History

By Mohamed Hemish | ( TeleSur | – – March 25 marks the United Nations’ “International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery,” which aims to draw attention to the more than 15 million men, women and children who fell victim to the Transatlantic Slave Trade that lasted from the 15th through to the […]

Colonialism

Syrian Refugees: Colonial Legacy & the Responsibility of France & UK

contributors

David Peduto | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian war has resurrected uncomfortable colonial legacies for France and the United Kingdom. For the French and the British, whose policies in post-World War I Syria shaped the country and the region in profound ways, the 500,000 Syrian refugees who landed in the European Union last […]

Archaeology

Anti-Orientalism: Artists 3-D Scan looted Egyptian treasure in German museum

contributors

By Cory Doctorow | ( Boing Boing | – – Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles, an Iraqi/German artistic duo, covertly scanned a famous looted Egyptian treasure, the Bust of Queen Nefertiti, from its contested perch in Berlin’s Neues Museum. The hi-rez 3D file is now free to download and print — the artists have […]

Archaeology

The Deep History of Iran – Arabian Relations (I)

contributors

By Khodadad Rezakhani | ( Mizan ) | – – This essay is an attempt at collecting some thoughts on an important historical event and its related historiographical questions. It is not written with the intention of providing definitive answers to the larger questions surrounding the Arab conquests or the specific case of the fall […]

History

Toward a New Islamic Golden Age through Science

contributors

By Nidhal Guessoum | (Project Syndicate) | – – SHARJAH – The Muslim world’s past contributions to science and education were extraordinary. The Islamic “golden age” – during which scholarship and learning flourished across the Muslim world – lasted many centuries, and included the establishment of the world’s first universities. Today, however, Muslim-majority countries lag […]

Arab World

How a Medieval Muslim thinker invented Sociology

contributors

Stephen Dale/ Joseph Preville/ Julie Harbin | (ISLAMICommentary) | – – Column » ‘By the Book’ with Joseph Preville by JOSEPH RICHARD PREVILLE and JULIE POUCHER HARBIN for ISLAMiCommentary on JANUARY 7, 2016: Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) was a colossus among Muslim scholars. Stephen Frederic Dale gives us a portrait of this extraordinary man in his […]

Featured

Top 5 Things for which We should be grateful to Arabic Writing

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – When a teacher in rural Augusta county, Virginia, decided to expose her students to the Arabic script (a piece of calligraphy writing out the Muslim profession of faith), the backlash from some furious parents so hinted at violence that county schools had to be closed for […]

Archaeology

In Iraq’s Ur, Archeologists Explore History’s Potential to Unite A Divided Land

Juan Cole

By Ahmad Thamer Jihad | (Niqash.org) | – – The best way to combat the damage done to Iraq’s antiquities during the current security crisis is to put more effort into exploring and maintaining the ancient sites that extremists cannot reach, says Abdulamir al-Hamdani , an Iraqi archeologist who was studying at Stony Brook University […]

History

ISIS and the Abuse of History

contributors

By Akil N. Awan and A. Warren Dockter | ( History Today) | – – Volume 66 Issue 1, January 2016 N. B. IC house style is Daesh, but this is a reprint from elsewhere). The defeat of ISIS can only be achieved if we take a long view and question the Jihadists’ simplistic interpretation […]