Working to improve mutual understanding between the Middle East and the West
Dr Barbara Schwepcke, CEO
‘You are making the same mistake as so many before you!’ There was anger in Prince Hassan bin Talal’s voice. He was responding to Mark Linz’s proposal of publishing the debates of scholars from East and West. Linz had recently retired as Director of the American University in Cairo Press. Under his stewardship the AUCP had become the largest English-language publisher in the Middle East. The ‘library of thought’ he proposed that day was intended to ‘celebrate the genius of Arab civilization’. But he was taken aback by the criticism of a man who, like himself, had been a lifelong bridge-builder between the two worlds. ‘You should be inclusive rather than exclusive,’ Sidi Hassan said, ‘and not limit this endeavour to one ethnic, linguistic or religious group. It should include thinkers from the Persianate world, scholarship in the Turkic languages, and study the Abrahamic religions.’ The last challenge Linz took up with relish – as the founder of Continuum he had published the great theologian Hans Küng. To continue this work of comparative religious studies by bringing together young scholars from the Middle East with their peers from the West was precisely what he had envisaged.
Linz’s proposal was revised but he died before it could be shared. His friends, however, were determined the idea should not die with him, and established GINGKO in September 2014. Named after a poem in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan, the Gingko leaf has become the symbol of what Mark Linz and Prince Hassan hoped to achieve, and has represented our mission for the past 10 years: working to improve mutual understanding between the Middle East and the West.
In its founding year GINGKO brought together scholars to examine the impact and aftermath of the First World War on the shaping of the modern Middle East – it was just such a conference that Mark Linz had first envisaged. The papers presented at the conference were published, setting a precedent for the following decade. Rereading that volume now it is clear that our work is more relevant than ever.
Harry Hall, Trustee
Tasked with scouting locations for our first Fellowship retreat in 2018, I settled on Carberry Tower, a 13th century castle-cum-manor house ten miles outside Edinburgh. I was sure its baronial grandeur and remote position would make an interesting if eccentric setting.
A year later, nervously pacing its wood-panelled corridors waiting for the first fellows to arrive — and unsettled by the suits of armour that stood in every corner — I was suddenly plagued with doubt. Had we bitten off more than we could chew? Who were these people we had invited? Shouldn’t we have stuck to organising academic conferences? Was all this tartan making me dizzy?
By the first evening my fears had begun to subside. By the second they were entirely allayed. And when the time came to say goodbye three days later I was in no doubt we had embarked on something that would, in time, assume a position of significance in the lives of these young scholars.
Seven years on, as that first cohort of Fellows take up teaching posts across the world, the tenth anniversary of our foundation is as good a time as any to look back on that gathering (later this year, the seventh retreat will be held in Egypt) and celebrate the many friendships that have been forged both within and between faith groups.
Edoardo Braschi, Sales Representative
Every year, The Middle Eastern Studies Association of North America (MESA) conference is the field’s leading international forum for scholarship and intellectual exchange. Dating back to 1967 when a small group of academics gathered for eight sessions at the University of Chicago, the conference is now in its 58th year and includes hundreds of sessions and thousands of speakers.
The conference gives publishers the opportunity to show their wares at a book exhibit, and in 2019 I attended the New Orleans meeting on GINGKO’s behalf. Though the preparations were demanding I was glad to have the opportunity to meet academics, librarians, and booksellers from around the world. At the conference centre on Canal Street, I set up our stand alongside university presses and other independent publishers. It was wonderful to see GINGKO titles from our still young but bourgeoning list alongside those from established publishing houses.
Three days later, hoarse from countless conversations, with many books sold and just as many attendees made aware of GINGKO’s mission and values for the first time, it was clear to me our small but focused list — with its emphasis on translation, beautifully-produced art history titles, and an ambition to publish scholars from MENA or of MENA heritage — was filling an important gap and would endure. Five years later GINGKO’s publishing programme continues to flourish, and MESA has become a regular fixture in the calendar.
Dr Melanie Gibson, Trustee and Series Editor of GINGKO’s art history titles
Ten years ago, I met Barbara Schwepcke at an event organised by New College of the Humanities, a newly-founded university where I was teaching art history and running the faculty devoted to the subject. Barbara swept me up with her warmth and boundless enthusiasm and I quickly agreed to become involved with GINGKO, the charity she had co-founded months before. I became the editor of an academic art series with a difference, a series in which the excellence of the scholarship would be matched by the high quality of production.
The series includes monographs, volumes of collected essays on a single theme, and books associated with exhibitions or conferences. The publication of each and every one has been memorable, but I will single out only two: the first book to appear in the series, Art, Trade and Culture in the Islamic World and Beyond, is a volume of twenty-three essays on a wide range of topics dedicated to Prof. Doris Behrens-Abouseif, and the first monograph in the series, The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus: Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, a forensic historical analysis and reimagining of this sacred building which its author, Prof. Alain George, describes as an architectural palimpsest.
There will be many more volumes in the series – several are already in development – and I have no doubt I will enjoy the process of guiding each one to publication as much in the future as I have done in the last ten years.
Clare Roberts, Charity Administrator at GINGKO in 2019
In 2019, and in honour of the renowned German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the 200th anniversary of the publication of the West-Eastern Divan, his great poem sequence of 1819 inspired by the poems of the fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz, GINGKO published A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue between East & West, edited by Barbara Schwepcke and Bill Swainson. The anthology brought together new poems by 24 leading poets – 12 from the ‘East’ and 12 from the ‘West’ – responding to the original 12 themes of the West-Eastern Divan in a truly international poetic dialogue inspired by the culture of ‘the Other’. At the same time, GINGKO published a new translation by Eric Ormsby of the original West-Eastern Divan.
22 outstanding English-language poets created English versions of these poems, either directly or via bridge or literal translations, and three pairs of essays enhanced and complemented the poems, mirroring Goethe’s original ‘Notes and Essays for a Better Understanding of the West-Eastern Divan’. These publications aimed to affirm the famous words from the West-Eastern Divan’s “Gingko Biloba” poem: that “Orient and Occident cannot be parted for evermore.”
Throughout the summer of 2019, contributors to A New Divan took part in literary events and festivals around the UK, including Hay, Bradford, and Edinburgh Literature Festivals, as well as standalone events at the British Library, John Sandoe Books and the Southbank Centre. And in November 2019, the project culminated in a festival of music and poetry at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin. Three days of music, literature and art accompanied the launch of the German edition of A New Divan, published by Suhrkamp Verlag, with an opening keynote delivered by Stefan Weidner on “The Oriental Question: An attempt to reconcile Goethe and Edward Said”, and stunning performances by Daniel Barenboim and members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
More details and a full list of contributors to A New Divan can be found at newdivan.org.uk.
Dr Joshua Ralston, Series Editor of GINGKO’s Interfaith titles
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned more often in the Qur’an than in the New Testament. This fact always surprises the students that take my courses on Christian-Muslim Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Surprise leads to curiosity and the subject of Mary in Islam and Christian-Muslim dialogue regularly becomes one of the most popular research areas for postgraduates and undergraduates alike. Questions of history, sacred scripture, theology, art, literature, and feminism all coalesce in the elusive figure of Mary or Mariam. She defies easy categorisation.
Given how interested my students are in the place of Mary in Islam and Christianity, it was a privilege to work with GINGKO to translate and publish the groundbreaking book, Mary in the Qur’an: Friend of God, Virgin, Mother, written by Muna Tatari and Klaus von Stosch. The book is co-authored by two German scholars, a Sunni Muslim and a Catholic Christian. It is rare for academics to write monographs together and rarer still for a Muslim and Christian to work together to examine a figure of such immense import and controversy, probing for surprising areas of commonality, working toward mutual learning, and finding fresh areas of constructive disagreement.
This reality was on full display in March of 2022, when GINGKO and the Christian-Muslim Studies Network at Edinburgh hosted Prof Tatari and Prof Von Stosch in London and Edinburgh for a launch of the English language publication of their book on Mary. In art galleries in London and classrooms in Edinburgh, GINGKO enacted their mission of fostering mutual understanding between religions, cultures, and regions.
The book, as well as others in GINGKO’s Interfaith Studies Series, aim to foster honest engagement that neither shies away from difference nor assumes antagonism. Despite the ongoing news of cultural clashes and violence, there remains innumerable places where religions and societies meet and learn.
Professor Ali Ansari, Series Editor of GINGKO’s History titles
The first ten years at GINGKO have been memorable for two singular events – quite apart from being appointed editor of the St Andrews Middle East Series – the first being the event and subsequent edited volume which was my introduction to Barbara Schwepcke, GINGKO’s founder. GINGKO’s unique position as a charity which, beside its other activities, also publishes, means it can support events that lead to a publication. GINGKO can therefore be involved in a project from its inception through to the publication of the proceedings. At the time I had been very keen to publicise new perspectives on Iran’s Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which I had long felt had been – unjustifiably – marginalised by the events of 1979; a clear case of presentism which in my view had skewed our understanding of modern Iranian history. The Constitutional Revolution was Iran’s first political revolution – liberal (even Whiggish) in its conception – a gateway to the modern age and the political template and reference point for much that followed. Although overshadowed by the Islamic Revolution, its ideas continue to shape political thought in Iran to this day, and I was keen to host a workshop to highlight its different facets. GINGKO proved a generous supporter of this idea and with an energy which was infectious we were able to host a conference at the British Academy in 2014 drawing on a range of contributors who would show just how engaged Iranian thinkers had been with various narratives of the Enlightenment.
The second event was a more personal one in the decision by GINGKO in 2019 to publish an expanded third edition of my Iran, Islam and Democracy, first published by Chatham House in 2000. This new edition would bring together, as far as possible, my collected writings on the Islamic Republic, adding to the original text pieces I had written on the presidencies of Ahmadinejad and Rouhani. For this new edition I also had the opportunity to write an extended essay on the nuclear negotiations, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a critique of a process and agreement which had become something of a sacred cow among diplomats. On top of this I added an essay on the complex relationship between Iran and Britain by investigating the often-contradictory position Iranian intellectuals held towards Britain and the ideas she represented. It was my good fortune that GINGKO enabled me, after some twenty years, to present a refreshed look at the history of the Islamic Republic, warts and all.
Rabbi Dr Natan Levy, member of our Interfaith Fellowship Programme
Here, Natan describes a moment on the last day of the 2024 Retreat, as he guided the Fellowship group in the practice of Mincha prayers.
There was a moment between Mincha and Maghreb, as we, GINGKO Fellows, sat together in the fading desert light of our last day of dialogue in Egypt, observing and questioning the nuance of how we hold our hands in prayer, render our bodies in supplication, reminding ourselves how much we shared as Jews, Christians, Muslims, seekers of divine moments, when a teaching from my first rabbi, Rav Leibowitz, felt apropos. My rabbi began with a question: Where does Isaac go after his father, Abraham, nearly murders him upon Mount Moriah? The Bible describes Abraham’s own lonely descent: “Abraham returned (from atop the mountain) to his young men…” (Gen. 22:19). Yet, the text keeps silent on the whereabouts of Isaac. He is not in Hebron to mourn his mother in Genesis, chapter 23. Nor does he travel to Nahor to find his own wife, Rebecca, in chapter 24. Isaac’s resounding absence from his mother’s grave and his own matchmaking, reifies the perplexment. What happened to Isaac after his father binds him upon that altar?
So when Isaac suddenly reemerges on the biblical stage after such a profound lacuna, we would expect a grand re-entrance. Instead, he is simply waiting at a desert well. “And Isaac came from going to Beer Lahai Roi (the well of the living one who sees me), he was living in the land of the South.” (Genesis 24:62). Isaac has eschewed a return with his father, a mourning for his mother, a search for his bride, simply to live at a desert oasis around a particular well? Yet Beer Lahai Roi is no ordinary well. This is the selfsame well named by Hagar in Genesis 16:14, when she fled from Sarah’s abuse into the wilderness. And this is the well, the medieval exegete, Rashi, astutely notes, where Hagar and Ishmael found their own refuge after Abraham and Sarah banished them into the wilderness.
After the trauma of near-sacrifice, Isaac turns his steps away from the familiar to seek his half-brother, Ishmael, in the desert. Here in the wilderness, the two brothers are reunited. Here, their troubled past horrors can be shared and perhaps solaced at the oasis of life. They will leave this well together to bury their father, Abraham, in Genesis, 25:9. And the text provides one further insight. ” After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived with Beer Lahai Roi.” (Gen 25:11). Not at the well, Isaac lived with the well of the Living One. Isaac embodies a choice to unbind the ropes of sacrifice tied zealously by a father and set one’s face into the desert to share water with one’s exiled brother.
In the setting sun, bookended between those Jewish and Muslim prayers, in our own desert oasis, the GINGKO fellowship became our Beer Lachai Roi. That sacred space where the children of Ishmael and the children of Isaac could turn again towards one another. A turn, to be sure, away from the familiar paths. I felt myself moving down from my own mountain fastness of firm assumptions, unbinding certain knots of this last traumatic year. As we GINGKO fellows turned towards the unknown wilderness to share our wells with banished kin, to share our pain with family.
Stephen Landrigan, Volunteer
When Barbara Schwepcke began articulating the idea that became GINGKO, her vision for an East-West dialogue was developed with her partner and fellow publisher, Mark Linz. Then after Mark died much too early, she had to decide whether or not to continue on her own. Ten years later we know the answer, and the beneficiaries of her inspirational work are many.
Twice during this past decade I volunteered to help GINGKO at the annual gathering of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Eight years ago in Boston, I watched a steady stream of scholars and regional specialists pass through the exhibition halls, stopping to peruse GINGKO’s titles. Their interest was polite but cursory: there are many vendors at these conferences, and GINGKO, exhibiting for the first time, was unfamiliar to most of them.
Still, a buzz was generated as they were invited to examine the first in the projected four-volume collection in English of the non-fiction writings of Egyptian novelist and Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz, On Literature and Philosophy. Bringing Mahfouz’s work into English had been a labour of love for Mark Linz who, as publisher at the American University in Cairo Press, had known Mahfouz personally.
Last year I was again on hand at MESA, this time in Montreal. Traffic to the GINGKO booth was strong from the start and it was clear to me that in the seven years since my previous MESA visit, GINGKO had succeeded in establishing itself.
Barabara Schwepcke came from London to introduce GINGKO’s latest books. My favourite was a new, annotated edition of J.W. McPherson’s 1941 love letter to the age-old and vanishing celebrations of saint’s days in Cairo, The Moulids of Egypt, in a superbly edited, scholarly edition by Russell McGuirk. The book is filled with maps of Cairo neighborhoods that have since been paved over. This book is a true find and is an example of GINGKO’s determination to keep historically important texts in print and widely available.
It has been an exciting 10 years watching GINGKO evolve and – beside its other endeavours of an interfaith fellowship for young scholars and a grant programme – become a established publisher in the highly competitive field of Middle Eastern studies where it now stands comfortably with many venerable publishing houses as well as the heavy-weight university presses.
Dr Barbara Schwepcke, CEO
It seems appropriate at this time of the year to remember one of GINGKO’s first interfaith events: a dialogue about Christmas and the Qur’an between the author Karl-Josef Kuschel, Professor Emeritus of Catholic Theology at the University of Tübingen, and Dr Mohammed Gamal Abdelnour, a faculty member of Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
Back then, we had high hopes that after the COVID-restrictions of the summer of 2020 had been lifted, we would be able to invite an audience to St Margaret’s Church in Westminster, to hear of the Angel speak to Zacharia and to Mary in suras 3 and 19 of the Qur’an, and compare how St Luke’s Gospel tells of birth of Jesus in the same story. But then came another lockdown and Canon Anthony Ball, our gracious host, had to lead this memorable dialogue in front of an empty church, and read out the questions sent in by amongst others Professor Mona Siddiqui and Dr Asfa-Wossen Asserate, a prince of the Imperial House of Ethiopia.
The only compensation for the disappointment that this interfaith encounter did not quite happened the way it was planned, was the fact that a generous donor provided funds to record the dialogue, and it thereby went out on Westminster Abbey’s YouTube channel where it has been watched over a thousand times since its release. The audience’s experience was enriched by recitations by GINGKO Interfaith Fellows Dr Abdelnour and Doaa Baumi of excerpts from the two suras in the original Arabic, and by readings of the English translation. Neither the Reverend Dr Ayla Lepine or the Right Reverend Rob Gillion had any problems with the words of the Qur’an they were reading: ‘This is what your Lord has said: it is easy for Me. I created you,’ (Sura 19. 2-17) and ‘“Peace was on me the day I was born, will be on me the day I die and the day I’m raised to life again.” Such was Jesus, son of Mary. This is a statement of the truth of which they are in doubt. It would not befit God to have a child. He is far above that. When He decrees He only says: “Be!” and it is.’ (Sura 19. 30-35).
These suras echoed the words of Luke, Chapter 1, 30-38: ‘But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.’
This memorable moment illustrates our charity’s mission: to improve mutual understanding between the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the West, especially in these times of crisis and conflict when peace on Earth seems so elusive. May I take this opportunity to thank everybody who has supported this work in the past and connect my gratitude with the hope that you will help us in the future in bringing about these transformative interfaith and intercultural encounters.
Our work relies on the generous support of our donors. Any contribution, no matter how small, helps us achieve our aims.
