I recently became interested in Ottoman literacies (see previous post), and came across another aspect of that history which piqued my interest: the Ottoman board game Şatranc-i Urefa. I finally managed to track down the game to play at home. Şatranc-i Urefa is a game that was played […]
I finally got round to reading Huo Da’s ‘The Jade King’ or, in the original Chinese version ‘Funeral of a Muslim’ (穆斯林的葬礼). A best-selling and award-winning novel in China, and based in part on the author’s own experience, it tells the story of three generations of a Muslim […]
I read two interesting books this Summer: George Makdisi’s Rise of Colleges and W. Montgomery Watt’s Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe. Both books contain authoritative accounts about how the scholastic method of inquiry, and most elements of the academic system (but not its organisational system) in the […]
Ibrar's space 