Culture

By Andre Spicer | – The future isn’t what it used to be, at least according to the Canadian science fiction novelist William Gibson. In a interview with the BBC, Gibson said people seemed to be losing interest in the future. “All through the 20th century we constantly saw the 21st century invoked,” he said. […]

Archaeology

Trump’s Twitter threat to destroy Iran’s cultural sites was a historic mistake

The Conversation

By David J. Wasserstein | – Be careful of the company you keep. In a threat delivered over Twitter on Jan. 4, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he is prepared to “HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD” culturally important targets in Iran should the country retaliate for the American killing of its top general. […]

Omar Khayyam

How to Write Rubaiyat

Juan Cole

Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was a worldwide publishing phenomenon from about 1880 until the 1970s, and is still beloved by many readers. Rubaiyat is actually a plural, meaning “quatrains.” The singular would be ruba’i, with a long a and “a” long “i.” The word is from the Arabic root for […]

Omar Khayyam

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam on the New Year

Juan Cole

Trans. Edward FitzGerald (1859) | – IV Now the New Year reviving old Desires, The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires, Where the White Hand Of Moses on the Bough Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires. VII Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling: The Bird […]

Donald Trump

Did Plato’s Republic warn Democracies about Trump 2,394 Years Ago?

The Conversation

By Matthew Sharpe | – Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato, the old saying goes. And The Republic (c. 375 BCE), featuring Plato’s teacher Socrates in dialogue with several friends, is unquestionably central to Plato’s thought. There are few subjects that Plato’s masterpiece does not touch or play on: political theory, education, […]

African-Americans

How Turkish Muslims at Atlantic Records Marketed Motown, Jazz, Black Music to America

Shalom Goldman

(Special to Informed Comment) – To those outside of the music business the title, “The House that Ahmet Built” might sound like the name of a Turkish folktale for children. But for those in the know, the ‘house’ was Atlantic Records and ‘Ahmet’ was Ahmet Ertegun, the great record company’s co-founder. In 1947 along with […]

Human Rights

Saudi Arabia’s Strategy to ‘Sportswash’ Abuses

Human Rights Watch

By Minky Worden | Director of Global Initiatives | – (

Islam

Jazz Legend Talib Dawud: Be-Bop and Islam’s “Elevation of the Mind”

Shalom Goldman

(Informed Comment) – Jazz Trumpeter Talib Dawud, whose given name was Alfonso Nelson Rainey, was one of the early American jazz converts to Ahmadiyya Islam. In the mid-twentieth century over a hundred other jazz musicians would follow in Dawud’s path. The background to these many conversions was articulated forcefully and dramatically by John Coltrane’s first […]

Culture

The Rats of Oran: The Far Right’s War on Culture

John Feffer

By John Feffer | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – The far right is on a roll. Just a few years ago, liberals and conservatives would have considered its recent political victories a nightmare scenario. Right-wing extremists have won elections in the United States, Brazil, Hungary, India, and Poland. They pushed through the Brexit referendum in the […]