All posts by dvarisco

One for the record books

Islam: Introduction, Islamic Sciences, Islamic Texts, Orientalism, Scholars


I recently received an interesting email, not the usual spam from the widow of the last military dictator of Nigeria seeking a bank account to deposit here husband’s stolen millions, nor an enlargement claim for a part of my anatomy. No, this was a special announcement from Gerlach Books in Berlin. As you read the announcement, you can imagine my surprise to be on this list with a mere professor’s salary.

Today we would like to draw your attention to the largest scholarly library we have offered as an entity ever.

*** Hans Daiber’s Scholarly Library on Islamic Thought & Philosophy – 12,500 items ***

Each item in this library is listed in the three volume Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy edited by Hans Daiber and published by Brill as part of HdO – Handbuch der Orientalistik.

Hans Daiber’s library includes all known publications in western and non-western languages from the 15th century to the present. The total number of items is approximately 12,500 primary and secondary sources.

Today the library itself is put up for sale.
The total price of the library is 775,000.00 EUR (seven hundred and seventy five thousand Euros) plus shipping.

Apart from the hubris (“all known publications… from the 15th century to the present”), I can only imagine the size in shittim wood cubits of this Noachian bibliographic ark. Continue reading One for the record books →

Ali Abdullah Salih and Yogi Berra

"Arab Spring", Ali Abdullah Salih, Journalism and Media, Yemen


The picture chosen by The Washington Post for its lead article today

The speculation about the health and future of President Ali Abdullah Salih of Yemen is wild today. On Friday he was wounded by a rocket attack on his compound that killed several others. I first heard about this when someone called me and mentioned that in Pakistan they were saying he had been killed in the attack. When he only gave an audio message afterwords, and that with a clearly heavy breathing voice, it was still not clear what his injuries were. Since government sources are certainly not believable and no reporters were on the scene, all kinds of rumors spread easily. Now it is known that Salih with a number of family members and some of the other wounded are in Saudi Arabia for treatment.

So what next? The BBC takes a cautious approach with the headline “Yemenis rejoice as Saleh leaves but fighting continues” while The Washington Post is more optimistic, leading the headlines with “Yemeni crowds cheer as Saleh transfers power,” and stating “The departure of Yemen’s president for Saudi Arabia raises the prospect that a key U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaeda has lost his grip on a nation tumbling into chaos.” Over at Waq al-Waq Gregory Johnsen reflects the hopes and fears of the situation:

“My guess is that his wounds are much more severe than Yemeni officials have let on, as Salih was well aware that leaving Yemen would make it incredibly difficult for him to return. Continue reading Ali Abdullah Salih and Yogi Berra →

How to protest peacefully

"Arab Spring", Ali Abdullah Salih, Yemen, YouTube Watch


Protests in Sanaa on Friday; if only everyone could follow the dove

The past few days has witnessed a turn to violence in the ongoing protests in Yemen. An altercation between President Salih’s forces and the major Hashid tribal family of al-Ahmar left scores dead and threatened to accelerate into a civil war. It appears that Salih would like nothing better as once again he could find an excuse to hold on to power. But as the young Husayn al-Ahmar said yesterday:

صالح قال اليمن ليست مصر ولا ليبياوأناأقول له إن صنعاء ليست طرابلس ومهلة الضمانات انتهت.
“Salih said that Yemen isn’t Egypt nor Libya, but I say to him that Sanaa is not Tripoli and the time for making a decision about guarantees has passed.”


Sadiq al-Ahmar, left; Husayn al-Ahmar, right

Continue reading How to protest peacefully →

Crisis Hopping

"Arab Spring", Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq War, Syria, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


As someone who has a long standing interest in the peoples and cultures of the region geographically maligned as the “Middle East,” I am beyond being overwhelmed by the daily turn of events. To see the streets of Yemen turned into bloody confrontation after three months of amazingly peaceful protests is so sad. I had always wondered if Ali Abdullah Salih was really trying to be a father-of-his-country figure (despite the widespread corruption and nepotism) or if it was mainly his inability to be a brutal dictator in the Ben Ali mode that ruled the day. His recent flirtation with leaving office, only to back down each time, suggests that he has no intention of leaving and is looking for any way to prolong his rule. The Al Qaeda on the doorsteps alibi has not fooled anyone, including the U.S. terrorism money machine. So it seems his latest insane step, right out of a really bad thriller movie, is to foment civil strife. Today’s news about his attempt to alienate the leader of the Hashid confederacy has indeed plunged the capital into street fighting. One thing is clear: Ali Abdullah Salih loves Ali Abdullah Salih and the country he has ruled over for over three decades be damned.

Then there is Syria, where Bashar al-Asad, once thought to be a rather weak version of his towering (at least in all the statues strewn about the former Umayyad enclave) father, has decided to be the old-fashioned Stalinesque strongman. Not content to believe that the mere 96.7% of the votes in his last presidential referendum meant anything other than the normal one-man-rule politics, he is apparently trying to get rid of anyone who opposes him by whatever mean means work. To protest in Syria, as in Libya, means to risk life and limb. Continue reading Crisis Hopping →

Is this the last dance for Ali?

"Arab Spring", Ali Abdullah Salih, Yemen


Reports coming out of Yemen today suggest that Ali Abdullah Salih may finally have no choice but to sign his abdication. Yesterday’s altercation with supporters of Hashid shaykh Sadiq al-Ahmar near his fortified house in Sanaa expanded to the Ministry of Interior. Today it is reported that Sanaa International Airport is closed and the Central Bank of Yemen has been shut down as well. Yemen is currently in the dark, both literally and politically.

Having run his country into a ditch, indeed quite a large wadi, President Salih is desperately trying to go out with some kind of moral victory. He will not let the country succumb to Civil War, like Somalia. He will not let Yemen become a failed state and fall to Al Qaeda. He will stay in the country and join the opposition. The words sound conciliatory enough, but his political kalam machine has been spewing forth similar justifications ever since he took power lo those many years ago. Even the little boy who cried “wolf” in the fabled children’s story only did so three or four times. Continue reading Is this the last dance for Ali? →

dilly dally, ya Ali

"Arab Spring", Ali Abdullah Salih, Bible and Holy Land, Yemen


Rembrandt’s ‘Belshazzar’s Feast’ (1635)

Mene mene tekal upharsin. Some two and a half millennia ago it did not take King Belshazzar of Babylon too long to get this Aramaic message. Here is the gist, as recorded in the biblical book of Daniel (5:25-28):

And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

The ink on this populist uprising, with over 100 days of signs held aloft in Yemeni protests saying “irhal ya Ali”, has long since dried and Ali Abdullah Salih has been dilly dallying all along. The latest deal, brokered by the GCC with the U.S. and E.U. seals of approval, was signed yesterday by the opposition parties and Salih was supposed to sign today. Continue reading dilly dally, ya Ali →

Orientalist Images #1: Berbers of Algeria

Algeria, Gender and Sexuality, Orientalist Images, Photography, Tunisia



[With this post I start a new series dedicated to photographs in an “Orientalist” mode. In addition to Reading Orientalism (which is also the title of my last book), the creation of an imagined Orient is very much a pictorial voyeuristic voyage. In this series I focus on Western images of the Middle East and North Africa, both those that perpetuate stereotypes and those that chip away at the bias. Readers of the blog are welcome to send in images they have found and want to share.]

I start with images from a 1933 edition of Richards Cyclopedia, with 24 volumes published in New York by J. A. Richards, Inc and edited by Ernest Hunter Wright and Mary Heritage Wright. This is an unusual encyclopedia, arranged by topics in a more or less arbitrary order but replete with images. One of the articles is called “The Green Girdle of the Sahara” (vol 18, pp. 4631-4636). The subtitle is: “What Men Live Now along the Northern Strip of Africa, Where the Egyptians Started the Clock of History and Where Grim Carthage Used to Frown across the Sea at Rome?”

The article starts out by describing the Barbary coast and then adds this comment:

Although the Barbary Coast is not an Eastern, or oriental, country, lying as it does due south from Europe, it seems to visitors from Europe and America like a corner of the Orient. It has a religion out of the East, Mohammedanism (mô-hâm’êd-ân-îz’m). Among the farming peoples who make their living from its soil are many restless Jews and fierce Arabs, whose Eastern ways have been taken up by the native peoples. Thus the Berber of this small fertile strip treats his women folk as an oriental might treat them, and he has an oriental’s indifference to dirt. Yet the Berbers are cousins of the northern races, many of them having blue eyes and fair hair.

To be an Oriental outside the literal Orient, to have an indifference to dirt and to be a Mohammedan: such is the fate for the Berber in 1930’s stereotyping. The image above illustrates the sentiment of an Algerian woman who has “much to learn about hygiene.” Given the Islamic duty of ablutions before prayer and the long history of anti-bathing practice in Europe, this is a very narrow put-down indeed.


The picture immediately above shows both the hardship of being female (carrying market items on one’s head) and the beauty of the maid with flowers in her hair. Exotica über alles.

to be continued

Daniel Martin Varisco

To hell with Bin Laden?

Ethics, Islamic Law, Islamic Rituals, Osama Bin Laden


For the past decade it has been “Where the hell is Bin Laden?” Now that he is dead at last, the tabloid mantra is “ROT IN HELL,” at least for the medium of unsubtleness known as the NY Daily News. In less than 24 hours after his James Bond style killing a website appeared on Facebook called Osama Bin Laden is Dead. As can be seen from the screen shot below, the insults of revenge are having their day.


I have no sympathy for Bin Laden, whose obstinate hatred has resulted in an extraordinary waste of life both among Muslims and non-Muslims, but wishing him to hell makes about as much sense as a loony in Florida burning the “Koran.” Continue reading To hell with Bin Laden? →