Jonathan Parkes Allen
@jparkesallen.bsky.social
720 followers 660 following 480 posts
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
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Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
akpress.org
This week’s Distro Highlight:
We Are Still Here: An Anthology of Resilience, Grief, and Unshattered Hope from Gaza’s University Students edited by Zahid Pranjol & Jacob Norris

We Are Still Here is an anthology of these voices—raw, unfiltered, and courageous.
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Final section details the origin of various Navajo clans, some of whom are described as being "originally" Navajo and having traveled south and east in the main body of people, but many are from all sorts of other groups, some Athabaskan speaking but others not even remotely linguistically related
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Picked this book up at Aztec Ruins National Monument a couple weeks back and started reading it the next day while hanging out in an early 18th century Navajo pueblito, just finished it this evening. Super rich and complex text, the fluidity of identity among the emergent Diné is especially striking
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Going to try and do dinner tomorrow based entirely on foods we're growing that were originally cultivated/gathered by Indigenous peoples of the Americas, should not be especially hard to pull off, we've got a really nice range growing right now
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Big ol clump of Jerusalem artichoke tubers, all from one plant, pulled up while harvesting a bucket's worth today (from a single strip of one of the Jerusalem artichoke beds, they are insanely prolific plants!)
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Every time I watch steam locomotives at work it feels like looking at an alternative trajectory of industrial modernity that maybe we could have taken but ultimately decided to forego and it's just too bad
jparkesallen.bsky.social
We're very lucky to have steam locomotive excursions run a few times a year on the short line railroad through our area, including a couple hundred yards from our house (this shot is from a friend's farm a couple miles down the line), no transportation technology will probably ever be so beautiful
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
joshuaeakle.com
In Chicago, four vehicles descended and eight ICE agents moved in to kidnap a child.

She screams, “I’m 15,” as ICE yanks her from the car and kneels on her neck.

This is not about immigration enforcement.

It's about terrorizing Americans.
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Had never helped put on a festival before and while we had a few snags- some of our vendors who had signed up didn't show, we got started a little too early, could have used a little more publicity- everyone had an excellent time, especially the kids
foodforestchatt.bsky.social
Our Fall Forward Fest was a success! Thank you to everyone who helped make it possible and everyone who came out on what turned out to be just about as beautiful a fall day as anyone could ask for!
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Picking peppers in the morning dew
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
openiti.bsky.social
After a hiatus in (remembering to) record and post our Friday sessions, we've gotten back on track with our recording and uploading to our YouTube channel, so if you miss a Friday Persian session you can follow along later! Have a look at this week's session:
Safīnat al-baḥr al-muḥīṭ Reading Group: Sharḥ-i asmāʾ-i ḥusná, continued
YouTube video by OpenITI Project
www.youtube.com
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Autumn flowers are just the best
jparkesallen.bsky.social
It's almost the inverse of modern concern about assimilation, which is rooted in anxiety of minorities *not* coming to resemble the majority! Really quite the wild switch from "Everyone in a polity shouldn't all be alike" to "The nation must be as homogeneous as possible"...
jparkesallen.bsky.social
و تِراشِمْ قطيفده صُو
باشنده دره کنارنده دفن اتدم و شامده بر کرّه تراش اولدم تراشم بربر دكّاننده
براقدم شامڭ تراشى دخى لطيف ايدى و دخى بو دفن اتدوكم تراش
jparkesallen.bsky.social
From this week's Monday Ottoman Turkish manuscript reading group: our (so far) anonymous traveler describes cutting his hair and burying it (to avoid sorcery etc) on a river bank north of Damascus, which reminds him of the quite nice barbershop haircut he got in Damascus during his sojourn there:
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Fantastic depiction of the Tophane Fountain- and activities around it- in Beyoğlu, built under Sultan Mahmud I in 1732, seen here as it appeared in the 1820s. Etching and aquatint with hand coloring by R.G. Reeve after a drawing (watercolor possibly) by the British artist William Page (V&A SP.443):
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Closest I can think of is the idea of one people coming to resemble (described using derivatives of شبه) other people in terms of dress (primarily), but this doesn't entail language or religion etc change (hence the anxiety often expressed over it), closer to what I think we'd call cultural exchange
jparkesallen.bsky.social
There are five language *families* represented among the Puebloan peoples of New Mexico today, certainly reflecting a similar and perhaps even more diverse situation in the ancient past; they've remained distinct while also showing many signs of interaction, sharing, etc, it's really quite striking
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
openiti.bsky.social
"[T]he initiative will provide free, global access to a constantly expanding body of classical and modern Persian texts. The project will also partner with institutions to help safeguard thousands of at-risk manuscripts and rare books from collections in India, Pakistan and beyond."
Roshan Institute to Establish Persian Digital Library | Maryland Today
Supported by $1.8M Private Gift, Project Will Be First of Its Kind
today.umd.edu
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Homilies at our parish are not usually overtly political but this morning the priest giving the homily just straight up called out racism, ethnonationalism, antisemitism, nationalism, and all forms of dehumanizing ideology as contrary to Christ, really brought the fire today
Reposted by Jonathan Parkes Allen
dlknowles.bsky.social
I visited the apartment building ICE raided on Tuesday today. Story to come, but you can walk right in. Half of the apartments have no doors on them. Children's stuff abandoned in some flats. *Citizen* residents told me they were arrested and held for hours in zipties. This is America
jparkesallen.bsky.social
Fall is just starting to come to the Cumberland Plateau, you love to see it
jparkesallen.bsky.social
like how the dragon has a mutant third wing and limb because he's an AI generated freak