Conor Dube

@conordube.bsky.social

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Research Fellow in North African Medieval History @uclarchaeology.bsky.social; postdoc with the MEDGREENREV project; philologist and historian working on the Islamic West. Rock climber in my spare time.

Those were summer days, and the oven was outside the fort. When they took the bread [cooking alongside it] out, I saw that it was ready. I took it and brought it inside. Sitting under the arcade was a group of men and women, travelers who had come in to rest away from the heat of the sun. When I entered, the smell wafted over them, and one of the men shouted: “friend, this woman is pregnant!”, pointing with his hand to one of them. “She smelled this tajine you have,” and he feared she would miscarry. “Would you be kind enough to give her a bit of it?” She took it from me, grabbed a bit and covered it. Afterwards, I brought it to the shaykh. When I uncovered it, he was surprised and happy; he said to me: “do I see that some of it has been taken out?” I told him the story of the pregnant woman, and he asked: “did you give her some?” I replied, “I did.” “Praise God: you’ve made me happy, by God. My brother, do something for me that will bring my heart joy: take this dish to the group and let them eat it.” I answered, “Don’t do this, may God set you right! I’ve toiled over it from dawn until just now – you’ve wanted it for so long, and that pregnant woman has already had her fix!” “But perhaps they all want some, like she did? By God, eating it now would not sit right with me; it’s better they have it, for there are women and children with them. Take it to them.”
Screenshot of Arabic text; al-Mālikī, Riyāḍ al-nufūs, p. 1:522. In full: "حدث أبو بكر المؤدب الصقلي (٤٤)، قال: كان أبو هارون قد سكن مدة «قصر لمطة»، وكان أبي يصحبه وكنت أنا مع أبي سكانا (٤٥) في «قصر لمطة» (٤٦). قال: فقال لي (٤٧) مرارا كثيرة: «يا أبا بكر، اشتهيت «حوت قلّقط‍» (٤٨) يعمل (٤٩) في المنستير، فاشتره واعمله لي»، فكنت ألوذ وأعتذر لصعب (٥٠) المشي عليّ. إلى أن دعاني يوما ودفع إليّ قطاعا (٥١) -أراه قال نحو قيراطين-وقال لي: «قم الساعة إلى المنستير اشتر الحوت الذي قلت لك عنه»، فلم يمكني مخالفته. فمضيت إلى المنستير، فلما مشيت نصف الطريق أو أكثر إذا برجل على كتفه مشنة (٥٢) فيها حوتان من قلّقط‍، فقلت في نفسي: «لعلي أشتريهما منه ويقرب عنائي».فلما التقينا سلمت عليه وقلت له: «تبيع مني هذين الحوتين؟ » فقال: «لا»، قلت: «أنا أعطيك فيهما ثمنا كبيرا» فقال: «لو أعطيتني فيهما دينارا ما بعتهما منك، لأنهما معي رسالة»، فقلت له: «إلى من؟ » قال: «إلى أبي هارون الأندلسي في [قصر] (٥٣) لمطة» فقلت: «فأنا والله أرسلني أبو هارون إلى المنستير أشتري له حوت قلّقط‍ اشتهاه».قال: فقال لي: «إذا كان هكذا فوصّلهم (٥٤) أنت إليه وأرجع أنا من ها هنا».قال: «فدفع إليّ المشنة ورجع...," continuing onto the next page. See https://shamela.ws/book/148883/554#p1 for a transcription.
From al-Ṭabarī's tafsīr: "It was said to them: choose two angels from among you all, whom I will command [to follow] my command and forbid from sinning against me. They chose Harut and Marut; they were sent down to the earth, and the passions of the children of Adam were created within them. They were ordered to worship God and to not associate anything with Him, and were forbidden from killing a soul illicitly, from consuming property wrongly, from theft, fornication, and drinking wine. They remained on the earth at that time, judging among the people in truth (this was the time of Idris). There was in that age a women whose beauty was like Venus [Zuharah] among the stars. She came to them, and they humbled themselves to her in word, desiring her. She refused, unless they followed her command and religion. They asked her about the religion she followed, and she brought forth an idol, saying: I worship this. They said: we have no need to worship this" [story continues in the original]
A gray, long-haired cat with a glorious white mustache sits at an open window, his tail wrapped around a computer open with a picture of an Arabic manuscript.
Arabic text that translates to: "He had in his home a sitting-room of wondrous craftsmanship, finely furnished, done entirely in green: from its walls to its doors, ceiling, furniture, drapes, and pillows - all in similar shades. He had filled it with learned notebooks and various tomes that he would consult and remove [as needed]. This was where he would find company and privacy - may he rest in peace!" - al-Bunnāhī, al-Marqabah al-ʿulyā, p. 87 (biography of the qāḍī Abū al-Muṭarrif Ibn Fuṭays, d. 1012)
An excerpt from the Qur'anic commentary of the 9th/10th century exegete al-Tabari, where Jesus finds the disciples fishing and asks, "will you not come, so we together can fish for humanity?" - an allusion to a phrase in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew. The interpretation explains Qur'an 3:52, "[Jesus said:] who will be my helpers with God? The disciples answered, we are God's helpers."
ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Tathbīt dalāʾil al-nubūwah, p. 200. Arabic text.
ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Tathbīt dalāʾil al-nubūwah, p. 190-191, Arabic text.
Arabic text from ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Tathbīt dalāʾil al-nubūwah, p. 1:167 (Dār al-Muṣṭafā).
A passage from ʿAbd al-Jabbār's Tathbīt dalāʾil al-nubūwah, circa 10th century.
A quote from an academic article describing Raphael’s “angelic excretion.”
Describes Jawhari’s death “while trying to fly by fastening to his body the two leaves of a door and jumping off the roof of the Friday mosque in Nīshāpūr.”