Tower of Babel, Saudi Style
the official website is https://www.neom.com/en-us Long before Abraham/Ibrahim left Ur of the Chaldees for the promised land and became the ancestral icon of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, there…
Tag: Film and Video
Yemen Film 1973
This exquisite film was produced in 1973 and filmed in 1972, thus representing Yemen half a century ago. It is now available on Youtube. The filmmakers were Karen…
Lebanese Music at Baalbek
This is a beautifully filmed and played Youtube video of Lebanese music performed in the ruins of a temple in Lebanon.
Do Queer Muslims Need Saving?
Image by the anonymous artist Queer Habibi Disclaimer: This is a reworked paper, originally written for a course called “Post-Colonial Perspectives on Audiovisual Media” at Stockholm University, i…
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…
Traditional Seafaring in the Gulf
The online event “Under the Sails – Maritime Conversation on Trade and Seafaring. Perspectives from Iran and Kuwait” held on May 26, 2021 is now available to view…
Being Si Al Sayed
Music videos in the Arab world, and not least in Egypt, are at the same time widely viewed, popular and relatively understudied. They can reflect pressing contemporary issues, controversial…
Excavating Egyptology
The New York Review of Books has an interesting review of three recent books on the archaeology and filmic versions of ancient Egypt.
Damascus Heritage
For an impressive website devoted to the heritage of Damascus, check out “Damascus Heritage.” There are several Youtube videos accessible from the website. I especially like the im…
Parading with the Pharaohs
Yesterday there was an extravaganza parade in Cairo parading the embalmed remains of 22 ancient Egyptian pharaohs to their new “eternal” resting place in the National Museum of…
Picturing the “Enemy”
My friend Karim Ben Khelifa, an award-winning photographic journalist who I met over a decade ago, has produced an extraordinary film (“The Enemy”) on his experience as a…
Googling Ibn Majid
One of the most famous Arab navigators is the Omani Ahmad b. Majid, who flourished in the latter half of the 15th century. If you google his name…
Cairo in 1920
This is an interesting Youtube video posted by Mostafa Khalifa. It has the voice of Munira al-Mahdiya with footage taken in Cairo and Alexandria in 1920.
Baba ‘Aris (1950)
Youtube has quite a few old Egyptian films with music, dancing, the colorful Egyptian dialect and some very strange plots. Baba ‘Aris is well worth watching… For details…
Egyptian agriculture in 1920
reaping There is an early 1920 video on Youtube with views of agriculture, bread making, spinning and weaving in Egypt at the time. No details are provided on…
Film on Cairo’s Zabbalin
There is a recent documentary on the Zabbalin garbage collectors of Cairo, produced by RT.
The Archaeology of Star Wars
Heritagedaily.com, November 11, 2013. “These are not the ruins you’re looking for!” In 2012 Italian photographer Rä di Martino spent more than a year wandering the desert towns…