Born to a Jewish family in Kyiv, raised in Baku, and converted to Islam in Berlin, Essad Bey’s (né Lew Nussimbaum) (1905–1942) orientalist writings reached a huge audience in the Weimar Republic. Although his novels and essays depicting life in locales such as Azerbaijan and the Caucasus helped shape notions of a mysterious and romantic East in the German public imagination, his own incredible life may have been the most fantastical story he left us.
Michael Lahr gave a lecture on Essad Bey’s life and times, followed by a dramatic reading of selected works (in German with English subtitles) by the actor Gregorij H. von Leitis.
