Per our discussion of Champollion and the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone, you can find a good description of the logic and process Champollion employed in getting the job done at the Schiller Institute.
Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
The Rosetta Stone
Monday, September 6th, 2010Mixing of the Sexes in Saudi Arabia
Monday, September 6th, 2010Our discussion in class this morning about the absence of a central religious authority in Islam and the resultant proliferation of fatwas and counter-fatwas comes at a time when such questions have risen again in Saudi Arabia:
The Economist.com, “The Politics of Fatwas: You’re Either With Us or Against Us,” Sep. 3, 2010
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah attracted attention last year by appearing in a photograph with a group of women attending a conference. See: Lara Setrakian, “Saudi King and Crown Prince Photographed With Women,” ABC News.com, May 3, 2010
Syria’s Ramadan Soap Operas Are Challenging Taboos
Thursday, August 26th, 2010Ramadan is a month-long period of fasting in the Muslim world. But, it isn’t by any measure a grim time. When the sun goes down, the feasts begin with an iftar (literally, “breaking the fast”), and the eating and celebrating sometimes goes on deep into the night. Ramadan is traditionally the time when new television shows – especially new soap operas – appear on TV screens.
In Syria this Ramadan, some of the new shows are challenging old taboos in Muslim culture, like homosexuality.
Cairo’s Urban Sprawl Gives Birth to Two New “Megacities”
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010Remembering “Little Syria” in Downtown Manhattan
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010Lost in the furor of the New York City Islamic Center debate is the fact that at one time the area near the proposed center was a thriving Arab neighborhood known as “Little Syria”:
David W. Dunlap, “When An Arab Enclave Thrived Downtown,” New York Times, Aug. 25, 2010
Experiencing Past and Present in the Middle East
Sunday, August 15th, 2010Anthony Shadid (author of a book on the Iraq war used in this course in past years) writes in today’s New York Times about how Middle Easterners experience past and present:
“It is perhaps a cliché, the way the past intersects with the present in the Middle East, though not necessarily untrue.
In the serpentine alleys around the shrine of Kadhimiya in Baghdad, beside the tumult of Al Hussein in Cairo’s venerable old city and along the majesty of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, what has been here is often more palpable than what is here now. For Arabs, the Crusades resonate in the creation of Israel. Wars in Iraq are cast in millennium-old narratives of suffering and martyrdom.
Perspective becomes politics. So does patience.”
Anthony Shadid, “In Iraq, Wester Clocks but Middle Eastern Time,” New York Times, Aug. 15, 2010
Islam’s MTV
Sunday, August 15th, 2010A new media outlet called “4Shbab” (“For Youth”) is attempting to reconcile pop music with Muslim values:
Negar Azimi, “Islam’s Answer to MTV,” New York Times Magazine, Aug. 15, 2010
Where Does Middle Eastern Sectarian Intolerance Come From?
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010Sami Zubaida tells us that in the late Ottoman Empire (19th century), Jews, Christians, Freemasons, and Muslims lived together, with exceptions to be sure,in an atmosphere of harmonious cosmopolitanism. So, what went wrong? Zubaida blames Arab nationalism and a renewed sectarianism that accompanied it.
A Muslim Voice for Reason and Tolerance
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010Egyptian Ismail Serageldin is attracting attention as a voice for reason, pluralism, and tolerance in Islam.
Michael Slackman, “A Voice in Egypt for an Arab Voice of Reason,” New York Times, July 3, 2010
Lebanon fires latest salvo in hummus battle with Israel
Sunday, May 16th, 2010“Hummus is a dip made of chickpeas, olive oil, sesame paste, lemon juice and garlic.” And yet despite this simple description, hummus is also a point of contention amongst Middle Eastern nations, in this case: Israel and Lebanon. Both nations claim that hummus is their national dish, and with this in mind, they have been involved in a “hummus war” of sorts, testing to see who can produce the largest portion of hummus. Until recently, Israel held the record, however, by filling a 10-ton vat with the dip, 300 Lebanese chefs have stolen the claim to fame.
This commonality between Israel and Lebanon, like soccer, is a humanitarian connection that proves that the two nations are not so different after all. This, among other realized similarities, will ultimately prove to be vital to creating peace in the Arab-Israel conflict, giving the involved counties a jumping-off point originating from pre-existing discourse. How do you think events like this can be incorporated into the politics of the region?
