Young women in Chechnya

A compelling piece from the Big Picture.

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 years.

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 of human  possibilities, so often falling short.  Recently the emphasis has been on falling short, as the city seems to have been infected by the world-wide wave of mean, destructive small-mindedness.

Then I read this article on the movement to bring good street food to the city.  A place known for its extraordinary variety of food ought to have a fleet of trucks serving any number of  different styles of fast food, but small-mindedness has made it nearly impossible to run such a business.

Then comes Suresh Doss to remind longer-settled Torontonians of a simple truth:  more variety is good for everybody.  Specifically, good food trucks bring customers to the bricks-and-mortar restaurants they are parked outside.  As Doss works to make possible legal food truck havens, support among established restauranters grows.

I get a small laugh from the fact that Doss is an immigrant and yeah, a computer engineer.

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; both worked reasonably well.  Good as it is, I don't want to use Ross Dunn on Ibn Battuta, I'd rather lecture on him. Davis' recent book on Leo Africanus is probably too literary for my students.  Any suggestions out there?

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, and knights themselves said chivalry was, or should be.

Here's a pre-course reading list for any of you who might be really enthusiastic. It's taken right off the NU library catalogue, and it's just a sample; there is plenty more where that came from. Read one of these, and you have a good head-start; read a second one and you are really off to the races.

CR4509 .B37 1974
Knight and chivalry / Richard Barber.

CR4513 .K34 1996

The book of chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny : text, context, and translation/Richard W. Kaeuper,

CR4513 .K44 1984
Chivalry / Maurice Keen.

CR4519 .K347 2009
Holy warriors : the religious ideology of chivalry/Richard W. Kaeuper

CR4529.E85 K33 1999
Chivalry and violence in medieval Europe / Richard W. Kaeuper

.

CR4529.F8 P3
French chivalry : chivalric ideas and practices in mediaeval France / by Sidney Painter.

CR4553 .H84 2005
Deeds of arms : formal combats in the late fourteenth century / Steven Muhlberger.

DA185 .C64 1996

The knight in medieval England, 1000-1400 / Peter Coss.

DC33.2 .B59 1998
Strong of body, brave and noble : chivalry and society in medieval France / Constance Brittain Bouchard.

DC96.5 .W75 2000
Knights and peasants : the Hundred Years War in the French countryside / Nicholas Wright.

HN11 .D7813 1980

The chivalrous society / Georges Duby ; translated by Cynthia Postan.

Image:  One medieval take on the ideal knight, bearing the symbol of the Holy Trinity.

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 these phenomena: nationalism, sectarianism, Islamism, democracy, secularism, and foreign intervention. Here's what they actually wrote on (in no particular order, my summaries):

           Egypt -- ready for democracy?
           Egypt -- democracy, Islamism, Western concerns
           Tunisia -- instability threatens the revolution
           Iran -- nuclear program and foreign concerns
          Egypt -- significance of the revolution
          Iran -- society on edge, politics divided
          Iran -- if war breaks out
          Egypt -- a corrupt election?
          Egypt -- challenges of democratic transition
          Syria -- why the revolution may not succeed
          Syria -- effects of Syrian crisis
          Egypt -- religion and democracy
          Tunisia -- summary of revolution
          Iran -- the sanction regime
          Iraq -- attacks on Christians
          Iran -- counter-productive Western and Iranian policies
          Turkey -- AKP success
          Tunisia -- summary of revolution
           Iran -- domestic and foreign conflicts
           Iran -- what's at stake in current confrontation

And here's to those students: Well done. You rose to the challenge.

Image: Canadian students, but not actually mine.

British eccentricity put to good use

Thanks to the BBC.