Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The first recorded world-historical pandemic took place (541–750 CE) in the Roman Empire and Sasanian Iran, as well as neighboring […]
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Syria Crisis: Cole on BBC Newshour (Audio Link)
My appearance on BBC’s Newshour re: Syrian developments on Wednesday afternoon. I come in about 8 minutes in, and make comments throughout the rest of […]
Top Ten Implications of the Damascus Bombing
The bombing of the Security Headquarters of the Baath government of Syria on Wednesday killed the Minister of Defense, the deputy Minister of Defense, and […]
Marionette 2 (Painting by Syrian Modernist Marwan)
Marwan, Marionette 2 (2007), gouache on paper, 21 x 30.2 cm 2011,6020.2. Mirrored from [pdf] the British Museum Modern Syrian Art Collection. Marwan (Kassab Bachi), […]
Is Michele Bachmann an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood?
It has become increasingly apparent that politics and business often attract psychopaths, because of the opportunities they offer for the gratification of narcissism, grandiosity, sadism […]
Street Art in Honor of 100 Years of LaMarsa, Tunisia (Photo)
Photo by Juan Cole, LaMarsa, Tunisia, May 2012 (Note that if you are viewing with an internet browser, you can enlarge the photo by pressing […]
Omar Khayyam (442) “I wish there were a place to rest…”
I wish there were a place to rest or that this long, long road would end; and that a hundred thousand years from now, there […]
The Moroccans (Matisse Painting)
The Moroccans Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954) Issy-les-Moulineaux, late 1915 and fall 1916. Oil on canvas, 71 3/8″ x 9′ 2″ (181.3 x 279.4 cm). Gift […]
Fighting Spreads to Damascus; but is it a Turning Point
It is significant, but not decisive, that fighting raged for a second day in the Syrian capital of Damascus Monday. The southern district of Tadamun […]
The Tanks that did not Defeat Misrata (Photo)
Photograph by Juan Cole, May 2012 Line of tanks that Mu’tasim Qaddafi deployed against the civilians of the city of Misrata, Libya, March-August 2011– destroyed […]
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