The People’s Mosque in Sanaa; photographed by Turki Al-Mohaiya
There is an extraordinary Facebook album entitled “So you think you ‘ve seen Yemen?” that is well worth visiting. Here are a few of the photographs I like.
Old Sanaa; photographed by Mohammed Alnahdi
Photograph by Ali Abulohoom
The Yemeni Turbi
by Ali Abulohoom, Yemen Times, August 22, 2013
When he was 8 years old, Fuad Al-Qotari found a piece of wood lying around while playing with some neighborhood kids. He later learned that the object was actually a turbi, an instrument that had nearly disappeared from the Yemeni music scene after the 1920s.
Shortly after discovering his new find, Al-Qotari left Hashed district and moved with his family to the country’s capital, Sana’a, exposing him to more music. He began to follow many of the day’s most accomplished musicians and starting saving money for his own instrument.
His first instrument was the oud, and he was fascinated with its construction. “How [this] instrument was made interested me more than playing [it],†Al-Quotari said.
While he played some tunes of other musicians, his curiosity about the oud’s design was too strong. He put his instrument in water for hours and waited until it fell apart so that he could study each individual part. Continue reading Making Music in Yemen
The Qalawun Mosque in Cairo, built in the early 14th century
These color photographs of Cairo from 1910 are truly amazing and have been circulating the Internet. You can see them all here.
Beggars and locals at a sidewalk cafe in the Place De L’Opera in Cairo
How to Invade Iraq: The Mongol Way
By Peter Konieczny
[Paper given at the 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, held at Western Michigan University (2007) and online here.]
When I began researching the Mongol conquest of Baghdad, I came across an account by an Iraqi writer from the early fourteenth-century. With much excitement I found the relevant passage, and began to read it. He summed up the siege and fall of Baghdad with these words: “Even a brief mention of it would be terrible to hear – how much worse its recapitulation in detail! Things happened which I shall not record, imagine them and do not ask for a description!â€
Despite this unpromising beginning, I soon found a wealth of information from contemporary writers and chroniclers, including those who were on the saw the event firsthand. For the last couple of years I have been piecing this story together, not only because the story of the first conquest of Baghdad is an interesting one in its own right, but also because it adds some insights into the present-day situation in Iraq.
Despite it being such an important historical event, the story of Baghdad’s fall has been poorly served by historians. Most Muslim historians deal more with alleged collaboration by Shi’ites with the Mongols against the Sunni Abbasid Caliphate than with anything else, while Western historians have usually focused on the most outrageous stories associated with the invasion, often repeating wild claims that millions of people were killed and that Baghdad was completely destroyed by the Mongols.
The short amount of time here prevents me from saying everything I want to say, so in some sections I am going to be very brief. Hopefully, most of you have got my handout which outlines the events and gives some chronicle excerpts. I also have a couple of overheads to show some maps of Iraq, in case someone is not familiar with the country. Continue reading The Battle for Baghdad
The fertile valley of al-Ahjur
by Abubakr Al-Shamahi, Common Ground News,August 20, 2013
Sana’a, Yemen – This month’s unidentified threat that led to the closure of the United States embassy and several US drone strikes around Yemen has once again shone an international spotlight on the country.
Simply put, as a Yemeni, I fear that all Yemen appears to be to the outside world is a front in the fight with al-Qaeda. But Yemen is more than terrorism and bombs, and many Yemenis are eager to ensure that this does not become the dominant narrative around the world.
Atiaf al-Wazir, a prominent Yemeni activist, voices the frustration of many Yemenis. In a piece for Your Middle East, she talks of a “country with a long history that was once hailed as Arabia Felix, land of generosity, wisdom, coffee, the first sky scrapers, the land with many queens and great architecture,†now overshadowed by “the hysteria of the decade: terrorism.â€
If international observers look closer, they will find a country that has the potential to be far removed from a hotbed of fundamentalism. They will find a country undergoing an interesting political transition, one that is hugely important for the region. Continue reading Beyond al-Qaeda, the real Yemen
