Jonathan Parkes Allen
@jparkesallen.bsky.social
historian of the Islamicate with @openiti.bsky.social; community food forest/garden organizer with @foodforestchatt.bsky.social. ☦ Christian, father, deep time delver. 🏴 anarcho-agrarian 🌻 upholder of Gustav Landauer thought. Signal @ jparkesallen.11
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
My annual traveling turkeys post! What do you do when a New World bird visits the Mughal court? Paint it in miniature, of course! This essay by Neha Vermani follows the Muslim reception of our feathered friends.
www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...
www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...
The turkey's journey from the Atlantic to the early modern Islamic world | Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Library is the world's largest Shakespeare collection, the ultimate resource for exploring Shakespeare and his world. Shakespeare belongs to you. His world is vast. Come explore. Jo...
www.folger.edu
November 27, 2025 at 2:23 PM
My annual traveling turkeys post! What do you do when a New World bird visits the Mughal court? Paint it in miniature, of course! This essay by Neha Vermani follows the Muslim reception of our feathered friends.
www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...
www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
This terracotta die comes from the ancient city of Mohenjo-Daro, one of the first urban centres in human history 🎲⠀
⠀
Gaming with dice has been a popular pastime in India for millennia, with this object dating back to 2500–1900 BCE.
🎲 Terracotta Die, 2500–1900 BCE. 2 x 2 x 2 cm. EAMd.25
⠀
Gaming with dice has been a popular pastime in India for millennia, with this object dating back to 2500–1900 BCE.
🎲 Terracotta Die, 2500–1900 BCE. 2 x 2 x 2 cm. EAMd.25
November 27, 2025 at 8:01 AM
This terracotta die comes from the ancient city of Mohenjo-Daro, one of the first urban centres in human history 🎲⠀
⠀
Gaming with dice has been a popular pastime in India for millennia, with this object dating back to 2500–1900 BCE.
🎲 Terracotta Die, 2500–1900 BCE. 2 x 2 x 2 cm. EAMd.25
⠀
Gaming with dice has been a popular pastime in India for millennia, with this object dating back to 2500–1900 BCE.
🎲 Terracotta Die, 2500–1900 BCE. 2 x 2 x 2 cm. EAMd.25
Happy Thanksgiving y'all, please enjoy this wonderful watercolor of a flock of turkeys by Dutch artist and bird enthusiast Theo van Hoytema (1863-1917), painted in 1892 (Rijksmuseum RP-T-1965-343)
November 27, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Happy Thanksgiving y'all, please enjoy this wonderful watercolor of a flock of turkeys by Dutch artist and bird enthusiast Theo van Hoytema (1863-1917), painted in 1892 (Rijksmuseum RP-T-1965-343)
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
The Internet Archive just released tens of thousands of seed catalogs, spanning over two centuries!
They are both lovely and interesting. Check them out!
archive.org/details/usda...
🗃️ #c18th #c19th #c20th #illustration
They are both lovely and interesting. Check them out!
archive.org/details/usda...
🗃️ #c18th #c19th #c20th #illustration
November 26, 2025 at 8:45 PM
The Internet Archive just released tens of thousands of seed catalogs, spanning over two centuries!
They are both lovely and interesting. Check them out!
archive.org/details/usda...
🗃️ #c18th #c19th #c20th #illustration
They are both lovely and interesting. Check them out!
archive.org/details/usda...
🗃️ #c18th #c19th #c20th #illustration
A Safavid era scribe with the tools of the trade array at his feet, 17th c. probably (Rijksmuseum RP-T-1993-463-(R)):
November 27, 2025 at 3:42 AM
A Safavid era scribe with the tools of the trade array at his feet, 17th c. probably (Rijksmuseum RP-T-1993-463-(R)):
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
November 26, 2025 at 11:49 PM
This newly released study- which alas costs $120 for the print and electronic editions both- looks incredibly interesting and very much up my proverbial alley:
November 27, 2025 at 12:02 AM
This newly released study- which alas costs $120 for the print and electronic editions both- looks incredibly interesting and very much up my proverbial alley:
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
🌐 Multilateralism from below: building people power.
📢Learn how social movements, Indigenous Peoples & civil society groups challenge structural power imbalances from the local to international level in the latest FIAN International newsletter.
📄 shorturl.at/D5q8j
#agroecology #foodsovereignty
📢Learn how social movements, Indigenous Peoples & civil society groups challenge structural power imbalances from the local to international level in the latest FIAN International newsletter.
📄 shorturl.at/D5q8j
#agroecology #foodsovereignty
November 19, 2025 at 8:18 AM
🌐 Multilateralism from below: building people power.
📢Learn how social movements, Indigenous Peoples & civil society groups challenge structural power imbalances from the local to international level in the latest FIAN International newsletter.
📄 shorturl.at/D5q8j
#agroecology #foodsovereignty
📢Learn how social movements, Indigenous Peoples & civil society groups challenge structural power imbalances from the local to international level in the latest FIAN International newsletter.
📄 shorturl.at/D5q8j
#agroecology #foodsovereignty
Turns out the "ordo amoris" for these folks encompasses exactly one person and that's their own shrunken depraved selves
“After Ferreira was detained, Dos Santos Rodrigues said Michael Leavitt Sr. and his father, Bob Leavitt, reached out to her.”
“‘They just kept saying, ‘Tell her to self-deport,’” she recalled. “Self-deport to where? Brazil is not her home.’” www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/26/m...
“‘They just kept saying, ‘Tell her to self-deport,’” she recalled. “Self-deport to where? Brazil is not her home.’” www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/26/m...
‘Brazil is not her home.’ Mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, brought to US as child, detained by ICE. - The Boston Globe
Bruna Ferreira, 33, was brought to the United States as a child in 1998. She is now in removal proceedings in Louisiana.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Turns out the "ordo amoris" for these folks encompasses exactly one person and that's their own shrunken depraved selves
On the construction and practice of "ordinary" Islam through the lens of one eighteenth century Ottoman traveler and his encounter with a rather unusual saint's shrine in Homs:
At the Tomb of Bābā 'Amr in Homs
A Glimpse at Early Modern Ottoman Islam
jonathanparkesallen.substack.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:39 AM
On the construction and practice of "ordinary" Islam through the lens of one eighteenth century Ottoman traveler and his encounter with a rather unusual saint's shrine in Homs:
Couple of fliers I put together today that might be useful to some of y'all: l., a definition of food sovereignty from La Via Campesina (made this one for our local DSA ecosocialism working group), r., a passage from French personalist philosopher Emmanuel Mounier on his understanding of socialism:
November 26, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Couple of fliers I put together today that might be useful to some of y'all: l., a definition of food sovereignty from La Via Campesina (made this one for our local DSA ecosocialism working group), r., a passage from French personalist philosopher Emmanuel Mounier on his understanding of socialism:
I drive just about every other day along the base of Missionary Ridge where this charge began, to be honest most of the time it barely registers that such a momentous historical event took place on land now marked by streets and neighborhoods and brush-choked woods
#OTD in 1863, 23,000 Union Troops storm Missionary Ridge in one of the all time epic charges in American military history decisively routing Confederate forces and opening the literal and symbolic “Gateway to the South” (1
November 25, 2025 at 11:25 PM
I drive just about every other day along the base of Missionary Ridge where this charge began, to be honest most of the time it barely registers that such a momentous historical event took place on land now marked by streets and neighborhoods and brush-choked woods
Just came across for the first time the work of Dutch artist Julie de Graag ( 1877-1924), what a beautiful and sensitive body of work! These selections are from the extensive holdings of the Rijksmuseum:
November 25, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Just came across for the first time the work of Dutch artist Julie de Graag ( 1877-1924), what a beautiful and sensitive body of work! These selections are from the extensive holdings of the Rijksmuseum:
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
📚 New on the blog!
@arezouazad.bsky.social rediscovers Bamiyan’s medieval archives, revealing a diverse, literate and interconnected Islamicate society in Afghanistan.
Have a read:
@arezouazad.bsky.social rediscovers Bamiyan’s medieval archives, revealing a diverse, literate and interconnected Islamicate society in Afghanistan.
Have a read:
The Warehouse of Bamiyan: Q&A with Arezou Azad - Edinburgh University Press Blog
Arezou Azad rediscovers Bamiyan’s medieval archives, revealing a diverse, literate and interconnected Islamicate society in Afghanistan.
edin.ac
November 25, 2025 at 1:31 PM
📚 New on the blog!
@arezouazad.bsky.social rediscovers Bamiyan’s medieval archives, revealing a diverse, literate and interconnected Islamicate society in Afghanistan.
Have a read:
@arezouazad.bsky.social rediscovers Bamiyan’s medieval archives, revealing a diverse, literate and interconnected Islamicate society in Afghanistan.
Have a read:
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
A personal exploration by @jparkesallen.bsky.social of barriers of different sorts that prevent us from benefiting from the natural abundance so often within reach:
Cracking the Black Walnut
A Personal Confession
foodforestschattanooga.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:36 PM
A personal exploration by @jparkesallen.bsky.social of barriers of different sorts that prevent us from benefiting from the natural abundance so often within reach:
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
Fifty years after his death, Francisco Franco is being rehabilitated in Spain.
Writing from Extremadura in our spring issue, Troy Nahumko surveys the social and political battles still being waged over the dictatorship, with jarring parallels to Trump’s own war on historical memory:
Writing from Extremadura in our spring issue, Troy Nahumko surveys the social and political battles still being waged over the dictatorship, with jarring parallels to Trump’s own war on historical memory:
Kill It with Fire - Boston Review
In Spain, ultra-nationalist efforts to rehabilitate Franco extend the global right’s war on memory.
www.bostonreview.net
November 22, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Fifty years after his death, Francisco Franco is being rehabilitated in Spain.
Writing from Extremadura in our spring issue, Troy Nahumko surveys the social and political battles still being waged over the dictatorship, with jarring parallels to Trump’s own war on historical memory:
Writing from Extremadura in our spring issue, Troy Nahumko surveys the social and political battles still being waged over the dictatorship, with jarring parallels to Trump’s own war on historical memory:
Overheard this evening my eight year old son talking with his little sister about how reading about colonialism makes him sad, which sounds like something the child of a user of this app would say quite honestly
November 25, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Overheard this evening my eight year old son talking with his little sister about how reading about colonialism makes him sad, which sounds like something the child of a user of this app would say quite honestly
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
actually a bigger estimate for the amount of potential food production than I'd have guessed. add the fact that you can use some of these to make solar panels even more effective and you've got a winner imo
November 24, 2025 at 6:40 PM
actually a bigger estimate for the amount of potential food production than I'd have guessed. add the fact that you can use some of these to make solar panels even more effective and you've got a winner imo
I think smallholding farms, part-time home growers, and similar things should be part of a larger mosaic of de-commodified agroecology that is made up of many overlapping and mutually supportive pieces and actors- a mosaic that is doable, we're doing something along such lines here in Chattanooga
New post where I push a little bit further on my previous writing on agroecology being a project of class suicide and why this means small privately-owned farms are not the vehicle of change for agroecology as too often supposed
thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/towards-an...
thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/towards-an...
Towards an agroecological theory of change
Small, privately-owned farms and localised markets can never achieve agroecology, therefore the movement needs a new strategy.
thestruggleforland.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:46 PM
I think smallholding farms, part-time home growers, and similar things should be part of a larger mosaic of de-commodified agroecology that is made up of many overlapping and mutually supportive pieces and actors- a mosaic that is doable, we're doing something along such lines here in Chattanooga
A fiery excerpt from St. Basil the Great's homily on today's Gospel reading, Luke 16:12-21 (the rich man who tears down his barns so as to build new ones):
November 23, 2025 at 11:35 PM
A fiery excerpt from St. Basil the Great's homily on today's Gospel reading, Luke 16:12-21 (the rich man who tears down his barns so as to build new ones):
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
Kavanaugh stop. Smashed the kid’s car windows and arrested him. He told them he was a U.S. citizen. The officer replied “I don’t care.”
www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...
www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...
High school senior, a U.S. citizen, detained by ICE in Oregon
The 17-year-old was held more than five hours Friday in an ICE facility, his brother said.
www.oregonlive.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Kavanaugh stop. Smashed the kid’s car windows and arrested him. He told them he was a U.S. citizen. The officer replied “I don’t care.”
www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...
www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...
Maybe I'll end up being wrong about this but it really does feel like the last couple of years or so almost everyone across the world and the political spectrum has largely decided to ignore climate change, taking a kind of "if we don't look it can't hurt us" kind of attitude
Oil Producers, but Maybe Not the Planet, Get a Win as Climate Talks End
www.nytimes.com
November 22, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Maybe I'll end up being wrong about this but it really does feel like the last couple of years or so almost everyone across the world and the political spectrum has largely decided to ignore climate change, taking a kind of "if we don't look it can't hurt us" kind of attitude
“round [Earth] committed”
November 22, 2025 at 6:19 PM
“round [Earth] committed”
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
Folks, Zohran Mamdani—smart guy, reminds me of a young me—you know what he said, I told him, “Zohran, I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna say the shahada,” and he said to me “Mr. President, you should say a third line confirming your belief in the wilayat of Ali,” should we do it folks? Should we say it?
November 22, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Folks, Zohran Mamdani—smart guy, reminds me of a young me—you know what he said, I told him, “Zohran, I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna say the shahada,” and he said to me “Mr. President, you should say a third line confirming your belief in the wilayat of Ali,” should we do it folks? Should we say it?