New essay
The blue eye: a short history of the nazar bead
Five thousand years of the evil eye, the glass bead that looks back, and the blue stone our name comes from.
A glass nazar bead. Free stock photograph: see Credits.
What is Astrology · Library
The Baghdad Library
Essays on the stars, the scholars and the stories, illustrated with manuscripts from museum collections. A new essay every week.
Essay
The astrologers of Abbasid Baghdad, and where their art came from
Persia, India and Greece meet on the Tigris: the men who timed the founding of a capital.
Shāhnāma, c. 1330–40. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974.290.41. Public domain.
Coming soon
Siyah Qalam: the mysterious demons of the albums
Who drew the strangest creatures in Islamic art, and why nobody is sure.
Demon in chains, Iran or Central Asia, c. 1453. Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.63. Public domain (Open Access). A painting from the same world, not by Siyah Qalam: the paintings under his name are in the Topkapı Palace albums in Istanbul.
Coming soon
Solomon, the jinn and the limits of foresight
An old story in which even the jinn could not see what was coming.
Allahabad, 1602. Walters Art Museum, W.650.157A. CC0.