Tabsir

A Rich Look at the Kurds, #2

9 hours 28 min ago

Here we continue the thread on the British diplomat Claudius James Rich, whose travel account of Kurdistan is well worth looking at. Here is his description of a Kurdish house in 1820. ...

Categories: General Blogs

A Rich Look at the Kurds, #1

Thu, 23/05/2013 - 12:11pm

Old travel books never cease to delight me. While century-and-more books used to be available mainly in rare book collections of major libraries, the magic of archive.org brings digital life to ...

Categories: General Blogs

Yemen Chameleon

Wed, 22/05/2013 - 2:09pm

No, this is not about politics, but the real thing. The Yemen chameleon, which is quite colorful, is Chamaeleo calyptratus. Enjoy the pictures. Source (more…)

Categories: General Blogs

The Egyptian Blue Lotus

Tue, 21/05/2013 - 2:51pm

Few names are more revered in the early history of botany than Linnaeus, whose taxonomic system systematized the effective ordering of plants and animals according to sexual reproduction. ...

Categories: General Blogs

Hezbollah and Bashar: Another Unholy Alliance

Mon, 20/05/2013 - 1:41pm

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah; Photograph by Wael Hamzeh/European Pressphoto Agency My friend Omar Safi has created a provocative blog entitled What Would Muhammad do? Today I would like to ...

Categories: General Blogs

Art not for art’s sake

Sun, 19/05/2013 - 2:16pm

Gérôme’s “The Slave Market,” left; response by Iraqi woman artist, right Before Edward Said revitalized the term “Orientalism” in his seminal 1978 book of the same ...

Categories: General Blogs

Postcards from Ghadames, Libya

Sat, 18/05/2013 - 12:59pm

Danza Caratteristica Above and below are postcards of scenes in Ghadames, Libya from the 1950s, when it was still a kingdom. Ingresso alla Citt`a Coperta

Categories: General Blogs

Less than Desirable Review of “Desiring Arabs”

Fri, 17/05/2013 - 1:33pm

Joseph Massad: an Occidentalist’s Other Subjects/Victims by S. Taha, The Arab Leftist Joseph Massad, an associate professor at Columbia University and a now prominent figure in the US ...

Categories: General Blogs

Hope and Fear Documentary

Thu, 16/05/2013 - 1:15pm

Hope and Fear: Egypt on the Tipping Point Kickstart the post-production of this Film! Go Deep: View Director’s Cut Trailer - HOPE & FEAR Long Trailer Get Deeper: HOPE & FEAR ...

Categories: General Blogs

Do We Care?

Wed, 15/05/2013 - 6:02am

Scene after a massacre in a coastal Syrian village on May 4 Do we care? When the news media report yet another attack on civilians in Syria (or Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere outside of Boston ...

Categories: General Blogs

Pew Survey on World’s Muslims

Tue, 14/05/2013 - 12:00pm

The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, April 30, 2013 Executive Summary A new Pew Research Center survey of Muslims around the globe finds ...

Categories: General Blogs

Bedtime for Bibi

Mon, 13/05/2013 - 1:30pm

Austerity and sequestration are the dismal economic buzzwords of the day. While thousands of airline passengers in the United States waited for late flights due to a lack of air traffic ...

Categories: General Blogs

The Killing of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki

Sun, 12/05/2013 - 3:10pm

For a brief introduction to a report on the killing of the 16-year old son of Anwar al-Awlaki, check out this brief Youtube video. Here are the details on the video: Watch the full 50-minute ...

Categories: General Blogs

Drone Policy in Yemen

Sat, 11/05/2013 - 1:26pm

For anyone in the NYC region, I will be giving a talk at the COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SEMINAR on KNOWLEDGE, TECHNOLOGY, and SOCIAL SYSTEMS on Wednesday, May 15, 7 pm (at Columbia University’s Faculty ...

Categories: General Blogs

Bibliography of the Egyptian Uprisings

Fri, 10/05/2013 - 12:21pm

Art from Graffiti Harimi Mark Peterson has just updated his bibliography of the Egyptian Uprisings with over 325 references. For an interesting Guardian article on how several Egyptian artists ...

Categories: General Blogs

Tom Friedman (not Tom Sawyer) Abroad in Yemen

Thu, 09/05/2013 - 2:16pm

Background image is Daniel Beard illustration for the 1899 edition of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer Abroad The well traveled journalist Thomas Friedman has popped up in Yemen, but apparently he ...

Categories: General Blogs

Qat, Cosmopolitanism, and Modernity in Sanaa, Yemen

Wed, 08/05/2013 - 1:54pm

Webshaykh’s Note: An article entitled “Qat, Cosmopolitanism, and Modernity in Sana’a, Yemen” has been written by Irene van Oorschot, and published inArabian Humanities, Vol. 1, ...

Categories: General Blogs

CIA, C.O.D., LOL

Tue, 07/05/2013 - 6:21am

Afghan President Karzai explaining how large a bag he wants his CIA cash delivered in Following the “revelation” that the CIA has been dropping off bags of cash to Afghan’s ...

Categories: General Blogs

Harun’s Harem Prime Time

Mon, 06/05/2013 - 7:41am

From left, the women of Turkey’s Building Bridges: Ebru, Ece, Aysegul (who occasionally joins the four hosts on their show), Aylin, and Ceylan; Courtesy of A9 TV [Webshaykh’s Note: ...

Categories: General Blogs

The Morsi Blues

Sun, 05/05/2013 - 6:04am

Egypt’s Economy, the Muslim Brotherhood & the U.S. by Rachel Ehrenfeld and Ken Jensen, American Center for Democracy, May 2 Under Muslim Brother Morsi’s inept economic team more than 4,500 ...

Categories: General Blogs