Still full of hot air

Submitted by Peter Hall (Australia), Dec 28, 2011 at 20:03

Well Amin, Again you show you are a master of Taqiyya, that is you never give a straight answer to a straight question. I asked you for this mystical book of classical Arabic that all of Europe has read, as in name title and print run. Also asked for the top Arabic Authors and print runs etc. These are things that for wide spread Authors should be easy for such self proclaimed an expert, such as yourself. You give a list of names and claims of "millions being printed" Very slimmy response but expected. I used the names you supplied, and in particular Naguib Mahfouz, who seems to be the best of the Arabic writers. I spent considerable time looking, and could find no figures for the print runs or number of his books sold, just vagueness. The only things I could find to get an indication of his quantitative success were the following quotes Few Arabic novels sell enough copies to earn their authors anything like a living income; even Mahfouz kept a civil-service job until he was sixty. Today, the most sophisticated literary public is under siege. "Cairo writes, Beirut publishes, and Baghdad reads" is a saying that prevailed in what now seems a dream of literary possibility, free of stifling fundamentalism, civic chaos, and bombs. Read more

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/01/18/100118crbo_books_pierpont#ixzz1hsdCiSTb

Rumour has it that, at the best of times, Naguib Mahfouz's [former Nobel Laureate] novels were printed 10,000 copies at a time. This is the kind of amount you would sell in a few hours in London or New York when a new book is published by an author as famous as that.'

http://www.timeoutbahrain.com/knowledge/features/6575-international-prize-for-arabic-fiction

Now given I can find no definitive lists showing millions of copies sold, the fact you have no facts to present showing actual numbers, I am left to conclude that your claims of millions of copies sold are just hot air. If the most famous Arabic Author only had print runs of 10,000 copies at a time, is a fair indication of how strong Arabic is, do you not agree Amin? Do you know the print runs for the Harry Potter series? I rest my case Amin, I asked you to put up, or shut up. The only figures I can find for your top Author is print runs of 10,000 copies. I now no longer ask you to put up Amin, PLEASE just shut up!

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