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An Austrian Documentary film team is recording the life and journeys of Muhammad Asad, one of the greatest intellectual scholars of Islam.
The Austrian company, Mischief Films is making a documentary on the life of Muhammad Asad. The film, “Muhammad Asad - The Lion’s Journey”, traces his life and journeys and the first scenes were shot recently on the Dammam-Riyadh train and in the surrounding desert. Born as Leopold Weiss in 1900, the son of a rabbi, Asad converted to Islam in 1926. During the filming, the crew visited many tourist spots and historical sites in different areas of the Kingdom. Scenes were shot that reflect the environment this Islamic intellectual chose to live in during his life in the Kingdom.
Austrian director Georg Misch chose the railway station in Riyadh and the desert along the railway from Riyadh to Dammam to shoot some of the scenes. He explained that he wanted to bring to life Asad’s dream that he shared with King Abdul Aziz before he converted to Islam and that, he interpreted later as a sign for his conversion.
The film crew visited many locations and met a number of officials in the Saudi Railways Organization (SRO) to study the route used by the train. The film crew video-taped many scenes in the Dahna desert during three trips.
The SRO offered a great deal of help in facilitating the filming.
Asad was a descendant of a long line of rabbis in Lemberg in the Austro-Hungarian Empire which is now Lvov in Ukraine. After the conversion to Islam, he chose to be named Muhammad Asad is a literal translation of his first name, Leo, which means lion in Greek.
Asad documented his intellectual journey in “The Road to Mecca” which he wrote in 1952 and which has since been translated into many languages.
He worked as a corresp-ondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung. It was during his assignments abroad that he gained insights into Islam.
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