[Maydan Podcast] On The Square EP8 – Muslims in the Caribbean

The Maydan Podcast · On The Square EP8 – Muslims in the Caribbean In this episode of On The Square, Sapelo Square Senior Editor Su’ad Abdul Khabeer speaks with Dr. Aliyah Khan, author of Far from Mecca: Globalizing the Muslim…

Arts During Social Distancing

With much of the world under severe isolation measures; museums, venues, and cinemas have shut their doors for the next several months. However that does not mean we can’t enjoy some great art collections. Museums…

Produce, Consume, Conserve: An Essay Roundtable on Egyptian Popular Culture

Introduction | by N.A.Mansour Egypt’s Podcasts and Booktubes: A Literary Criticism of the Future? | by M Lynx Qualey Cairo Since 1900: Book Review and Interview with the Author | by Shaimaa S. Ashour Art as Education: Street Art as a Precursor to Social Change | by Marwa Gadallah Umm Kulthum Conquers all: Kawkab al-Sharq through Pop Art | by N. A. Mansour Athar and the Boundless Multiplication of Relics | by Richard McGregor The Price of Popularity | by Sally El Sabbahy Is there more to the Mawlid al-Nabī Celebrations in Cairo than Candy and Cakes? | by Ida…

Cairokee and its Audience: How an Egyptian Band Stays Relevant

There is a band from Beirut called the Wanton Bishops. They perform well, with the requisite stomping and head-bobbing you expect from “good performers.” They write coherent lyrics, mostly the blues and almost always in English. I went to a concert of theirs once, without knowing much of the band. Surrounded by twenty-something professionals who had hiked out to Jabal Amman, one of the hipster haunts of the city of Amman, Jordan, I found myself less and less interested in playing the part. I politely clapped, but checked my watch and began to plot my way home. It didn’t show,…

Bastila and the Archives of Unwritten Things

As a historian I’ve worked with all kinds of archives: the chilly repositories of colonial bureaucracies, cozy campus libraries that preserve the curricula of women’s colleges, dusty bound notebooks with handwritten estate records of people who died a hundred years ago. But what does the archive of a recipe look like? About a year ago I made my way to Tetouan, hoping the northern Moroccan city might yield a more complete archive for bastila, an iconic pastry whose origins I had been researching for some time. By that point I’d spent nearly three years living in Morocco, off and on….

Al Qamar Ensemble: The Heart-Routes of Islam and a Forgotten Qasidah

It’s been over a year since the cold winter morning when I picked up my phone to the buzz of a WhatsApp call from an unfamiliar number. It was Brother Ismail Hachim, originally from the Comoros Islands off the coast of East Africa but a DC-area local for the past several decades. He had heard me play the oud and recite nasheeds (Islamic songs) as part of an interfaith arts event at the Diyanet Center of America in Maryland, then got my number from a mutual friend. With excitement he explained his dream of an organization in the DMV area…

Arts and Islam – Exhibits Roundup

Check out our new resource, advertising events in Islamic Studies. Each page focuses on specific types of events, including museum exhibits, conferences, and lectures, packaged as a convenient, one-stop shop for all related events. This page will be updated as new exhibits are announced and old exhibits end. Upcoming: Dream and Trauma Inspired by the East: How the Islamic World Influenced Western Art Middle East Galleries at Penn Museum