Features & Perspectives
Long-form analysis on geopolitics, media framing, policy tradeoffs, and social impact.
Muwaqqit: The Mosque Astronomer Who Kept Prayer Time
What a muwaqqit calculated with tables, sundials and instruments, how the role varied by institution, and why astronomical precision met local practice.
Mosque Architecture Terms Explained by Function
A practical glossary of qibla walls, mihrabs, minbars, minarets, domes, courtyards, iwans, hypostyle halls and related mosque spaces, with regional examples and common identification errors.
Waqfiyya: How an Endowment Deed Turned Property into Service
How a waqf deed identifies assets, beneficiaries, staff and rules, what famous examples preserve, and why practice cannot be read from clauses alone.
Al-Kashi, Pi and Decimal Fractions: Precision in Samarkand
How Jamshid al-Kashi calculated pi to remarkable precision, explained decimal fractions and turned demanding arithmetic into teachable procedures.
Kalila wa Dimna: How Animal Fables Crossed Languages
How Indian story traditions moved through Middle Persian and Ibn al-Muqaffa's Arabic, then changed again in illustrated manuscripts and new translations.
What Is a Zij? Astronomical Tables for Calculation
How zij handbooks combine instructions, parameters and tables for calendars and planets, why locations matter, and how users corrected copied numbers.
How to Recognize Kufic, Naskh, Thuluth and Nasta’liq
Compare Kufic, Naskh, Thuluth and Nasta’liq through dated museum works, letter proportions, page layouts and the difference between script and language.
Al-Zarqali’s Saphaea: A Universal Astrolabe from Toledo
How al-Zarqali’s universal projection avoided separate latitude plates, what the Saphaea could calculate, and how texts transmitted the design.
Islamic Manuscript Colophons and the Evidence of Ownership
How colophons, seals, waqf notes and readers’ marks reconstruct a manuscript’s journey—and why no single inscription proves a complete provenance.
Omar Khayyam and the Jalali Calendar: Measuring the Solar Year
How a team including Omar Khayyam reformed the calendar for Sultan Malik-Shah, tied months to the Sun and confronted the fraction hidden inside every year.
The Maqamat of al-Hariri and al-Wasiti's Paintings
How a celebrated 1237 manuscript joins rhymed prose, social satire, calligraphy and images of travel, markets, mosques and performance in Abbasid Iraq.
How to Trace an Islamic Manuscript: Colophons, Waqf Notes and Provenance
A practical research guide to colophons, ownership marks, waqf statements, seals, bindings, catalog records and responsible digitization.