Why Did a Rabbi's Grandson Walk Away from Europe? | The Road to Mecca (2)

At the well of a small oasis, the village women watered a stranger's camels, and he saw in them a story four thousand years old. At night he went down into the well, and the sound of the water carried him back to his childhood in Lemberg: the seashell in his father's house, the rabbi grandfather who played chess with an Orthodox priest, Vienna adrift after the war, and hungry Berlin. 00:00 "You are still a stranger" 00:11 The oasis well 00:32 Four thousand years 01:10 The seashell 01:42 Why am I still a stranger? 02:28 The laughter 02:58 Lemberg 03:31 The rabbi and the priest 03:58 The boy among the texts 04:20 Vienna, then hungry Berlin 05:04 Closing Join the conversation in the comments. Answer yes or no: 1. Was Muhammad Asad's paternal grandfather a rabbi? 2. Did his father fulfil his dream of studying physics? 3. Did Asad begin his journalism as a senior correspondent for a newspaper? Source: Muhammad Asad, The Road to Mecca (1954), Chapter Two, "Beginning of the Road." On his life: Martin Kramer, "The Road from Mecca: Muhammad Asad (born Leopold Weiss)" (1999); Günther Windhager, Leopold Weiss alias Muhammad Asad (2002). Honesty note: everything in the narration is from Asad's own account; the interview with Mrs Gorky rests on his word alone. "Perhaps it was his first lesson that people who differ can talk" and "living history walking on the sand" are our reading, not his words. Image credits: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (no known restrictions on publication): American Colony / Matson Collection (Wadi Feiran and the oases of Sinai, women carrying jars, coffee pots); Lemberg (Bain News Service); Medina, 1916 (B. Moritz); Berlin, 1920 (Keystone View Co.); Vienna and Prague, 1920–1922 (American National Red Cross); Austrian soldiers, 1914 (Bain News Service). The Nafud and the well of Hayzan (1914): Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University. Modern photos of the Hail region: Rabah Al Shammary / Unsplash. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Open Access, CC0): Gustave Courbet, Anthonie Waterloo. Narration: the English narration uses an AI voice built, with his consent, from the channel presenter's own recordings. Animated scenes and sound effects are our own design. The Arabic edition of this series is on our Arabic channel, Insan al-Ma'rifa. #MuhammadAsad #TheRoadToMecca #TheKnowledgeSeeker — The Knowledge Seeker: stories of the minds and hearts that shaped human cultures. We came together to know one another and to talk, not to fight.