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May 24, 2010 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

282 pages. Donated 2010 May.

As is true of all great literature, Kurban Said's Ali and Nino has timeless appeal. Set in the years surrounding the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union, Said's tale of an Azerbaijani Muslim boy in love with a Georgian Christian girl is both tender and disturbingly prescient. The novel, first published in 1937, begins as Ali Khan Shirvanshir is finishing his last year of high school:
We were a very mixed lot, we forty schoolboys who were having a Geogr...more 282 pages. Donated 2010 May.

As is true of all great literature, Kurban Said's Ali and Nino has timeless appeal. Set in the years surrounding the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union, Said's tale of an Azerbaijani Muslim boy in love with a Georgian Christian girl is both tender and disturbingly prescient. The novel, first published in 1937, begins as Ali Khan Shirvanshir is finishing his last year of high school:
We were a very mixed lot, we forty schoolboys who were having a Geography lesson one hot afternoon in the Imperial Russian Humanistic High School of Baku, Transcaucasia: thirty Mohammedans, four Armenians, two Poles, three Sectarians, and one Russian.

The multi-ethnic Baku, it seems, stands at a crossroads between West and East, and, as the smug Russian professor informs his pupils, it is their responsibility to decide "whether our town should belong to progressive Europe or to reactionary Asia." For Ali Khan Shirvanshir there is no doubt--he belongs to the East; his beloved Nino, however, is "a Christian, who eats with knife and fork, has laughing eyes and wears filmy silk stockings."
Far away, to the West, there are rumblings of war. When the Russian Revolution begins, Ali Khan chooses not to fight; the Czar's fate is of little interest to a Muslim living in far away Transcaucasia. But the young man senses that another, greater danger is gathering on his country's borders--an "invisible hand" trying to force his world into new ways, the ways of the West. He assures his worried father that, like his ancestors, he is willing to die in battle, but at a time of his own choosing. In the meantime, he courts Nino and eventually marries her in the teeth of scandal and opposition. This union of East and West is at times a difficult one as Ali Khan finds himself lured further and further into European ways. When Soviet troops invade, however, he must choose once and for all whether to stand for Asia or Europe.

One of the many pleasures Ali and Nino offers is Kurban Said's lovingly rendered evocations of Muslim culture. Another is his compassionate portrait of the protagonists' difficult but profound relationship. Modern readers coming to this novel in the wake of the fall of Communism, outbreaks of sectarian violence, and the rise of religious fundamentalism will find disturbing parallels in its cautionary chronicle of cultures colliding and a way of life brutally destroyed. In the end, however, it is not historical accuracy, but rather the charm and passion of the title characters that lifts Said's only novel into literature's highest ranks. --Alix Wilber(less)

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Aug 10, 2009 Ebostdorff rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 15, 2012 Turkan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Я человек старый, - начал он, - и все, что я здесь вижу и слышу, глубоко печалит меня. Русские хотят уничтожить турков, турки - армян, армяне - нас, а мы - русских. Не знаю, хорошо это или плохо. Мы выслушали Зейнал ага, Мирзу, Али, Фатали хана, Я разделяю их тревоги о школах, родном языке, больницах и свободе. Все это очень хорошо. Но кому нужны школы, если в них будут учить всякой ерунде? Кому нужны больницы, где будут лечить тело, забывая о душе? Наши души рвутся к Аллаху. Конечно, каждый нар...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Nezzo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Не мога да не дам пълна оценка, книгата ме заплени. Накара кръвта ми да кипи от омраза, възхищение, удоволствие, вяра и любов. Точно както мохамеданите преживяват цялата история. Една история за грузинци, арменци, мохамедани, турци, руснаци, шиити, афганистанци, англичани и какви ли не опитали се да покорят и завземат земите на сегашен Азърбейджан.
Една невероятна история под покровителството на Пророка, и ако може да се каже, че до тук се стигна от моята привързаност към мюсюлманската религия, т...more

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Jan 03, 2010 Bob rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Kurban Said -- Ali & Nino 1937 Azerbaijani writer, pen name for both Lev Nussimbaum and his Viennese friend Baroness Elfriede Ehrenfels

Fascinating book. Easy to dismiss as some readers (e.g. on Goodreads) do for being non-PC, old style, “colonialist” and exotic and all that---but Paul Theroux is right to praise it as a unique and amazing book. Ultimately the lovers prevail, in a limited way, in the failed ways that all of us do---the survive and have a child---and then accept their less than...more Kurban Said -- Ali & Nino 1937 Azerbaijani writer, pen name for both Lev Nussimbaum and his Viennese friend Baroness Elfriede Ehrenfels

Fascinating book. Easy to dismiss as some readers (e.g. on Goodreads) do for being non-PC, old style, “colonialist” and exotic and all that---but Paul Theroux is right to praise it as a unique and amazing book. Ultimately the lovers prevail, in a limited way, in the failed ways that all of us do---the survive and have a child---and then accept their less than happy fates, but in the process they have threaded their ways through an incredible mix of conflicting and competing identities, ideologies, religions, national politics and international warfare. I see the hero as a figure of the artist who is attempting new work, a new life, free from the shackles of all the -isms that would limit his life and the life of the woman he loves. Together they love and create a new life together. What else can we ask for, hope for? Along the way we “learn” a great deal about the melange of cultures out of which the Azerbaijani’s have fashioned their culture over the centures. Theroux is right to praise the book in the terms he chooses: “This wonderful novel---beautifully constructed, vivid and persuasive, a love story at once exotic and familiar--is living proof that art is indestructible and transcendent.” (in the Afterword)

By the time I got closer and closer to the end of the book I admired and enjoyed it all the more.

It reminded me at the start of The Kite Runner, which I did not really like because by the end it becomes a cheerleading pamphlet for the American war in Afghanistan eight years ago. Last year I read a Saudi novel---Wolves of the Crescent Moon---banned in Saudi ( & hence "good" to liberal editors here?). Taking all 3 books together---not a big sample---but we can wonder about Asiatic---Caucasian---ways of storytelling and remember that they are not at all like the western novel. Ali & Nino in other words is closer in literary features to 1001 Arabian Nights than it is to The Great Gatsby. And yet once that point is made----then we can note, as Theroux does, that given the literary traditions of Central Asia & Persia & Turkey this book cuts it all up and re-collages it in superb ways----modernistically we might even say---

In 2005 Daniel Lazare published an article in The Nation sort of about the book but really just using the book to opine in a typical American way about Arab-Israel/Jewish problems---our chief American fault when faced with a book as subtle as Ali & Nino and the world it portrays is that we like the world to be in clearly demarcated bi-polarities in order to make politics easily graspable and defensible. While Ali & Nino is all about wars and nationalism and relgious differences and the clash of identities, it is finally about none of these, or all of these but only as background to the highest of human emotions, thoughts and desires.(less)

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May 21, 2012 Filip rated it 2 of 5 stars

This unabashedly Orientalist love story, first published in 1937, details the love story between the Azeri boy Ali (standing for Islam and the mystique of the East) and the Georgian girl Nino (symbolising Europe, Christendom and civilisation) against the short-lived independence of Azerbaijan around WWI. The author clearly had some familiary with the Caucasus, and I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of life in old Baku, Dagestan and Teheran, or of the customs of the other nations that co-existed...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Noor rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ali and Nino is much more than a love story. I found the cultural aspect of the story more interesting.
The East vs The West / The East meets The West.
Ali and Nino have complete different cultural identities. Baku, their home, is home to Persians, Mohammedans (ali), and Georgians (Nino).
Ali may have Asiatic blood but he had European education and loves an European bred girl.
Nino is horrified by the wild asiatic side of Ali. She won't wear a veil and hates the barbarian who hit himself bloody in...more

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Jan 09, 2013 نشوى rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

عن على ونينو والمشاعر القاسية والمربكة والجميلة ...

لم انهدّ حتى اتممت تلك الرواية ... رغم قهر المذاكرة الا انها كانت عالما جميلا قاسيا اطل عليه بين الحين والحين اتأكد انه بجانبى .... اتممتها ..

كيف تعلم الرواية الجيدة ؟ ...
الرواية الجيدة هى التى يجافيك النوم بسببها ... تدور فى فلكها أيام وليال متأثرا

بلاد ما وراء النهر .. اذربيجان .. القوقاز ... الشيشان ... سمرقند ..

بلاد كان اول اكتشافى لها فى رواية قمر على سمرقند للمنسى قنديل
بلاد لم اكن اعلم عنها شيئا تماما وتسقط من حساباتى ... فاذا بالرواية...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Gijs rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, fiction, german, novels, asia, 20th-century-1930s

Zeer authentiek overkomende geschiedenis van de liefde tussen de Islamitische, Azerbeidzjaanse prins Ali Khan en de Grieks-Orthodoxe Georgische prinses Nino ten tijde van de eerste wereldoorlog.

Hoewel de roman sterk de tegenstelling in opvattingen, zeden en gewoonten tussen het westen en het oosten opdiept is de roman geenszins een voorspelbaar Romeo en Juliaverhaal: de beide ouders zijn verrassend tolerant ten opzichte van de keuze van hun kinderen, maar het zijn de politieke omstandigheden die...more

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Jun 10, 2007 Graeme Hinde rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was recommended by a guy who writes from Central Asia for the Economist, and I was not disappointed. It's an action-packed love story about the permanent clash of cultures between Europe and Asia, written in simple and beautiful language. Soon I will move to Tblisi and meet the most beautiful women in the world.

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May 07, 2013 Kate Sometomato rated it 4 of 5 stars

The most interesting thing about this book is its history, in my opinion. It is apparently a "lost" book, first published in 1937, and then sinking out of notice. There is some history about this in the introduction.

The other thing about the book that was quite interesting was all the conflict between cultures, which was well-described but which also was a focus in this story of a pair of lovers from widely divergent backgrounds.

Ali Khan Shivansir is from a noble Mohammedan family based in Baku,...more

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May 22, 2012 Storey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Some of my favorite quotes:

"Do not forgive your enemies, we are not Christians." ~ pg. 26

"No, I do not love the trees. The shadows of the woods oppress me, and it makes me sad to hear the rustling of the branches. I love simple things: wind, sand and stones. The desert is simple like the thrust of a sword." ~ pg. 51

"A man must marry, preferably the woman he likes. She need not like him in return. A wise man does not court a woman. The woman is just the acre, on which the man sows. Must the field...more

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Feb 26, 2009 Jeanette rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, russia, asia

Three and one half stars

Ali Khan Shirvanshir tells the story of how he and Nino grew up together in Baku on the Caspian Sea. He's a Mohammedan, she's a Christian, but they only want each other. Ali Khan likes to portray himself as a fierce warrior ready for battle, but really he just wants to love Nino and make her happy.
As the events of the First World War and the Russian Revolution make Baku unsafe, they go to live in Persia (now Iran), with Ali Khan's uncle. But Nino cannot be happy in Persi...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Hasan El gebaly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

رائعة جداً
رائعة بشدة

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Apr 16, 2007 Schaden rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this story with its solid historical background and with a story that the reader will be unable to put down. It is beautifully written and deals with fascinating characters from a world that few have written about, at least in the West.

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Aug 27, 2011 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

I would characterize this book as Romeo and Juliet with an East/West culture clash rather than a familial clash. The setting, Baku, a crossroads between East and West is essential to the story.

Ali is a Muslim boy and Nino is a Christian, Georgian girl who happen to fall deeply in love.

While Ali's father agrees to the marriage, Nino's family at first refuses, until a supposed friend intervenes on Ali's behalf.

In the course of their courtship and marriage there are many obstacles thrown in their w...more

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May 03, 2013 Leman rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a kind of book you get into really easily and live the plot. Ali is an Azerbaijani boy that is in love with a Georgian girl named Nino. Considering the oppositions between the two religions-Islam and Christianity, especially at the time the book was written, it's really hard for them to be together. As strange it may sound because of the book's name, it isn't completely a love story from head to toe. Kurban Said(whoever he might have been) does a really good job describing the cities the...more

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Apr 14, 2012 Emma rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, azerbaijan, world-fiction-challenge, 3-stars-and-a-half, read-in-translation

This book was an unusual reading experience in a way I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s an engaging story, and accessible; the narrator, Ali, is candid about his thoughts and feelings. At the same time, I never lost sight of the fact that it comes from across a wide gap in time and culture.

Ali and Nino is set mostly in Baku, Azerbaijan, around the start of World War I. The two young people of the title--Ali Khan Shirvanshir, a Shi’ite Muslim of Iranian descent, and Nino Kipiani, a Georgian Chr...more This book was an unusual reading experience in a way I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s an engaging story, and accessible; the narrator, Ali, is candid about his thoughts and feelings. At the same time, I never lost sight of the fact that it comes from across a wide gap in time and culture.

Ali and Nino is set mostly in Baku, Azerbaijan, around the start of World War I. The two young people of the title--Ali Khan Shirvanshir, a Shi’ite Muslim of Iranian descent, and Nino Kipiani, a Georgian Christian--are in love, but the cultural divide complicates their relationship. Meanwhile, political upheaval threatens whatever happiness they’re able to find.

For the first part of the book, I thought the cultural and historical detail was more interesting than the plot, but the plot gets better as it goes and the last third is the most memorable. I especially liked the part dealing with the brief existence of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Ali and Nino’s relationship was also more interesting than I expected: rather than repeating the common boy-meets-girl plotline in which the characters fall in love, the book starts with them in love as of Chapter 1 and then looks the more difficult question of making that relationship work.

There’s definitely orientalism here--when the author’s biography is entitled The Orientalist, I guess that should come as no surprise. It’s not orientalist in the sense of being unable to look past the weirdness of an Asian society to its humanity and complexity--there is a diverse set of Muslim characters and who are individuals--but it certainly revels in the exotic and bizarre and sometimes backward aspects of “Asia” (one indicator that this is not a recent book is the use of “Asia” to refer to the Muslim world). There’s a sense of complicity with the reader in showing us all this weirdness; for instance, Nino denies the existence of Ali’s family’s eunuch servant to English diplomats for the sake of European social acceptability, but we the readers meet this character in all of his exotic glory. And some of the East-meets-West type scenes, like the car chase involving a car and a horse (you can guess who has the car and who the horse), feel a little over the top.

Graman’s translation is overall quite readable, but consistently uses archaic spellings (even though the translation itself only came out in 1970). At times I did wonder about its faithfulness: would Muslims really have referred to themselves as “Mohammedans,” even 100 years ago?

This sounds like a lot of criticism, but it is a fairly good book, set in a little-known part of the world but dealing with issues that are still timely today. One can tell it isn’t a recent book--there’s a lot of name-dropping that must have been familiar at the time but is quite obscure today--but the characters’ motivations are understandable and their story interesting. I’d recommend this book to those who are looking to branch out in their reading.(less)

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Ali and Nino: A Love Story

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