Saudi Arabia will publicly display for the first time what was once under lock and key, albeit at an exhibition in Athens, Greece. Below are Hellenic statues of Horus and Hercules retrieved from Qaryat al-Faw (of Imru’ al-Qais) in Southern Arabia, and dated to between 1—300 CE.
Hilarious that Al Jazeera has a correspondent embedded with the Taliban, but can’t find anyone to report on protests and arrests just down the road from HQ.
Came across this fascinating comic book from 1980 relating the story of Saudi Arabia up until then. It’s unashamedly pro-Faisal at the expense of Saud, whose entire reign is reduced to barely a single panel—also very funny having Nasser proclaim “How great Faisal is!”.
@bucephalus424
Interesting contrast to British colonies in Africa, which seemed to market themselves as places of easy living and early retirement resorts rather than untamed frontier wilderness.
A Black American friend of mine was just violently attacked in Istanbul by a swarm of racists. He is currently in hospital and they’re pressuring him not to file a complaint.
Anyone know or have any resources that could help him? Please reach out by DM
“...maybe give Kuwait to Saudi Arabia or divide it up with Iraq... do not hesitate to tell them in Kuwait that they are a very small, weaker country that is very rich, and there are a lot of countries... that would like to gobble them up.”
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, July 25 1990
In 1979-80, peak oil boom, a shady Australian bank called Nugan Hand—almost certainly a CIA front—set up shop in Saudi Arabia; its employees descending on work camps and compounds to defraud thousands of Western expatriates out of millions.
Not for the first time; Ras Al Khaimah had a casino hotel run by a Lebanese company from around 1970 until 1977. It closed the same week the Saudi Justice minister made an official visit to the emirate. The Kingdom had sent great sums of aid to RAK in the preceding years.
#RasAlKhaimah
announces plans for a
@WynnLasVegas
resort on Marjan Island in 2026 with "gaming", thereby signalling a potential move to allow gambling for the first time in the
#UAE
and wider Gulf
↓
@yuanyi_z
Imagine you’re a 17 year old about to tell your African/Asian/Middle Eastern immigrant parents that you want to major in the humanities instead of something more “useful”, with their money of course. Tough sell.
@yuanyi_z
In 1953, then Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia was sat ahead of the Crown Prince of Japan. Seeing the rank difference, Fahd offered to swap places with the Japanese heir.
It’s since been tradition for a new Japanese Crown Prince to visit Saudi Arabia as their first trip abroad.
Chuffed to find out that the Arabic شِفرة (code/cipher) comes from the French ‘chiffre’, which in turn derives from the Arabic صفر (zero). Of course the same Arabic word, by way of Old French ‘cifre’, gives us the English ‘cipher’.
Language truly is incestuous miscegenation.
Interview with Alan Dershowitz in
@NewYorker
today:
“It was the Abraham Accords.... which I played a central role in...
I met with the Emir of Qatar. No, of Kuwait. No, was it Qatar?”
(Neither Kuwait nor Qatar are party to the Accords in any case)
مقال رائع بقلم
@EmanMAlhussein
"ارتبط مشروع الوسطية في منطقة الخليج العربي بالشيخ الموريتاني عبدالله بن بيه الذي عمل لسنوات في جامعة الملك عبدالعزيز بجدة، ومن ثم رأس «مجلس الإمارات للإفتاء الشرعي» و «منتدى تعزيز السلم» في الإمارات العربية المتحدة."
@azforeman
During the first Gulf War, there was a Saudi newscaster on KSA 2 (English-language public TV) who clearly learnt English in NYC and read out Desert Storm developments in Brooklynese.
The Khaleeji posters who were screaming about Europe being "overrun" and "conquered" a few weeks ago seem to be enjoying their holidays in London and Paris today.
Truly remarkable before-and-after pics from Saudi Arabia. The literal breaking down of social barriers.
Notice the Saudi woman working behind the counter, too. Just yesterday all this was unthinkable.
Sad to think that
@SambaBank
and
@snbalahli
merging might mean they finally replace this charming time machine of an ATM at Mall of the Emirates, still committed to an anti-drug campaign from the 00s.
“[Syrians] belong to a different civilization...”
These types are always shocked when they invariably move to the Gulf and Khaleejis treat them, Syrians, Palestinians, and Jordanians all the same.
كلكم زلمات بطلوا هبل
With reports that Will Smith is hiding out in Dubai, he joins a local community of high-profile exiles that includes Lindsey Lohan, Pervez Musharraf, Ashraf Ghani, and Juan Carlos I of Spain.
If you get out of your car in this centrifugal metropolis, you immediately become a delinquent; as soon as you start walking, you are a threat to public order, like a dog wandering in the road.
Sartorial diplomacy. In September 1974, King Hussein of Jordan asked the Americans why it was that he didn't get along with the Saudis as well as he should. US diplomats advised that it was his dress sense; he was nudged to swap the gaudy, greasy suits for something more Arabian.
Placed an order for a book from Centre for Arab Unity Studies/مركز درسات الوحدة العربية, but haven’t heard back from them since they took my money. Anyone ever order from them?
Going to join my father and grandfather in being cheated by Arab nationalism if I don't get it.
@MalikaFachrou
Not at all accurate. Children of Saudi mothers could always apply for citizenship after turning 18, provided they resided in the Kingdom. The law has been changed to move the official power of naturalization from the Minister of Interior to the Prime Minister; purely procedural.
This person claims to have “grown up in Saudi Arabia”, but actually means the segregated confines of a Western compound and the American school there—away from any local children who would’ve mercilessly bullied him out of the ‘Zuby’ nickname.
People won't like this but it's the truth.
Islamic countries in the Gulf feel more 'Christian' to me in terms of values than most Western nations do.
Less Sodom & Gomorrah stuff going on. People are God fearing, conservative, and family oriented. No woke garbage.
Former editor of the Saudi daily al-Watan reveals that their oftentimes controversial “woman columnist” Taghreed al-Tamimi was actually a man. This seems to have been a trend in the Saudi press; Arabic Booker winner Abdu Khal also apparently wrote under a feminine nom de plume.
Saudi Arabia’s liberalization having an effect on the wider Islamic world, giving reformers in different countries the useful line “if Saudi Arabia is doing it, then why can’t we?”.
While the American culture wars infect the rest of the West, I note with some amusement that one could translate “the woke movement/wokeism” into Arabic as the Sahwa (الصحوة).
@MazMHussain
European expats in Dubai have no problem and quite relish having live-in “help”, maids, cooks, nannies, drivers etc.
The (North) Americans would have them too but always stress that it felt “awkward” and that they give them “days off”.
Cable from another world. The late Sheikh Sabah saying that the Saudis have “special confidence” in the Qataris, who will mediate between them and the Emiratis.
My father called from Riyadh a month or so ago to tell me that he got both doses of لقاح الشيوخ (i.e. Pfizer, or ‘Vaccine of the Sheikhs’). So this is definitely an international phenomenon.
Much has been made of
@georgegalloway
toasting Mrs. May’s resignation with Steve Bannon in Kazakhstan (home of Tinshein swimming pool), but the real story is former CIA Director Jim Woolsey trying to break into his hotel room at night.
Poland and Hungary have been among the fiercest opponents of immigration, but their economies are desperate for foreign labor.
@k_kropidlowski
goes inside one "container town" where up to 5,200 mostly Asian workers will be housed
Seeing too many European right-wingers discover the Kafala system lately and go “we should do this too”.
Little do they know we got it from them in the first place.
Citizenship Requirements for Qatar
Qatar like other Countries in the Arab Gulf (Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi, Oman etc.) imports a class of workers in industries like construction and services to ‘help contribute towards economic growth’. Unlike in the West, these workers are
Looking through my contacts right now for an acquaintance I met years ago in Dubai who said he was making “Khaleeji synthwave”—strongly feel he needs to see this.
من وجهة نظري، الإنسان الأوروبي هو الأكثر حضارة من بين جميع البشر، والأكثر فهماً للحياة .. السبب أن خبراته تراكمت عبر سنوات طويلة، دون أن يحرق أي مراحل .. ومعظم التجارب اللي خاضها، كانت عميقة وكاملة .. ما نختلف ان له ماضي استعماري مرير، لكن هذا الماضي جزء من تكوينه الحضاري .
@marina0swald
“Visited on prior occasions” would suggest Algeria, but they didn’t exactly “enjoy close relations” with France. Morocco would would fit the bill but quickly looking it up I see that Malcolm only visited once. Anyway in his letters home he mentions being followed by Americans.
@yuanyi_z
You know in the Gulf, Canadian citizenship is seen as sort of a joke among the foreign Arab and Indian managerial class. The established route is for one to take a “Canadian vacation” to get the passport, then come back (never left) to the Gulf and earn more as a Westerner.
Bernard Lewis being hailed as a ‘great scholar’ irks me somewhat. He was the quintessential orientalist—albeit more subdued than his academic antecedents—and was woefully wrong about so much.
Sat next to an American Muslim at Iftar the other day who told me that he’s seriously considering “making hijrah” to an Islamic country soon. The West had become too morally degenerate, and he couldn’t possibly raise a family here.
The Islamic place he had in mind was Dubai.
Was looking up Jazz standard covers that I could practice with my sax to, and chanced on this Saudi-based Filipino labourer who has been prolific (1,672 videos!). From his small Jeddah flat, he does this to deal with the grief and stress of daily toil and being so far from home.
Was combing through the archives for something I'm researching, and unwittingly ran into the NYT's coverage (on page 12) of the UAE's founding , 'An Arab State Is Born Amid Persian Gulf Unrest'.
Indian nationalists are taunting Western and Gulf Arab states these days, saying they're begging India for market access, etc.
Reminds me of this 2010 Indian movie that depicts India in 2030 where whites are “disgusting” beggars and servants.
Breaking: After 27 years leading the airline, H.E Akbar Al Baker, CEO of the Qatar Airways Group, is stepping down, effective Nov 5.
Al Baker told staff “it has been an incredible privilege to lead such an exceptional global team, & the honour of a lifetime to serve my country”
In which Princess Wallada brands her on-again, off-again lover Ibn Zaydun a sissy for cheating on her with a younger boy.
For more on their tumultuous and steamy relationship, pick up Ibn Hazm’s طوق الحمامة (Dove’s Necklace)—one of the funnest reads on human sexuality there is.
A man in traditional Arabian garb looking over the River Thames from atop the Savoy Hotel, c. 1937. That hotel, London's most famous, is today mostly owned by Saudis and Qataris.
Woke up this morning seeing Tiran and Sanafir on my timeline, thinking I was transported back to 2017. Don’t know why some are relitigating this again, but the islands have been under de facto Saudi control since 2018.
#BREAKING
: Bernie Sanders rejects calls for a ceasefire to benefit Hamas.
"I don't know how you can have a permanent cease fire with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the state of Israel.
HAMAS HAS GOT TO GO”
At the Palazzo Versace in Dubai, sat in the lounge area waiting for a friend. Notice an older White American man chatting up the Chinese tourists in Mandarin. They get up, leaving him alone. He scoots over to me, asks “عربي؟”. Is he:
I’ve been arguing for years now that Dubai needs a Big Dig-style project to put Sh. Zayed road underground, but I suppose too much of the city’s attraction is speeding down it in a Bugatti rental and zooming past the pretty skyscrapers.
Decades before Henderson or Ronaldo, before Manchester City or Newcastle United, was Don Revie: the England manager who quit for an eye-watering sum (then) in Dubai. The Football Association said his actions "brought the game into disrepute", and banned him for 10 years.