Young women in Chechnya

A compelling piece from the Big Pictu...

Love scenes from Egyptian cinema, 1920s to 60s

Not exactly puritanical:From Arabist.net with this commentary:A wonderful video in the context of calls for strict censorship in state television and cinema in Egypt. More generally speaking, some of these kissing scenes from the 1940s-60s are more passionate than many scenes of the last 20 yea...

Toronto street food -- is there yet hope?

I have lived in Bonfield longer than any other place, but there is part of my soul that is Torontonian -- the result of having been there as a grad student in my 20s. Those were truly formative years.  The result of this connection is that I see T.O. as a microcosm, so full...

Prof seeks help

Can any reader help me find a good, accessible book that I can assign my students in next fall's iteration of the History of Islamic Civilization?  I am looking for a book that discusses some aspect of Islamic Civilization in the early modern period.  In the past I have used Juan Cole's Napoleon's Egypt and Daniel Goffmann's The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe;...

My fourth-year seminar, 2012-13

As per usual, next fall I will be teaching HIST 4505, "Topics in Medieval History."For the benefit of any of my students who stop by here: the topic will be "Chivalry." It's a big subject, especially if you bring in all the various points of view: what poets, chroniclers, preachers,...

What my students took away from History of Islamic Civilization

I just finished grading the final exams for History of Islamic Civiliztion. Half of the exam grade was based on essays my students wrote on recent events in the Middle East. They could write on Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen or Iran, and were expected to touch on some of...

British eccentricity put to good use

Thanks to the B...

Everything you know is wrong

"Did you know that Indians can travel through time?  That they invented the wire recorder?"Those statements may not be true outside the Firesign Theater universe (where it is possible to run for President on the platform "Not Insane"), but equally unlikely things may be.Matt...

Could be good...

I am actually looking forward to grading the final exams in my History of Islamic Civilization class.The reason?  About a month ago I  told the class that half the final exam would be devoted to an essay on the events of the last year or so.  They would be responsible...

Things you learn while invigilating an exam

Mosul in Iraq is called "Nineveh" in Syriac and Kurdish. Because, you know, it is....

Andrew Taylor's upcoming book: this could be really good

In short order, Boydell and Brewer will be releasing a book by my old friend, Andrew Taylor.  Andy is witty, learned, and an original thinker, and though the book is pricey and not in my usual line of work, I am interested.Here is some of what B&B has to say:Richard Sheale,...

The Kingdom of Lo (Mustang)

A Big Picture feature on an isolated Tibeto-Nepalese community -- just before the highway opens it up.Click for a good lo...

Duncan Black (Atrios) sums up the politics of the last decade

Eschaton: There's rarely a problem that can't be solved by killing people somewhere or impoverishing your granny. Might makes right, bitch...

The Nero and Herod of Bonfield, Ontario

Last weekend the Lions Club of Bonfield held a Medieval Night to raise money to rebuild a footbridge in the park.  My wife and I put on our own medieval duds and went on over.  It was a lot of fun.  The Lions -- an international men's service club --supplied custom-made...

Paddy cultivation, near Kuala Lumpur, March 2012

This reminds me of my father -- a financial executive -- working in the fields in South Korea during rice transplantation time.  It was a big communal event and the only unusual thing about his participation was that he was a 6'4" white American.   From the Big Pictu...

Nowruz in Kabul, a bit late

That's some topography.  Thanks to the Big Picture.  Click to see it b...

To Afghanistan -- March 2012

From the Big Picture:Click to see it b...

AlJazeera's "The Stream" interviews various observers of the Malian scene

Here it ...

Grassroots democracy in Egypt's villages

Why do Egyptian villagers vote for the people they do? How do they choose, in particular, between the Muslim Brotherhood (the oldest and best organized Islamist party) and the Salafists (who have a reputation as fundamentalists and extremists)?Yasmine Moataz Ahmed at the Egypt...

An unusual 13th century deed of arms

Dr. Beachcombing repor...

Pounding iron to "Smooth Criminal" -- life in the present

Occasionally I have mused on " life in the future" AKA "I never expected the future to be like this.". But since the unifying element here is firmly in the past, indeed lapped in nostalgia for iron age technology and classic music videos, that title seems inappropriate. Twice as fast just to keep up, indeed.This is what I am talking about: http://warehamforgeblog.blogspot.ca/2...

An Auckland beach

Image of Auckland by Cuba Gall...

Phil Paine on bad news from Timbuktu

Phil reports:I have a personal interest in Timbuktu (see blog for Mar 7, 2006), so I have followed, as best as I can, the recent events in Mali that affect it.  After the fall of Gaddafi’s regime, several hundred young Tuareg who had been serving as mercenaries in his army have returned to Niger and Mali. Along with them came a large stock of weapons.  This re-ignited...

My review of Bell et al. The Soldier Experience in the Fourteenth Century.

From The Medieval Review:Bell, Adrian R., Anne Curry, Adam Chapman, Andy King, and DavidSimpkin, ed. The Soldier Experience in the Fourteenth Century.Series: Warfare in History. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2011. Pp.232. $90. ISBN: 978-1-84383-674-2. Reviewed by Steven Muhlberger ...

WMD Lies -- for the record

Just in case anyone has any doubts yet, see this article from the Independent. A man whose lies helped to make the case for invading Iraq – starting a nine-year war costing more than 100,000 lives and hundreds of billions of pounds – will come clean in his first British television interview tomorrow."Curveball", the Iraqi defector who fabricated claims about Iraq's weapons...

An Irishman can't help himself -- scorn for Game of Thrones

John Doyle in the Globe and Mail:A second reason is an aversion to medieval-fantasy material that is ludicrously inauthentic when compared with real history and genuine mythology and legend. I’ve no problem with the Arthurian legends because they arise from a bona fide cultural impulse. As an Irishman of a certain age, I could talk to you till your eyes fell out about the magic...