Taj el Din Taji Farouki was born on October 19, 1931, in Wadi Hunayn, Palestine. He grew up speaking Arabic on his father’s orange grove with his mother and 11 siblings. Farouki admired his oldest brother, Hikmat, who studied at Harvard Law School and became a successful attorney in Jaffa. Farouki was raised in the Muslim faith, and religion has been an important part of his life from a young age.

In 1948, the war in Palestine required Farouki’s family to move a lot. He lived in Cairo, Egypt, for a few years and attended college there. After finding work for a prominent lawyer in Jerusalem, he continued his education in America in 1952.

While living in Chicago, Farouki met his future wife, Ingrid. The two were married in Ingrid’s hometown of Lake View, Iowa, in 1955. They raised four children together: Kimera, Nadia, Tanya and Karim.

After pressure from two of their children, Farouki and Ingrid moved to Springfield for retirement and to be close to their grandchildren.

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Music is Bach Cello Suite no. 3 by Colin Carr from the Free Music Archive.

Episodes are edited, recorded, mixed, and published by Diana Dudenhoeffer.