One key element of the Islamic intellectual tradition is the commentary. Commentaries on the Qurʼan (tafsīr) began early in Islamic history, but from about the 12th or 13th century, well into the 19th, commentaries on other scholarly texts became extremely common. -jm

1/25 Today, I will continue looking at the lives of Palestinian poets in the context of the intellectual battle over modernizing Arabic poetry after 1948. A marginalized and maligned figure in Arab intellectual history in the Cold War is Tawfiq Sayigh (1923-71) ~AA.

2/25 I am tagging Tawfiq's nephew @SayighYezid, a brilliant political economist and political scientist of the modern and contemporary Middle East. He is the son of Palestinian economist Yusuf Sayigh and Rosemary Sayigh, the British anthropologist ~AA.

3/25 Though elsewhere in my work I closely study Jabra I. Jabra (1920-94) -- Sayigh's lifetime colleague and confidant -- I will cover Jabra, here, in relation to Sayigh for the purposes of brevity and since Jabra has received a fair amount of attention in the historiography ~AA.

4/25 The prose-poem was a form that Sayigh masterfully used to express his feelings of misery and pain. Sayigh led a tortured life that took him from one exile to another until his lonely death in Berkeley in 1971. Mounah Khouri, Arabic professor @NESUCB laid him to rest ~AA.

5/25 During the Nakba, the Sayigh family fled from Tiberias and settled in Ras Beirut, where Sayigh received them and cared for them from his income as a librarian at Beirut’s American Cultural Center and as an anonymous editor of the women's magazine "Ṣawt al-Mar’ah" ~AA.

@ChenHuailun here. I'm adding a supplementary thread before today's scheduled one to expand on the origins and early history of the Church of the East (aka the Nestorian Church) ~ahc #jingjiao 1/

The Church of the East traces its origins to the christological position of the School of Antioch, which held that the human and divine and human essences (ουσία) of Christ were united in a single prosopon (πρόσωπον). ~ahc #jingjiao 2/

This ran against the position of the School of Alexandria, which held that the two essences of Christ were united in a single hypostasis (ὑπόστασις). In general terms, hypostasis is more inherent than prosopon. ~ahc #jingjiao 3/

One implication of the Antiochene rejection of the hypostatic union is that Mary could not accurately be called the Theotokos, or God-bearer. Instead, she is the Christotokos, the Christ-bearer. ~ahc #jingjiao 4/

These Christological debates were further complicated by Syriac terms such as 'kyana' (ܟܝܢܐ), associated with 'ousia' but later translated to 'hypostasis' by Syrian Orthodox; and 'qnoma ' (ܩܢܘܡܐ), sometimes contentiously translated as 'hypostasis' or 'person.' ~ahc #jingjiao 5/

How do you explain the Trinity in Chinese? If you're a Christian in Tang China, there's a few ways!

I'm @ChenHuailun, back for my last #Twittistorian thread, this time on translating the names of God in Chinese Christian documents. ~ahc #jingjiao 1/

There are two main writers/translators credited in the extant documents of the Christian (called 'Jingjiao' 景教 in Chinese) corpus of Tang China: Aluoben and Jingjing. ~ahc #jingjiao /2

Aluoben (阿蘿本) was said to have been the Persian missionary responsible for bringing Christianity to China, arriving in Chang'an in 635 and building a church there with 21 monks. ~ahc #jingjiao /3

'Observing the azure clouds, he [Aluoben] bore the true sacred books; beholding the direction of the winds, he braved difficulties and dangers.' - Xi'an stele ~ahc #jingjiao /4

Let's pause on this name, Aluoben (阿蘿本). Some translate it as 'Olopen.' Is it a Syriac name, perhaps a rendering of Yahballaha or Abraham? Or perhaps a Middle Persian name Anōš-ruwān (meaning immortal soul)? ~ahc #jingjiao /5

Happy Friday! I'm @khowaga, and I'm talking about the social history of medicine and disease in #Egypt. Today's topic is the cholera of 1883. (1/19)

#tweetistorian #twitterstorians #histmed #epitwitter

It goes like this.

According to popular legend, Patient Zero of the 1883 cholera epidemic was a mason in his mid-forties named Ḥassan Nūr-al-Dīn, who lived in the port city of Damietta (34,000 people). (2/19)

Nūr-al-Dīn rarely traveled outside of Damietta, but on the morning of Thursday, June 21, he took the local train to the next major town upriver, Manṣūra (30,000 people) for a weekend trip. The next day, Friday, he began to feel unwell. (3/19)

After a fitful night, he went to the station to return home on Saturday. His condition deteriorated rapidly: on boarding the train he exhibited no symptoms, but by reaching the hamlet of Rās al-Khalīg, about an hour later, he had become violently ill. (4/19)

By the time the train arrived in Damietta, he was so weak that he had to be carried home from the station. He arrived at his house before sunset, died shortly before midnight and was buried promptly the next day, Sunday, June 24. (5/19)

Whenever we discuss about Mahabharata, we discuss same characters again & again. I thought we should discuss about lesser known but significant characters.

My #thread on Shalya, he was Charioteer of Karna & how he played an important role in the duel between Arjun & Karna. 👇🏼

Shalya was King of province called Madra. He was also known as Madra Naresh and he was the brother of Queen Madri, 2nd wife of King Pandu & Maternal Uncle of Nakul & Sahdev.

Pandavas called him Mama. Mama Shalya had pledged his supports to Pandavas, but then comes a twist.

Pandavas had gathered 7 Akshauhini Sena, while Kauravas had 9 Akshauhini Sena

According to epic Mahabarta, one Akshauhini contains four different types of armed forces
 21,870 chariots
 21,870 elephants
 65,616 horses
 109350 infantry

Pandavas knew Shalya has 2 Akshauhini Sena

With Mama Shalya joining Pandavas, things would have been squared at 9 Akshauhini Sena each. But Shakuni tricked him.

While Shalya was travelling towards Kurukshetra, Shakuni arranged excellent hospitality for him along the road for him & his Sena. Shalya was highly impressed.

Shalya was under the impression that this has been arranged by Yudhistir. After Madri went Sati, Nakul & Sahdev lived with Kunti instead of living with their uncle. Hence Shalya barely got chance to meet his nephews

He met Duryodhana on his arrival & he thought it was Yudhistir

#Ramayana #LecturesOnTheRamayana

In today's thread and perhaps some subsequent threads, we will start looking into Rama as a person. The author clearly tries to bring out the human aspect of Rama captured beautifully in some of the verses.

1/

Please note, the discussion is NEVER challenging the supreme divinity of the person, but tries to capture the nuances or the finer points of the Bhagwan.

Sri Rama had extra-ordinary merit - Unequalled, Unmatched merit. He always remained at his own highest level.

2/

He seldom fell below it at times, wherein one can spot the conditions that led to the decline. In these conditions, he did & said things that his own higher nature would never approve.

Sri Rama was indeed the guardian and embodiment in himself of Dharma.

3/

Some incidents bring out the very best in him where he is able to uphold his own moral ideal.

For ex, when Vibhishina sought asylum, he held a council of war with all eminent counsellors. Except Hanuman whose advice was considered weak, rest all including Lakshmana ..

4/

recommended him to reject Vibhishina, with a few even ordering killing him.

He listened to this charged conversation (a skill where we humans utterly lack today) & said the famous words:
" No man shall seek my protection in vain. No matter who, how undeserving, how wicked..

5/

Ever heard of a temple where the statue of the Goddess was found in a field in 1936 after spending almost a millenia under the soil?And is worshipped as the Tri-Sakthi-Swaroopini?
No?
I shall narrate the story of Nidadavole Kota Satthema temple in West Godavari district, Andhra

Nidadavole is a sleepy little town in the district of West Godavari, located a few kilometres from the Godavari. Among other things, it is famous for its Gramadevatha and Kshetrapalika, the Goddess Kota Satthema

In the tenth century, Nidadavole was known as Nirvadhyapuram, and was under the rule of the Eastern Chalukyas. They were nominal feudatories of the Kakatiyas of Warangal. The local Sthalapurana indicates that the original temple was built by one king called Virabhadra.

This Virabhadra has been identified as the husband and royal regent of the Kakatiya Empress, Rani Rudramadevi who ruled Central Deccan during the period. The original stone figure of the Goddess was built within a fort during his reign.

The goddess was worshipped as the Shakti of the Fort. Over time the name entered the vernacular parlance as Kota (the telugu word for Fort) and Satthema (a local vulgarisation of the word Shakti).