Podcasts about Levantine

A massive new Greek- and Levantine-influenced restaurant on the riverfront is without question one of the hottest reservations in Chicago. In this episode, host David Manilow talks with the owners of Naia, Luke Stoioff and David Rekhson of DineAmic Hospitality, who are also partners in spots such as Lyra, Fioretta and Siena Tavern. Hear why their vision for Naia on the Chicago River took more than a decade to complete. Plus, Stoioff and Rekhson share news about their newly re-opened steakhouse Prime & Provisions. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chef Wadad Zarzour, co-founder of Doughbai, joins Tiffany Eslick for week 8 of The Chef's Counter. Doughbai is one of Dubai's favourite neighbourhood bistros that's built around the art of slow fermentation sourdough, and delicious Levantine flavours.For The Chef's Counter, Chef Wadad is bringing Doughbai's trio of dips to Spinneys — their signature hand-strained labneh and feta with za'atar, jalapeno & walnuts, the sundried tomato, olives & walnut dip, and the muhamara.The Chef's Counter micro-series is an extension of our in-store initiative to support the chefs and food entrepreneurs shaping the UAE's dining scene.

Historian, author and Britain Palestine Project patron William Dalrymple opens the Recognition is the Beginning conference with a sweeping exploration of Palestinian history, identity and Britain's historic role in the region.Drawing on archaeology, genetics, historical records and personal testimony, Dalrymple challenges narratives that deny Palestinian continuity and traces the story of Palestine from the Bronze Age to the present day. Beginning with the story of the village of Isdud (modern-day Ashdod), he examines how communities endured for millennia before being displaced during the Nakba of 1948.The keynote explores:The historical continuity of Palestinian communities over more than 3,000 years.Archaeological and genetic evidence linking modern Palestinians to ancient Levantine populations.The shared ancestral heritage of Palestinians and many Israeli Jews.The origins and enduring history of the name “Palestine” from the Bronze Age to today.Palestine's role as a centre of trade, culture, religion and scholarship throughout antiquity and the medieval world.The impact of the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate on Palestinian self-determination.Britain's historic and contemporary responsibilities regarding Palestine.Why recognition of Palestine is only a starting point and must be accompanied by meaningful action.Dalrymple argues that understanding the depth of Palestinian history is essential to understanding the present crisis and to building a future based on justice, accountability and equal rights. He concludes by reflecting on the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the importance of transforming recognition into practical support for Palestinian self-determination.This keynote was recorded at the Britain Palestine Project annual conference, Recognition is the Beginning, held at the Greenwood Theatre, London, on 2 June 2026.William Dalrymple is an award-winning historian, broadcaster and bestselling author whose books include The Anarchy, The Last Mughal, White Mughals and From the Holy Mountain. He is co-host of the hugely popular Empire podcast and a patron of the Britain Palestine Project. His current research focuses on the history of Palestine from the Neolithic period to the Nakba.

In this episode, we're offering something a bit different from our usual fare. This is an orientation to our beginning Levantine Arabic course: Phase 1. We're offering this for folks who are studying Arabic at Shababeek as a refresher for what to expect in Phase 1. However, if you're not learning Arabic with us, this episode will give you a good basis for practical steps, and expectations, to learning any language. In the episode, Jennifer references our Arabic Alphabet video with Levantine words as examples. You can find that here: Arabic Alphabet in Levantine Dialect.If you're interested in studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan, or from anywhere in the world with Shababeek, you can contact us here for more information.

fWotD Episode 3300: Sursock bronze Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Monday, 18 May 2026, is Sursock bronze.The Sursock bronze, also known as the Sursock statuette, is a gilded bronze sculptural group of Jupiter Heliopolitanus (Heliopolitan Jupiter) dating to the second century AD. The work is a miniature of the cult statue of the god as it stood in the Great Temple of Baalbek, Lebanon, around the mid‑second century AD. Measuring 38.4 centimeters (15.1 in) in height, the bronze stands on a small cubic base flanked by a pair of young bulls, with the entire group resting on a larger rectangular plinth. Jupiter Heliopolitanus is a syncretic supreme deity who was venerated in the Great Temple of Baalbek, the largest sanctuary in the Roman world, renowned for its oracular activity.The statuette shows the god as a beardless youth wearing a kalathos, a basket-shaped hat, and an ependytes, a close-fitting dress, under ornate armor. This full body covering features busts of seven deities associated with celestial bodies, arranged in rectangular registers. From top left to bottom right, these are: Sol and Luna, the deities of the Sun and the Moon, respectively; Mars and Mercury in the next row down; followed by Jupiter and his consort Juno (replacing Venus, consistent with ancient Greek and Latin sources associating Venus' celestial light with Juno); and Saturn. Four-pointed stars are depicted beside Mars, Mercury, and Saturn to signify their planetary nature, whereas Venus is accompanied by two stars symbolizing her dual aspects as the "morning" and "evening star".The statuette also features a winged solar disc above the armor busts and a lion's head above Jupiter's bare feet. On the front of the small pedestal stands Tyche holding a cornucopia, and stylized thunderbolt motifs adorn the sides of the armor. The Sursock bronze illustrates the syncretism and fusion of Canaanite, Greek, and Roman elements, showing how Jupiter Heliopolitanus evolved from the Canaanite Baal-Hadad into a cosmic deity associated with planetary order and prophecy.The piece is named after Charles Sursock, its former owner. Originally gilded, much of the gold has worn away. The bronze was likely damaged in antiquity, perhaps by Christian iconoclasts; it was later restored and is now the centerpiece of the Louvre's Roman Levant collection in Paris. In 1920, René Dussaud, Deputy Curator of the Department of Oriental Antiquities, selected it to inaugurate the first issue of Syria, the leading French journal of Levantine archaeology.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:14 UTC on Monday, 18 May 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Sursock bronze on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Danielle.

Hello Interactors,Neuroscience research on narrative shows that stories sharpen attention, improve recall, and recruit shared brain networks that help us organize events into a coherent arc. The trouble, for anyone who works with spatial data, is that the reality on the ground refuses to cooperate with clean narratives despite this inherent bias. Today I look at how the popular telling of how Homo sapiens came to contemplate such things — to become ‘modern' — is not the story the evidence keeps telling.THE LURE OF THE LEAPWe like our origin stories well defined. The popular telling — the Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens is the bestselling version — locates a moment when archaic humans crossed a threshold and became modern, transformed by some neurological windfall in Africa. But a recent paper by anthropologist Huw Groucutt on Homo sapiens dispersal argues this says more about Homo sapiens' neurological bias toward clean narratives than about the evidence we have.This ‘revolution into modern' frame has traceable historical roots. In the 1960s and 70s, the only deeply excavated record was in a western sliver of the Eurasian landmass called Europe. There, the transition from Neanderthal to Homo sapiens congregations did look abrupt. It was reasonable, given what was known at the time, to read this regional shift as a species-wide threshold — a sudden flowering of cognition and culture. But that reading was a misinterpretation. What Europe records is not a transformation but a replacement where one population arrived as another receded. The arc of change was migration, not metamorphosis.That correction took hold, but the ‘revolution' story, like the species, simply relocated. There would be a coastal revolution in southern Africa, a cognitive revolution in the Rift Valley, a technological revolution in the Levant. The plot survived even as the setting changed.The deeper trouble lies with the word “modern” itself. It is a relic of mid-twentieth-century thinking that anchors humanity to an imagined ethnographic checklist: symbolic art, refined toolkits, complex burials, linguistic competence. These traits are taken to constitute a package, and the package is taken to arrive together. But the evidence keeps refusing this neatness. The traits show up in pulses across regions and disappear again. They appear in populations we have been trained to call “archaic.” They fail to coordinate the way the model demands, and as Groucutt says, provide just“another way of separating ‘us' and ‘them'.”For example at Panga ya Saidi in coastal Kenya, excavators recovered the burial of a child known as Mtoto dated to around 78,000 years ago. It is among the oldest deliberate burials known from Africa, and the kind of behavior usually slotted under “modernity.” Yet there is no continent-wide adoption of similar mortuary practice that follows from it. Burial complexity at Panga ya Saidi appears, then thins, then reappears elsewhere on different terms. It looks less like the leading edge of a wave and more like a local response to local conditions.A second example pulls in the opposite direction. The Iho Eleru skull, recovered in 1965 from a rock shelter in Nigeria, is roughly 13,000 years old — geologically yesterday — yet preserves features that morphologists have long called “archaic.” It refuses to sit in the bin its date implies. The bone is doing something the category cannot absorb.The cost of the revolution model, then, is not that it tells a tidy story. It is that the tidiness encourages researchers to treat their categories as facts of nature rather than instruments of description. Evidence that does not fit the frame gets explained away or quietly set aside. When you stop asking when our ancestors became human and start asking how, across thousands of generations and a shifting climate, particular behaviors were assembled and reassembled in particular places, the data reads very differently.This point is not new. In 2000, Sally McBrearty and Alison Brooks published a paper titled “The revolution that wasn't,” arguing that the complex behaviors taken to define modernity in Europe had appeared in Africa tens of thousands of years earlier, and gradually rather than in a single burst. That correction is over twenty-five years old. The fact that revolution thinking has persisted despite it — and persisted most loudly in popular accounts that sell in the tens of millions — is itself worth taking seriously. Models, like fossils, accumulate where the conditions are right for preservation.The trait-list at the heart of “modernity” is a fragile instrument in its own right. Many of the behaviors taken to mark our species are anchored to ethnographic data on recent hunter-gatherer societies, assumed to provide a baseline for what fully human cultural life looks like. Those datasets have well-known problems; when the archaeologist Robert Kelly examined a portion of Lewis Binford's widely used hunter-gatherer compilation in 2021, he was able to confirm the accuracy of only one percent of the entries. The benchmark we have been measuring the deep past against is, in places, made of sand.PATHS, NOT PIVOTSFor anyone who works with spatial data, the revolution model has a second problem. It ignores the terrain. A revolution, mapped, would look like an expanding circle radiating from a source — like a wildfire expanding from a single ignition point. Human dispersal looks nothing like that. It moves along corridors, hesitates at barriers, doubles back, fragments around resources. It is shaped by climate cycles that open and close routes on millennial timescales. The footprint is irregular because the ground is irregular.Groucutt's argument benefits from a concept that geographers and geomorphologists know well: equifinality. The same observed outcome can result from different processes. A bowl-shaped depression on a hillside can be carved by a glacier, scooped by a landslide, or eroded by a spring undercutting from below. The shape alone does not tell you which. Read the depression as a single signature of a single cause, and you will misjudge its history.The same caution applies to the deep human past. A scatter of similar tool types across regions does not necessarily document a single dispersing population with a shared cognitive package. It may document several populations independently arriving at similar solutions to similar pressures. A flicker of symbolic behavior in two distant places does not imply continuous transmission between them. The archaeological record is dense with cases where the simplest explanation — one cause, one origin — turns out to be the wrong one.A telling example of how revolution thinking distorts spatial evidence comes from a long-running argument about the Levantine sites occupied by Homo sapiens between roughly 130,000 and 75,000 years ago — Skhul, Qafzeh, and others. Did these represent a genuine out-of-Africa dispersal, or were they merely an extension of African ecology into Southwest Asia? In the latter view, our species was so tightly coupled to its native biome that early presence beyond Africa was a kind of optical illusion. One prominent researcher has argued that Israel is outside Africa “only by modern political convention.”But the Levantine mammal fauna of this period is dominated by Palearctic species — deer, gazelle, boar — and has been since at least the Middle Pleistocene. The supposed African flourish at Qafzeh shrinks under examination to a few rare elements, some of them present in the region long before Homo sapiens arrived. “Africa grew” is what the revolution model looks like when biogeography becomes inconvenient. Rather than accept that early Homo sapiens dispersed beyond the continent before achieving full “modernity,” the frame extends the boundary of “Africa” to wherever the species happens to be. The terrain bends to match the model.This is where genomic evidence becomes interesting and dangerous in roughly equal measure. Ancient DNA has transformed what can be reconstructed about population structure, and the resolution is genuinely impressive. But the analytic culture around that data has often defaulted to event-style narratives: a bottleneck here, a split there, a discrete mixture of pulses at a specific date. These tidy events, plotted on a tree, recover the satisfactions of the revolution at a different scale. They imply that the past has crisp joints, making“claims for events which never actually occurred.”The caution Groucutt raises is that population structure across the deep African past was probably continuous, regionally varied, and persistently interconnected — closer to a braided river than a branching tree. Apparent “events” in the genetic record may be artifacts of how the analysis is framed rather than discrete moments in time. Treating them as facts encourages claims of historical specificity the underlying signal cannot bear. Equifinality applies to genomes too. Different histories of structure and gene flow can produce overlapping statistical signatures.What follows, methodologically, is a shift in what models are expected to do. Instead of identifying the moment, the route, or the founding population, the task becomes mapping a field of overlapping processes whose visibility varies by region, by preservation, and by the history of where archaeologists have chosen to dig. That is a less satisfying answer than a date and a place, but it's closer to what the evidence supports.MANY CLOCKS, MANY PASTS, MANY THREADSThe physicist Carlo Rovelli, in The Order of Time, makes an observation that time is not a universal river running at one rate everywhere. It is local and relational. This is not intuitive but matches reality. Atomic clocks at different elevations tick at measurably different rates because gravity dilates time. There is no master clock against which “now” is defined for the whole universe.The revolution model assumes the opposite. It imagines a master clock striking modernity for the species at a particular moment — perhaps in East Africa, perhaps a hundred thousand years ago, perhaps fifty — after which a transformed humanity disperses outward. The image is compelling because it is simple. It is also, as a model of history, incongruent with reality. The record Groucutt reviews shows differently timed histories running in parallel across Africa, Arabia, Eurasia, and Sahul, with regional sequences that do not synchronize. There is no single instant at which the species, taken as a whole, became what it now is. There are only many local trajectories that we have, in retrospect, gathered under one name.One sign that the revolution frame is still doing harm is that the three main streams of evidence — fossil morphology, archaeology, and ancient DNA — currently tell stories that do not align. The dispersal chronology reconstructed from genetic data alone is not the dispersal chronology of the lithic archaeology of northern Eurasia, and neither matches the fossil record of Asia and Sahul. These are not minor discrepancies at the margins. They are different shapes of history. The temptation, encountering this, is to declare one stream definitive and explain the others away. The harder course is to take the disagreement as evidence. What it is telling us is that the histories these methods recover are partial, regionally weighted, and pitched at different temporal resolutions. There is no master clock available to bring them into sync because there was never a master event for them to be synchronized to.This is closer to what might be called emplacement than to revolution. Homo sapiens did not arrive in time as a finished product and then unfold into space. The species emerged through space — through specific landscapes, specific corridors, specific neighbors — and continued to be shaped by them long after any putative threshold. Cognition, technology, and social practice were not delivered together and then carried outward. They were assembled, lost, and reassembled in different combinations under different pressures. Whatever it is that we now point to as the human condition is the cumulative residue of that long, polycentric making. In Groucutt's terms, they are“polycentric and mosaic.”Letting go of the revolution story is uncomfortable because it removes the heroic frame that has organized so much storytelling about ourselves. There is no founding spark, no anointed lineage, no first true human. What remains is harder to compress into a sentence. It is also more honest, and more interesting. The work ahead — for archaeologists, geneticists, geographers, and anyone who builds models of the deep past — is to map the complexity of the terrain rather than identify a single point. To trace the connections that hold the picture together rather than the moment at which the picture was supposedly painted.The mosaic is no runner-up to the revolution. It is the record itself — rough, regional, and real. We need only learn to read it.References:Groucutt, H. S. (2026). Revolution, modernity, and the dispersal of Homo sapiens beyond Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io

In 701 BCE, Assyrian king Sennacherib launched his western campaign against Judah, bringing him into direct conflict with King Hezekiah and the political counsel of the prophet Isaiah. The decisive field battle of that year was not at Jerusalem, but at Eltekeh, where Assyrian troops defeated an Egyptian and Kushite force sent to support the rebellious Philistine city of Ekron.This episode reconstructs the full 701 campaign from Assyrian annals and biblical accounts, beginning with the minor 702 operations in the Zagros mountains against Zamua, Parsua, and Ellipi, then following Sennacherib to the Phoenician coast. We cover the flight of Luli, king of Tyre, to Cyprus, the installation of Itobaal at Sidon, and the submission of eight Levantine rulers from Ashdod, Byblos, Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Arwad.We then turn to Philistia: the internal coup at Ashkelon, the Ekronite revolt that handed King Padi over to Hezekiah, and Sennacherib's restoration of Padi after the victory at Eltekeh. The episode explains why Jerusalem faced only a blockade rather than a full siege, examines Isaiah's advice against an Egyptian alliance, and considers the logistical, political, and possible epidemiological reasons Sennacherib withdrew with massive tribute but without taking the city.Music from the show: oldeststories.net/music (or search "Oldest Stories Music")Support the show:Books: https://a.co/d/7Wn4jhSDonate: oldeststories.netPatreon / YouTube members get bonus episodes: patreon.com/JamesBleckleyNo-AI readings of ancient texts: youtube.com/@osnightreading

Ever found yourself at a loss for words when an Arabic-speaking friend is going through something hard?In this episode we address one of the most relationally vital, yet overlooked parts of learning Arabic: how to comfort someone well. After our recent episode on expressing gratitude, many of you asked for this—and it's needed. Knowing vocabulary is one thing. Knowing what to say specifically when someone is suffering or in need of empathy—when it actually matters—is something else entirely.We're sharing more than 65 real Levantine Arabic expressions used to comfort those in situations of grief, stress, and hardship. Some will feel familiar. Others might surprise you. And a few may feel completely outside what you'd ever think to say—which is exactly the point of this episode.Along the way, Jenn discusses why comforting someone is so difficult in a second language, especially Arabic. You'll hear about “language transfer,” why direct translation in these situations so often falls flat, and how cultural difference shapes what counts as meaningful comfort and sympathy.This episode is best suited for intermediate to advanced Arabic learners. We won't translate every phrase word-for-word—instead, we focus on helping you understand what these expressions do and how they're felt by native speakers.If you want to sound more natural, more connected, and more emotionally present in Levantine Arabic during difficult moments, this episode will give you the conceptual tools—and the precise phrases—to start getting there.We recommend choosing a few specific phrases and going over them with your Arabic language coach, tutor or teacher. The full list of Levantine Arabic phrases is available on our website: shababeekcenter.com

This week, we take you to the National Folk Festival in Canberra, where we chat with three women from Dabke & Tatreez, a music and dance ensemble. Dabke & Tatreez formed in Sydney (Gadigal land) with musicians and dancers from, and with roots, in Palestine, Lebanon, Turkiye, Cyprus and Indonesia. We spoke with Ayse Shanal (Artists for Peace) and Hala & Hoor al-Sammak (Three Rivers Ensemble and Dahnoon Dabke) about resistance through music and culture in Palestine and the Levant. We also hear Dabke & Tatreez live at the 60th National Folk Festival, playing songs and tunes from a time that pre-dated 1948 and continues to this day in spite of Israeli occupation and blockade. 

The latest episode of Tin Foil Hat features Ernie LeBrecque exploring the hidden, esoteric roots of early America. The discussion touches on occult influences in the colonies, Masonic ties to the nation's founding—especially within the Scottish Rite—and possible connections to older Levantine mystery traditions. It also highlights Francis Bacon as a key figure in shaping these ideas, while framing Virginia as a center of early secret knowledge and alternative history.   Please subscribe to the new Tin Foil Hat youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@TinFoilHatYoutube Grab your copy of the 2nd issue of the Chaos Twins now and join the Army Of Chaos: https://bit.ly/415fDfY Check out Sam "DoomScrollin with Sam Tripoli and Midnight Mike" Every Tuesday At 4pm pst on Youtube, X Twitter, Rumble and Rokfin! Join the WolfPack at Wise Wolf Gold and Silver and start hedging your financial position by investing in precious metals now! Go to https://www.samtripoli.gold/ and use the promo code "TinFoil" and we thank Tony for supporting our show. CopyMyCrypto.com: The 'Copy my Crypto' membership site shows you the coins that the youtuber 'James McMahon' personally holds - and allows you to copy him. So if you'd like to join the 1300 members who copy James, then stop what you're doing and head over to: https://copymycrypto.com/tinfoilhat/ You'll not only find proof of everything I've said - but my listeners get full access for just $1 Grab Tickets To Sam Tripoli's Live Shows At SamTripoli.com: Hamilton, Canada: 4/16 Toronto, CA: 4/17-18 Dallas, TX: 4/24 Fort Worth, TX: 4/25 Austin, TX: (Live Taping Of My New Comedy Special) 5/22 Albuquerque, NM: 6/12-6/13 Austin, TX: The 100th Episode Of Tin Foil Hat 6/18 Lawerence, KS: 9/17-9/19 Tulsa, OK: 10/9-10/10 Austin, TX: 12/11-12/13   Please check out Word War Debate and the WordWarDebate Contenders Series: https://wordwardebate.com   Please check out Ernie LeBrecque's internet: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefdreadycrocker/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@VaConLoversPodcast Podcast: Virginia is for Conspiracy Lovers- https://bit.ly/4dBhqiY   Please check out Sam Tripoli's internet: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/samtripoli Sam Tripoli's Stand Up Youtube Page: https://www.youtube.com/@SamTripoliComedy  Sam Tripoli's Comedy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samtripolicomedy/%20P Sam Tripoli's Podcast Clip Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samtripolispodcastclips/ Please support our sponsors: Mint Mobile: Stop overpaying for wireless just because "that's how it's always been." Mint exists purely to fix that. Mint Mobile is here to rescue you with premium wireless plans starting at 15 bucks a month.  All plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network.  If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at MINT MOBILE dot com slash tinfoil. That's MINT MOBILE dot com slash tinfoil.   Helix Sleep: Helix is offering 20% off all mattress orders AND two free pillows for our listeners! Go to Helix Sleep dot com slash Tinfoil. That's helixsleep.com/tinfoil. This is their best offer yet and it won't last long! With Helix, better sleep starts now.    

3. Cline examines the varying fates of Egypt and emerging Levantine groups after the collapse. Egypt is described as "merely coping," struggling with internal anarchy and a delayed reaction to regional droughts while retreating from its previous international prominence. Conversely, the power vacuum allowed smaller entities like the Israelites and Philistines to flourish. Cline discusses the archaeological debate regarding whether the Israelites were local highland dwellers who transformed or external migrants. He also identifies the Philistines as part of the Sea Peoples, noting recent DNA evidence from Ashkelon that confirms their mixed ancestry and Mediterranean origins. (3)

If you want to sound natural in spoken Levantine Arabic, you need to use one small but powerful word: اللي (illi).In this episode, we break down how اللي (illi) works, why it's not optional, and address some of the most common mistakes Arabic learners make when using it.Episode emphases: • The 4 main functions of اللي (illi) in spoken Levantine Arabic• How it specifies people, places, and things• How it's used in generalizations (eg “whoever…”)• How to use it for emphasis (“It was X who…”)• Why you must repeat the pronoun after the verb• The 4 most common learner mistakes• When NOT to use اللي (illi)If you feel unsure about when and how to include اللي (illi) when speaking, this episode will give you clear explanations in English with examples in Levantine Arabic.Fluency doesn't come from memorizing rules alone. It comes from noticing patterns, collecting examples, and practicing them intentionally.Good Arabic learners are good observers.

Support the Podcast! Nominate The History of Cyprus Podcast for the 2026 CYDIA Award: https://www.cyprusdiasporaforum.com/nominate  Cypro-Minoan is an undeciphered syllabic script in use during the Late Bronze Age, offering a rare glimpse into a local writing tradition at the crossroads of Aegean, Levantine, and Anatolian exchange. In this episode, Cassandra Donnelly breaks down what we do know about Cypro-Minoan—from its discovery and visual features to its possible uses in trade and identity. We explore the difference between script and language, discuss the curious appearance of single-sign texts, and examine how writing may have been taught “on the job” by merchants rather than in scribal schools. Donnelly explains how the writing system's survival during the broader Bronze Age collapse reveals something unique about Cyprus' decentralized social structure. We also dig into how early 20th-century archaeological ideologies shaped assumptions about ethnicity and literacy on the island. 

How do you say thank you in Arabic? Saying shukran is just the beginning. In this episode of Tips for Learning Levantine Arabic, recorded in Amman, Jordan, Jennifer takes you far beyond the basic “thank you” and into the rich world of Levantine expressions of appreciation.Arabic is full of مجاملة (mujāmaleh)—social expressions that communicate gratitude, warmth, respect, and relationship. While learners often rely on شكرًا (shukran) as the safest option, native speakers rarely do. Instead, they choose phrases that fit the moment: whether someone served you tea, paid you a compliment, helped you avoid embarrassment, or saved the day.In this episode, you'll learn more than a dozen commonly used Levantine expressions for saying thank you—ranging from everyday phrases you'll hear constantly in Jordan, to heartfelt prayers of appreciation, to more formal expressions used with officials and elders.This episode addresses:Why when you use an expression matters more than its literal translationWhich phrases to use for service, compliments, favors, and formal settingsHow age, gender, and social context shape expressions of gratitudeWhy some “thank yous” function as prayers—and what they really communicateHow paying attention to gratitude exchanges can boost your Arabic learningWhether you're new to Arabic or have been learning for years, this episode will help you sound more natural, more culturally aware, and more relational in your everyday interactions.Sure, shukran will get you by—but why stop there?

Send us a textIn this unique conversation, Ricardo Karam meets Serge Brunst, the Lebanese designer who transformed his passion for art and beauty into an extraordinary journey between East and West. Born in Aleppo to a family of diverse roots Russian, Italian, and Levantine his experience has been shaped by the balance between belonging and identity, medicine and art, Beirut and Paris.Serge recounts his journey from medicine to design, reflecting on the pivotal moment that led him to step into the world of creativity. He shares memories of 1960s Beirut, a city of light and life, where he redefined Lebanese aesthetics through the design of palaces and iconic interiors, collaborating with leading architects and designers.He also speaks about his passion for collecting antiques and Orientalist art, his design philosophy that blends memory, beauty, and meaning, and offers advice to the new generation of designers, providing deep insights into the artistic and human legacy he leaves behind.Join Ricardo Karam and Serge Brunst in this conversation that chronicles the journey of a man who merged art, history, and identity, carving out a unique place for himself in both Lebanese and global design.في هذا الحوار الفريد بالتفاصيل، يلتقي ريكاردو كرم بـ سيرج برونست المصمم اللبناني الذي حوّل شغفه بالفن والجمال إلى رحلة استثنائية بين الشرق والغرب. وُلد في حلب لعائلة متعددة الجذور، روسية وإيطالية ومشرقية، وتجسدت تجربته بين الانتماء والهوية، بين الطب والفن، بين بيروت وباريس.يستعرض سيرج رحلته من الطب إلى التصميم، مستذكراً لحظة التحوّل التي قادته لترك الاختصاص والانطلاق إلى عالم الإبداع، وكيف كانت بيروت في الستينات مسرحاً للضوء والحياة، حيث أعاد تعريف الجمال اللبناني من خلال تصميم القصور والديكورات البارزة، ومشاركته مع كبار المعماريين والمصممين.كما يتحدث عن شغفه بجمع التحف والفن الاستشراقي، وعن فلسفته في التصميم التي تمزج بين الذكريات والجمال والمعنى، ويشارك نصائحه لجيل المصممين الشباب، مقدماً رؤية ثاقبة عن الإرث الفني والإنساني الذي يتركه وراءه.انضموا إلى ريكاردو كرم وسيرج برونست في هذا اللقاء الذي يوثّق رحلة رجل جمع بين الفن، التاريخ، والهوية، وصنع لنفسه مكاناً فريداً في عالم التصميم اللبناني والعالمي.

The editor's choice for 2025 is our 26 February podcast 'A small town in Lebanon' with George Kanaan. His book Beyond Lebanon's Peaks: An Odyssey is a fascinating memoir of a businessman and banker who though he has travelled the world in a storied career has never left behind Suq el-Gharb and his Levantine roots. In a wide ranging conversation he reflects on the book and on the current situation in Lebanon and what he calls Trump's 'cruel idea' for Gaza. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

In this fascinating episode, we sit down with Dr. Jamil Bayram, an ER physician, who has researched the origins of Levantine dialects, to uncover the deep historical layers embedded in the way we speak today. From the ancient shores of the Phoenicians to the bustling streets of Beirut, Damascus, Haifa, and Amman, our modern Levantine dialect carries echoes of civilizations that shaped the identity, culture, and sound of the region. Together, we explore: - What the Phoenician language really was and what we actually know about it - How Levantine dialect evolved and why it differs so markedly from other Arabic dialects - Words, expressions, and grammatical structures that may have Phoenician roots - How linguists reconstruct ancient languages and detect “linguistic DNA” - The core arguments and surprising findings from Dr. Bayram's upcoming book This episode is a deep dive into history, linguistics, identity, and culture, an exploration of how a language can carry the memory of thousands of years.

Listen all the way to the end for a special musical feature about Sargon II. This episode explores one of the most pivotal and least understood turning points in Neo-Assyrian history, examining the rise of a king whose origins, motives, and very name remain contested even after a century of scholarship. These are the Oldest Stories, available at OldestStories.net.In 722 BCE, Sargon II seized the Assyrian throne and entered an eighteen-year reign that forms the best-documented era of ancient Mesopotamian history. Yet for all his inscriptions and annals, Sargon himself remains an enigma. His parentage, early career, accession, and the meaning of his throne name are questions that continue to challenge scholars of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This episode delves deeply into the theories surrounding his origins, including newly translated inscriptions from Assur, shifting interpretations of his name from Sharru-Kenu to Sharru-Ukin, and the implications of his apparent disinterest in his own ancestry. From the ideological weight of throne names to the complexities of logosyllabic Akkadian spelling, we explore how philology, archaeology, and political history intersect to shape our understanding of this king.We also follow Sargon into the disastrous opening months of his reign: the unclear succession, the purge of thousands of internal opponents, the immediate loss of Babylon to Marduk-Apla-Iddina, the Levantine revolts, and the devastating defeat near Der at the hands of the Elamites. These events set the stage for a king on the brink of failure, navigating accusations of ill-omen, political chaos, and the danger of being overthrown before his first year had even ended. Yet they also reveal the moment in which Sargon's extraordinary administrative and logistical genius emerges, allowing him to rescue his reign and initiate the Sargonid Golden Age.Along the way, the episode examines the broader historical context of Chaldean and Elamite politics, Babylonian ritual ideology, the transformation of Assyrian year-dating from limmu officials to palu counts, and the evolving religious presentation of Assur's kingship. It traces the subtle theological and political shifts that distinguish Sargon from his predecessors, as well as the early strategic failures and last-minute decisions that determine the fate of the empire. The result is a comprehensive look at one of the most complex figures of the ancient Near East and the precarious moment at which Assyria's future hung in the balance.If you enjoy the episode, consider supporting the show on Patreon, becoming a YouTube member, or donating directly at OldestStories.net. Your support truly helps this project grow. Stay tuned through the end for the Sargon II musical piece, and subscribe to follow Sargon's campaigns as the imperial war machine finally roars to life in the next installment.I am also doing daily history facts again, at least until I run out of time again. You can find Oldest Stories daily on Tiktok and Youtube Shorts.If you like the show, consider sharing with your friends, leaving a like, subscribing, or even supporting financially:Buy the Oldest Stories books: https://a.co/d/7Wn4jhSDonate here: https://oldeststories.net/or on patreon: https://patreon.com/JamesBleckleyor on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCG2tPxnHNNvMd0VrInekaA/joinYoutube and Patreon members get access to bonus content about Egyptian culture and myths.

fWotD Episode 3111: Merenre Nemtyemsaf I Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Monday, 10 November 2025, is Merenre Nemtyemsaf I.Merenre Nemtyemsaf (meaning 'Beloved of Ra, Nemty is his protection') was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, fourth king of the Sixth Dynasty. He ruled Egypt for six to eleven years in the early 23rd century BC, toward the end of the Old Kingdom period. He was the son of his predecessor Pepi I Meryre and queen Ankhesenpepi I and was in turn succeeded by Pepi II Neferkare who might have been his son or less probably his brother. Pepi I may have shared power with Merenre in a co-regency at the very end of the former's reign.Merenre's rule saw profound changes in the administration of the southern provinces of Egypt, with a marked increase in the number of provincial administrators and a concurrent steep decline in the size of the central administration in the capital Memphis. As a consequence the provincial nobility became responsible for tax collection and resource management, gaining in political independence and economic power. This led to the first provincial burials for the highest officials including viziers, governors of Upper Egypt and nomarchs.Several trading and quarrying expeditions took place under Merenre, in particular to Nubia where caravans numbering hundreds of donkeys were sent to fetch incense, ebony, animal skins, ivory and exotic animals. Such was the interest in the region that Merenre had a canal dug to facilitate the navigation of the first cataract into Nubia. Trade with the Levantine coast for lapis lazuli, silver, bitumen, and tin took place while quarrying for granite, travertine and alabaster took place in the south and in the Eastern Desert.A pyramid complex was built for Merenre in Saqqara, known as Khanefermerenre by the Ancient Egyptians meaning 'the appearance of the perfection of Merenre' and likely completed prior to the king's death. The subterranean chambers were inscribed with the Pyramid Texts. In the burial chamber, the black basalt sarcophagus of the king still held a mummy when it was entered in the 19th century. The identification of the mummy as Merenre's is still uncertain. Following his death, Merenre was the object of a funerary cult until at least the end of the Old Kingdom. During the New Kingdom period, he was in a selection of past kings to be honoured.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:47 UTC on Monday, 10 November 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Merenre Nemtyemsaf I on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Joanna.

In this reboot of the Age of Crusades, we cover the Crusades poster boys (Levantine and Baltic)Voicemail:+49 64048030756

Ever had sumac in a cookie? Manna Bakery is popping up all over Philadelphia with Chef Saif Manna's beautiful and tasty treats. He joins Eli, Marisa and Dave in studio to reveal some of the more creative ingredients that go into his baked goods. He tells the story of his culinary journey tracing back to cooking with his grandma as a child, to launching Philly's first Levantine inspired baking pop-up and creating unique bites for special collabs with the city's most sought-after chefs.  Make sure you're following on Instagram for a special announcement this week about The Tasties: @deliciouscitypodcast  00:00 Leftovers and ‘soup genres' 07:39 Saif Manna of Manna Bakery 38:51 Best Bites: Saquon Barkley's steakhouse order, and a vegan burger 50:00 The Dish: Spooky spots and Michelin anticipation  And of course, we could not do this without our amazing partners who are as passionate about food and drink as we are: In the mood for fresh, fast and healthy? Then you need to be dialing up the Honeygrow App and ordering your favorite salad or noodles. And if you're a Sriracha lover, Honeygrow has just launched their seasonal Sriracha Tahini Stirfry. Use discount code TASTY to get $3 off any order of $15 or more did you order from the Honeygrow app. If your restaurant or company wants to be in the headlines for all the right reasons, click here to discover how Peter Breslow Consulting and PR can take your business to the next level Social media and digital content are two of the most important things you can create for your brand. Check out Breakdown Media, a one stop shop for all of your marketing needs.

An itsy bitsy seal impression with the name of a Biblical figure raises the perennial question, was Judah robust and bureaucratic, or was it tiny and only occasionally literate? How robust do little tiny statelets get anyway? More importantly, was king Josiah really the Brian Cashman of Levantine kings?

durée : 00:28:25 - Les Bonnes Choses - par : Caroline Broué - Noha Baz est pédiatre, autrice culinaire et fondatrice de l'association "Les Petits Soleils" à Beyrouth. Originaire de Syrie et du Liban, elle tisse des liens entre l'humanitaire, la santé, le goût et le plaisir gourmand avec une vitalité contagieuse. - réalisation : Jean-Christophe Francis - invités : Noha Baz Autrice culinaire et médecin pédiatre

durée : 00:28:25 - Les Bonnes Choses - par : Caroline Broué - Noha Baz est pédiatre, autrice culinaire et fondatrice de l'association "Les Petits Soleils" à Beyrouth. Originaire de Syrie et du Liban, elle tisse des liens entre l'humanitaire, la santé, le goût et le plaisir gourmand avec une vitalité contagieuse. - réalisation : Jean-Christophe Francis - invités : Noha Baz Autrice culinaire et médecin pédiatre

durée : 00:28:25 - Les Bonnes Choses - par : Caroline Broué - Noha Baz est pédiatre, autrice culinaire et fondatrice de l'association "Les Petits Soleils" à Beyrouth. Originaire de Syrie et du Liban, elle tisse des liens entre l'humanitaire, la santé, le goût et le plaisir gourmand avec une vitalité contagieuse. - réalisation : Jean-Christophe Francis - invités : Noha Baz Autrice culinaire et médecin pédiatre

Richard Doumani and Sam Isherwood speak to Ewan Proctor about the current export markets of interest for Australian wines and everything else occupying his mind at present in this world of wine. @thewineshowaustralia

Israeli Documentary Poetry: Coming of Age with the State introduces and explores documentary poetry written by Israeli poets who came of age during the first two decades of the state and who, since the 1970s and 1980s, have recorded their experiences of that period. This study offers a literary-cultural analysis of forty-two poems by thirty Israeli poets of various backgrounds, divided into themes such as: memories of the Holocaust and portraits of survivors and their offspring; transit locations and situations both en route to and within Israel; displacement as a shared fate of Jews and Arabs; school and classroom experiences; Mizraḥi women between Levantine patriarchy and Western liberalism; and languages of the diaspora versus Hebrew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Israeli Documentary Poetry: Coming of Age with the State introduces and explores documentary poetry written by Israeli poets who came of age during the first two decades of the state and who, since the 1970s and 1980s, have recorded their experiences of that period. This study offers a literary-cultural analysis of forty-two poems by thirty Israeli poets of various backgrounds, divided into themes such as: memories of the Holocaust and portraits of survivors and their offspring; transit locations and situations both en route to and within Israel; displacement as a shared fate of Jews and Arabs; school and classroom experiences; Mizraḥi women between Levantine patriarchy and Western liberalism; and languages of the diaspora versus Hebrew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

Israeli Documentary Poetry: Coming of Age with the State introduces and explores documentary poetry written by Israeli poets who came of age during the first two decades of the state and who, since the 1970s and 1980s, have recorded their experiences of that period. This study offers a literary-cultural analysis of forty-two poems by thirty Israeli poets of various backgrounds, divided into themes such as: memories of the Holocaust and portraits of survivors and their offspring; transit locations and situations both en route to and within Israel; displacement as a shared fate of Jews and Arabs; school and classroom experiences; Mizraḥi women between Levantine patriarchy and Western liberalism; and languages of the diaspora versus Hebrew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

Israeli Documentary Poetry: Coming of Age with the State introduces and explores documentary poetry written by Israeli poets who came of age during the first two decades of the state and who, since the 1970s and 1980s, have recorded their experiences of that period. This study offers a literary-cultural analysis of forty-two poems by thirty Israeli poets of various backgrounds, divided into themes such as: memories of the Holocaust and portraits of survivors and their offspring; transit locations and situations both en route to and within Israel; displacement as a shared fate of Jews and Arabs; school and classroom experiences; Mizraḥi women between Levantine patriarchy and Western liberalism; and languages of the diaspora versus Hebrew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

Israeli Documentary Poetry: Coming of Age with the State introduces and explores documentary poetry written by Israeli poets who came of age during the first two decades of the state and who, since the 1970s and 1980s, have recorded their experiences of that period. This study offers a literary-cultural analysis of forty-two poems by thirty Israeli poets of various backgrounds, divided into themes such as: memories of the Holocaust and portraits of survivors and their offspring; transit locations and situations both en route to and within Israel; displacement as a shared fate of Jews and Arabs; school and classroom experiences; Mizraḥi women between Levantine patriarchy and Western liberalism; and languages of the diaspora versus Hebrew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/israel-studies

Israeli Documentary Poetry: Coming of Age with the State introduces and explores documentary poetry written by Israeli poets who came of age during the first two decades of the state and who, since the 1970s and 1980s, have recorded their experiences of that period. This study offers a literary-cultural analysis of forty-two poems by thirty Israeli poets of various backgrounds, divided into themes such as: memories of the Holocaust and portraits of survivors and their offspring; transit locations and situations both en route to and within Israel; displacement as a shared fate of Jews and Arabs; school and classroom experiences; Mizraḥi women between Levantine patriarchy and Western liberalism; and languages of the diaspora versus Hebrew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/poetry

Today's episode is literally delicious — we're learning how to talk about taste in Levantine Arabic. We'll cover how to ask, how to answer, and the most common adjectives used to describe flavours.Let's get started! خَلينا نبلِّشIf you're serious about learning Arabic, let me help you. Join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the Khaled Nassra Method on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠—⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠get full access to transcripts, exclusive exercises, and real Levantine Arabic that'll take your skills to the next level, inshallah.

In this episode of Tales & Talk: Learn Arabic Through Novels, we dive into the powerful and controversial Lebanese novel Hikayet Zahra by Hanan al-Shaykh. Discover how real storytelling can transform your Arabic learning journey — through rich vocabulary, emotional depth, and authentic Levantine expressions. If you're serious about learning Arabic, let me help you. Join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the Khaled Nassra Method on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠—⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠get full access to transcripts, exclusive exercises, and real Levantine Arabic that'll take your skills to the next level, inshallah.

⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---You read that right. 1800 years ago, a Roman youngster etched a taunting cartoon of a classmate raising his hand to salute a figure on a cross. This graffito, labeled "Alexamenos worshipping his god," is remarkable for two reasons: it is the oldest known artistic depiction of Jesus, and it happens to depict the Christian Messiah as a man with the head of a donkey.This artistic choice might seem perplexing, but actually reflects an ancient pagan stereotype. In this Gladio Free Europe solo episode, Liam explores a three-thousand-year-old allegation: that Yahweh, the all-powerful God of Israel, was actually an ignoble ass. Despite being outright false, the idea that Judaism and Christianity had something to do with the worship of donkeys was a strong conviction of many ancient writers, even capable scholars like Tacitus and Posidonius. In fact, this myth goes back incredibly far into ancient history, with roots in Egyptian mythology and the cultural memory of the Hyksos, a Bronze Age dynasty of Levantine origin who appear to have actually included onolatry into their practice.The story of ass worship, as an allegation and a practice, is as nearly as old as the history of civilization, with unexpected connections to Greek mythology, gnosticism, and the beginnings of Mesopotamian Kingship. Listen to this episode of Gladio to see why maybe the dutiful donkey really does deserve some veneration after all!

In this episode, we'll walk you through a beginner-friendly Levantine Arabic story that teaches you the most essential vocabulary related to the home—rooms, furniture, appliances, and everyday objects.Follow along with Rami as he moves through his daily routine at home. You'll hear practical phrases in context, with clear pronunciation and short vowels to support your listening and reading comprehension.If you're serious about learning Arabic, let me help you. Join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the Khaled Nassra Method on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠—⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠get full access to transcripts, exclusive exercises, and real Levantine Arabic that'll take your skills to the next level, inshallah.

Marḥabā everyone, and welcome back to the podcast! In today's episode, we're diving into some essential vocabulary for travelers – we're talking about Travel Essentials in Levantine Arabic. I'll be introducing each word one by one, along with an example sentence to help you understand how it's used in real conversation. Whether you're getting ready for a trip or just expanding your Arabic, this is a great episode to tune into!If you're serious about learning Arabic, let me help you. Join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the Khaled Nassra Method on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠—⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠get full access to transcripts, exclusive exercises, and real Levantine Arabic that'll take your skills to the next level, inshallah.

  On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib comments on a new paper in Nature, Ancient DNA from the Green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage. Here is the abstract: Although it is one of the most arid regions today, the Sahara Desert was a green savannah during the African Humid Period (AHP) between 14,500 and 5,000 years before present, with water bodies promoting human occupation and the spread of pastoralism in the middle Holocene epoch1. DNA rarely preserves well in this region, limiting knowledge of the Sahara's genetic history and demographic past. Here we report ancient genomic data from the Central Sahara, obtained from two approximately 7,000-year-old Pastoral Neolithic female individuals buried in the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya. The majority of Takarkori individuals' ancestry stems from a previously unknown North African genetic lineage that diverged from sub-Saharan African lineages around the same time as present-day humans outside Africa and remained isolated throughout most of its existence. Both Takarkori individuals are closely related to ancestry first documented in 15,000-year-old foragers from Taforalt Cave, Morocco2, associated with the Iberomaurusian lithic industry and predating the AHP. Takarkori and Iberomaurusian-associated individuals are equally distantly related to sub-Saharan lineages, suggesting limited gene flow from sub-Saharan to Northern Africa during the AHP. In contrast to Taforalt individuals, who have half the Neanderthal admixture of non-Africans, Takarkori shows ten times less Neanderthal ancestry than Levantine farmers, yet significantly more than contemporary sub-Saharan genomes. Our findings suggest that pastoralism spread through cultural diffusion into a deeply divergent, isolated North African lineage that had probably been widespread in Northern Africa during the late Pleistocene epoch.

News items read by Laura Kennedy include: New study finds first physical evidence for Roman era human-animal gladiatorial combat in Europe (details) (details) Ancient DNA shows Punic people had virtually no Levantine ancestors (details) Ancient DNA shows Punic people had virtually no Levantine ancestors (details) Mongolia's earliest pottery is 2,000 years older than previously thought (details) (details)

In this episode of Tips for Learning Levantine Arabic, we sit down with Reagan White, a dedicated language learner who has spent two years immersed in Arabic study at Shababeek Center for Intercultural Development. Reagan shares the strategy, mindset, and commitment that helped him reach near-superior proficiency in Levantine Arabic.We discuss why he chose an immersion method of Arabic acquisition, the importance of community-based practice, and how learning the Levantine dialect in Jordan made business communication in Saudi Arabia easy. Reagan also opens up about his experiences building relationships in Arabic, overcoming early frustrations, and reaching the point where Arabic became part of his daily life—for both work and enjoyment.Whether you're just starting out or looking for motivation to keep going, Reagan's story offers invaluable insights and encouragement for every Arabic learner.

We hear from the volunteers serving an average of 1,500 meals a day at the Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha in Hounslow and explore the significance of langar in the Sikh and wider community. Mona Siddiqui and the panel explore the role food plays in religion. Do all religious traditions have the imperative to feed the hungry? Is food the route to the soul? And, is sharing food the best way for religions to communicate beliefs?Mona is joined by: Chef Romy Gill, a prominent figure in the culinary world, known for her expertise in Indian cuisine. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire 2016 for services to the hospitality industry. Romy grew up in a Sikh Punjabi family and the tradition of sewa is close to her heart Norman Wirzba, is Professor of Theology and Ecology at Duke University Divinity School. His work focuses on religion, ecology and agrarianism. Norman is the author of Way of Love, Food and Faith.Moshe Basson, the executive Chef and owner of The Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem and Author of The Eucalyptus Cookbook. He specialises in Levantine, Arab, and Jewish cuisine, and is known for his use of biblical ingredients.Producer: Alexa Good Assistant Producer: Linda Walker Editor: Tim Pemberton

47SOUL is a Palestinian Shamstep group. In fact they founded the genre! The musical collective formed in Jordan in 2013, and take their influence from hip-hop, electronica and R&B - and melded it with the sounds of Dabke, a traditional folk dance, and other Shaa'bi roots music from the Levantine region. 47SOUL has a big following across Arab countries, the global Arab diaspora and beyond. Band members Tareq Abu Kwaik - known by his stage name El Far3i, and Ramzy Suleiman, known as Z the People speak with Susie.

Learn how to greet and respond during Ramadan in Levantine Arabic! Whether you're a language learner or want to connect with Arabic-speaking friends and family, this podcast covers essential Ramadan greetings, their meanings, and proper replies. Tune in for practical language tips and deepen your understanding of Ramadan traditions!

Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes George Kanaan to this week's podcast. His book Beyond Lebanon's Peaks: An Odyssey is a fascinating memoir of a businessman and banker who though he has travelled the world in a storied career has never left behind Suq el-Gharb and his Levantine roots. In a wide ranging conversation he reflects on the book and on the current situation in Lebanon and what he calls Trump's 'cruel idea' for Gaza. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

This week, we're all about the Mediterranean dish. First, we sit down with New York Times bestselling author Suzy Karadsheh. Suzy talks about “eating the Mediterranean way,” growing up in a region with a plant-forward cuisine, Levantine cooking, using dried fruits in savory recipes, and making simplified Mediterranean recipes at home like her Flaky Veggie Phyllo “Pizza.” Suzy is the founder of The Mediterranean Dish.com and the author of The Mediterranean Dish: Simply Dinners. Then, we step into the world of olive oil with olive oil sommelier Claudia Hanna. Claudia tells us how olive oil has become central to Mediterranean culture, and how it's made, and walks us through a tasting of different olive oils and their uses. She hosts the podcast If This Food Could Talk.Broadcast dates for this episode:January 24, 2025 (originally aired)Donate to The Splendid Table today and we will show our appreciation with a special thank-you gift.

The Rhodes blood libel of 1840, an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence, was initiated by the island's governor in collusion with Levantine merchants, who charged the local Jewish community with murdering a Christian boy for ritual purposes. An episode in the shared histories of Ottomans and Jews, it was forgotten by the former and, even if remembered, misunderstood by the latter. The 1840 Rhodes Blood Libel: Ottoman Jews at the Dawn of the Tanzimat Era (Berghahn Books, 2024) aims to restore the place of this event in Sephardi and Ottoman history. Based on newly discovered Ottoman and Jewish sources it argues that the acquittal of Rhodian Jews is adequately understood only in the context of the Tanzimat and the Sublime Porte's foreign relations. Contrary to the common view that Ottoman Jews did not experience the impact of the Tanzimat reforms until the mid-1850s, this study shows that their effects were felt as early as 1840. Furthermore, this book offers a window onto life and intercommunal relations in the Eastern Mediterranean during the late Ottoman era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The Rhodes blood libel of 1840, an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence, was initiated by the island's governor in collusion with Levantine merchants, who charged the local Jewish community with murdering a Christian boy for ritual purposes. An episode in the shared histories of Ottomans and Jews, it was forgotten by the former and, even if remembered, misunderstood by the latter. The 1840 Rhodes Blood Libel: Ottoman Jews at the Dawn of the Tanzimat Era (Berghahn Books, 2024) aims to restore the place of this event in Sephardi and Ottoman history. Based on newly discovered Ottoman and Jewish sources it argues that the acquittal of Rhodian Jews is adequately understood only in the context of the Tanzimat and the Sublime Porte's foreign relations. Contrary to the common view that Ottoman Jews did not experience the impact of the Tanzimat reforms until the mid-1850s, this study shows that their effects were felt as early as 1840. Furthermore, this book offers a window onto life and intercommunal relations in the Eastern Mediterranean during the late Ottoman era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The Rhodes blood libel of 1840, an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence, was initiated by the island's governor in collusion with Levantine merchants, who charged the local Jewish community with murdering a Christian boy for ritual purposes. An episode in the shared histories of Ottomans and Jews, it was forgotten by the former and, even if remembered, misunderstood by the latter. The 1840 Rhodes Blood Libel: Ottoman Jews at the Dawn of the Tanzimat Era (Berghahn Books, 2024) aims to restore the place of this event in Sephardi and Ottoman history. Based on newly discovered Ottoman and Jewish sources it argues that the acquittal of Rhodian Jews is adequately understood only in the context of the Tanzimat and the Sublime Porte's foreign relations. Contrary to the common view that Ottoman Jews did not experience the impact of the Tanzimat reforms until the mid-1850s, this study shows that their effects were felt as early as 1840. Furthermore, this book offers a window onto life and intercommunal relations in the Eastern Mediterranean during the late Ottoman era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

The Rhodes blood libel of 1840, an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence, was initiated by the island's governor in collusion with Levantine merchants, who charged the local Jewish community with murdering a Christian boy for ritual purposes. An episode in the shared histories of Ottomans and Jews, it was forgotten by the former and, even if remembered, misunderstood by the latter. The 1840 Rhodes Blood Libel: Ottoman Jews at the Dawn of the Tanzimat Era (Berghahn Books, 2024) aims to restore the place of this event in Sephardi and Ottoman history. Based on newly discovered Ottoman and Jewish sources it argues that the acquittal of Rhodian Jews is adequately understood only in the context of the Tanzimat and the Sublime Porte's foreign relations. Contrary to the common view that Ottoman Jews did not experience the impact of the Tanzimat reforms until the mid-1850s, this study shows that their effects were felt as early as 1840. Furthermore, this book offers a window onto life and intercommunal relations in the Eastern Mediterranean during the late Ottoman era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

Since 2019, Marwan Kaabour has been collecting Arabic slang words used by and about queer people, first for the online community Takweer, and now the newly published Queer Arab Glossary. "When researching for this book, I discovered so much of the sociopolitical, cultural, linguistic, and historical layers that make up the words," he says. He also discovered quite a lot about frying, white beans and worms (metaphorical ones). Find the episode's transcript, plus more information and links to Marwan's work, at theallusionist.org/queerarabglossary. NEWSLUSIONIST: The new Allusionist live show Souvenirs is going on tour in the UK in August and September! That's so soon! Rush to theallusionist.org/events for tickets and dates. And if you fancy concocting a quiz question for the imminent 200th episode, go to theallusionist.org/quiz to submit it; your deadline is 6 September 2024. To help fund this independent podcast, take yourself to theallusionist.org/donate and become a member of the Allusioverse. You get regular livestreams with me and my collection of reference books, inside scoops into the making of this show, watchalong parties, and the company of your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community.  This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, with music and editorial assistance from Martin Austwick of palebirdmusic.com. Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk about your product or thing on the show, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by: •  Babbel, the language-learning app designed by real people for real conversations. Get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription at Babbel.com/allusionist.• Home Chef, meal kits that fit your needs. For a limited time, Home Chef is offering Allusionist listeners eighteen free meals, plus free shipping on your first box, and free dessert for life, at HomeChef.com/allusionist.• Squarespace, your one-stop shop for building and running your online empire/new home for your cryptic puzzle that takes months to solve. Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free 2-week trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist. • Bombas, whose mission is to make the comfiest clothing essentials, and match every item sold with an equal item donated. Go to bombas.com/allusionist to get 20% off your first purchase.  Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionistSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.