Tabsir Redux: If Lincoln had seen Aladdin

Literature, Orientalism


Grover’s Theater, Washington D.C.


[Tabsir Redux is a reposting of earlier posts on the blog, since memories are fickle and some things deserve a second viewing.]

April 14, 1865. For Americans, at least above the Mason Dixon line, this is one of those dates that lives in infamy. John Wilkes Booth, a rather bad actor on the stage, shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre. According to an account by Mrs. Helen Palmes Moss in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine for 1909, Lincoln had the option of going to a rival theatre, the National or Grover’s, that night where a private box had been prepared for him by Mr. C. D. Hess, the co-manager. Apparently Booth had planned to attempt the assassination at whichever theater Lincoln attended. He much preferred Ford’s, since he had no inside help at the National and would have to shoot Lincoln as he stepped out of the carriage. What does this fateful event have to do with the Middle East? If Lincoln had attended the National Theatre and J. Wilkes Booth had missed, the President would have seen a dramatization of the Arabian Nights tale “Aladdin.” Would that Lincoln had been more of an Orientalist… Continue reading Tabsir Redux: If Lincoln had seen Aladdin →

Malika Zarra sings in New York, April 12

Morocco, Music and Dance


La chanteuse marocaine Malika Zarra en concert à l’Appolo Theater de Harlem à New York

from aufait, April 2, 2011

La chanteuse marocaine, Malika Zarra, se produira ce week-end sur la scène du mythique Apollo Theater de Harlem (New York) en hommage posthume à la chanteuse sud-africaine Miriam Makeba, surnommée “Mama Africa” en raison de son combat contre l’apartheid, a-t-on appris vendredi auprès des organisateurs.

Baptisée le “Morocco’s Jazz Jewel” (Joyau Marocain du Jazz) par la chaîne américaine CNN, Malika Zarra donnera, vendredi et samedi soir, deux concerts en hommage à cette grande dame ayant inspiré la scène musicale africaine mais également internationale depuis les années cinquante.

L’auteur-compositeur-interprète marocaine, célèbre pour ses mélodies irrésistibles portées par une voix mezzo-soprano incomparable, sera accompagnée par la chanteuse Lorraine Klaasen, une légende incontestable de la musique sud-africaine, qui, à l’instar de Zarra, voue un grand respect pour “Mama Africa”. Continue reading Malika Zarra sings in New York, April 12 →

Tabsir Redux: Arabia, A Poem from 1815

Orientalism, Poetry


[Tabsir Redux is a reposting of earlier posts on the blog, since memories are fickle and some things deserve a second viewing.]

While reading old books on Arabia in Oxford’s Bodleian Library two summers ago, I came across a rare book indeed. I had the privilege of being the first person ever to read the book, as the folios were still uncut. Considering that the book was published in 1815 and soon thereafter entered the library, it might be readily assumed that it is a book not worth reading. In fact it proved to be a delight and a rarity. The book is called Arabia, A Poem and the author is a man named Johnson Grant. The author was an Oxford chap of St. John’s and is billed as the Domestic Chaplain to the Countess Dowager of Balcarres. No doubt the Countess enjoyed the work, although generations of Oxford students and scholars have somehow passed it by.

It is a rather long poem with extensive commentary. Not surprisingly, the Christian chaplain does not think Islam is the right religion. Continue reading Tabsir Redux: Arabia, A Poem from 1815 →

Central Asian, Early Iranian and Islamic Numismatic Conference

Anthropology/Sociology, Archaeology and Antiquities, Central Asia, Conferences and Talks, India, Iran, Islamic History, Rasulids, Yemen


The Third MECA Seminar on early Iranian and Central Asian Numismatics will be held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, this Sunday, April 10, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm in 106 Breslin Hall. This seminar has been organized by Prof. Aleksandr Naymark and is open to faculty and students of Hofstra University and to the public, free of charge. For more information, check out the conference website.

Program

Session I: Early Islamic Coinage
10:30 am to 12:00 pm

• Konstantin Kravtsov (State Hermitage Museum)
An Obscure Period in the History of Tabaristan (760s AD): Analysis of Written and Numismatic Sources

• Stuart Sears (Wheaton College)
Crisis on an Asian Frontier: The Countermarking of Umayyad Dirahms in Khurasan in the Early Eighth Century CE

• Luke Treadwell (Oxford Univeristy)
Aleksandr Naymark (Hofstra University)
The Very Last Sogdian Coin

Lunch break
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm

Session II: Classical Age of Islamic Coinage
1:00 pm to 2:15 pm

• Michael Bates (American Numismatic Society)
The Second Muhammadiyya, the Mine of Bajunays

• Arianna d’Ottone (La Sapienza University of Rome)
From Russia to Rome: the Stanzani Collection of Islamic Coins

• Aleksandr Naymark (Hofstra University)
Byzantine Anonymous Folles from Qarakhanid lands in the Ferghana and Chu Valleys

Coffee Break
2:15 pm to 2:30 pm

Session III: On the Borders: India and Yemen
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm

• Waleed Ziad (Yale University)
Islamic Coins from a Hindu Temple: Reevaluating Ghaznawid Policy towards Hinduism
through new Numismatic Evidence from the Kashmir Smast in Gandhara

• Daniel Martin Varisco (Hofstra University)
Rasulid Coinage in the Daftar of al-Malik al-Muzaffar: A Preliminary Textual Study

Coffee Break
3:30 pm to 3:45 pm

Session IV: Mongols
3:45 am to 5:00 pm

• Stefan Heidemann (Metropolitan Museum of Art B Bard College Graduate Center)
The Coin Finds from the Heart of the Mongol Empire: Qaraqorum Results of the Bonn University Excavation

• Necla Akkaya (Selcuk Universty)
Coins of the Ilkhanid ruler Abu Sa`id Bahadur Khan

• Olga Kirillova (Orel, Russia), Aleksandr Naymark (Hofstra University)
A Copy of the Seal of the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan II Asen from Samarqand

General Discussion
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Dinner in Brooklyn – 6:45 pm

Café Uzbekistan
2170 86th St. Brooklyn, NY 11214 (in the first block east of the crossing with Bay Parkway; parking on the sides streets)
Tel.: (718) 373-9393

India Orientalized for War, 1

Anthropology/Sociology, India, Orientalism, Photography


“Palkee or palanquin and bearers, Calcutta. Although the palanquin is no longer used for travel in India, in the days before the railroad it was of primary importance. The Kahars and other castes of palanquin bearers are thought to have been the prototypes of the bearers who are assigned to European sojourners in India today.”

During World War II the Smithsonian Institution issued a number of “War Background Studies.” I recently came across #18 in this series entitled Peoples of India by William H. Gilbert, Jr. (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, April 29, 1944). The image on Plate 6, reproduced above, sets the tone for this non-war zone. I was struck by the archaic presentation of images and the overtly Orientalist writing of Gilbert, who is billed as a “Specialist in Sociology and Anthropology, Legislative Reference Series, Library of Congress.” The Introduction (pp. 1-2) sets out in words the image vividly portrayed above. Read this for yourself and consider the various ways in which the author’s rhetoric both romanticizes India and justifies the colonial enterprise. I will make my own comments in a succeeding post, but I welcome comments posted here.

Introduction

Hardly any other country in the world can make a stronger claim on man’s inherent desire for the unique and the romantic than India. Continue reading India Orientalized for War, 1 →

Song, Poetry and Gender in Yemen’s Central Highlands

Anthropology/Sociology, Conferences and Talks, Gender and Sexuality, Yemen


Dr. Najwa Adra, an anthropologist who has worked in Yemen since 1978, will be presenting a talk on “Song, Poetry and Gender in Yemen’s Central Highlands” today (April 7) at Marymount Manhattan College. The talk is from 7:30-9:30 pm in the Regina Peruggi Room of Marymount at 221 East 71st St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in New York. This is a free event but seating is limited, so please RSVP to MilliBurns@gmail.com.

Two Bad Options in Yemen

"Arab Spring", Ali Abdullah Salih, Obama Administration, Photography, Yemen

On April 1, pro-government protesters clung to poles bearing the country’s flag, demonstrating their loyalty to the regime; photograph by Karim Ben Khelifa for Newsweek

by Gregory Johnsen, Waq al-Waq, April 4, 2011

Following weeks of on-again, off-again negotiations, in which Salih appeared to back away from tentative deals to step down, forces loyal to his government opened fire on protesters today in Taizz, killing at least 15 according to al-Jazeera.

Other forces in Hudaydah also cracked down on protesters today, firing live bullets and tear gas and injuring more than 300 according to the breaking news tracker on Mareb Press. (Note: many of these injuries are the result of tear gas.)

There are also early reports of renewed clashes in Sanaa.

All of this comes shortly after the New York Times published a piece today suggesting that the US is ready to abandon President Salih.

The piece is getting a lot of play on al-Jazeera, and on nearly every Yemeni news website.

It is unfortunate that the Obama administration’s policy only began “to shift in the past week.” Salih’s demise has been self-evident for much longer than that, and consistent US refusals to see that and the resulting dithering and calls for negotiations (asking protesters to give up the only leverage they have) has only put U.S. security interests more at risk.

Salih’s last-ditch attempts to hold on to power have resulted in a security breakdown in other parts of the country, as parts of the military defected and others abandoned their posts. This breakdown has opened up a great deal of space for AQAP – anyone think they aren’t taking advantage of the current situation?

I argued nearly a month ago that the US needs to ask more than just: what comes after Salih? Continue reading Two Bad Options in Yemen →