Eyes Wide Shut

Iraq War, Islam: Introduction

Eyes wide shut in the Islamic world

by Tarek Fatah, Globe and Mail, Toronto

THE CRISIS IN ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION by Ali A. Allawi. Yale University Press, 320 pages, $33.50

LOST IN THE SACRED: Why the Muslim World Stood Still by Dan Diner. Princeton University press, 214 pages, $35.95

The Muslim world seems to be caught up in a crisis that shows no end in sight. If there is a single image that reflects this ongoing catastrophe, it is captured in the haunting eyes of a dying Neda Soltani, the 24-year-old woman shot dead on the streets of Tehran.

Since Bernard Lewis’s tome What Went Wrong, much has been written on this subject. Now, two books shed new light on the fall and decline of Muslim civilization. Both authors, Ali Allawi, an Iraqi politician-academic who teaches in the U.S., and Dan Diner, a Jewish professor of modern history in Germany, not only study the decline, but also look into the reasons why attempts to resuscitate the Ummah have failed. Continue reading Eyes Wide Shut →

Flipping through Late 19th Century Yemen

Travel, Yemen

My fascination with flipbooks continues. For an interesting read about Yemen just over a century ago, check out the flipbook version of Walter Harris’s travel account. This has a number of illustrations, as illustrated above.

Among his exploits, Harris obtained an interview with the Sultan of Lahj at the time. Here is his description of the trial of smoking a hubble bubble:

The hubble-bubble was a sore trial. I was gradually, under the guidance of Said, learning to inhale it; but to have constantly to fill my lungs with the strong smoke was by no means a pleasant task to a novice like myself. Continue reading Flipping through Late 19th Century Yemen →

Welcome to Ungodly America

Apocalypse Watch, Election 2008


Just before the election last November there was an attempt by the extreme religious right to literally do a Jeremiah on candidate Barack Obama. One of the more bemusing commentaries, still prominently posted on the web on an apocalyptic website, is by a Protestant prophet whose visions from God have all come true, as he believes. Thus, either God’s message got garbled in the prophet Steve’s ears or we are living under the most ungodly president ever, in which case the rapture is only a nanosecond away (which may be the real reason Sarah Palin resigned). Take your pick and enjoy (probably not the right word here) the read:

A Prophetic Warning from Pastor Steve Foss

Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008, 12:49 PM

I am writing to you today an urgent message concerning the coming American election. God has released me to share with you a powerful prophecy He gave me eight years ago. I have shared this prophecy in a number of public meetings, but I have never published it for all our friends and partners.

In January of 2000 God gave me an incredible insight into what was about to happen in the coming elections in America over the next decade. I am not using this e-mail to tell you, who are citizens of America, who to vote for. However, you need to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. Never in my 22 years of ministry have I seen such a spirit of delusion released upon our country. Continue reading Welcome to Ungodly America →

The Fortress of Saone and Salah al-Din, 2

Archaeology and Antiquities, Architecture, Islamic History, Syria


Figure 1: Google Earth map of the southern edge of the fortress area, with north to the top of the picture

[Note: This is the second in a series on a visit to the fortress castle known as Qa‘lat Salah-al-Din, near Lattakiya Syria. For the first, click here.]

Before continuing with my recollections of a tour of the castle fortress of Robert of Saone and Salah al-Din, it might be useful to take an aerial view. Thanks to Google Earth, you can get a bird’s eye view of the fortress, indicated in the above photo (Figure 1) only partially, but available with functions here.

In the Google Earth image above, the formal entrance today is through the tower in the bottom center of the picture, with the mosque and madrasa to the north. The mosque and madrasa were reconstructed with support by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in 2000. This involved a careful rebuilding of the minaret, which had partially collapsed (Figure 2).


Figure 2: Reconstructed Ayyubid minaret

Continue reading The Fortress of Saone and Salah al-Din, 2 →

Documenting the Study of Islam

Islam and Christianity, Islam in Europe, Islam: Introduction, Journalism and Media

The Internet has become the ultimate research library, especially for older and rare volumes that one used to have to look at only in rare book collections or major university libraries. I noticed recently that several of the earliest journals devoted to the study of Islam now have their earliest versions available online. The extraordinary site, The Internet Archive, now has the first 11 volumes of Der Islam, the first 6 volumes of Die Welt des Islams, and the first 12 volumes of The Moslem World. This is a great resource for scholars, but also worth a browse, especially if you know some German. There is much of value, historical as well as continuing scientific, in these early volumes.

This Ain’t Your Mama’s Revolution: Or Is It?

Gender and Sexuality, Iran


Melody Moezzi, writer, activist, author and attorney

by Melody Moezzi, NPR, July 10, 2009 ·

It has been reported to death since last month’s Iranian presidential election: Young Iranian women are at the forefront of the opposition movement, maybe even at the forefront of the next revolution. What hasn’t been effectively reported, however, is the fact that this isn’t some new, mysterious phenomenon. As an Iranian woman, I can assure you, we weren’t just drinking tea and doing our makeup in the lead-up to all of this.

Women have been fighting for equal rights in Iran for years. Even during the Islamic revolution, women helped lead the struggle against imperialism, for a free and independent nation. They also made huge strides in improving reproductive rights by getting the government to subsidize birth control (hence the acute drop in birthrates after the revolution), and they began entering the work force and universities in ever-increasing numbers. Continue reading This Ain’t Your Mama’s Revolution: Or Is It? →

Timbukto and Manuscripts too

Archaeology and Antiquities, CyberOrient, Islamic Texts, Mali

The following information comes from a website devoted to the preservation and digitalization of the many Arabic manuscripts archived in Mali. The main website is http://www.timbuktufoundation.org.

The Timbuktu manuscripts are a symbolic representation of the impact of the early schools and universities (XII-XVIth century) that existed in West Africa (Timbuktu-Gao-Djenné-Kano). However, the manuscripts that remain in Timbuktu are only part of the intellectual heritage of the region because other manuscripts can be found throughout West Africa.

Today, this entire African intellectual legacy is on the verge of being lost. The brittle condition of the manuscripts i.e. pages disintegrate easily like ashes. The termites, insects, weather, piracy of the manuscripts, and the selling of these treasures to tourists for food money pose a serious threat to the future of the manuscripts of Timbuktu. Continue reading Timbukto and Manuscripts too →