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2 years ago
Colorful Pottery In Djerba Bazaar, Tunisia

Colorful pottery in Djerba bazaar, Tunisia


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1 year ago
By NaturalLight On Flickr.Al Zulfa Mosque In Seeb, Oman.

by NaturalLight on Flickr.Al Zulfa Mosque in Seeb, Oman.


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6 months ago

This is just a mini info dump from an Arab batfamily fan because I find Damian calling his siblings Akhi... adorable (for me as a native speaker watching a writer use Arab words) and, not painful, just... itchy, it URGES me to make a pptx with 300 slides and just? Talk about Arabic?

So... أخي, Akhi, Brother.

It's not incorrect. The word is used in the right place and delivers its intended meaning. Other Arab speakers might not find a problem with it. They'd feel odd like I did but will likely go "eh" and carry on. But I'm an Arabic enthusiast, so...

Like with every language with geographically widespread users, the Arabic tongue kind of- deviated from its roots. The language has naturally branched out into so many dialects I myself can't keep track of.

Arabs from different regions can understand each other. They use the same words but for different purposes and with different pronunciations.

The original root language that holds them all (Quranic Arabic) was simplified into an easier, standard version that is used for formal speeches and as a communication bridge (seeing that you can't, say, translate something to Arabic and say it's for all Arabs if you use a certain dialect. Because an Arabic dialect is an identity at this point, tell me somebody is Syrian, and I know them already)

Now, with the fun part.

See, no Arab calls any sibling of theirs Akhi, I myself would burst laughing if mine did.

Yakhoi يَخوي (nonstandard, everyday Arabic for o, brother) , maybe, if I'm calling a stranger from the streets or an offender I'm going to give a piece of my mind.

Or, hold your breaths, my brother is crying, and the lights are out and I NEED to use the tenderest, most loving, most adoring, most revering tone I could muster so he just knows he is loved and family. Y'know? This specific situation.

And other Arabs might just say, no, I use it when, I use it when, I don't use it, etc.

The point is, nobody will mention Akhi. Because it's a Standard Arabic word, a formal word, and a word used in translated texts and stories when a foreign character we don't consider part of us call their brother. It's weird, it's devoid of emotions, and it's like watching a robot trying to be emotional, but it's a translated text. That's what translated texts use, and it's fine.

It is fine, Standard Arabic has been used for stories so much that nobody questions its influence on a character's characterisation.

I'm not saying Standard Arabic shouldn't be used for story writing, quite the opposite, in fact. I'm just saying that if Arabic is used to represent an Arab, its usage should also consider an everyday Arab experience and manners.

Now to Damian.

Akhi is robotic. Damian's personality does allow him to fall under that category. If for his well refined manners and polite, formal speech.

But even the King wouldn't call his brother Akhi.

He'd call him by his name. For my community (and most, I'm sure) siblings are called by their names, and if we look up historic Quranic (Root) Arabic speakers, they, too, call their siblings by their name. Yes, even the Sultan.

If not by actual name, then either endearing or demeaning names.

Arabs LOVE endearing names, but they're dipped in a pool of honey I don't think Damian would like to dive in.

Talia, on the other hand, would most certainly call Damian Mama. Arab parents call their kids by their own titles. It's the ultimate expression of parental love of all times, in my opinion.

(Don't make Batman call him Papa, though. Pretty sure Damian would malfunction)

-

Well, I said all that, but watching writers include Arabic words in his vocabulary is still sweet. Tt is not even a word, but it's such an Arab thing it's my favourite.

If only I could make subtitles of everyday Arab talk and show you, their speech is heavy with, excuse my English, word softeners, it's like they're talking in a TV drama and not the real world.

Watching Damian adopting it would be interesting :D


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1 year ago
Native Americans March In Solidarity With Palestine
Native Americans March In Solidarity With Palestine

Native Americans march in solidarity with Palestine

Denver, Colorado USA

© Malek Asfeer 


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2 years ago
Colorful Pottery In Djerba Bazaar, Tunisia

Colorful pottery in Djerba bazaar, Tunisia


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2 months ago

Hi 38 fit bull from Cairo Egypt

Am new here

Trying to find some fun

Open for new adventures


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3 years ago
Highly Recommend This Book Of Collected Essays Written By Arab Women Journalists! ✨

Highly recommend this book of collected essays written by Arab women journalists! ✨


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9 years ago
"You Used To Call Me On My Cell Phone" Drizzy #legatusventures #amazingcars247 #elite_supercars #carswithoutlimits

"You used to call me on my cell phone" Drizzy #legatusventures #amazingcars247 #elite_supercars #carswithoutlimits #carlifestyle #carstagram #supercar #lol #lifestyle #blessed #luxury #kualalumpur #malaysia #id #architecture #arab #luxury #house #building #instago #instagood #instalike #picoftheday #pretty #like4like #instagramhub #instadaily #instamood #instagram #insta @carlifestyle @instacar_uae @cwlforums @carswithoutlimits @lambowars @exoticcarsofmalaysia @carswithoutlimits @amazingcars247 @highend_automotives @thecarload @elite_supercars @nissangtrofficial @nissan_gtr_lovers @godzilladdiction @nissan_gtr_addiction


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9 years ago
WESH COUSIN 7
WESH COUSIN 7
WESH COUSIN 7

WESH COUSIN 7

for more hot gay gifs, go to: http://homoeroticgifs.tumblr.com/ reblog, like, & follow! ;)


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1 year ago
Beirut’s Stony Melkite Greek Catholic Cathedral Of Saint Elias.

Beirut’s stony Melkite Greek Catholic cathedral of Saint Elias.

It was initially built towards the end of the 18th century and reconstructed in 1849.

Style: Byzantine, baroque, Islamic

Beirut’s Stony Melkite Greek Catholic Cathedral Of Saint Elias.
Beirut’s Stony Melkite Greek Catholic Cathedral Of Saint Elias.

The only remaining Mameluke building in Beirut, Zawiyat Ibn Arraq.

Once a complete private madrasa, only the zawiya (prayer corner) remains of it.

Today, someone seemed to have made it their own prayer corner and unrolled a prayer rug inside.

Date: 1517- used till Ottoman times

Beautiful to see what we treat as “monuments” being reused as such. Do we glorify what is historical only because we know it’s historical? Do we love these stones only because we know they’re hundreds of years old? What’s so intrinsically beautiful about what’s historical?

Can we even call them monuments? Is it history? Is it present?


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1 year ago

"I am jealous of my senses. The air is the colour of gardenias, your smell on my shoulders like laughter and triumphal arches. I am jealous of the peaceful daggers lying sheathed before you on the table, waiting for a sign from you to kill me. I am jealous of the vase, which has no need of its yellow roses because you give it the full benefit of your deep red lips, hungry for my hunger. I am jealous of the painting staring greedily at you: look longer at me, so I too can have my fill of lakes and cherry orchards. I am envious of the foliage on the rug, straining upwards to see an anklet descending on it from above, and of the anklet when it rests on your knee, making the marble in the room as hot as my fantasies. I am envious of the bookshop that is out of sorts because it doesn't carry an erotic book in praise of two small ivory hills, bared before it to a frenzy of guitars, then hidden by a wave of sighing silk. I am envious of my fingers catching the dialogue of darkness and light as it overflows from your hands, the movement of a spoon in your teacup, the salts stirred up in a body that yearns for a storm to spark the fire of song: gather me up, all of you, and hold me close so I can envy my memories of you in the future. I envy my tongue, which calls your name with as much care as someone carrying four crystal glasses in one hand. I taste the letters of your name one by one, like lyrical fruits. I do not add water to them, so as to preserve the taste of peaches and the thirst of my senses. I envy my imagination embracing you, silencing you, kissing you, caressing you, holding you tight and letting you go, bringing you near and pushing you away, lifting you up and putting you down, making you submit and submitting to you, and doing all the things I never do."

- Mahmoud Darwish, from I Am Jealous of Everything Around You.


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1 year ago
Beirut And I, We Make Love Like War
Beirut And I, We Make Love Like War

Beirut and I, we make love like war


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1 year ago
Tomorrow We Will See
Tomorrow We Will See

Tomorrow We will See


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1 year ago
“إلى من لم ت/ييأس: الحبّ مقاومة”

“إلى من لم ت/ييأس: الحبّ مقاومة”

“To he/she whom did not despair: love is resistance”

October 17 (thawra) graffiti from the streets of Beirut


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1 year ago

Hey! Just happened upon this post and thought the list is really worth expanding as I’ve studied some DH myself!

Check out Around DH in 80 Days where there’s a list of 80 DH projects from around the world that were picked to be featured. You can also find their GoogleDocs spreadsheet for the full list of suggested projects. Their efforts to highlight global DH projects are ongoing, and they’ve created this new website as well!

Would also love to share one of my favorite digital projects called Diarna, a geomuseum documenting and mapping sites of Jewish heritage from all over SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) and Central Asia!

And for those interested in learning about or studying different Arabic dialects, I want to share MADAR corpus which is a database collecting Arabic sentences as spoken from 25 Arab cities. This website details how to use it.

Cheers!

Digital Humanities is a really cool field.

It’s main goals is discovering how to use digital infrastructure and tools to do humanities research (linguistics, history, literature) and how to engage the general public in academic discourse of these topics.

From a historian's perspective this is very exciting as many people think history is boring or worse just names and dates. These tools and visualizations of history bring people to the forefront of history conversations and engage directly.

Not to mention these are very fun to play with. Video games for academic nerds.

Digital Humanities really encourages research and digital projects. It may be slowly becoming a passion of mine.

Here are some of my favorite examples:

Allow me to introduce with the Digital Humanities Forum at Miami University Oxford, Ohio. https://libguides.lib.miamioh.edu/c.php?g=1100099&p=8022726

Other universities host past digital humanities projects on their scholarly commons too:

Berkeley: https://digitalhumanities.berkeley.edu/projects

https://orbis.stanford.edu/ Orbis is the interactive trade map of the Roman empire and is a very detailed digital humanities project. It's one of my personal favorites cause you can "Take walking tour to Constantinople"

Or perhaps you'd like to walk the silk road? http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/index.html.en

Image reading is very interesting too, this tool from google is what I I normal think of https://cloud.google.com/vision. The "Try the API feature" allows you to upload and analyze images to find descriptor terms. (Yes I hate google and AI, but I'm sorta okay with metadata for museum object files being made a bit AI, it's painstaking work and there are too many words and way of describing a freaking spoon.)

http://www.onodo.org/ Onodo allows network mapping and is a cool easy to use program. Check out the Gallery to find public published projects on the Mughals Emperors to Star wars.

Geospatial labs create digital products linked to maps and are also a form of digital humanities and is very applicable for the origins of an artifact and conceptualizing location. http://www.arcgis.com/ is a geospatial platform designed to make Story Maps. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b2c6b618e7b24cebb4039ac59dc52f19

Makerspaces and 3-D modeling are also considered to be digital humanities as there is a digital component. So check out the Makerspace at your local library!

Omeka is a digital platform that can create very basic virtual exhibits and is a pain to work with (the backend is annoying as all get out, too many metadata slots) but kinda cool.

Virtual museum exhibits are also digital humanities!!! (I could easily make a series of posts about that) This runs the gambit from slides shows to video game like exhibits to videos of tours and click through tours. It's kinda a you name it it's a valid exhibit model.

I do know that Miami University of Oxford, Ohio has a virtual museum of the Archeology collection on campus, but I don't have a link. Sorry. The collection is made up of 3-D scans of artifacts and is really cutting-edge. I swear I've seen it and been on the website.

https://dsl.richmond.edu/ Is a really cool set of interactive history stats with maps, and primary resources discussing tough social issues like land acquisition and redlining. Even the history of party lines in the US House of Representatives.

https://voyant-tools.org/ Last but not least Voyant is great for analyzing literature. Or my thesis, just to see what the drinking word actual is. It will pick out most common words, make word clouds etc. So if your slide show on a author out of copyright need pizazz you can upload the NOT copyrighted work for some word clouds. Or see the depth of vocabulary used or check that your resume can be read by an API. Cause that's what this tool is an API. THIS IS NOT an AI generation detector it only counts words

Now most of these projects and tools are for English and are US directed, but I'd love to hear about how the rest of the world is doing Digital Humanities. I'd love to hear about your favorite projects and tools! So maybe add a few to this post?


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1 month ago

oh wow i was literally UNAWARE my results came back 2-3 days ago and I was not aware of it

curiously i decided to go check my dna to see if it came back and it DID i just never knew

coincidentally i mentioned that my great grandfather from my mom's side was a jewish man from germany and apparently they picked it up???? my 4-5-6-7-to 12 generations were jewish. but more jews from poland, belarus, Ukrainian, Lithuania, romania, Moldova and hungary. I KNEW i was jewish but then that would mean I have to convert to be considered jewish. it came from both grandparents both maternal and paternal so thats good

crazy realisation, COINCIDENTALLY on shabbat (on Saterday it was still shabbat) i got my results and seeing the jewish was shocking

and most of my dna came from my dad because he was african. he even had capr Verde walking there like theres so much of it and i just found it all shocking. bro then a huge block of British and irish popped up in there, and its ofc connected since i was BORN in britain. ties w scotland. then I got ALL scandinavian dna fully, danish swedish finnish iceland and norwegian was there on MY TEST. like do u know how INSANE that is?

and European, I got italian, greek, Spanish & Portuguese, Bulgarian, romanian, Moldovan, and a few more.

then I had unassigned. my mom is arab ofc as u guys know but this time more uncovered. she had iraqi Azerbaijani Turkish Iran on her side including Georgia yemen and a strong NORTH AFRICAN jews on the side. she also said yemeni ties and Egyptian.

suprisingly, chinese showed up on my test, viet, thai khmer indonesian and myanmar, malaysian, Japanese & more. then Russian as well.

but then. I got south asian dna from my MOM because where she is from has a strong south asian population, so I got bhutanese (from bhutan), indian, pakistani, sri lankan, Nepali, and 3 more. EVEN KAZAHSTAN LMFAOOOO

and lastly, just thought my mom was just the country she was and my dad was from the caribbean and that was it. no. few more popped up. im apparently barbadian, trinidad, descendant of the cayman islands afro population, AFRO LATINA (afro cuban??? that was shocked me more), and tbh it was fun to know everything but I was just so shocked.

it made me laugh how I stopped checking my dna and then randomly, decided to check it again and it came on jewish passover JUST to be suprised w jewish ancestry from mh ancestors on shabbat (shabbat is Friday evening to saturday evening but its passover so it may be a clash??? so yeah don't attack me.)

im just super happy rn because now I can continue learning about new traditions cultures more food to try more countries to visit, music etc

thank god im multiracial and im thankful EVERYDAY im mixed

Oh Wow I Was Literally UNAWARE My Results Came Back 2-3 Days Ago And I Was Not Aware Of It
Oh Wow I Was Literally UNAWARE My Results Came Back 2-3 Days Ago And I Was Not Aware Of It
Oh Wow I Was Literally UNAWARE My Results Came Back 2-3 Days Ago And I Was Not Aware Of It
Oh Wow I Was Literally UNAWARE My Results Came Back 2-3 Days Ago And I Was Not Aware Of It
Oh Wow I Was Literally UNAWARE My Results Came Back 2-3 Days Ago And I Was Not Aware Of It
Oh Wow I Was Literally UNAWARE My Results Came Back 2-3 Days Ago And I Was Not Aware Of It
Oh Wow I Was Literally UNAWARE My Results Came Back 2-3 Days Ago And I Was Not Aware Of It
Oh Wow I Was Literally UNAWARE My Results Came Back 2-3 Days Ago And I Was Not Aware Of It
Oh Wow I Was Literally UNAWARE My Results Came Back 2-3 Days Ago And I Was Not Aware Of It

life is so good right now

been dying to know the sides of my moms family but I know too much of my moms side and still want to know more, so we agreed to the 23andme kit and now we r waiting for the results which takes 5-6 weeks

but once of my uncles, are updating us about digging our family tree and right now, he is saying there is too many mixes in my dads family

bro said that. MY DADS side. has senegalese. swiss. italian. spanish. sweden.

thats the most recent we found and my dad sadly died so I couldnt get to ask him anything.

but being italian and spanish is shocking because he did make me visit his spanish side. my mom said EVERY time she is in that mfing house she IS ALWAYS seeing a flag that has red white and green. she didnt know what that was. but like. ITS THE WAY I WAS THINKING ABOUT VISITING SWITZERLAND AND WANTED TO LIVE THERE in the FUTURE and then boom, a gene has been found.

i love being mixed


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5 months ago

كيف كانت تجربتكم مع الحب؟

الافضل هو عدم تجربته وابقاء القلب طاهرا الى ان يكون اول من يدخله هو الزوج .. هكذا عاشت

نساء فاضلات على مدى قرون ، كان هنالك قصص ولكن ليست في مجتمع المؤمنات الصادقات

How was your experience with love? The best thing is not to try it and keep the heart pure until the first person to enter it is the husband. This is how virtuous women lived for centuries. There were stories, but not in the community of true believers.


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4 years ago
Masjid Al-Aqsa Tonight 90,000 Perform Tarawih Prayer And Salute The Night Of Qadr In The Blessed Aqsa

Masjid Al-Aqsa Tonight 90,000 perform Tarawih prayer and salute the Night of Qadr in the Blessed Aqsa Mosque. #lailatulqadr #quran #phalastine #alaqsa #ramadan #masjid #haramain #arab #support #instalike #followme https://www.instagram.com/p/COoPZ45MsjA/?igshid=1brjlw1nov65f


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3 months ago

i hate it so much when someone wants to get closer to Allah so they suddenly start to speak more arabic, even change their own dialect to a Saudi/Yemeni dialect... lose personality and literally try to become Arab instead of muslim. You can read Quran in Arabic, recite it, say Dhikr but it stops there. Why are you changing your own way of talking to sound Arab?

It's sad that nowadays we associate being muslim with being Arab, which is totally wrong. They suddenly switch to writing with an Arabic keyboard and shit like that. Just accept the fact that you can be non Arab and muslim, and be proud of your ethnicity and also avoid trying to make yourself a Saudi/Yemeni woman by trying to dress like them or talk like them, you look weird. I swear that aint getting you more Hassanat lol.


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10 months ago

The question I get asked the most when don't know that I'm half south east Asian and american is "Are you Arab?" And "Are you indian?" Even my own brother have said I look Arab. Though some people think he is Hispanic/Mexican. We're just SE Asian and tan.

Even an Arab kid asked if I was Arab and when I said no he kept telling me I was.


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1 week ago

🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know

🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know

📝Abū Maʿshar al-Balkhī-known in Latin as Albumasar

Born in Balkh (modern Afghanistan) in 787, a former hadith scholar who turned to the stars in midlife.

His Kitāb al-Madkhal al-Kabīr (The Great Introduction) became the bedrock of European astrology when translated into Latin.

He systematized planetary natures, zodiac signs, houses, aspects, and the elements.

His “conjunction theory” argued that history moves in great cycles, marked by rare celestial alignments—especially Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions, which he claimed heralded the rise of prophets and empires.

"All change under heaven is written first in the sky."

📜 Al-Kindi – The Philosopher of the Arabs

A polymath in the Abbasid court, blending Greek philosophy with Islamic theology and celestial theory.

In De Radiis Stellarum (On the Stellar Rays), he proposed a theory of stellar influence—not superstition, but a natural force, like light or magnetism.

He laid early groundwork for what would become natural philosophy (proto-science), suggesting stars transmit influence through rays affecting Earthly matter and human temperament.

🌍 Al-Biruni – The Observer from Khwarezm

Though more astronomer than astrologer, he cataloged astrology in full without ever endorsing its claims outright.

His Kitāb al-Tafhīm contains precise definitions of astrological terms, planetary motions, and how horoscopes are calculated.

A master of cultural synthesis: he compared Greek, Indian, and Persian systems, noting their commonalities and contradictions.

🕊 Abū al-Rayḥān al-Sijzī & Al-Zarqālī – Instruments of the Sky

Developed the astrolabe, armillary spheres, and zij tables—astronomical charts used by astrologers to pinpoint planetary positions with astonishing accuracy.

🪐 PART II: What the Arabs Contributed to Astrology

🧠 1. A Philosophical Foundation

Arabs didn’t just practice astrology—they thought about it. They debated whether the stars compel or merely incline.

Al-Farabi and later Avicenna argued the stars could only affect the body, not the soul—a blend of Neoplatonism and Islamic ethics.

The stars whisper, they do not command.

📊 2. Horoscopic Techniques Refined

Arabs inherited and enhanced horoscopic astrology from the Greeks:

Twelve Houses (Bayūt): Places in the chart signifying career, love, health, death.

Lots (Arabic Parts): Points calculated from planetary positions, like the Lot of Fortune and Lot of Spirit, used to fine-tune predictions.

Triplicities and Dignities: Systems to assess planetary strength.

Interrogations (Horary Astrology): Divining answers to specific questions, such as “Will I marry?” or “Will the king win this war?”

⚔️ 3. Political and Historical Astrology

Astrologers like Abū Maʿshar claimed that world events—plagues, conquests, religious shifts—were written in planetary cycles.

Used to time coronations, launch battles, found cities.

Caliphs would sometimes delay decisions until the astrologers said the heavens were "favorable."

🏥 4. Medical Astrology

Used zodiac signs to diagnose and treat illness—Aries rules the head, Pisces the feet, and so on.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) himself, though skeptical of predictive astrology, used astrological charts for medical diagnoses, especially in fevers and crisis periods.

🌠 PART III: Astrology in Islamic Society

🌗 Religious Debate

The Qur’an warns against claims to know the unseen:

"Say: None in the heavens or on the earth knows the unseen except Allah." (Qur’an 27:65)

So Islamic scholars:

Allowed astronomy (for timekeeping, Qibla direction).

Permitted astrology only if used to understand natural rhythms—not fate.

Condemned fortune-telling or attributing independent power to stars.

Yet astrology persisted—not as dogma, but as courtly art, folk belief, and scientific curiosity.

🕯 PART IV: The Transmission to Europe

Translations of Arabic astrological texts into Latin via Toledo and Sicily reawakened Europe’s interest in the stars.

Terms like zenith, nadir, azimuth, almanac, and even algorithm come from Arabic.

Albumasar, Albohali, Messahala—all Arabic astrologers Latinized into the canon of European learning.

The Renaissance astrologers (like Ficino and Agrippa) drank deeply from Arab wells.

🌌 In Closing: A Legacy Like the Night Sky

The Arabs did not merely gaze at the stars—they listened to them, charted them, debated them, and passed on their wisdom in tomes that still echo today. Astrology, as they practiced it, was never just fortune-telling—it was philosophy, poetry, medicine, and mathematics entwined in a cosmic dance.

🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know
🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know
🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know
🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know
🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know
🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know
🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know
🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know
🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know
🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know
🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know

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2 weeks ago

Libya: From Sands of Time to Storms of Change

Beneath the blazing sun of North Africa, bordered by the ancient tides of the Mediterranean and the vast breath of the Sahara, lies a land whose story has danced with gods, kings, conquerors, and revolutionaries. This is Libya: a nation born from the dust of myth, forged in the fires of empire, and reshaped in the hands of her people.

Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change

Origins in the Whispering Sands

Long before cities rose and borders were drawn, the land we now call Libya was home to prehistoric peoples who left their mark in the rock art of the Tadrart Acacus, carvings of giraffes and hunters that tell of a greener Sahara, long vanished. By the Bronze Age, Libya was not one land, but many tribes. Chief among them were the Meshwesh and the Libu—nomadic Berber peoples who grazed their herds along the Nile’s western flanks. Egyptian scribes would scrawl their names in hieroglyphs, sometimes as foes, other times as mercenaries or neighbors. Though they lacked pyramids or written chronicles of their own, the Libyans lived rich oral traditions, passed from elder to youth beside desert fires. Their tongues were early Berber, ancestors to the Amazigh languages spoken to this day.

Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change

The Libyan Pharaohs of Egypt

In one of history’s great ironies, these wandering tribes—once dismissed as desert raiders—would wear the crowns of Pharaohs. Around 945 BCE, a chieftain of the Meshwesh named Shoshenq I seized power in a divided Egypt. He founded the 22nd Dynasty, becoming the first Libyan Pharaoh. He was no usurper in chains, but a ruler accepted by Egypt’s priests and people, a man who walked the sacred halls of Karnak and marched his armies as far as Jerusalem. For over two centuries, Libyan dynasties ruled parts of Egypt. They wove themselves into Egyptian culture, marrying daughters into temple lineages and honoring the gods of old, while maintaining their tribal roots in the Delta’s tangled marshes.

Libyans from the Tomb of Seti I

Under Greek, Roman, and Islamic Rule

Time, ever the patient sculptor, wore down Libya’s independent spirit. By the time of Herodotus in the 5th century BCE, Libya had become a vague term for "all lands west of Egypt." The Greeks founded Cyrene in eastern Libya, a shining jewel of Hellenistic culture. Later came the Romans, who tamed the coast and named it Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. Great cities bloomed, like Leptis Magna, where Emperor Septimius Severus—a Libyan by birth—would rise to rule the Roman world. With the coming of Islam in the 7th century CE, Libya joined the rising tide of Arab civilization. Arabic took root, and Berber tribes embraced the faith, blending it with ancient customs in a uniquely North African tapestry.

Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change

From Ottoman Sands to Italian Chains

From the 16th to 19th centuries, Libya was ruled by the Ottomans, often in name more than presence. Local rulers like the Karamanlis in Tripoli built their own dynasties, their corsairs feared across the Mediterranean. But in 1911, the old world shifted once more—Italy invaded, snatching Libya from Ottoman control. The Libyans resisted fiercely under leaders like Omar Mukhtar, the "Lion of the Desert," whose guerilla war against Mussolini’s fascists became legend. Though captured and executed in 1931, Mukhtar’s spirit ignited a flame that would not die.

Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change

A Brief Bloom: The Kingdom of Libya

After World War II, Libya was stitched together from three provinces and granted independence in 1951 under King Idris I. For the first time in centuries, Libya was sovereign. But beneath the crown, discontent stirred. Oil wealth enriched a few, while many remained poor. In 1969, a young officer named Muammar Gaddafi led a bloodless coup, ending the monarchy and beginning one of the most controversial reigns in modern Arab history.

Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change

Gaddafi's Rule and the Gathering Storm

For 42 years, Gaddafi ruled with a blend of charisma, brutality, and eccentric philosophy. He styled himself as the "Brother Leader", preached his Green Book, and funded revolutions abroad. At times a pariah, at times an ally, he kept Libya's oil flowing and dissent smothered. But the winds of change were rising. When the Arab Spring swept across the region in 2011, Libyans—long repressed—rose in revolt. The uprising turned into a brutal civil war, drawing NATO intervention. In October 2011, Gaddafi was captured and killed. His fall was cheered, but peace did not follow.

Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change
Libya: From Sands Of Time To Storms Of Change

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7 months ago

Orientalist Paintings

Orientalist Paintings

Jean-Léon Gérôme - The Carpet Merchant 

Orientalist Paintings

Jean Leon Gerome - Pelt Merchant of Cairo

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Frederick Arthur Bridgman - An Afternoon in Algiers

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Osman Hamdi Bey - Islam Priest Reading Qura'an

Orientalist Paintings

John Frederick Lewis - The Midday Meal, Cairo

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Ludwig Deutsch - The Tribute

Orientalist Paintings

Frederick Arthur Bridgman - The Messenger, 1879

Orientalist Paintings

Jean-Léon Gérôme - The Harem in the Kiosk, 1870

Orientalist Paintings

Frederick Arthur Bridgman - In The Souk, Tunis (1874)

Orientalist Paintings

Jean-Léon Gérôme - Prayer in the Mosque

Orientalist Paintings

John Frederick Lewis - The Kibab Shop

Orientalist Paintings

(The Reception) by John Frederick Lewis

Orientalist Paintings

Frederick Arthur Bridgman - Return from the Festival, Algiers

Orientalist Paintings

Gustav Bauernfeind - Forecourt of the Ummayad Mosque

Orientalist Paintings

Ludwig Deutsch - At Prayer (1923)

Orientalist Paintings

Frederick Arthur Bridgman - Young Woman On A Terrace

Orientalist Paintings

John Frederick Lewis - The Harem 1841

Orientalist Paintings

Ludwig Deutsch - The Qanun Player

Orientalist Paintings

Rudolf Ernst - The Carpet Seller

Orientalist Paintings

Martinus Rørbye - outside the Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque

Orientalist Paintings

Léon-Auguste-Adolphe Belly - Pilgrims going to Mecca

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Amedeo Simonetti - The Rug Merchant

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Eugène Fromentin - Windstorm

Orientalist Paintings

Jean Leon Gerome - The Whirling Dervish

Orientalist Paintings

Giulio Rosati - The Dance

Orientalist Paintings

Jean Discart - The Pottery Studio Tangiers

Orientalist Paintings

Osman Hamdi Bey - Young Woman Reading


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