The relationship between Moroccan sainthood and its monarchical counterpart has

attracted much attention from researchers in anthropology, religious studies or political science. The analysis of this waltz can offer invaluable insights into the dynamics of Moroccan history because the king and the saint are seen as the two most active actors in this history. Yet, the study of the relationship between these two figures has been an essentialized depiction of a hegemonic and a submissive pair. Hence, the work of Princeton's Moroccan anthropologist Abdellah Hammoudi about the master and the disciple deserves a pause in this work to “deconstruct”- in a very healthy way that academic ego feigns to ignore- some of its anti-Foucauldian assumptions.

In this book, I offer an integrated methodology to read the Sufi relationship politically.The dynamics of king/saint relationship in Moroccan culture allows the strategic reinvention of the “sheikh” in order to meet the dynamic requirement of Moroccan history. One can see how the very fashionable Hamza Yusuf switched from attacking- in one of his tapes-the former Moroccan king Hassan II as a mafia mobster, to tilting his head in submission while invited at the king’s palace in the “Hassani lectures. The Sufi attire has become a very fashionable garment in Morocco lately with its accompanying music (the Fes Festival) and its ministers, and a political gaze at this symbolism haunts us to recall its “déjà vu” in Moroccan archives.

The southern Appalachian Mountain Folks in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North East Georgia are a race of people that have migrated from Scottland, Ireland and England and who have their own unique dialect of the English language, customs, and values that have been handed down for centuries from the early pioneers who settled in the mountain valleys. The Mountain Folks have lost much of their values, dialect and ways because of modern communication and people from everywhere moving into the mountains, and the mountain children having to leave the mountains in order to make their living, and most of them never return.

The southern Appalachian Mountain Folks in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North East Georgia are a race of people that have migrated from Scottland, Ireland and England and who have their own unique dialect of the English language, customs, and values that have been handed down for centuries from the early pioneers who settled in the mountain valleys. The Mountain Folks have lost much of their values, dialect and ways because of modern communication and people from everywhere moving into the mountains, and the mountain children having to leave the mountains in order to make their living, and most of them never return.

The relationship between Moroccan sainthood and its monarchical counterpart has

attracted much attention from researchers in anthropology, religious studies or political science. The analysis of this waltz can offer invaluable insights into the dynamics of Moroccan history because the king and the saint are seen as the two most active actors in this history. Yet, the study of the relationship between these two figures has been an essentialized depiction of a hegemonic and a submissive pair. Hence, the work of Princeton's Moroccan anthropologist Abdellah Hammoudi about the master and the disciple deserves a pause in this work to “deconstruct”- in a very healthy way that academic ego feigns to ignore- some of its anti-Foucauldian assumptions.

In this book, I offer an integrated methodology to read the Sufi relationship politically.The dynamics of king/saint relationship in Moroccan culture allows the strategic reinvention of the “sheikh” in order to meet the dynamic requirement of Moroccan history. One can see how the very fashionable Hamza Yusuf switched from attacking- in one of his tapes-the former Moroccan king Hassan II as a mafia mobster, to tilting his head in submission while invited at the king’s palace in the “Hassani lectures. The Sufi attire has become a very fashionable garment in Morocco lately with its accompanying music (the Fes Festival) and its ministers, and a political gaze at this symbolism haunts us to recall its “déjà vu” in Moroccan archives.

“Saul Diskin’s extraordinary memoir is rich with unique and wonderful intimacy—the intimacy of twinship. For me this made that closest of bonds come alive in a way no other book I’ve read has succeeded in doing. Diskin makes one feel like a twin, see the world through a twin’s eyes, suffer with him in a way that is at times almost unbearably close and poignant. One becomes immersed in the life and death struggle. The medical detail is wonderfully well-done, as are all the relationships. The peculiar and overwhelming nature of twinship is brought out in a way that’s both uncannily spirited and wholly down-to-earth; completely unsentimental. The reader participates at every point and on every page in an intimacy that he knows only death can end.”

—JOHN BAYLEY, author of Elegy for Iris

"...you have captured the essence of the twin relationship more eloquently than anyone else I have ever read."

Nancy Segal, author of Entwined Lives, Indivisible by Two and Someone Else's Twin.

“What is it like to lose your mirror-image, your other half, your secret sharer? The End of the Twins is an arresting memoir that evokes the mysteries of twinship and the irrevocability of loss.”

—ERICA JONG, author of Fear of Flying and Becoming Light

“A moving account of a unique bereavement from which we can all learn about love and loss.”

—HAROLD S. KUSHNER, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

“Saul Diskin’s extraordinary memoir is rich with unique and wonderful intimacy—the intimacy of twinship. For me this made that closest of bonds come alive in a way no other book I’ve read has succeeded in doing. Diskin makes one feel like a twin, see the world through a twin’s eyes, suffer with him in a way that is at times almost unbearably close and poignant. One becomes immersed in the life and death struggle. The medical detail is wonderfully well-done, as are all the relationships. The peculiar and overwhelming nature of twinship is brought out in a way that’s both uncannily spirited and wholly down-to-earth; completely unsentimental. The reader participates at every point and on every page in an intimacy that he knows only death can end.”

—JOHN BAYLEY, author of Elegy for Iris

"...you have captured the essence of the twin relationship more eloquently than anyone else I have ever read."

Nancy Segal, author of Entwined Lives, Indivisible by Two and Someone Else's Twin.

“What is it like to lose your mirror-image, your other half, your secret sharer? The End of the Twins is an arresting memoir that evokes the mysteries of twinship and the irrevocability of loss.”

—ERICA JONG, author of Fear of Flying and Becoming Light

“A moving account of a unique bereavement from which we can all learn about love and loss.”

—HAROLD S. KUSHNER, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People