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ZIRYAB

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Cordova, a photo by Danny Bishtawi Featured image is at Sevilla   Flight of the Blackbird Robert W. Lebling Jr. Illustrated by Norman MacDonald If you eat asparagus, or if you start your meal with soup and end with dessert, or if you use toothpaste, or if you wear your hair in bangs, you owe a lot to one of the greatest musicians in history. He was known as Ziryab, a colloquial Arabic term...

Spain’s Islamic Past

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A Search for Traces of Spain’s Islamic Past Tor Eigeland* I set out on my trip to photograph the traces of Spain’s Moorish past by driving south, down the coast from my home near Barcelona. Valencia In Valencia and its satellite towns of Manises and Paterna I saw some interesting ruins, though in my opinion they are among the ugliest towns in Spain.One attractive aspect of Manises...

Spanish and Morisco Histories

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Palace at Sevilla. Photo by Danny Bishtawi Names and place names in Spain I was pleasantly surprised a few years ago when I found myself able to trace the route taken by the famous 12-13th century Andalusian traveler Ibn Jubair (1144-1217) – (apparently mount Etna was as active in his times as now) on his return to his native country from a three-year extensive trip to the Arab east just by...

Moriscos Studies

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The Palace at Sevilla. Photo by Danny Bishtawi   And so it is said… “As to their vanishing from the face of Earth, they have shared the fate of many nations, cultures and languages. It seems useless to speculate if they deserved a destiny different from that of Zoroastrians, Sumerian, Parthian, Mayan, Charrias or Abipones, all of which had their own aims and reasons to survive...

Interviews: Ghandi, Hafizulla Amin, Margaret Thatcher

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Indira Sounds Nuclear on Diego Garcia From Emirates News Newspaper (Abu Dhabi, UAE), Monday, May 11, 1981 (Front Page) By Adel Bishtawi in New Delhi Abu Dhabi, May 10 (WAM): “The Americans have decided to store nuclear arms in the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia at a time when the international situation is drifting towards confrontation,” according to Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister...

𝗡𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗿𝗮𝗯 𝗖𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

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𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗦 𝗕𝗬 𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗟 𝗕𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗧𝗔𝗪𝗜 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗿𝗮𝗯 𝗖𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗢𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘀, 𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝘀, 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀, 𝗪𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀, 𝗝𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆, 𝗔𝗜𝗥𝗣.     This volume of about 700 pages contains most of the research published in the English edition of Origin of Arabic Numerals and additional research on numerics. During several months of numeral etymological research, the question...

THE ORIGIN OF THE ‘“THINGS’”

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𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗦 𝗕𝗬 𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗟 𝗕𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗧𝗔𝗪𝗜 THE ORIGIN OF THE ‘“THINGS’” From Chapter 10 Origin of the Arabic Numerals The question as to which came first, the numerals or the letters, was an-swered convincingly a century ago with the conclusion that the “use of visible signs to represent numbers and aid reckoning is not only older than writing, but older than the development of numerical language on the denary...

Origin of Arabic Numerals: a natural history of numbers.

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  𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗦 𝗕𝗬 𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗟 𝗕𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗧𝗔𝗪𝗜 Origin of Arabic Numerals: a natural history of numbers. Origin of the Arabic Numerals offers the reader two stories the author believes they have never been told convincingly in a book before. If correct, the first story may be one of the oldest stories told in a book about those little “things” that are so essential to human civilisation, the sudden disappearance...

𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗦 𝗕𝗬 𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗟 𝗕𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗧𝗔𝗪𝗜

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  𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗦 𝗕𝗬 𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗟 𝗕𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗧𝗔𝗪𝗜   ■ Origin of Arabic Numerals: a natural history of numbers (2008). ■ Natural Foundations of Arab Civilisation: Origins of Alphabets, Numerals, Measurements, Weights, Jurisdiction and currency, was published by Institute for Publication and Studies, Beirut, Lebanon, Amman, Jordan In (2010). ■ Origin of “Semitic” Languages (Arabic title: Origin of...

A History of American Injustice: Manifest Destiny of Imperial Decline:

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  Manifest Destiny of Imperial Decline: A History of American Injustice 𝗛𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬 𝗕𝗬 𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗟 𝗕𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗧𝗔𝗪𝗜 Editorial Review     Unusual times require unusual interpretation. At a time when Western disdain of the Arab and Islamic worlds, often poorly understood and misinterpreted, is presented as civilized discourse, it is refreshing to read a counter argument based on scholarly historical...