About Mustafa
Mustafa became a professor at Damascus University researching the precise composition of honey. He left his cousin Nuri in charge of his honeybees when traveling between these two cities in Syria.
According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is believed to be the Seal of the Prophets within Islam. Although spelled differently, Nuri's imaginary 8-year-old adopted child bears this same name.
Who is Mohammed?
is the Arabic name of the prophet and patriarch Abraham and one of Allah's messengers in the Quran. It is a common first name and surname among Muslims and Arab Christians, a cognate of the name Abraham or Avram in Judaism and Christianity.
What is Nuri's Last name? or What is Ibrahim?
It is the main form of Entertaiment for the young twins in the refugee camp in Athens. A is portable computer device that combines communication and computing functions into one unit.
What is a Smart Phone?
Nuri escapes from his home country leaving behind his dead son, his home and everything he knew, including a profession he loved. He found himself in Istanbul working in a facility used to clean the exterior, and in some cases the interior of this mode of transportation.
Named after his daughter, Mustafa's shop sold honey-based cosmetics, luscious sweet-smelling creams and soaps and hair products from their own bees. Part of the same is synonymous with heaven.
What is Aya's Paradise?
The night Nuri and his wife decided to leave Allepo some militia members came to their home and destroyed everything. As Nuri and his wife walked back into their house from their hiding place, Afra "picked up a broken ornament: a crystal bird with 99 names inscribed in gold on an open wing".
What are the 99 names of Allah?
Dahab is a small Egyptian town on the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Formerly a Bedouin fishing village. Dahab is now considered to be one of Egypt's most treasured diving destinations.
Who is Mustafa's wife?
This is an old school favorite, a word game where the goal is simply to find the missing word or words. Be warned, every time you guess a letter wrong you lose a life and this inauspicious character begins to appear, piece by piece. Nuri found his house mates playing this game as he entered the B & B in England one evening.
What is the Hangman?
What is a tailor shop? What is fabric shop?
After some vandals destroyed their beehives, Mustafa took a job at this place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification, removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal.
What is a morgue?
The Qur'an instructs Muslim women and men to dress modestly, and for some, this piece of clothing worn by Muslim girls and women is way to maintain modesty and privacy from unrelated males. Nuri got to remove this from his wife on their wedding night.
What is Hijab?
In our novel, he is the only character without a proper name. Whenever Nuri refers to him - he is identified exclusively by his country origin.
Who is the Moroccan Man?
Is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings. In our novel, the pedophile-pimp played it constantly. He referred to it as the "door to the soul". Nuri called it a Rabab.
What is a Guitar?
Nuri's adopted/imaginary son constantly requested him to get this small piece of shaped metal with incisions cut to fit the wards of a particular tunnel, which is inserted into the tunnel and turned to open or close it.
What is a key?
Mustafa sent his first email to Nuri from this Balkan nation with diverse terrain encompassing Black Sea coastline, a mountainous interior and rivers, including the Danube. A cultural melting pot with Greek, Slavic, Ottoman, and Persian influences, it has a rich heritage of traditional dance, music, costumes, and crafts. At the foot of domed Vitosha mountain is its capital city- Sofia.
What's Bulgaria?
Nuri was so excited about working with the bees that he remembers waking up early before the sun, before this important member of his congregation called out for prayer.
Who is the Muezzin?
In Arabic his name is synonymous with Lion or a "beast that hunts its prey". This is also the mane of Mustafa's beloved son.
What is Firas?
A profession (if you make $$ from it)/hobby (if you are not that good), which has been dominated by Cézanne, Goya and Rembrandt. They have decorated the world with their talent. Even in exile Afra continues to practice.
What is an artist? What is a painter?
In their rush to leave Aleppo, Nuri and Afra only packed one extra pair of clothes for each of them, refilled water bottles and then searched for their passports and cash which they had stashed under this _____ piece of furniture commonly used (in many developing countries) as a poor person's savings account.
What is a mattress? What is a bed?
Mustafa's long journey took him to this historic county in northern England formally known as the County of York. This is also the largest county in the United Kingdom.
What's Yorkshire?
In Islamic terminology, something which is makruh is a disliked or offensive act. In some Islam countries, eating certain animals is considered makruh. Nuri and Afra should not be punished for eating this sea creature because they did so in a very desperate situation.
What is an octopus?
This Motor Corporation is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in a city from which it took its name. This particular brand is the same car brand that drove Nuri and Afra out of Aleppo.
What is Toyota?
This table game is normally played in pairs (two against two) and is played as a series of "ends". In each "end", the objective is for players to attach a domino from their hand to one end of those already played so that the sum of the end tiles is divisible by five or three. Apparently and in spite of being blind - Afra was an excellent player.
What is/are Dominoes?
Nuri proved to be a complicated - multifaceted character however, there is one talent he never professed to have: to sing. Perhaps, this is the reason why he got so upset when the immigration agent asked him to sign this song.