Have you ever wondered what a Sasanian city sounded like? We can imagine the sounds of the past if we pay close attention to material, historical, & archaeological sources. Check out this new article on the soundscapes of Eranshahr-- & be sure to download the sound file for an immersive experience

We will win because history and the majority of historian are on our side. The Palestinian Historians Group respond to the @historians.org latest veto www.jadaliyya.com/Details/47115

Now, on top of that, Israel is taking steps to stop MSF and other NGOs from working in Gaza entirely, and international supplies and staff have been denied entry. This prevents organizations from providing services and is in breach of Israel's obligations under International Humanitarian Law.

Casualties taken to Istishari Arab Hospital in Ramallah following an Israeli army attack on Birzeit University. 

Please can we stop handwringing about the “end of the rules-based international order”. Its “rules” enshrined US economic and military supremacy. And the exceptions to the “rules” were really the norm — Palestine should teach us that, and the history of US intervention in Latin America

this new year’s eve, as “third world” is wielded by the racist, xenophobic incarceration machine called homeland security, a reminder that self-proclaimed Third Worldism was about imagination, building worlds of flourishing for the most people, & a direct confrontation against authoritarianism

2026 starts with even more despair in Gaza as Israel’s decision to revoke the licenses of 37 indispensable international humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, goes into effect while world watches impotently aje.io/n0z5hc

Thanks to all authors, reviewers, & readers as we close out issue 33! We published 550 pages in 2025: 7 articles; a thematic dossier w/ 4 more articles; a roundtable; an Arabic edition; a pedagogy file; 7 book reviews; & some short communications. Here’s a thread to gather some highlights! 🧵

Includes a roundtable discussing @shannonchakraborty.bsky.social's The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi!

The business meeting marks the official launch of the @alusuralwusta.bsky.social: journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/al.... A huge thanks to @zaydeantrim.bsky.social, @medievalqabq.bsky.social and the editorial board for all of their hard work in bringing this to fruition.

Imperial Islam is Moon-worshiping—but Sun-worshiping too, straining algorithmically for the stars. Symbolized by 'Ali and Jesus, early modern Persianate Selenocentrism and Heliocentrism are Hermetically useful global-comparative categories for decolonizing the historiography of science and empire.

The article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:

New article alert! Join us in exploring a phrase from Ibn Saʿīd al-Maghribī’s 13th-c. geography. He refers to the Damādim of northeast Africa as “Tatars of the Sūdān.” Hannah Barker interrogates the racializing discourses at play in such comparative claims. [image: British Library Or 1524]

While we're on the subject of free speech, note that Israel bombed a newspaper complex in Yemen, killing 31 journalists. The pundits who've spent the last few days commenting on political violence will have nothing to say about the wholesale murder of thirty-one of their colleagues.

‘We took the gloves off’: ex-IDF chief confirms over 200,000 killed in Gaza. Retired general Herzi Halevi says ‘not once’ had legal advice constrained Israel’s military decisions in the strip www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

The article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:

New article alert! The exploits of the ʿudhrī lovers Jamīl and Buthayna are well known, full of potential for romance and scandal and violence. This article asks how such celebrated stories read differently when read with an eye to Buthayna’s experiences instead of Jamīl’s performances

The article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:

New article alert! How can we rethink word stress in Classical Arabic? This article looks to an unexpected source: the traditional recitation of metra in Persian metrics. This evidence clarifies controversial patterning in Classical Arabic, with implications for Proto-Arabic word stress, as well

My latest piece for Prospect- What needs to change for Palestine www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/israel...

Mohsen Mahdawi of White River Junction, Vermont was illegally detained by ICE during what was supposed to be the final step in his citizenship process. Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the US, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention.

The Editors of @alusuralwusta.bsky.social endorse @mesa1966.bsky.social's March 13 Statement on the repression of academic freedom and March 28 Joint Statement regarding Columbia.

Never ever bargain with fascists. That's what Columbia did and all it got them was defunded, and now their students are being unlawfully detained by an extremist Right. Free Mahmoud Khalil. Hands off our students!

UPDATE—Mahmoud's attorney says they do NOT know where he is. They were first told he was sent to an ICE facility in Elizabeth, NJ. But when his 8-month-pregnant wife tried to visit him, she was told he's not there. They've received reports he may be sent as far away as Louisiana.

New article alert! Explore the history of 15th-century Diyarbakır with us today! This new article relies on literary & epigraphic sources to tell a story of Aqquyunlu rulers & their relationship to the famous Armenian bishop, painter, & poet Mkrtičʻ Nałaš [shown here: remains at nearby Ergani]

excited to see Umayyad Armenia in UW!

New article alert! We invite you to explore a text composed in the northern reaches of the Caliphate in 744: the Armenian martyrology of Vahan of Gołtʻn. This article includes a translation and intro that analyzes the text’s construction of the Umayyad world and Armenian experiences within it

And so we begin 2025! Check out our new article abt how Ibn Khaldun uses al-Idrisi's maps!

New article alert! Ibn Khaldūn’s Muqaddima offers the most extended reading of a series of maps known from medieval literature. In this article, Alfred Hiatt parses Ibn Khaldūn’s text alongside manuscripts of al-Idrīsī’s 12th-cent. geography, prompting questions about Ibn Khaldūn’s art of history

Call for proposals for a great Pasiri conference on gender and sexuality in Africa in Kenya, April 24-25. Apply here if your work fits! www.pasiri.org/copy-of-lusa...

We close out the 2024 issue with a thousand and one thanks to our authors, reviewers, & readers! 618 pages of research articles, thought pieces, pedagogy file, conference reports & book reviews. here is a master thread that describes them all! 🧵⬇️ Share & follow because 2025 is going to bring more!

UW pedagogy files focus on primary sources, meant to invite instructors to diversify what we teach in the classroom. always entirely open access, read and share here!

Included in the file are coins that help complicate stories of Empire by showing how students can think with them cross-culturally. Shown here: Queen Tʻamar’s coin (c. 1200 CE) w/ the title Queen of Queens (ملكة الملكات) in Arabic. Others show Byzantine-inspired iconography

Check out Stephen Rapp’s pedagogy file on medieval Georgian coins to use in undergraduate classes! This example combines familiar format: “there is no god but God alone, who has no associate; Muhammad is the messenger of God” in Arabic, w/ Georgian margin “Christ, exalt Bagrat, king of the Apʻxaz”

UW announces the publication of its first-ever roundtable! it showcases a variety of perspectives on the Global Middle Ages—its possibilities, perils, & problems—from fields associated w/ Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies.

Regardless of where you stand on protesters whose speech makes some students uncomfortable, we must recognize this campaign against alleged campus antisemitism "is not instigated by Jewish undergrads who feel unsafe but by powerful orgs, US donors, & the Israeli state." www.aaup.org/article/mode...

Today, I'm leading 20 Members of Congress to demand that the Biden Admin withhold offensive weapons from the Israeli military. U.S. law is clear: if the Netanyahu government does not allow sufficient food & medicine to enter Gaza, then the U.S. cannot send weapons.

This is absolutely stunning. Anyone interested in the #repression of #protest needs to read this. Yes, it’s about Palestine, but in a context that is truly frightening.

Your MEMbership in MEM supports all the great work being done at @alusuralwusta.bsky.social Check out what they've been up to this past year and then become a MEMber. www.middleeastmedievalists.com/membership-f...

Support (awesome!) open-access scholarly publishing! Read, follow, and join @alusuralwusta.bsky.social !

this week we will be posting about each section in the 2024 issue of UW. to start us off: the master list of peer-reviewed research articles! with many thanks to the authors, reviewers, and readers!

New volume of Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists Vol. 32 (2024) journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/al... @alusuralwusta.bsky.social #openaccess @medievalqabq.bsky.social

@alusuralwusta.bsky.social Editors Report: 2024 issue is launched in full. 618 pages including research articles that have come out during the year. journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/al...

more specifics to come, but for now: 618 pages, hot off the press!! check out the new issue of @alusuralwusta.bsky.social I'd go take a nap to recover, but we already have three articles in production and some more in the pipeline. 2025 is going to be fun!

I've only read two of these roundtable contributions so far (it's a Friday afternoon and my first week of freedom, that's already loads) and they are *excellent*. Excited to read the rest as soon as I can manage it. Well worth a look.

Behold, a think-piece! (You should hear that in stentorian a Matt Berry-as-Cravensworth the vampire voice.) Part of a lovely round-table organized by Al-'Usur al-Wusta. I am very gung-ho about global political history and #historysky #medievalsky journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/al...

Alright, I wrote a rant about my feelings about the Global Middle Ages as institutional, historiographical, and moral paradigm. You can read it here. journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/al...