All posts by tabsir

Philby of Arabia

Saudi Arabia, Travel

by Robin Bidwell

Philby’s grave in Beirut bears the inscription ‘Greatest of Arabian explorers’ and, in very many ways, this claim by his son is justified. None of the writers that we have discussed saw so much of the Peninsula, visited as he did practically every corner of it nor traversed it so many times in so many different ways. None of them spent more than twenty months in Arabia: Philby was there for most of forty years.

Harry St John Bridger Philby (generally called Jack or Shaikh Abdullah) was born in Ceylon in 1885 and used cheerfully to suggest that he was not really himself but a local baby mistakenly picked up by a careless nurse. After a very successful career at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, he joined the Indian Civil Service and arrived in Bombay in December 1908. When, some two years later, he married, his best man was his cousin, the future Field-Marshal Montgomery. Philby acquired the reputation of being a difficult colleague—indeed he claimed to have been the first Socialist in the Service—but he made his mark as an exceptional linguist and a first-class administrator. Continue reading Philby of Arabia →

Dropping a Word Bomb

Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, Terrorism Issue

[The following is an editorial in the Centre Daily News, about a visit to Penn State by the Islamo-Fascist Awareness Weekers, brought to my attention by Jonathan Brockupp in the Department of History and Religious Studies.]

As the world, the country and even formerly placid Happy Valley desperately need unity and understanding, rock star Rick Santorum brought his Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week tour to Penn State this week, spreading his divisive “us vs. them,” “Christians vs. pagans” message.

“Thank youuuuuuuuuuu, State College. You’re a great audience. Here’s one you may have heard before. …” Continue reading Dropping a Word Bomb →

The Common Core of Christianity, Judaism and Islam

Ethics, Islam and Christianity, Terrorism Issue

By John Renard, for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Online, 10/23/2007

Something remarkable in Muslim-Christian relations happened this month, yet few Americans are aware of it.

More than 130 Muslim religious scholars from more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia and North America sent an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI and to some two dozen other leaders of Orthodox and Protestant churches. Overwhelmingly conciliatory and non-polemical, the document (available at www.acommonword.com) lays out evidence from the Bible and Quran that all three Abrahamic faiths share a common focus on the “two great commandments”: love of God and love of one’s neighbor as oneself. Continue reading The Common Core of Christianity, Judaism and Islam →

Exiting Through the ‘Alley Gate’

Film and Video, Islamic Rituals, Saudi Arabia, Syria, YouTube Watch

[Note: Numerous excerpts of this popular Syrian Ramadan serial can be found on Youtube, starting with episode 1. The following is a commentary in Asharq Alawsat.]

by Mshari Al-Zaydi, Asharq Alawsat, Saturday 20 October 2007

I will admit to watching the Bab al Hara (Alley Gate) series with the same fervor normally reserved for football finals. Moving from one café to another on Jeddah’s al Tahlia Street, I watched this session’s last episode. The young crowd present, dressed in t-shirts and baggy jeans, burst into a warm round of applause at the end of the show – which is quite a rare reaction among Saudi viewers.

This second-part sequel to the Syrian television series is, in fact, an undeniable phenomenon; some in Saudi even exchanged Eid ul-Fitr felicitations that were inspired by stories in the series.

But this phenomenon has reached farther and wider than just Saudi alone, many viewers in various Arab states; even Arabs living abroad, regularly tuned in and set their alarm clocks to the show’s airing time.

Perhaps this huge success is what prompted the show’s producers to make a third series for next year. Such was its popularity that even some clerics were involved in this commotion; among them was Sheikh Salah Kuftaro, son of the former late Syrian Grand Mufti Ahmad Kuftaro and the Director-General of the Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro Academy, who publicly acclaimed the show and invited its cast to a Ramadan Iftar held in their honor. Likewise, Kuwaiti Islamist MP Walid al Tabtabai also praised the series. Continue reading Exiting Through the ‘Alley Gate’ →

The Clash of Knuckleheads Theory

CyberOrient, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, Terrorism Issue

by ARSALAN IFTIKHAR
Published in Islamica Magazine, September 2007

For seven of my twenty-nine years, my existence as an American Muslim public diplomat and human rights lawyer has revolved around being an honest public voice to the masses since the tragedy of 9/11. From high-level political delegations to regular TV appearances as the ‘Muslim Guy’ on international media (either condemning terrorism or swashbuckling notorious Islamophobes who demonize Muslims); a simple Google or YouTube search will have my record speak for itself.

I have condemned terrorist knuckleheads like Osama bin Laden & Company. Notwithstanding the categorical prohibition of suicide and civilian attacks in Islam, these murderous knuckleheads have done nothing but add madness to already existing madness in our world. From Bali to Madrid to London, my seething disgust increases exponentially each time their irreligious attacks occur. When a 9-year old child (anywhere in the world) is considered to be a ‘legitimate target’, you know that these maniacs have lost their bloody minds committing ungodly acts of mass murder. Continue reading The Clash of Knuckleheads Theory →

Required Reading

Languages, Literature

by Brian Whitaker

Visit an Arab bookshop and there’s a fair chance you’ll find more than a few copies of Shifra Dafinshi and the tales of Hari Butor. In case you haven’t guessed, I’m talking here about Arabic translations of The Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter.

While titles such as these find a ready market in the Middle East, just as they do elsewhere, people often lament the poor state of home-grown Arabic publishing and the dearth of worthwhile books translated into Arabic from other languages. Continue reading Required Reading →

The Calligraphic Tattoo

Calligraphy, CyberOrient, Languages

Tattoo artists are often skilled calligraphers, but what do you do if you want a tattoo in Arabic script? If you can’t make it to Patterson, New Jersey or some hippy stranded in Casablanca, there is always the Internet. Google to the rescue:

If you are considering having Arabic writing tattooed, then you need the correct translation for the lettering as well as the outline to give to the tattoo artist. We can provide you with this service. We translate using either Syrian Arabic, Israeli Arabic, or Druze Arabic.

Ordering a translation from us is simple:

1. Go to the translation-page and make payment.

2. Include the word or phrase that you want translated

3. Within a few hours-days, we will email the translated phrase or word back to you. Your translation comes in the form of a picture (jpeg, jpg) which you can print out on your printer and take to your tattoo artist.

For Arabic you have to double your pain: the needle and pulling out your credit card to have an expert spell out “Ummi” or “Qalbi.” Just don’t let them sell you any “khara.”

By the way, when I tried the “contact” click, I found the following message:

This website is for sale.
Please send your purchase offer to:
mail at jandrewsmedia.com

The law of supply and demand strikes again. Ma’a laysh.

Right along with the Bible”: Innocents Abroad

Books You Should Read, Humor and Satire, Journalism and Media, Travel


[Mark Twain, left; early cover of ‘Innocents Abroad’, center; Hilton Obenzinger, right]

by Hilton Obenzinger, Stanford University

Innocents Abroad’s manufacture of “Mark Twain” as the surrogate for the reader’s “own eyes” was immensely popular. The travel book, whose sales reached 100,000 even before the second anniversary of its publication, launched, even more than his celebrated jumping frog, Mark Twain’s national career. “Popular as are Mark Twain’s books at home,” an unidentified correspondent for the Hartford Courant reported in 1872, Innocents Abroad is “still more so abroad.”

“It sells right along just like the Bible,” Mark Twain remarked to William Dean Howells. Indeed, half a million copies had been sold by Twain’s death in 1910, at which time Innocents Abroad, with its central organizing principle of “Mark Twain” as “one of the boys” joined Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as the titles (and two other boys) most commonly worked into political cartoons memorializing the author in the press. Today Innocents Abroad, still a pleasure to read despite the complications and vexations of history, remains durable, continuing to be hailed as “the most popular book of foreign travel ever written by any American.” Continue reading Right along with the Bible”: Innocents Abroad →