The Multiethnic Origins of the Muslim Conquest
The Multiethnic Origins of the Muslim Conquest
Episode 19: Islam and the Caliphates
Barbarian Empires of the Steppes (2014)
Dr Kenneth Harl
Film Review
In this lecture, Harl focuses mainly on the battle for control of the Muslim caliphate following the birth of Islam in the 7th century AD.
The key dates he cites are
622 AD – the prophet Muhammad migrates to Medina from Mecca owing to conflict with Mecca elites.
632 AD – Muhammad dies after…
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This artifact, an ancient Roman brick with Jewish symbols (probably a burial plaque), was found in one of the graves at a necropolis from the 8th-9th century, at Čibska šuma archaeological site near Čelarevo in northern Serbia. At the site, alongside Turkic and Slavic graves, some bricks were also found with engraved inscriptions translated as Jehuda or Yahweh and Israel. According to archaeologists, they belongs to a nomadic tribe of unknown origin, that practiced Judaism. These people came from the east, most likely from the Pontic steppes and Central Asia along with Avars and settled in vast plains of the Pannonian basin in present-day northern Serbia and eastern Hungary.
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what do you think of books with strange prose styles/formating? have you read any? and if so, which are your favorites? (slaughter house 5, house of leaves, if on a winters night a traveler, ect.)
I love books with strange prose styles. I always think of Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire, an entire novel written in the footnotes of a poem, written by a man who thinks his voice is authoritative, who might be an expert on the man who wrote the poem, or might be completely out of his mind. I love hunting footnotes and giggling at inter-text references. It isn't for everyone, but novels that take work on the part of the reader are some of my favorite to read. I find them stimulating, fun, and fascinating.
(With one caveat: there has to be a reason for the formatting. You can tell when there's purpose behind the choice vs. when an author just wanted to be "interesting." Too many novels are difficult to read simply because the author wanted to stand out.)
One of my favorites is called The Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić. I wrote my senior thesis on this wild book that is in the format of a dictionary divided into three parts. The overarching idea: there once were a people called the Khazars, until they disappeared. The Christians, Jews, and Muslims all have arguments and interpretations of who they were, and where they went. They were a people who seemed to be able to travel through dreams. Items related to their civilization seem to disappear easily. You can read in any order. It's a dictionary after all!
Everything in this book is intentional. I wrote a large part of my thesis on the parts of the book that are mysteriously italicized. The book makes fascinating points about memory, storytelling, assimilation, and most of all, how history is interpreted and retold.
Another favorite is Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar, translated by Gregory Rabazza. It's a sad, pretty novel about an Argentine ex-pat and his group of bohemian friends, and the disappearance of his mistress. You can read it in a number of ways. Cortázar suggests the "hopping" order, where at the end of each chapter it tells you where to turn to next.
But if you take his advice, you miss a chapter, chapter 55, which no other chapters lead to. Is it the ending? Does it not matter? Why is the same text in chapter 129? And if you skip what he called the "expendable chapters," you lose whole storylines! It makes the novel a game, but it also makes you wonder what matters, and why, and which parts of a story actually matter.
House of Leaves is on my list!
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Just in case anyone didn't know, "Khazarian mafia" is an antisemitic dogwhistle. It refers to the belief that Ashkenazi Jews aren't real Jews, because they're allegedly descended from Khazars who converted to Judaism. Not only is there no evidence for this mass conversion, even if it did happen they'd still be real Jews, because that's how Judaism works.
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Sevast, Nikon (17th century)
It is believed that at at one time Satan lived under this name in the Ovčar gorge on the Morava River, in the Balkans. He was unusually gentle, addressed all men by his own name: Sevast, and worked as the head calligrapher at the St. Nicholas Monestary.
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Silver Mounted Khazar Sabre from the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania dated between 500-900 on display at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria
Photographs taken by myself 2022
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A chilling account by a whistleblower reveals the monstrosities that were being committed in Ukraine labs before the Russian divesture. Body parts from live children were packaged and sent to Europe buried in grain shipments. When the UN brokered the Ukraine Grain Deal struck in July 2022, the pivot to allow transportation thru the Black Sea was signed and sealed. But the grain never reached its African destinations and instead went to Poland and eastern Europe. Poland declared the grain was tainted – April 2023, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia suddenly banned Ukraine grain imports into their countries. The EU Commission threatened the … Continue reading →
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The anti-Arabism in the Cleopatra show is even more insidious than just picturing them as backwards; it and other Hotep ideologies portray them as essentially white/Asian invaders* in the same way you have people like the Black Hebrew Israelites (not to be confused with Jews that are black) adhering to the Khazar myth. It's a bizarre reverse weaponization of whiteness.
*The irony is that Cleopatra's family were literally white colonizers, and in the process of focusing on her, Hoteps not only speak over brown folks but ignore a wealth of black African civilizations.
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