November 2004

The Archives

• better with tablas

  The Russian Invasion

  11.22.04 | Permalink | Comment?

  Aimee’s book reading kicked off a most excellent weekend. She was great and I am looking forward to reading the short stories. Sunday, we went to see Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists play at a church in the north-western suburbs. This being the second weekend in a row that we were surrounded by hundreds [...]

• optical character recognition

  Drive By Historians

  11.19.04 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  Nothing better to wrap up my busiest week (how in carnation did I post all week?? I really need to take stock of my priorities) than with South Asian historians fighting it out old skool. South Siiiiide!
  Representin’ da West Side is William Dalrymple - a gora sahib who has published some [great] travelogues on India [...]

• homistan

  Grand Gestures

  11.18.04 | Permalink | 6 Comments

  A couple of nights ago, at a gathering of friends, I did what most tree-hugging hippies do: imagine. I said, wouldn’t it have been nice, if after Afghanistan instead of invading Iraq, The Chosen One had made a grand gesture and said, “Here is 5 billion dollars on the table. I will fund a school [...]

• imperial watch

  Scholar Combatant

  11.17.04 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  Historians usually study the past. Or the immediate past. They sometimes peek out of their professional masks to say something about current events (or maintain a blog). Rarely, though, do they make history. Of course, let me be a geek historian here and name check Juvaini, Rashid ud Din Ibn Rushd, Abu Fazl, Herodotus, etc. [...]

• homistan

  Stand and Deliver

  11.16.04 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  JEDDAH, 15 November 2004 â Police in Bahrain arrested a woman on Friday for disguising herself as a man and trying to deliver the Friday sermon at one of the largest mosques in the island state, Asharq Al-Awsat reported yesterday. ìThe 40-year-old woman, who had put on an artificial beard and mustache and was wearing [...]

• univerCity

  Wonder of Wonders

  11.15.04 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  This week will officially be the end of me. Don’t even ask.
  Reading Bahr al-Fava’id [Sea of Virtues] - a 12th century mirror for princes. The history of such texts - written for the education and training of kings and princes - is quite fascinating. Think, for example of Machiavelli’s Prince. We can trace this [...]