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Here is a thread recapping #palindrome history week for #TweetHistorians, courtesy of Mark Saltveit who reverts to @taoish now.
Monday, we started with a thread on the ancient sacred origins of palindromes as spells, curses and words of the gods. 1/7 -ms
Monday, we started with a thread on the ancient sacred origins of palindromes as spells, curses and words of the gods. 1/7 -ms
Tuesday: Sotades the Obscene, inventor of palindromes, the Priapeia, sotadean metre and so much more. Also: the kinaidoi (effeminate dancers of Alexandria), Arsinoe the sex-positive proto-feminist queen, incestual royal marriage and sick burns. 2/7 -ms
Wednesday: later antique Greek palindromes from the oldest letter-by-letter verse (a school exercise in Tebtunis Egypt) through the Greek Anthology, Leo the Wise, Western Euopean baptismal fonts and Theodoros Prodromos. 3/7 -ms
🧵4 by @BennoWeiner for #TweetHistorians @HistoryCMU
In recent years, China under Xi Jinping seems to have embraced a "second-generation ethnic policy," the latest iteration of a century+long effort to find a formula that can forge a nation-state out of the ashes of empire. 1/
In recent years, China under Xi Jinping seems to have embraced a "second-generation ethnic policy," the latest iteration of a century+long effort to find a formula that can forge a nation-state out of the ashes of empire. 1/
Since the 1911 revolution that toppled the Manchu Qing Empire, Chinese statesmen no matter their political stripes have been near unanimous in claiming the territorial extent of the old empire as natural boundaries of the new nation. 1/
But they've disagreed on how to do so. After all, on what basis might people whose main connection had been that they were subjects of the same sovereign now agree to form a horizontal political community- a nation? 2/
(late) 🧵3 by @BennoWeiner for #TweetHistorians @HistoryCMU
When the CCP came to power in 1949 it insisted that China was a single, inseparable, multi-nationality state. But it also admitted that this vision of national unity was not reflective of reality on the ground. 1/
When the CCP came to power in 1949 it insisted that China was a single, inseparable, multi-nationality state. But it also admitted that this vision of national unity was not reflective of reality on the ground. 1/
Instead inter-community relations in many ethnocultural borderlands were marked by alienation, distrust, and violence. Party leaders made clear who was to blame. Ethnic DIS-unity was a legacy of what (borrowing from the USSR) they called 'Great Han chauvinism' (da Hanzu zhuyi) 2/
Mao and others insisted that disunity was caused by centuries of Han exploitation and discrimination against non-Han people. By crafting 'minorities' as historical victims of the Han majority, the CCP positioned itself as both 'savior' and 'liberator' of 'weaker nationalities'.3/
For today’s daily dose of women mystics in medieval Islam, we’ll be looking at marriage, sex, and inter-gender relations between pious Sufi men and women. Let’s see what Hasan al-Basri has to say about his religious sessions with the famous woman mystic Rābi’a al-‘Adawiyya 🧵~mq
‘I was with Rābi‘a for one full day and night. I was talking about the Path and the Truth in such a way that the thought ‘I am a man’ never crossed my mind, nor did ‘I am a woman’ ever cross hers. In the end when I got up, I considered myself a pauper and her a devotee.’
It is often posited that Sufi women lacked access to all-male religious spaces because of anxieties over interactions between genders. But to what extent is that really true?
Thanks to #TweetHistorians for the chance to talk about some of my work on gender and medieval Islamic mysticism this week! Let’s jump right in with some choice words from a 10th-century woman mystic, who has the following to say about that elusive concept of ‘manliness’ 🧵 ~mq
"Ḥusayn b. Manṣūr Ḥallāj had a beautiful sister who claimed the rank of manhood on the Sufi way. Whenever she came to Baghdad, she covered half her face with a veil and left the other half unveiled. An eminent person saw her and asked, ‘Why don’t you veil your entire face?’
‘First show me a man so that I might veil my entire face,’ she replied. ‘There is only half a man in all Baghdad, and that’s Ḥusayn. If it weren’t for his sake, I wouldn’t even cover this half.’"
- From Najm al-Din Rāzi, Marmūzāt-i Asadī
- From Najm al-Din Rāzi, Marmūzāt-i Asadī
🧵Four by @ChawlaSwati
1/ 🚨🚨Who is a #Tibetan?🚨🚨
Relatedly,
❓Where is #Tibet?
❓Are all Tibetans #Buddhist?
❓Do all of them revere @DalaiLama?
❓Are there Tibetans (other than #exiled pop"n) outside Tibet?
❓Do all #Tibetans identify as... erm ..Tibetan?
#TweetHistorians
1/ 🚨🚨Who is a #Tibetan?🚨🚨
Relatedly,
❓Where is #Tibet?
❓Are all Tibetans #Buddhist?
❓Do all of them revere @DalaiLama?
❓Are there Tibetans (other than #exiled pop"n) outside Tibet?
❓Do all #Tibetans identify as... erm ..Tibetan?
#TweetHistorians
2/ The 11th Zurmang Trungpa (1939-87) said #Tibetan 'insiders' (ནང་པ་) share these common features:
☑️speaking some variant of Tibetan lang
☑️following #Buddhist faith
☑️eating tsampa (roasted barley flour)
Who was he?
treasuryoflives.org/biographies/vi…
A handy definition, but...
~SC
☑️speaking some variant of Tibetan lang
☑️following #Buddhist faith
☑️eating tsampa (roasted barley flour)
Who was he?
treasuryoflives.org/biographies/vi…
A handy definition, but...
~SC
3/ Let's tackle the big one first: #Tibet has long been identified as a pristine Buddhist #Shangrila.
But,
❌Not Tibetans are Buddhist.
❌Not all Tibetan Buddhists revere the @DalaiLama in the same way.
See #himalayanhistories 🧵on #Shangrila:
~SC
But,
❌Not Tibetans are Buddhist.
❌Not all Tibetan Buddhists revere the @DalaiLama in the same way.
See #himalayanhistories 🧵on #Shangrila:
~SC
🧵Three by @ChawlaSwati
1/ On Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in Exile:
#OnThisDay @DalaiLama was awarded #NobelPeacePrize, the only #Buddhist religious leader thus honored (#MLK nominated @thichnhathanh in '67).
Many associate #Tibet w/ him+ other monks in red robes--
What about nuns?
1/ On Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in Exile:
#OnThisDay @DalaiLama was awarded #NobelPeacePrize, the only #Buddhist religious leader thus honored (#MLK nominated @thichnhathanh in '67).
Many associate #Tibet w/ him+ other monks in red robes--
What about nuns?
2/ "Some feminists from the West cud accuse me by saying, ‘The #DalaiLama is the authority but he doesn’t help the nuns.’"
Yes, @DalaiLama has often faced the accusation that the #TibetanBuddhist tradition doesn't give nuns the same rights as monks.
info-buddhism.com/Interview_Dala…
~SC
Yes, @DalaiLama has often faced the accusation that the #TibetanBuddhist tradition doesn't give nuns the same rights as monks.
info-buddhism.com/Interview_Dala…
~SC
3/ 🚨🚨🚨 Of the 8 reps of #TibetanBuddhism in the current Parliament in Exile– two each from Gelug, Kagyu, Sakya, Nyigma sects– **all** are monks; so are the two members from pre-Buddhist Bon religion.
(Though ~1/3 of MPs from provinces U-Tsang, Dhotoe+ Dhomey are women.)
~SC
(Though ~1/3 of MPs from provinces U-Tsang, Dhotoe+ Dhomey are women.)
~SC
🧵One by @ChawlaSwati
On the @DalaiLama & India:
1/ Many of us know that the 14th @DalaiLama has been living in #exile in #Himalayan town of #Dharamsala in northern India since 31 Mar 1959.
Why India?
Was he blazing a trail w/ his escape?
#TweetHistorians
Map from @TIME (1959)
On the @DalaiLama & India:
1/ Many of us know that the 14th @DalaiLama has been living in #exile in #Himalayan town of #Dharamsala in northern India since 31 Mar 1959.
Why India?
Was he blazing a trail w/ his escape?
#TweetHistorians
Map from @TIME (1959)
2/ Second question first: No, he wasn't.
In coming to India, the @DalaiLama trod the path of many #Tibetans before him-- traders+ aristocrats, monastics+ laity, and his predecessor, the 13th #DalaiLama, Thupten Gyatso, who had lived in exile in British India from 1910-12.
--SC
In coming to India, the @DalaiLama trod the path of many #Tibetans before him-- traders+ aristocrats, monastics+ laity, and his predecessor, the 13th #DalaiLama, Thupten Gyatso, who had lived in exile in British India from 1910-12.
--SC
3/ Aristocratic families in #Tibet were closely tied in networks of monastic patronage, intermarriage +trade w/ eastern #Himalayan kingdoms of #Bhutan+ #Sikkim. The British Political Officer in Sikkim kept close watch on these alliances. Here he is w/ the 13th #DalaiLama👇.
--SC
--SC
