Culture
A Trove of Medieval Arabic Cookbooks
Excess was in vogue at the zenith of the Abbasid Empire. The wedding of its seventh caliph, al-Mamun, cost 50 million dirhams, according to the historian al-Tabari. It required 140 mules to make three trips a day for an entire year to transport wood for the stove. It then took two days and nights to burn through all the wood as the food cooked above it.
How Cyberpunk Lost its Edge — with JD Harlock and Joey Ayoub
For decades, cyberpunk shaped our vision of the future. But more recently, writers and artists have begun to look beyond this dystopian lens and reimagine a radically optimistic future. Joey Ayoub and J.D. Harlock join New Lines magazine’s Lydia Wilson on a journey into the utopian world of solarpunk.
Six Year Prison Term for Singer Saad Lamjarred Divides Public Opinion
But for every activist criticizing and resisting the attempts to whitewash the singer’s past, there were legions of fans, male and female, in addition to Arab entertainers who defended Lamjarred against the charges and continued to support him. This solidarity continues today despite the verdict in France.
Under the Radar, Between the Cracks
We’re still living with the 1970s and the 1980s. It’s just that much of what might still matter to us about that period lives in the rapidly receding memories and archives of the ones who were there: under the radar, between the cracks.
The Best Books We Read This Year
A list of our staff’s favorite books that they read this year
Messi’s Crowning Moment Became a Cultural Lightning Rod
In one fell swoop, a symbol of honor and hospitality was transmogrified into another lightning rod of the culture war surrounding this World Cup. The bisht does not have any of the usual negative connotations surrounding other Arab and Muslim symbols like the hijab. It is only Arab. And that association in and of itself is enough to indicate an inherent flaw and tarnish.
What if We Cancel the Apocalypse?
What happens if we cancel the apocalypse? Enter Solarpunk. A literary and art movement, the genre imagines a future where humans succeed in addressing the challenges of global warming, from reducing global emissions to overcoming capitalist economic growth as the primary motor of human society. Solarpunk is both pragmatic and utopian.