Brian Ulrich

@brianjulrich.bsky.social

2074 Followers 697 Following

Professor of History @ShippensburgU, focused on Middle East since the rise of Islam, author of The Medieval Persian Gulf (https://www.arc-humanities.org/9781802700046/the-medieval-persian-gulf/), views are my own

A domestic short hair cat lounging on a person lying on a couch
An Economist article about Indian restaurants under threat in Japan
A copy of Kevin Kruse's One Nation Under God and a mug of coffee outside on a deck
Because of the different colours of its stone and earth, the island stood out to travellers for its panoply of colours. According to Ma Huan, who travelled with the fleets of Zheng He, it was "a great mountain of colors different on each of the four sides…green as rock salt, white as gypsum, red as blood, and yellow as clay." Today the "Rainbow Valley" is still noted as an attraction in tourist publications. The different coloured salt was also used locally to make tableware and lamp pedestals, and Fei Xin, another Chinese traveller with Zheng He noted that the salt from the dishes rubbed off onto the food, which as a result was always salty
Ilkhanid Capital Cities on top, on the bottom Iran and Persianate Culture in the Indian Ocean World and An Unruly Classic about Kalila wa Dimnah
An X post from Joshua Landis that Vahid Abedini was seized by ICE while traveling to the Middle East Studies Association
A sleeping cat curled into a ball next to human's leg
Two bobcats sleeping next to each other on a ledge stretched out in opposite directions
Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State
A tortoiseshell cat lay on me with arm extended while I lie down
No Kings protest on Carlisle, Pennsylvania square
A castle in Switzerland on a gorgeous day
An outdoor black metal lattice table with a cold brew coffee a Beth Berkowitz's book Animals and Animality in the Babylonian Talmud
A cup of Denim Coffee, a book on a folder, and open laptop with a background picture from Dammam, all on top of a small coffeehouse table
A green eyed tortoiseshell cat in a gray harness in a yard with grass and mulch, looking mostly to the side towards the camera
A copy of Rachel Schine's Black Knights: Arabic Epic and the Making of Medieval Race and a coffee in a Denim Coffee to go cup on a table
"I was an anthro mjor in college and everyone was like 'What are you going to do with that?! Now that I am working in industry, my team leaders are all like 'Wow, you really seem to understand our customers and do a great job telling their story and communicating their needs to stakeholders.' Yup...you learn things about people and storytelling in the arts and humanities and cultural studies. Who knew?"
Torture cat loafing on the back of a couch with head cocked and looking down a bit
Screen shot of Google AI overview on the Prophet' mawlid saying it "is a popular Islamic celebration in Egypt that often includes eating large quantities of cat, coffee, and tea"
The book Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity
Quote: "I was an anthro major in college and everyone was like 'What are you going to do with that?!' Now that I am working in industry my team leaders are all like 'Wow you really seem to understand our customers and do a great job telling their story and communicating their needs to stakeholders.' Yup...you learn things about people and storytelling in the arts and humanities and cultural studies. Who knew?"
This image and the next have two pages of text describing the spread of Shafi'ism in Oman under Seljuq patronage, and then how hadith became increasingly used by Ibadi imams so that Ibadism came to more closely resemble Sunnism
A painting showing a Black knight on a black horse with white background
A clip of an Amazon page highlighting bestseller ranks in Bible translation categories
The cover of the book, which has a lot of text on the back cover and on the front, and image of a dhow on the water