Review of Ibrahim Mohamed Zein and Ahmed El-Wakil, The Covenants of the Prophet Muḥammad: From Shared Historical Memory to Peaceful Co-Existence (London and New York: Routledge, 2023) academia.edu/143660723/Revi…

“Al-Shar’a… the Story of Father and Son” الشرع.. حكاية الأب والابن “From his village of Jibeen to political asylum in Iraq and then into the corridors of power, Hussein Al-Shar’a recounts the milestones of his life as a witness to corruption, revealing how his son, Ahmad

Should the Holy See of Antioch of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch return from Damascus to the Dayro d-Zafaran Monastery in light of the Islamist regime in Syria? Comment your opinions!

Kurdish warrior and cat, 1870s.

qantara.de/en/article/pub…

Everything you need to know about the causes of the extinction of dinosaurs. Cover of the book "Imam Ali in the Valley of Death", Turkey, 1982

hlp.syria-report.com/hlp/pro-govern…

On the “Druze are settlers” trope Yes—Druze migration into Ḥawrān/Jabal al-Druze surged in the 18th–19th centuries. But so did almost everyone else in Inner Syria. Most nomadic and village communities there were fixed in place or arrived within the last 150–200 years. Outside

Armenian gravestones, Van Museum (one for a Katholikos)

In my latest essay, I explore how young adults are at a big disadvantage financially, hurting birthrates. Haven't young people always had to grind to make it? Yes, but it really is different this time. How bad is it, and what can be done?

Over the last three years, housebuilding in London has collapsed. Molior recorded just 2,158 private starts in the first half of 2025, around 5% of London’s (low) targets, and still falling. What is going on? I have posed this question to numerous specialists, most of whom

My new article for JIQSA (the Journal of IQSA WEB) is now available online: “On the Historicity of ʿUthmān’s Canonization of the Qur’an, Part 1: The State of the Field” It is open access – link below!

I agree with Sharkey's point below: the absence of Peter Brown is really weird for a book on this subject.

Yes, precisely Now add to that, that until 1911 it was a largely Manchu populated city. In fact, I believe that something like 40% of all the Manchus in China lived in the very central Beijing (while, in comparison, only a handful of them ever ventured south of Yangtze)

🇯🇴 Women from the Arab Christian family of Al Tawwal, said to be descended from the Ghassanids, cleaning their home, Madaba, 1882. Note the mosaic on the floor The house was subsequently acquired by the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism and converted into the Madaba

Believe it or not, I had an old school friend on today’s marches in London. He sent me some photos from the crowd. We went to middle school together and grew up on the same Eastern District council estate in Northampton. I asked him why he was there. He gave me two answers:

In case you're in Toronto...

Is Catholicism making a revival in France? Latin masses, baptisms, pilgrimages, Catholicism seems hip again! But behind the vibes, what do the stats and maps show? A 🧵 on the decline and transformation of Catholicism in post-Catholic France

The Wickham Reviews Thought I’d compile all my attempts to get to grips with Chris Wickham’s three great tomes of mediaeval economic history, for posterity. Check them *all* out below!

Interesting Christian funerary inscription written in pre-Islamic Paleo-Arabic from Najran Saudi Arabia On the rock “Thawban {son of} Malik, in the month of burak, year 364” (i.e., February–March 470 CE). (See ALT for more)