1001 Nights After 9/11

Friday, September 08 2006 | Send to a friend

1001 Nights After 9/11

Egyptian-born illustrator and animator Hani El-Mari saw himself as a bridge between Arab and Western cultures.  He'd been working in the U.S. for 18 years, mostly at Disney.

Then 9/11 happened.  He felt like a failure, that his role as bridge-builder had collapsed.  But the tragedy galvanized his desire to make a lifelong dream of illustrating 1001 Nights into a reality.  So he moved back home to Cairo, and found a publisher.

Now at the age of fifty-five, he is dedicating the rest of his working life to the project - a project he hopes will lead his both Western and Arab readers into a deeper appreciation for what's best in Arab culture.  See some of the illustrations.
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