Juan Cole

Robert Roy Britt of Live Science reports on the research of a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor John Valley that shows increased dryness in the Eastern Mediterranean between 100 and 700 of the Common Era (CE), with dramatic dips in rainfall in 100 CE and 400 CE. It raises questions about whether climate […]

Robert Roy Britt of Live Science reports on the research of a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor John Valley that shows increased dryness in the Eastern Mediterranean between 100 and 700 of the Common Era (CE), with dramatic dips in rainfall in 100 CE and 400 CE. It raises questions about whether climate […]

Informed Comment has had a few running features, including top ten lists, the Ghoul’s Glossary, and ‘Arguing with Bush.’ With any luck this column will be the last in that dreary series. Readers should remember that back in 2003 and 2004, the Bush administration was denying that there had been extensive looting in Iraq after […]

Informed Comment has had a few running features, including top ten lists, the Ghoul’s Glossary, and ‘Arguing with Bush.’ With any luck this column will be the last in that dreary series. Readers should remember that back in 2003 and 2004, the Bush administration was denying that there had been extensive looting in Iraq after […]

This site attempts to mystify the 1513 Piri Reis map of the world, including the New World, produced in Istanbul. It is alleged that it shows the coast of Antarctica as well as more South American detail than is reasonable for that date. It was based on Ptolemaic, Arab and recent Portuguese maps. Professor Steve […]

The Times of India worries that fundamentalist violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan are spilling over into India: ‘In Pakistan, deaths in bomb blasts and other fidayeen attacks and actions of security forces have increased almost 10 times in the last four years from 648 in 2005 to 6,310 in 2008, till November-end . . . […]

Two truck bombers in Fallujah, a former center of the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement, detonated two bombs on Thursday near a police station, killing 15 and wounding 150 persons. AP reports, ‘Police said the blasts were so huge that investigators could not find the chassis or the engines of the two trucks used in the […]

Geneticists are now estimating that the Spanish Inquisition led to large amounts of intermarriage between nominally converted Muslims and Jews with Catholics in Spain after 1492. From that date, the Spanish state forbade all religions but orthodox Catholicism in Spain, making Jews and Christians who chose to remain convert. A new study finds that 1 […]