“The Persians ruled for a thousand years…”

Recent Posts

• We’ll always have Sicily: the church of the Martorana in Palermo — the art of our ancestors safe from the plaster, whitewash, eye-gouging — and drapes — of the hysterics and puritans of monotheism… September 21, 2020
• Iason Athanasiadis: from Karatepe in Mytilene September 21, 2020
• Flamenco: sometimes “I can’t get enough” of something because it’s just so awful (even with a goddess like Estrella Morente); the limits of fusion; Andalucía to the Caribbean, ida y vuelta, or allez-retour; Spanish casticismo and crappy Greek reality TV September 20, 2020
• Cavafy: “Painted” September 20, 2020
• Greek philosopher theologian Chrestos Giannaras: “If there were a politician with any vision, he would make Classical Greek part of the elementary school curriculum, like a game, and there would be music… September 19, 2020
• Extensive and moving coverage on Ruth Bader Ginsburg from the Forward: check it out — sadness mixed with joy and pride in the Jewish ethical conscience she represented September 19, 2020
• If you die on Rosh Hashanah September 19, 2020
• “We’re off to see the Wizard…” September 18, 2020
• “Fear is growing among the Christian inhabitants of Iraqi Kurdistan along the border with Turkey…” September 18, 2020
• Poland: on this day in 1939 September 18, 2020
• Happy New Year to everyone September 18, 2020
• “Forgotten Bonds: Albanian armed guards protected medieval Serbian churches & monasteries in Kosovo…” (and a short Ayesha Saddiqi addendum) September 17, 2020
• Jews, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Romania and how “the borders kept changing”. September 17, 2020
• Et tu, Professor Dalrymple? Every time I hear the completely flat, biased, overcompensating, simplistic cliché: “Baghdad, Palermo and Córdoba…” September 15, 2020
• NYTimes: “Navalny, Awake and Alert, Plans to Return to Russia, German Official Says” September 15, 2020
• Balkan Insight: Bones of 54 Political Prisoners Found in Romania’s Gulag September 15, 2020
• From DuvaR.english: “The complete removal of legal defense in Turkey” — Ali Duran Topuz September 15, 2020
• “Erdoğan becomes increasingly similar to Muslim Brotherhood leader Banna” — from Ahval September 14, 2020
• Ayesha Siddiqi: how woke, “inclusion”, grievance narratives eventually come full-circle to exclusion and the breakdown of any kind of empathy or conversation. September 14, 2020
• Good news from Russia/Berlin: Navalny is out of coma and improving. September 14, 2020
• Photo: Athens, c. 1865, colorized, and a Beirut addendum September 14, 2020
• Obama era Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes on US media and how stupid and ignorant their reporters are and how easily manipulated it is by US Gov every day. September 14, 2020
• Ussama Makdisi’s Arab fairytale September 13, 2020
• Photo: C-Town, the Grande Rue, Μεγάλη Οδό — Some of the cleaning up that the AKP has done during the process of turning Pera into a garish, overlit, Gulfie, kerchiefed Disneyland, is not all that bad. September 13, 2020
• Iason Athanasiadis, from Moria, Mytilene September 13, 2020
• Photo: Tokyo — great composition September 13, 2020
• Cyrus, Porus, Darius and Alexandros. September 13, 2020
• :) September 13, 2020
• Раиса Щербакова — Raisa Shcherbakova — Kukushka — this song is so beautiful. September 13, 2020
• Pope Francis: Sex and eating are ‘divine’ pleasures sent by God. September 13, 2020
• Turkey is outgunned in the eastern Mediterranean: I can’t believe that things have gotten to a point where I’m posting charts like this September 13, 2020
• Flamenco: I still can’t get enough of Estrella Morente September 13, 2020
• From: Peter Frankopan@peterfrankopan September 12, 2020
• Editing Ayesha A. Siddiqi — I thought she was just a millenial whiner from Dearborn; turns out she’s kind of a big deal, which is even more disappointing. September 12, 2020
• Photo: satellite pic of Iberia September 12, 2020
• “David and Saul”, Julius Kronberg September 12, 2020
• Not nuts about Kyriako… September 12, 2020
• Bre haydi git… : If I were from Kasımpaşa, I would hate a young, worldly, educated, eloquent, well-dressed, visionary, cute Frenchman too — especially with that tan he was sporting in Corsica. September 12, 2020
• Balkan Insight: “Serbia, Kosovo Must Commit to Credible Missing Persons Investigations” September 11, 2020
• The Conversation: “Iran’s secular shift: new survey reveals huge changes in religious beliefs” September 10, 2020
• Gjeraqina – Γερακίνα – Gerakina – Αυτό το “Hellenic” θα μας φάει. September 7, 2020
• “Constantinople’s Greeks, the deportations of 1964…” p.s. September 7, 2020
• Salonica and Izmir are both giant graveyards for me: I hate them equally. September 7, 2020
• Beirut: this is terrifying September 7, 2020
• Cool photo: Jewish wedding of Avramakis and Annetta Levis in Ioannina (c.1905) September 7, 2020
• Constantinople’s Greeks, the deportations of 1964, the second huge blow after pogrom of 1955, New York Times September 7, 2020
• Greek life in Istanbul: a slideshow September 7, 2020
• Photos: some extra photos of Jiannena synagogue September 7, 2020
• Flamenco: I can’t get enough of this little girl right now… September 7, 2020
• Modern Catholicism’s self-inflicted malaise September 6, 2020
• Photo: Iason Athanasiadis, Patrick Leigh Fermor, the Jews of Jiannena, me and my mother. September 6, 2020
• Erdoğan’s almost ludicrous, repetitive attempts to hurt and insult us September 6, 2020
• “1955: the Second Fall of Constantinople” — a more detailled analysis with extensive footnotes, from Henry Hopwood-Phillips and his blog and twitter thread: Byzantine Ambassador, @byzantinepower September 6, 2020
• Photo: Shiraz rugs September 6, 2020
• Tonight 65 years ago, the beginning of the end of Greek Istanbul September 6, 2020
• Why Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Love Affair with the Ottoman Empire Should Worry The World — Alan Mikhail September 5, 2020
• The duck and okra and Armenian massacre chapter from Loxandra — “shit happens” — my translation September 4, 2020
• The great Greek theater and film star, Elle Lambete, died today 37 years ago — and an aside about Alexandrian Greeks September 3, 2020
• Flamenco: I can’t get enough of this kid right now — “Gitano soy, y no lo niego” — “I’m a gypsy and won’t deny it.” September 1, 2020
• Cardi B takes Paris September 1, 2020
• See, even in the first-grade schoolyard of the world, children can occasionally be induced to behave September 1, 2020
• Photo: Sophia Loren by Ara Güler, Armenian İstanbullu photographer, date unknown September 1, 2020
• Irena Klepfisz: “…today, now, the Palestinians are the Victims of oppression…” September 1, 2020
• New Header Image: Sergei Paradzhanov’s “Color of Pomegranates” August 31, 2020
• The Apse and Gabriel Mosaics of Hagia Sophia August 31, 2020
• Much more effective in the war against Covid than just a flimsy mask August 30, 2020
• Flamenco: I can’t get enough of these guys right now: Pedro el Granaíno y Antonio de Patrocinio | En Clave de Fa | por Bulerías August 27, 2020
• Photo: Sophia Loren on the Acropolis, in crazy heels, 1956 August 24, 2020
• Greece and Turkey: “Apparently cold analysis is forbidden.” August 24, 2020
• Bayern Munich wins Champions League — so what’s with the šahovnica ? August 24, 2020
• Where are like the average, mediocre, CHP, Çiller-type, reliably republican, reliably secular, reliably corrupt but who cares given the alternatives, politicians in Turkey? It’s like the earth opened up and swallowed that entire tradition. August 22, 2020
• “…ours by right of conquest” though it’s 2020. Erdoğan’s combo of Muslim triumphalism and Turanian triumphalism, and a certain kind of Turk’s responsibility August 21, 2020
• Michelle Obama: “…empathy, the ability to walk in somebody else’s shoes.” August 18, 2020
• Cavafy: “…there was always an obstacle there.” August 17, 2020
• Lauryn Hill: “How you gonna win when you ain’t right within?” August 17, 2020
• Are Serbs and Croats the same people? response to a Twitter thread August 16, 2020
• Photo: Prinkipo, 1960 August 16, 2020
• August — and silence everywhere August 15, 2020
• Yes, I’m posting this because he was Christian — Αἰωνία ἡ μνήμη. Anyone got a problem? August 15, 2020
• Battle of Warsaw, 1920, and some other stuff August 15, 2020
• The Greek national anthem INSIDE church August 15, 2020
• Spain: Paquera de Jerez p.s. August 15, 2020
• AOC and her ‘bite me’ smile: “NYPD union endorsed Trump. I’m sure this is part of their neighborhood outreach plan.” August 15, 2020
• Flamenco: Paquera de Jerez August 15, 2020
• Photo: Minsk August 15, 2020
• August 15th August 14, 2020
• Et tu Srbija?! August 14, 2020
• Rama Cannot be Venerated by Those Who Transgress Dharma, Kill Innocents — “There is no difference between those Hindu extremists and the fundamentalist clergy of semitic religions.” August 13, 2020
• Beirut: Listening to Umm Kulthum’s Al Atlal August 12, 2020
• Lebanon and Macron — Hmmm… There’s an idea. August 12, 2020
• Turkey doesn’t suffer from Sèvresphobia — it suffers from Lausannitis August 12, 2020
• Oruç Reis’ father was Albanian and his mother was Greek August 12, 2020
• Dinos Christianopoulos 1931 – 2020, RIP August 12, 2020
• “Understanding-Turks” lesson from 2016 “coup” August 12, 2020
• Krajina ethnic cleansing, the largest in the former Yugoslavia August 4, 2020
• 2016: “so-called coup” — I could have told you this — in FACT was telling you — back as soon as it was happening July 22, 2020
• Ukrainian new anti-Soviet stamps — Lenin July 20, 2020
• BBC: SERBS — gotta love ’em for nutters July 9, 2020
• You used to be able to click on images on WP to enlargen then so readers could enjoy their greater beauty. Does anybody know what happened? June 7, 2020
• Athos June 7, 2020
• New header image June 5, 2020
• Flamenco: I can’t get enough of this woman right now — Estrella Morente June 5, 2020
• I adore this very hot shot of Joseph Fiennes in “Shakespeare in Love” June 4, 2020
• Food for Thought June 4, 2020
• Greek conversations June 1, 2020
• Mohsen Yeganeh — “Behet Ghol Midam” May 24, 2020
• “…an almost lacerating intensity…” — New York bars. May 24, 2020
• Nice to be able to count on some things in life — like Croats reverting to form May 16, 2020
• “Este año no hay corridas” — “There’ll be no bullfighting this year” May 16, 2020
• Barcelona chair: The arrogance of modernism May 16, 2020
• Ramzan Mubarak May 9, 2020
• Andrew Sullivan takes a swipe at Biden’s crusader #metoo-ism under the reign of Obama May 3, 2020
• Massive trade in illegally stolen Greek icons May 1, 2020
• Header image change (above) April 29, 2020
• Declaring the Republic of New York April 26, 2020
• Muslim India journal — from the Wire: “Looking blindly to the increasingly orthodox and puritanical Arab world for our religious traditions has repercussions on much more than just language.” April 25, 2020
• Celia y Fidel p.s. — “Burundanga” April 25, 2020
• Interesting piece (for Spanish-speakers) about how Celia Cruz dissed Castro, and how the petty little bitch (menudo héroe) took his revenge April 25, 2020
• Andrew Sullivan: “We Can’t Go on Like This Much Longer” April 24, 2020
• Best New York accent: “I dunno what caffee is…” April 24, 2020
• Guardian: “We have to wake up: factory farms are breeding grounds for pandemics.” April 21, 2020
• Anti-lockdown protest anthem from Serbia April 21, 2020
• “He’s not here,” my wife said. April 19, 2020
• نوروزتان مبارک March 20, 2020
• A reader from New York writes, on “No hay cama pa’ tanta gente”…. March 17, 2020
• Jadde take on panic: “No hay cama pa’ tanta gente” March 17, 2020
• New homepage pic… March 14, 2020
• The Nation: the brutal Blanche-du-Bois-ation of an innocent, loving and creative woman February 29, 2020
• NYTimes: “As Israel Votes Again (and Again), Arabs See an Opportunity, Arab leaders hope to improve on their strong showing in the last election, when they helped to nearly topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” February 28, 2020
• Serbia… February 27, 2020
• Ottoman History Podcast — GREAT Twitter thread — follow by all means February 27, 2020
• Ooy, manoulam’ February 27, 2020
• A little gift offer from the Jadde to some loyal readers — read the details, please February 27, 2020
• “An ocean of blood churns round me, Alas!” — Mirza Ghalib February 27, 2020
• Addressing surprising Albanian complaints — A.J. from Lushnjë February 27, 2020
• Bloomberg Forced Me From My Teaching Job After He Learned I’d Been a Sex Worker February 27, 2020
• How a Persian Mystic Poet Changed My Life February 27, 2020
• Whitman: Follow Popova – she writes beautiful stuff February 27, 2020
• Τσαχπίν ~ Χάρις Αλεξίου (1976) February 26, 2020
• Best Trump bash I’ve read so far February 26, 2020
• Always rejoice! February 26, 2020
• Wait… Can Serbia take Croatia to some kind of international crime tribunal? The Sava… February 26, 2020
• While I’m on Neo-Greek hypochondriacs February 26, 2020
• I’m really proud that a NYC borough Jew is coming out with these statements February 26, 2020
• Oh God! I can’t believe someone else said this — drafts and the Balkans February 26, 2020
• Fachos – Croatians February 26, 2020
• “Listen: The Sound Of The Hagia Sophia, More Than 500 Years Ago” — beautiful February 26, 2020
• Good… February 25, 2020
• India…wtf? February 25, 2020
• Kostes Palamas: “We are neither Christians nor pagans” February 25, 2020