Across the Difficult with Rabia of Basra and Others

new book published by Albion-Andalus, Boulder Colorado 2023 now available on Amazon

Tamam has won book awards!

International Book Award for Eastern Religion and Poetry June: 2024

WORDS OF PRAISE

“Tamam Kahn has offered us a treasure in her new book, Across the Difficult . Across worlds, through her words, one feels the presence of the dear ones, the women of heart and deep soul who have come before us; among whom Tamam now stands. May her words encourage and support many souls in their journeying, as they, likewise, come to meet themselves—“shining right through the difficult.” 

~ Camille Adams Helminski

Author of Women of Sufism and The Way of Mary: Maryam Beloved of God

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I am grateful for this book.  A book of history and bravery, poems that burst through silences of centuries, unafraid of either bliss or agony.  Tamam Kahn has become a branch on the mighty tree of knowledge that is women’s knowledge of the unbreakable connection between flesh and spirit.  She declares, and we all can declare, “We could have world history rewritten. Right now. Why not?”

~ Alicia Ostriker

                         Author of Waiting for the Light and The Volcano and After

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Ms. Kahn’s masterful work evidences the mystery of a communing with blessings that is unimpeded by space, time, culture, and yes, even death itself. These poems come from and remind us of the eternal flow of grace that reaches our hearts with meanings, love, and wonder.

 ~ Jonathan Granoff

                        President of the Global Security Institute

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What a joy to read Tamam Kahn’s Across The Difficult!  Some approach the Sufi tradition like a fossil, an icon of a bygone era, or an artifact we encounter in a museum.  Tamam’s beautiful book is a reminder that the Sufi tradition is a living tradition, a river of transmission, that has come from the Divine Beloved and will sweep us up to carry us back Home.  What a lovely echo of Rabi’a, the giant beacon of love in the Islamic tradition, is Tamam’s intimate book. Highly recommended for all spiritual seekers, and those who have been touched by the Sufi tradition.  

~ Omid Safi 

                     (Founder, Illuminated Courses and Tours), Professor of Asian and Middle  Eastern Studies at Duke University                                           

                     

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Occasionally I offer book reviews when I fee strongly about a new book and want to write about my discoveries. Having a book published is an enormous thing. I appreciate brave ventures of friends and others into exciting new areas – like Roger Housden writing of Iran; or Mary Johnson‘s fierce sharing of her life with Mother Theresa. Then there is Gjertrude Schnackenberg, a woman poet I’d never heard of, whose poetics altered my sense of the rhythms of poetry for many months.

January 7, 2013
The First Muslim
Lesley Hazleton

July 7, 2012
God of Love
Mirabai Starr

Nov 26, 2011
Poetry
Gjertrude Schnackenberg

Sept. 2, 2011
An Unquenchable Thirst: Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life
Mary Johnson

June 3, 2011
Saved by Beauty, Adventures of an American Romantic in Iran
Roger Housden

May 3, 2011
I was a Dancer
Jacques d’Amboise

Nov. 21, 2010
Twigs and Knucklebones
Sarah Lindsay

May 26, 2009
Mary: A Flesh and Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother
Lesley Hazelton

April 9, 2009
Darwin: A Life in Poems
Ruth Padel (Darwin… )

Nov. 13, 2008
Al’-America
Jonathan Curiel

Tamam has a new poetry book coming out soon! ACROSS the DIFFICULT: with Rabia of Basra and Others.