Essays
A Kitchen Drawer’s Viking Hoard
A knickknack from a Scottish family’s kitchen drawer turned out to be a Viking chess piece from the celebrated Lewis hoard and sold at Sotheby’s for almost $1 million — testimony to the power of the mundane to mask the simply unimaginable.
Defining Arabness in Script
When a line makes its way from a 1919 poem by Kahlil Gibran to a 1965 melody sung by Fairuz to a calligraphic piece by the Dubai-based artist Majid al-Yousef, who set the words down in the diwani script that goes back half a millennium — this is "Arabness."
Hamas Attacks on Israel From Lebanon Stoke Fears of a Repeat of History
The Cairo Agreement, signed on this day 54 years ago, serves as a byword for the diplomatic folly that set Lebanon on a path to doom. It is so notorious that when one analyst described a recent proposal as “another Cairo Agreement in the making” their Lebanese audience fully understood the danger.
African Experiences in East Germany Are Erased but Not Forgotten
Africans came to East Germany for education and work under the banner of solidarity, yet the legacies of the East German experiment with anti-racism and anti-imperialism are entangled in the broader German history of race and empire.
A Talk With the Dean of Arab Liberalism
If Saghieh is branded today by fans and detractors alike as the dean, or grand old man, of Arab liberalism, he certainly did not begin his intellectual journey in that vein. It was only after 30 years of espousing every stripe of radicalism that he met with an insurmountable crisis of faith and “recovered,” as he puts it half-jokingly, from the “fever” of political extremism that would otherwise have killed him.
The Missing Politics of Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
The absence of the crucial role of policy and bureaucracy does not ruin “Killers of the Flower Moon.” But the film’s visual and aural seductions left me with the sinking realization that this is a whodunit that never gets around to revealing the actual killers of its title.
The Nexus of Sufi Saints and Politicians in Pakistan
Pirs — custodians of centuries-old shrines of Sufi saints with followers in the millions — participate in Pakistani politics in different ways, either directly as politicians or as spiritual guides and advisers to politicians. They also employ their shrine networks to provide religious legitimacy and consolidate voter blocs for them.