New Studies on History of Yemen
Practising Community in Urban and Rural Eurasia (1000–1600): Comparative and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, eds. Fabian Kümmeler, Judit Majorossy, and Eirik Hovden (Brill Publishing, November 20…
Author: tabsir
The ISIS Flag Hoax
A fascinating commentary by Ahmed El Shamsy on the ISIS flag logo as a hoax from a 19th century forged letter attributed to Muhammad. Check it out here.
H-Egypt Network
There is a new resource regarding the study of Egypt from the start of the Islamic era until the present at H-Egypt.
Yemen Military in the early 19th century
The Library of Congress has an online print of an engraving by Andrea Bernieri. It does not appear to be based on an actual observation by the artist.…
Egypt in 1876
The British diplomat Sir Valentine Chirol (1852-1929) wrote a memoir entitled Fifty Years in a Changing World (New York: Harcourt and Brace, 1928). Among the areas in the…
Al-Jallad on Pre-Islamic Arabian Inscriptions
One of the foremost scholars of the pre-Islamic languages and inscriptions of the Arabian Peninsula is Dr. Ahmad al-Jallad. Here is a Youtube video of a lecture he…
Baghdad in the 19th Century
A richly illustrated book in French from 1887 on Iraq and Persia has an incredible number of illustrations. The book can be downloaded here. I attach some of…
The Baraka of Wheat
This is a great idea. Back to the human roots of agriculture… Read about it here.
Online Books in Halle
At least 337 Books published in Germany on Islam and history of the Middle East are available to read online or download. Most are in German but a…
Six Coffees
Check out this article on six different kinds of coffee in the Middle East on Middle East Eye.
Goethe, as West embraces East
There is an interesting article on Qantara about the significance of the German poet Goethe’s famous West-Östliche Divan, first published 1819. To read an English translation, click here.
Stereoscopic Palestine
To access the article online, click here: https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jq-articles/Time%20Travelers%20in%20Palestine%20-%20Stereoscopic%20Journey.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2…
Google Fail: Making Asses of Himyarites
Google’s attempt to translate can be charming at times and completely wrong as well. Here is how Google translated a post on Facebook about an old article regarding…
A Wolff in Shepherd’s Clothing, #3
Dervish; photograph by Sevryugin Anton (1830 – 1933), the official photographer of the Imperial Court of Iran In the early 19th century there was a florescence of Protestant…
Poetry and the Poet
by George Nicolas El-Hage, Ph.D. Poetry is the language of prophecy spoken by the angels and gods when they populated this earth before the fall. Hence, the poet…
A Wolff in Shepherd’s Clothing, #2
In the early 19th century there was a florescence of Protestant missionary interest in saving Muslim, Jewish and other kinds of Christian souls in the Middle East. This…
Pandemics and Arab Medicine
Here is an interesting article on Qantara.
A Wolff in Shepherd’s Clothing #1
Tabsir Redux… In the early 19th century there was a florescence of Protestant missionary interest in saving Muslim, Jewish and other kinds of Christian souls in the Middle…
Far Horizons, Arduous Journeys, and The Conference of the Birds
“The Concourse of the Birds” (ca. 1600), Metropolitan Museum of Art by Jon W. Anderson Amid the blizzard of punditry and spin-doctoring – especially spin-doctoring from perpetrators…
The Ghost of Amanullah: Afghanistan Redux
The Khyber Pass in 1923 Historians generally assume that “modernity” jump-started in Afghanistan in 1919 with the crowning of Ghazi Amanullah Khan as emir and later as king…
al-Qazwini Manuscript
check it out here…
Recovering Iraqi Heritage
The site DNYUZ has an article on the restoration of stolen artifacts from Iraq being found and returned.
Facebook on King Farouk
There is a Facebook site about Egypt’s last king, Farouk, with pictures from his time in office.
King Tut’s Tomb in Color
Nice site with photos of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922.