Middle East

The Chief Rabbi of Yazd, Iran, in the center Iran’s population in 1900 was around 10 million. There were roughly 100,000 Jews in Iran at that time. Lord Curzon wrote in the late nineteenth century of different treatment of Jews in different parts of the country: “In Isfahan, where they are said to be 3,700 […]

Egypt

The Iraqization of Egypt: Two Large Bombs Rock Security Bldg in Mansoura, kill 14, wound 130

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Two large explosions at the state security building in downtown Mansoura, Dahqaliya Province, killed at least 14 persons and wounded 130 on Monday, reducing some of the edifice to rubble and damaging its facade. The head of the directorate of security was among the wounded. [Photos via Mansouracity.com] Crowds immediately gathered to […]

Human Rights

War Crime: Syrian Regime Killed Hundreds of Civilians, including Children, with Airstrikes on Aleppo

Juan Cole

(By Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher, Human Rights Watch) < Dozens of government airstrikes that have killed hundreds of civilians, including children, in Aleppo governorate in the last month were unlawful. After months of stalemate between government and opposition forces in Aleppo, Human Rights Watch documented an intensification of government attacks starting on November 23. […]

Arab Spring

From Tahrir to New Orleans: Hope has not Failed, it has only Begun

contributors

(By Rebecca Solnit) Hope, History, and UnpredictabilityBy Rebecca Solnit North American cicada nymphs live underground for 17 years before they emerge as adults. Many seeds stay dormant far longer than that before some disturbance makes them germinate. Some trees bear fruit long after the people who have planted them have died, and one Massachusetts pear […]

art and photography

A Christian Bride of Mosul, Iraq, 1903 (Photo of the Day)

Juan Cole

Caption: A Mosul Bride: The girl in the centre of the picture is a Christian bride decked out in her wedding costume. The gold coins, necklaces, and girdle are her dowry. From M. E. Hume-Griffith and A. Hume, Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia: An Account of an Englishwoman’s Eight Years’ Residence Amongst […]

China

Coleridge, Kubla Khan (Poem of the Day)

contributors

(By Samuel Taylor Coleridge) Kubla Khan Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round; And there […]

Featured

The End of the Turkish Model? Erdogan’s Paranoia and Authoritarian Streak Threaten his Legacy

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is sounding more and more hysterical, and less and less like a statesman as 2013 ends. If you thought Barack Obama had a tough twelve months, you should consider Erdogan. A major corruption scandal has broken out in his government, with 24 persons implicated including the sons […]

Afghanistan

FDL Book Salon on Andrew Bacevich, Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country

Juan Cole

Hosting Book Salon at Firedoglake: FDL Book Salon Welcomes Andrew J. Bacevich, Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country Author: Juan Cole Sunday, December 22, 2013 12:15 pm Pacific time Welcome Andrew J. Bacevich (Boston University) (DemocracyNow!) and Host Juan Cole (JuanCole.com / Informed Comment) (Twitter) Breach of Trust: How Americans […]

Arab Spring

Egypt Military Junta Sentences 2011 Revolutionaries to 3 Years Hard Labor

Juan Cole

Egypt court jails anti-Mubarak activists for 3 years (via AFP) An Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced three activists who spearheaded the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak to three years in jail for organising an unlicensed protest, judicial sources said. It was the first such verdict against non-Islamist protesters… Informed Comment discussed the military coup […]