Musings

Entry Way Picture: Wanted to remember this picture from my entry way. Almost looks like pueblo adobe dwellings from the southwest or else Berber Tunisian homes. Fresh Bread: Since it was the weekend, I went to Alpha Market, since traffic would be down. Smelled baking bread while I was picking up supplies, so brought some home and had a fresh roll for a lunch sandwich. Church: The pastor who preached at church on Friday is a teacher at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo. This week she's going to be able to examine a 1,000-year old Coptic sermon at the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale (French Oriental Archeological Institute). She's writing a book about its influence.

Reactions to Muslims' Fallen State: Violence: "Remnants of an Army" by Elizabeth Butler, portraying William Brydon arriving at the gates of Jalalabad as the only survivor of a 16,500 strong British evacuation from Kabul in January 1842. Education: Rather than resistance, J.A. Al-Afghani would exhort: "O, sons of the East, don't you know that the power of the westerners and their domination over you came about through their advance in learning and education, and your decline in those domains." Thoughts from From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia by Pankaj Mishra.