Podcasts about Persian

We kick off our Sundance Film Festival 2023 interviews with the documentary Bad Press and the dramatic comedy, The Persian Version. Bad Press follows the battle for a free press on the Muscogee Creek Nation reservation in Oklahoma. As a sovereign nation, the Muscogee are not bound by the U.S. Constitution to guarantee freedom of the press. When local journalists for the tribal paper Mvskoke Media discover that the tribe's “Free Press Act” will be repealed, they begin demanding that freedom of the press be written into the tribe's constitution, led by Mvskoke Media reporter Angel Ellis. The Free Press Act does get repealed, and immediately the newspaper is in danger and put under the control of the tribal government. The tribal council began censoring the news and preventing the community access to free and fair reporting, which reporter Angel Ellis knew would impact the upcoming tribal elections. Filmmaker Rebecca Landsberry-Baker is a citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation and a journalist, so the people in the film are her people. Co-director and editor Joe Peeler was an acquaintance with a background in documentary filmmaking, so he came on board right away. Cinematographer Tyler Graim was brought on to the project when Joe had had enough of shooting everything himself, allowing him to focus more on what was happening as a director. They wanted the footage in the documentary to give people an accurate feeling of what it's like to be on the reservation, and the oppressive heat of an Oklahoma summer. Becca, Joe and Tyler agreed that they also wanted Bad Press to have a distinctive look, and were influenced by newspaper movies such as All the President's Men. They made a conscious choice for viewers to make the larger connections of what is happening to free press from within the microcosm of the Native American community, to the macrocosm of what's happening to media in the outside world. A free press supports tribal sovereignty, because it supports an engaged and informed electorate and the movement to ensure a free press by writing it into tribal constitutions is spreading in Indian Country. Bad Press won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression at the Sundance Film Festival and is seeking distribution. Find Bad Press on social media: #BadPressFilm The Persian Version is a dramatic comedy that follows Leila, a young Iranian American woman who grew up in New York and New Jersey with 8 older brothers. Leila is determined to forge her own path and has a tumultuous relationship with her immigrant mother. When her father is hospitalized for a heart transplant, she must return home to help care for her grandmother and uncovers a secret about her mother's past. Director and writer Maryam Keshavarz chose to make The Persian Version semi-autobiographical. While much of the story is true, the film had to take artistic liberties for it to fit within two hours and also stay funny. Maryam wanted the past and present within the film to feel similar, but for all of the storytellers in the movie to have a point of view, so there is a tonal shift within the film when Leila's mother's narrative begins. Maryam felt like her cast was family, and as they rehearsed, she rewrote the script as needed. Maryam's first feature film, Circumstance, also won the Sundance audience award, and she went on to make a bigger-budget feature, Viper Club in 2018, starring Susan Sarandon. But Maryam found that she wanted to feel more personally connected to the cast and crew during the filmmaking process, so she returned to independently writing and directing with The Persian Version. She feels that films from her standpoint in the world as an Iranian-American hold a large place in her heart. Maryam enjoyed making a film that was both meaningful, funny and reflective of current and past societal and political views. The Persian Version won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award & The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in...

The Rev. Roger Mullet, pastor of Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church in Churubusco, IN, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Esther 5. Queen Esther invites King Ahasuerus and Haman to a luxurious banquet, with the intention of addressing his edict against the Jews. However, she delays mentioning anything until the next day. Haman leaves the feast feeling proud of his high rank and the many privileges he has been given. However, his pride takes a hit when Mordecai refuses to show him the respect he feels he deserves. Haman's wife and friends suggest he take action against Mordecai, and Haman eagerly decides to have him executed. The books of Ruth and Esther from the Old Testament are the only two books in the Bible named for women, and on Thy Strong Word, we delve deep into both. The book of Esther recalls how a Jewish woman marries the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and becomes queen. At the urging of her cousin, Mordecai, Esther uses her influence to foil a plot to exterminate the Hebrew people. Although God is not mentioned in the book, his power is at work behind the scenes.

The Rev. Dr. Vernon Wendt, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Lexington, KY and Missionary-at-Large in Richmond, KY, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Esther 4. Mordecai reacts to Haman's deadly plan to destroy all Jews. He turns to Queen Esther, and begs her to use her status to plead for her people before the king. But with a strict law forbidding anyone, including the queen, from approaching the king without being summoned, Esther is faced with a daunting decision. Esther sends word to Mordecai for all the Jews to fast as she contemplates her next move. Mordecai encourages her, “who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this.” The books of Ruth and Esther from the Old Testament are the only two books in the Bible named for women, and on Thy Strong Word, we delve deep into both. The book of Esther recalls how a Jewish woman marries the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and becomes queen. At the urging of her cousin, Mordecai, Esther uses her influence to foil a plot to exterminate the Hebrew people. Although God is not mentioned in the book, his power is at work behind the scenes.

The Rev. Doug Minton, pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Milford, IL, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Esther 3. Esther is Queen, but King Ahasuerus has elevated one of his officials, Hamann, to prime minister and given him authority to rule over all the other officials. One of those officials, Mordecai, a Jew, and a cousin and father figure to Esther, refuses to bow down to Hamann as instructed. Hamann responds in anger and devises a plan to destroy all the Jews. The books of Ruth and Esther from the Old Testament are the only two books in the Bible named for women, and on Thy Strong Word, we delve deep into both. The book of Esther recalls how a Jewish woman marries the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and becomes queen. At the urging of her cousin, Mordecai, Esther uses her influence to foil a plot to exterminate the Hebrew people. Although God is not mentioned in the book, his power is at work behind the scenes.

The Rev. Steven Theiss, pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells, MO, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Esther 2. Things took a dramatic turn in the previous chapter when the King deposed Queen Vashti when she refused to be paraded around for the entertainment of his guests. Now, the search for a new queen begins and Esther, a young Jewish woman, is chosen to be queen. But Esther must keep her Jewish heritage a secret to avoid any potential persecution in the Persian court. The books of Ruth and Esther from the Old Testament are the only two books in the Bible named for women, and on Thy Strong Word, we delve deep into both. The book of Esther recalls how a Jewish woman marries the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and becomes queen. At the urging of her cousin, Mordecai, Esther uses her influence to foil a plot to exterminate the Hebrew people. Although God is not mentioned in the book, his power is at work behind the scenes.

The Rev. Thomas Eckstein, pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Jamestown, ND, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Esther 1. The Book of Esther is the second of the only two books in the Bible named for women. It tells the story of a young Jewish woman named Esther who becomes the queen of Persia and uses her position to save her people from extermination. Notably, nowhere in the book is God mentioned, and yet we see his handiwork behind the scenes shaping history and working good for his people. The books of Ruth and Esther from the Old Testament are the only two books in the Bible named for women, and on Thy Strong Word, we delve deep into both. The book of Esther recalls how a Jewish woman marries the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and becomes queen. At the urging of her cousin, Mordecai, Esther uses her influence to foil a plot to exterminate the Hebrew people. Although God is not mentioned in the book, his power is at work behind the scenes.

U.S. GDP rose 2.9% in the final quarter of 2022. It beat expectations, but fears of a recession still loom large among economists. MSNBC's Ali Velshi breaks down the latest numbers. And, we check back with Isom, Kentucky, grocery store owner Gwen Christon, six months after flood waters ruined her store, the only grocery store within miles in her small, rural town. Then, the Sundance Film Festival is underway in Park City, Utah. Director Maryam Keshavarz talks about "The Persian Version," a sweeping family dramedy about three generations of Iranian women.

This week's episode is sponsored by: Carry your creativity with Erin Lane Bags! Whether you show your fiber fandom with the woolly wonder Sheepleverse, or dive into history with the Curiosities collection, our project bags, totes, and hook and needle organizers are at the ready to keep your hobby happy.       Have you ever had to frog because you forgot a step several rows back? Or lost your spot because you dropped your magnet board or lost track with your highlighter tape? Instead of wrestling with paper, use the knitCompanion app. It keeps you on track so you can knit more and frog less. knitCompanion works with ALL your patterns and is available for Apple, Android, and Kindle Fire Devices   Are you feeling dis-GRUNT-eled about your stash? Are you browsing Insta-HAM looking for knitting inspiration? Is color "kind of a PIG deal" in your life? Oink Pigments offers over one hundred forty PIG-ture perfect colorways to make you SQUEAL with delight. For a limited time only, bring home the bacon with code KNITMORE and get fifteen percent off in-stock yarns and fibers at oinkpigments dot com. Shop soon, because these pigs will FLY!   On the Needles: (0:34) Gigi got yarn from Jasmin's for socks for Andrew. Jasmin continues on the body of  her “I'll be Gnome for Christmas” (Go Big or go Gnome pattern) pullover in Black Trillium fibers Gigi: Cocoknits Verena cardigan pattern on knit companion    Jasmin separated the armholes on her Flamingo Christmas sweater, in: Seismic Yarns butter DK Trendsetter Aura  Gigi: leftover sock yarn blanket Excavation and audiobook  Jasmin is nearly finished with the body of the Altblebragenser in Frost Yarn's Reverse Speckle rainbow and Teal Torch Knits 9 neons.  Jasmin mentions Ken Shelton, an Excellent DEI instructor Gigi two pairs of socks and two cowls: ends woven in Jamin blocked and sewed in labels for the shawls she wove for Gigi Knitting club! Preemie hats. Pompom dilemma borrowed stack of Nicky Epstein Edge books from Jasmin Nicky Epstein books Events :(25:08) Stitches West 2023 March 2-5 PARIS BAGUETTE bakery Mother Knows Best:(30:04) Here is Jasmin's Pep talk. Jasmin mentions Radicle Threads and Imposter syndrome. Here is the Radicle Threads GoFundMe L   When Knitting Attacks :(40:32) The Flamingo Xmas sweater fiasco. Knit more, know more :(48:00) A segment about Persian culture, history, or just generally cool stuff about Persian people. The protests are ongoing. Jasmin shares the Mahsa Amini Act. ResistBot Link And Sew On :(52:36) Gigi looked through pile of mending on sewing machine.

The Beats uncover the top 5 things to grab next time you find yourself in a Persian or middle eastern market!  Whether you have a market near you or you stumble into one on an adventure, Bita and Beata share their favorite things to shop for that are unique and specialty items. Don't forget to submit a question or comment for us to address live on the show.  Simply shoot us an email:  hello@modernpersianfood.com or leave us an audio message on Instagram!  @modernpersianfood All Modern Persian Food podcast episodes can be found at: Episodes Co-host Beata Nazem Kelley blog: BeatsEats – Persian Girl Desperately Addicted to Food! Co-host Bita Arabian blog: Oven Hug - Healthy Persian Recipes | Modern Persian Recipes Sign up for the email newsletter here! Subscribe+ to the Modern Persian Food podcast on your favorite podcast player, and share this episode with a friend. Podcast production by Alvarez Audio

Muhammad Iqbal was popularly known as the intellectual founder of Pakistan, but his greater fame is for his philosophical works in English and his poetry, both in Urdu and Persian. IDEAS looks at the life and work of one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century.

NHK WORLD RADIO JAPAN - Persian News at 13:00 (JST), January 23

In this episode, Kara and Jordan sit down with friend and colleague Dr. Marissa Stevens. They discuss Marissa's earlier work on Ramesside papyrus, personal piety, and identity. Next, they pivot to Marissa's current work as the Assistant Director of the Pourdavoud Center for the study of the Iranian world, looking at the time when Egypt was under Persian control. Enjoy!   Check out Marissa's Academia page for all of her publications--https://ucla.academia.edu/MarissaStevens  

We review episode 12, season 1 of the Sitcom “Whoopi” entitled “American Woman” where Rue guest stars as Marian. A sex charged senior who is staying at Mavis' hotel so that she & her friends can get high. Meanwhile one of her friend's becomes paranoid that Naseem who works at the hotel is a terrorist because he is Persian as he studies for his U.S. citizenship test & calls the police on him. Also, Mavis' brother Courtney appoints himself to rid the hotel of Marian & her friends as he does not approve of drugs. In another scene Mavis & her multi-cultural group of friends discuss immigration issues & how “illegals” are stealing their jobs & should come to this country the “right” way. While this episode aired 19 years ago, many of the themes mentioned are still relevant today which of course caused us to have many side bars aside from just reviewing the episode. Shows like this are important as they display ignorant beliefs, however the problem is many people in real life think the way some of these characters do & don't see anything wrong with it! Viewer Discretion is advised! Follow Us! https://linktr.ee/SoGoodWeNamedIt --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sogoodwenamedit/support

Welcome to The Saint of the Day Podcast, a service of Good Catholic and The Catholic Company. Today's featured saint is St. Anastasius the Persian.  If you like what you heard, share this podcast with someone you know, and make sure to subscribe!

With family: Genesis 23; Matthew 22 Genesis 23 (Listen) Sarah's Death and Burial 23 Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. 3 And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites,1 4 “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” 5 The Hittites answered Abraham, 6 “Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God2 among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead.” 7 Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. 8 And he said to them, “If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat for me Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns; it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place.” 10 Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, 11 “No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the sight of the sons of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.” 12 Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. 13 And he said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, “But if you will, hear me: I give the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.” 14 Ephron answered Abraham, 15 “My lord, listen to me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels3 of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” 16 Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants. 17 So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over 18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites. Footnotes [1] 23:3 Hebrew sons of Heth; also verses 5, 7, 10, 16, 18, 20 [2] 23:6 Or a mighty prince [3] 23:15 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams (ESV) Matthew 22 (Listen) The Parable of the Wedding Feast 22 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants1 to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”' 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.” Paying Taxes to Caesar 15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.2 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.3 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection 23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.' 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” 29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. The Great Commandment 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Whose Son Is the Christ? 41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, 44   “‘The Lord said to my Lord,  “Sit at my right hand,    until I put your enemies under your feet”'? 45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. Footnotes [1] 22:3 Or bondservants; also verses 4, 6, 8, 10 [2] 22:16 Greek for you do not look at people's faces [3] 22:19 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer (ESV) In private: Nehemiah 12; Acts 22 Nehemiah 12 (Listen) Priests and Levites 12 These are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, 2 Amariah, Malluch, Hattush, 3 Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, 4 Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah, 5 Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah, 6 Shemaiah, Joiarib, Jedaiah, 7 Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the chiefs of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua. 8 And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah, who with his brothers was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving. 9 And Bakbukiah and Unni and their brothers stood opposite them in the service. 10 And Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, Joiakim the father of Eliashib, Eliashib the father of Joiada, 11 Joiada the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan the father of Jaddua. 12 And in the days of Joiakim were priests, heads of fathers' houses: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah; 13 of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan; 14 of Malluchi, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph; 15 of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai; 16 of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam; 17 of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai; 18 of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan; 19 of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi; 20 of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber; 21 of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethanel. 22 In the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua, the Levites were recorded as heads of fathers' houses; so too were the priests in the reign of Darius the Persian. 23 As for the sons of Levi, their heads of fathers' houses were written in the Book of the Chronicles until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib. 24 And the chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers who stood opposite them, to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, watch by watch. 25 Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers standing guard at the storehouses of the gates. 26 These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra, the priest and scribe. Dedication of the Wall 27 And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres. 28 And the sons of the singers gathered together from the district surrounding Jerusalem and from the villages of the Netophathites; 29 also from Beth-gilgal and from the region of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built for themselves villages around Jerusalem. 30 And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and they purified the people and the gates and the wall. 31 Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks. One went to the south on the wall to the Dung Gate. 32 And after them went Hoshaiah and half of the leaders of Judah, 33 and Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, 34 Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, and Jeremiah, 35 and certain of the priests' sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan, son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph; 36 and his relatives, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God. And Ezra the scribe went before them. 37 At the Fountain Gate they went up straight before them by the stairs of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David, to the Water Gate on the east. 38 The other choir of those who gave thanks went to the north, and I followed them with half of the people, on the wall, above the Tower of the Ovens, to the Broad Wall, 39 and above the Gate of Ephraim, and by the Gate of Yeshanah,1 and by the Fish Gate and the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, to the Sheep Gate; and they came to a halt at the Gate of the Guard. 40 So both choirs of those who gave thanks stood in the house of God, and I and half of the officials with me; 41 and the priests Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets; 42 and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang with Jezrahiah as their leader. 43 And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away. Service at the Temple 44 On that day men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the firstfruits, and the tithes, to gather into them the portions required by the Law for the priests and for the Levites according to the fields of the towns, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered. 45 And they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon. 46 For long ago in the days of David and Asaph there were directors of the singers, and there were songs2 of praise and thanksgiving to God. 47 And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave the daily portions for the singers and the gatekeepers; and they set apart that which was for the Levites; and the Levites set apart that which was for the sons of Aaron. Footnotes [1] 12:39 Or of the old city [2] 12:46 Or leaders (ESV) Acts 22 (Listen) 22 “Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.” 2 And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language,1 they became even more quiet. And he said: 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel2 according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, 5 as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. 6 “As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. 7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' 8 And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?' And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.' 9 Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand3 the voice of the one who was speaking to me. 10 And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.' 11 And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus. 12 “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13 came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.' And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. 14 And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; 15 for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.' 17 “When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.' 19 And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. 20 And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.' 21 And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'” Paul and the Roman Tribune 22 Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” 23 And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this. 25 But when they had stretched him out for the whips,4 Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?” 26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.” 27 So the tribune came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.” 28 The tribune answered, “I bought this citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I am a citizen by birth.” 29 So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him. Paul Before the Council 30 But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them. Footnotes [1] 22:2 Or the Hebrew dialect (probably Aramaic) [2] 22:3 Or city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated [3] 22:9 Or hear with understanding [4] 22:25 Or when they had tied him up with leather strips (ESV)

Husband and Wife answer questions about why it's a good idea to turn down help from your enemies. They also discuss why it matters what language was used, and how a Persian governor can also be a Judean prince.Skip the ads by joining Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/6331d364470c7900137bb57dThank you for stopping by Sacrilegious Discourse - Bible Study for Atheists!Check out these links for more information about our podcast and merchandise:Our Homepage: https://sacrilegiousdiscourse.com/Help support us by subscribing on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sacrilegiousdiscourse Join Acast+ to enjoy our podcast adfree and get EARLY access to our episodes! https://plus.acast.com/s/sacrilegious-discourse-bible-study-for-atheists. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author & Illustrator Tanya Bayrami is on the #ReadingWithYourKids #Podcast to celebrate her debut #BiLingual (English/Persian) #Childrens #PictureBook Golden Chick/Joojé Talãee. Tanya tells us that invites children on a journey of uncovering the lost magic of Persian culture. Through the eyes of a chick who wants to spread their wings, children experience overcoming obstacles and celebrating achievements. Golden Chick (Joojé Talãee) teaches children the universal power of finding your inner strength and developing your own personal warrior. The phonetic rhyming poetry offers children a taste of the ancient, mythical Persian language without the obstacle of a challenging and unfamiliar script. Click here to visit Tanya's website - https://www.zoetupelobooks.com/the-story Click here to visit our website - www.readingwithyourkids.com

Saint Anastasius was a Persian, at a time when the Persian Empire was the greatest enemy of the Christian Roman Empire. He was a Zoroastrian, but converted to the Christian faith when he encountered the true cross where Jesus was crucified. This cross was captured by the Persians in a raid.  Saint Anastasius was baptised and became a monk, but was later captured by the Persians and put to death in the year 628 for his faith.  

In 353 BCE, construction began on an elaborate structure meant to be the final resting place of Mausolus, a member of Persian royalty who ruled the small kingdom of Caria [Car-ia}. The immense temple-like tomb was built on a hill overlooking the city of Halicarnassus. While earthquakes would later destroy this grand monument in the 12th and 15th centuries, it earned the distinction of being considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and Mausolus's name endured as the eponym for the tombs we now refer to as mausoleums. In this episode of Southern Gothic, we discuss what exactly a mausoleum is, the different styles of these tombs, and-- of course-- the most infamously haunted! Help Southern Gothic grow by becoming a Patreon Supporter today! Connect with Southern Gothic Media: Join our New Facebook Group! Website: SouthernGothicMedia.com Merch Store: https://www.southerngothicmedia.com/merch Pinterest: @SouthernGothicMedia Facebook: @SouthernGothicMedia Instagram: @SouthernGothicMedia Twitter: @SoGoPodcast

The books of Ruth and Esther from the Old Testament are the only two books in the Bible named for women, and on Thy Strong Word, we delve deep into both. The book of Ruth is a story of a young Moabite widow's faithfulness to mother-in-law and her God. In a time of famine and violence, God leads Ruth to meet and marry Boaz whose union brings about a child, Obed, who would become the grandfather of King David. The book of Esther recalls how a Jewish woman marries the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and becomes queen. At the urging of her cousin, Mordecai, Esther uses her influence to foil a plot to exterminate the Hebrew people. Although God is not mentioned in the book, his power is at work behind the scenes.   Thy Strong Word, hosted by Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God's Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations. The book of Esther recalls how a Jewish woman marries the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and becomes queen. At the urging of her cousin, Mordecai, Esther uses her influence to foil a plot to exterminate the Hebrew people. Although God is not mentioned in the book, his power is at work behind the scenes.  Thy Strong Word is graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. Through the mission gifts of people like you, LHF translates, publishes, distributes and introduces books that are Bible-based, Christ-centered and Reformation-driven. Learn more at lhfmissions.org.

In 353 BCE, construction began on an elaborate structure meant to be the final resting place of Mausolus, a member of Persian royalty who ruled the small kingdom of Caria [Car-ia}. The immense temple-like tomb was built on a hill overlooking the city of Halicarnassus. While earthquakes would later destroy this grand monument in the 12th and 15th centuries, it earned the distinction of being considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and Mausolus's name endured as the eponym for the tombs we now refer to as mausoleums. In this episode of Southern Gothic, we discuss what exactly a mausoleum is, the different styles of these tombs, and-- of course-- the most infamously haunted! Help Southern Gothic grow by becoming a Patreon Supporter today! Connect with Southern Gothic Media: Join our New Facebook Group! Website: SouthernGothicMedia.com Merch Store: https://www.southerngothicmedia.com/merch Pinterest: @SouthernGothicMedia Facebook: @SouthernGothicMedia Instagram: @SouthernGothicMedia Twitter: @SoGoPodcast

In today's episode, Beata and Bita dive into the classic Persian layered rice dish Adas Polo. The medley of lentils, onions, raisins and dates along with the steamed rice provides a nutritious, comforting, and delicious wintry wintery dish.  Learn some recipe shortcuts including some modern twists on this staple Persian dish.  Are you ready for an umami, savory dish with hints of sweet and cinnamony notes?  Which version will you try?   Stay tuned to the end to hear strategies for warming up Persian food leftovers in the Ask the Beats segment!... and keep those questions comin', we love to hear from our listeners.   All Modern Persian Food podcast episodes can be found at: Episodes Co-host Beata Nazem Kelley blog: BeatsEats – Persian Girl Desperately Addicted to Food! Co-host Bita Arabian blog: Oven Hug - Healthy Persian Recipes | Modern Persian Recipes   Recipes references:   Bita's Lentil and Date Rice recipe (vegetarian) | Adas Polo   Sign up for the email newsletter here!   Subscribe+ to the Modern Persian Food podcast on your favorite podcast player, and share this episode with a friend.   Podcast production by Alvarez Audio

This week's episode is sponsored by: Carry your creativity with Erin Lane Bags! Whether you show your fiber fandom with the woolly wonder Sheepleverse, or dive into history with the Curiosities collection, our project bags, totes, and hook and needle organizers are at the ready to keep your hobby happy.     Have you ever had to frog because you forgot a step several rows back? Or lost your spot because you dropped your magnet board or lost track with your highlighter tape? Instead of wrestling with paper, use the knitCompanion app. It keeps you on track so you can knit more and frog less. knitCompanion works with ALL your patterns and is available for Apple, Android, and Kindle Fire Devices Are you feeling dis-GRUNT-eled about your stash? Are you browsing Insta-HAM looking for knitting inspiration? Is color "kind of a PIG deal" in your life? Oink Pigments offers over one hundred forty PIG-ture perfect colorways to make you SQUEAL with delight. For a limited time only, bring home the bacon with code KNITMORE and get fifteen percent off in-stock yarns and fibers at oinkpigments dot com. Shop soon, because these pigs will FLY!       On the Needles: (0:35) Gigi : has no socks on the needles Jasmin has finished the wide plaid wrap for Gigi (woven on her Schacht flip loom with Tess Yarns Silk Chenille) Gigi has finished another pair of socks for Andrew for knitting at her house, Jasmin grafted toes Jasmin continues on the body of  her “I'll be Gnome for Christmas” (Go Big or go Gnome pattern) pullover in Black Trillium fibers. Gigi. Cocoknits Verena cardigan pattern on knitcompanion.    Started shoulder increases  Gigi: leftover sock yarn blanket and audiobook  striped Elton No progress  Knitting club!   Events:(19:59) Romjule! Didn't finish my project  Stitches West   Mother Knows Best:(28:29) Ride the inspiration tide! Jasmin mentions the BBIMP acronym.   When Knitting Attacks:(35:09) Gigi contends with her Verena cardigan   Knit more, know more:(34:11) A segment about Persian culture, history, or just generally cool stuff about Persian people. Protests are ongoing. Liver. Chilling your kidneys  Persian Tripe Sirabee recipe (NOT THE RECIPE WE USE)

For our first edition of the 'Whose God?' series we selected Genesis 32: 22-32 - you may know it as the story of the Hebew character Jacob wrestling with his 'god' - and winning the match. But the true identity of his wrestling opponent and the religion it symbolizes may surprise you. Antaeus: https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Gigantes/Antaeus/antaeus.html Times of Israel: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/did-jacob-wrestle-god-an-angel-of-god-satan-or-one-of-his-angels/ Genesis 32:22-32 The Very First Bible: https://www.theveryfirstbible.org FBN Radio: https://www.firstbiblenetwork.com/FBNRadio.html Genesis is an example of a work in the "antiquities" genre, as the Romans knew it, a popular genre telling of the appearance of humans and the ancestors and heroes, with elaborate genealogies and chronologies fleshed out with stories and anecdotes.[15] The most notable examples are found in the work of Greek historians of the 6th century BC: their intention was to connect notable families of their own day to a distant and heroic past, and in doing so they did not distinguish between myth, legend, and facts.[16] Professor Jean-Louis Ska of the Pontifical Biblical Institute calls the basic rule of the antiquarian historian the "law of conservation": everything old is valuable, nothing is eliminated.[17] This antiquity was needed to prove the worth of Israel's traditions to the nations (the neighbours of the Jews in the early Persian province of Judea), and to reconcile and unite the various factions within Israel itself.[17] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/firstbiblenetwork/message

Do you think your powerful prayers make God answer you? I think you will be surprised to see that God answers the moment you turn to him....well at least here is an example of that from Daniel 10. Turn your face away from other things, distractions, and any help that takes your face away from God. Love, Sheri At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.” Daniel 10:2-14

Support the podcast by tipping via Venmo to @queensofthemines, buying the book on Amazon, or becoming a patron at www.partreon.com/queensofthemines   When Agnes Moulton Coolbrith joined the Mormon Church in Boston in 1832, she met and married Prophet Don Carlos Smith, the brother of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There, at the first Mormon settlement, Agnes gave birth to three daughters. The youngest was Josephine Donna Smith, born 1841. Only four months after Josephine Donna Smith's birth, Don Carlos Smith died of malaria.  In spite of Don Carlos being a bitter opposer of the ‘spiritual wife' doctrine, Agnes was almost immediately remarried to her late husband's brother, Joseph Smith in 1842, making her his probably seventh wife. Today we will talk about Josephine Donna Smith's, who's life in California spanned the pioneer American occupation, to the first renaissance of the 19thcentury feminist movement. an American poet, writer, librarian, and a legend in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community. Season 3 features inspiring, gallant, even audacious stories of REAL 19th Century women from the Wild West.  Stories that contain adult content, including violence which may be, disturbing to some listeners, or secondhand listeners. So, discretion is advised. I am Andrea Anderson and this is Queens of the Mines, Season Three.    They called her Ina. But Sharing your partner with that many people may leave you lonely at times. Not surprisingly, during the marriage, Agnes felt neglected. Two years later, Smith was killed at the hands of an anti-Mormon and anti-polygamy mob. Agnes, scared for her life, moved to Saint Louis, Missouri with Ina and her siblings. Agnes reverted to using her maiden name, Coolbrith, to avoid identification with Mormonism and her former family. She did not speak of their Mormon past.  She married again, in Missouri, to William Pickett. Pickett had also converted to Mormonism, and had a second wife. He was an LDS Church member, a printer, a lawyer and an alcoholic. Agnes had twin sons with Pickett. They left the church and headed west, leaving his second wife behind.    Ina had never been in a school, but Pickett had brought along a well-worn copy of Byron's poetry, a set of Shakespeare, and the Bible. As they traveled, the family passed time reading. Inspired, Ina made up poetry in her head as she walked alongside her family's wagon. Somewhere in the Nevada sands, the children of the wagon train gathered as Ina buried her doll after it took a tumble and split its head.  Ina's life in California started at her arrival in front of the wagon train  through Beckwourth Pass in 1851. Her sister and her riding bareback on the horse of famous mountain man, explorer and scout Jim Beckwourth. He had guided the caravan and called Ina his “Little Princess.” In Virgina, Beckwourth was born as a slave. His father, who was his owner, later freed him. As the wagon train crossed into California, he said, “Here, little girls, is your kingdom.” The trail would later be known as Beckwourth Pass. Ina was the first white child to cross through the Sierra Nevadas on Beckwourth Pass.  The family settled in San Bernardino and then in Los Angeles which still had largely a Mormon and Mexican population. Flat adobe homes with courtyards filled with pepper trees, vineyards, and peach and pomegranate orchards. In Los Angeles, Agnes's new husband Pickett established a law practice. Lawyers became the greatest beneficiaries, after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, acquiring Mexican land in exchange for representation in court contests. Pickett was one of those lawyers. Ina began writing poetry at age 11 and started school for the first time at 14. Attending  Los Angeles's first public school on Street and Second. She published her poetry in the local newspaper and she was published in The Los Angeles Star/Estrella when she was just fifteen years old.  At 17, she met Robert Bruce Carsley, a part-time actor and a full time iron-worker for Salamander Ironworks.  Salamander Ironworks.built jails, iron doors, and balconies. Ina and Robert married in a doctor's home near the San Gabriel Mission. They lived behind the iron works and had a son. But Robert Carsley revealed himself to be an abusive man. Returning from a minstrel show in San Francisco, Carsley became obsessed with the idea that his new wife had been unfaithful to him. Carsley arrived at Pickett's adobe, where Ina was for the evening,  screaming that Ina was a whore in that very tiny quiet pueblo. Pickett gathered up his rifle and shot his son in law's hand off.  The next few months proved to be rough for Ina. She got an uncontested divorce within three months in a sensational public trial, but then, tragically, her infant son died. And although divorce was legal, her former friends crossed the street to avoid meeting her. Ina fell into a deep depression. She legally took her mothers maiden name Coolbrith and moved to San Francisco with her mother, stepfather and their twins.  In San Francisco, Ina continued to write and publish her poetry and found work as an English teacher. Her poems were published in the literary newspaperThe Californian. The editor of The Californian was author Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Also known as, Mark Twain. Ina made friends with Mark Twain, John Muir, Bret Harte and Charles Warren Stoddard, Twain's queer drinking companion. Coolbrith, renowned for her beauty, was called a “dark-eyed Sapphic divinity” and the "sweetest note in California literature” by Bret Harte. John Muir attempted to introduce her to eligible men.  Coolbrith, Harte and Stoddard formed what became known as the Golden Gate Trinity. The Golden Gate Trinity was closely associated with the literary journal, Overland Monthly, which published short stories written by the 28-year old Mark Twain. Ina became the editorial assistant and for a decade, she supplied one poem for each new issue. Her poems also appeared in Harper's, Scribner's, and other popular national magazines.   At her home on Russian Hill, Ina hosted literary gatherings where writers and publishers rubbed shoulders and shared their vision of a new way of writing – writing that was different from East Coast writing. There were  readings of poetry and topical discussions, in the tradition of European salons and Ina danced the fandango and  played the guitar, singing American and Spanish songs.  Actress and poet Adah Menken was a frequent visitor to her parties. We know Adah Menken from earlier episodes and the Queens of the Mines episode and she is in the book, as she was a past fling of the famous Lotta Crabtree.  The friendship between Coolbrith and Menken gave Menken credibility as an intellectual although Ina was never able to impress Harte of Menken's worth at the gatherings.     Another friend of Ina's was the eccentric poet Cincinnatus H. Miller. Ina introduced Miller to the San Francisco literary circle and when she learned of his adoration of the heroic, tragic life of Joaquin Murrieta, Ina suggested that he take the name Joaquin Miller as his pen name. She insisted he dress the part with longer hair and a more pronounced mountain man style.  Coolbrith and Miller planned a tour of the East Coast and Europe, but when Ina's mother Agnes and Ina's sister both became seriously ill, Ina decided to stay in San Francisco and take care of them and her nieces and nephews. Ina agreed to raise Miller's daughter, Calla Shasta, a beautiful half indigenous girl, as he traveled around Europe brandishing himself a poet. Coolbrith and Miller had shared an admiration for the poet Lord Byron, and they decided Miller should lay a wreath on his tomb in England. They collected laurel branches in Sausalito, Ina made the wreath. A stir came across the English clergy when Miller placed the wreath on the tomb at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Hucknall. They did not understand the connection between the late lord and a couple of California poets. Not to be outdone, the clergy sent to the King of Greece for another laurel wreath from the country of Byron's heroic death. The two wreaths were hung side by side over Byron's tomb. After this, Miller was nicknamed "The Byron of the West." Coolbrith wrote of the excursion in her poem "With a Wreath of Laurel".  Coolbrith was the primary earner for her extended family and they needed a bigger home. So, while Miller was in Europe, she moved her family to Oakland, where she was elected honorary member of the Bohemian Club. When her mother and sister soon died and she became the guardian of her orphaned niece and nephew, The Bohemian Club members discreetly assisted Ina in her finances.  Ina soon took a full-time job as Oakland's first public librarian. She worked 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, earning  $80 per month. Much less than a man would have received in that position at the time. Her poetry suffered as a result of the long work hours and for nearly twenty years, Ina only published sporadically.  Instead, Ina became a mentor for a generation of young readers. She hand chose books for her patrons based on their interests. In 1886, Ina mentored the 10-year-old Jack London. She guided his reading and London called her his "literary mother". London grew up to be an American novelist, journalist and social activist. Twenty years later, London wrote to Coolbrith to thank her he said “I named you Noble. That is what you were to me, noble. That was the feeling I got from you. Oh, yes, I got, also, the feeling of sorrow and suffering, but dominating them, always riding above all, was noble. No woman has so affected me to the extent you did. I was only a little lad. I knew absolutely nothing about you. Yet in all the years that have passed I have met no woman so noble as you." One young reader was another woman featured in a previous Queens of the Mines episode, Isadora Duncan, “the creator of modern dance”. Duncan described Coolbrith as "a very wonderful" woman, with beautiful eyes that glowed with burning fire and passion. Isadora was the daughter of a man that Ina had dazzled, enough to cause the breakup of his marriage.  The library patrons of Oakland called for reorganization in 1892 and after 18 years of service, a vindictive board of directors fired Ina, giving her three days' notice to clear her desk. One library trustee was quoted as saying "we need a librarian not a poet." She was replaced by her nephew Henry Frank Peterson. Coolbrith's literary friends were outraged, and worried that Ina would move away, becoming alien to California. They published a lengthy opinion piece to that effect in the San Francisco Examiner. John Muir, who often sent letters and the occasional box of freshly picked fruit,  also preferred to keep her in the area, and in one package, a letter suggested that she fill the newly opened position of the librarian of San Francisco. In Coolbrith's response to Muir, she thanked him for "the fruit of your land, and the fruit of your brain" but said, "No, I cannot have Mr. Cheney's place. I am disqualified by sex." San Francisco required that their librarian be a man. Ina returned to her beloved Russian Hill. In 1899, the artist William Keith and poet Charles Keeler offered Coolbrith the position as the Bohemian Club's part-time librarian. Her first assignment was to edit Songs from Bohemia, a book of poems by journalist and the Bohemian Club co-founder, Daniel O'Connell. Her salary in Oakland was $50 each month. The equivalent of $1740 in 2022. She then signed on as staff of Charles Fletcher Lummis's magazine, The Land of Sunshine. Her duties were light enough that she was able to devote a greater proportion of her time to writing.  Coolbrith was often sick in bed with rheumatism. Even as her health began to show signs of deterioration, she did not stop her work at the Bohemian Club. She began to work on a history of California literature as a personal project. Songs from the Golden Gate, was published in 1895; it contained "The Captive of the White City" which detailed the cruelty dealt to Native Americans in the late 19th century.  Coolbrith kept in touch with her first cousin Joseph F. Smith to whom and for whom she frequently expressed her love and regard. In 1916, she sent copies of her poetry collections to him. He publicized them, identifying as a niece of Joseph Smith. This greatly upset Coolbrith. She told him that "To be crucified for a faith in which you believe is to be blessed. To be crucified for one in which you do not believe is to be crucified indeed." Coolbrith fled from her home at Broadway and Taylor with her Angora cats, her student boarder Robert Norman and her friend Josephine Zeller when the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake hit. Her friends took a few small bundles of letters from colleagues and Coolbrith's scrapbook filled with press clippings about her and her poems. Across the bay, Joaquin Miller spotted heavy smoke and took a ferry from Oakland to San Francisco to help Coolbrith in saving her valuables from encroaching fire. Miller was prevented from doing so by soldiers who had orders to use deadly force against looters. Coolbrith's home burned to the ground. Soldiers evacuated Russian Hill, leaving Ina and Josie, two refugees, among many, wandering San Francisco's tangled streets. Coolbrith lost 3,000 books, row upon row of priceless signed first editions, rare original artwork, and many personal letters in the disaster. Above all, her nearly complete manuscript Part memoir, part history of California's early literary scene, including personal stories about her friends Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and John Muir, were lost. Coolbrith spent a few years in temporary residences after the blaze and her friends rallied to raise money to build her a house. Mark Twain sent three autographed photographs of himself from New York that sold for $10 a piece. He then sat for 17 more studio photographs to further the fund. She received a discreet grant from her Bohemian friends and a trust fund from a colleague in 1910. She set up again in a new house at 1067 Broadway on Russian Hill. Coolbrith got back to business writing and holding literary salons. Coolbrith traveled by train to New York City several times for several years, greatly increasing her poetry output. In those years she produced more than she had produced in the preceding 25 years.  Her style was more than the usual themes expected of women. Her sensuous descriptions of natural scenes advanced the art of Victorian poetry to incorporate greater accuracy without trite sentiment, foreshadowing the Imagist school and the work of Robert Frost. Coolbrith was named President of the Congress of Authors and Journalists in preparation for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. That year, Coolbrith was also named California's first poet   , and the first poet laureate of any American state on June 30, 1915. A poet laureate composed poems for special events and occasions. Then, it was a position for the state that was held for life. The Overland Monthly reported that eyes were wet throughout the large audience when Coolbrith was crowned with a laurel wreath by Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the University of California, who called her the "loved, laurel-crowned poet of California." After several more speeches were made in her honor, and bouquets brought in abundance to the podium,  74-year old Coolbrith accepted the honor, wearing a black robe with a sash bearing a garland of bright orange California poppies, saying: "There is one woman here with whom I want to share these honors: Josephine Clifford McCracken. For we are linked together, the last two living members of Bret Harte's staff of Overland writers. In a life of unremitting labor, time and opportunity have been denied. So my meager output of verse is the result of odd moments, and only done at all because so wholly a labor of love.” Coolbrith continued to write and work to support herself until her final publication in 1917. Six years later, in May of 1923, Coolbrith's friend Edwin Markham found her at the Hotel Latham in New York very old, disabled, ill and broke.  Markham asked Lotta Crabtree to gather help for her.  Coolbrith was brought back to California where she settled in Berkeley to be cared for by her niece.  The next year, Mills College conferred upon her an honorary Master of Arts degree. In spring of 1926, she received visitors such as her old friend, art patron Albert M. Bender, who brought young Ansel Adams to meet her. Adams made a photographic portrait of Coolbrith seated near one of her white Persian cats and wearing a large white mantilla on her head.  A group of writers began meeting at the St Francis Hotel in San Francisco, naming their group the Ina Coolbrith Circle. When Ina returned to Berkeley she never missed a Sunday meeting until her death at 87-years-old. Ina Coolbrith died on Leap Day, February 29, 1928. The New York Times wrote, “Miss Coolbrith is one of the real poets among the many poetic masqueraders in the volume.” She is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland. My fave. Her grave was unmarked until 1986 when the literary society The Ina Coolbrith Circle placed a headstone.  It was only upon Coolbrith's death that her literary friends discovered she had ever been a mother. Her poem, "The Mother's Grief", was a eulogy to a lost son, but she never publicly explained its meaning. Most people didn't even know that she was a divorced woman. She didn't talk about her marriage except through her poetry.  Ina Coolbrith Park was established in 1947 near her Russian Hill home, by the San Francisco parlors of the Native Daughters of the Golden Westmas. The park is known for its "meditative setting and spectacular bay views". The house she had built near Chinatown is still there, as is the house on Wheeler in Berkeley where she died. Byways in the Berkeley hills were named after Bret Harte, Charles Warren Stoddard, Mark Twain, and other literati in her circle but women were not initially included. In 2016, the name of a stairway in the hills that connects Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Miller Avenue in Berkeley was changed from Bret Harte Lane to Ina Coolbrith Path. At the bottom of the stairway, there is a plaque to commemorate Coolbrith. Her name is also commemorated at the 7,900 foot peak near Beckwourth Pass on Mount Ina Coolbrith in the Sierra Nevada mountains near State Route 70. In 2003, the City of Berkeley installed the Addison Street Poetry Walk,  a series of 120 poem imprinted cast-iron plates flanking one block of a downtown street. A 55-pound plate bearing Coolbrith's poem "Copa De Oro (The California Poppy)" is  raised porcelain enamel text, set into the sidewalk at the high-traffic northwest corner of Addison and Shattuck Avenues Her life in California spanned the pioneer American occupation, the end of the Gold Rush, the end of the Rancho Era in Southern California, the arrival of the intercontinental train, and the first renaissance of the 19th century feminist movement.  The American Civil War played no evident part in her consciousness but her life and her writing revealed acceptance of everyone from all classes and all races.  Everyone whose life she touched wrote about her kindness.  She wrote by hand, a hand painfully crippled by arthritis after she moved to the wetter climate of San Francisco.  Her handwriting was crabbed as a result — full of strikeouts.  She earned her own living and supported three children and her mother. She was the Sweet Singer of California, an American poet, writer, librarian, and a legend in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community, known as the pearl of our tribe.  Now this all leads me to wonder, what will your legacy be?     Queens of the Mines was created and produced by me, Andrea Anderson. You can  support Queens of the Mines on Patreon or by purchasing the paperback Queens of the Mines. Available on Amazon.  This season's Theme Song is by This Lonesome Paradise. Find their music anywhere but you can Support the band by buying their music and merch at thislonesomeparadise@bandcamp.com        

This episode we look at some of the physical evidence from this period.  In particular, since we are talking about the sovereign known as Ankan Tenno, we will look at a glass bowl, said to have come from his tomb, which appears to have made its way all the way from Sassanid Persia to Japan between the 5th and 6th centuries CE.  Along the way we'll take a brief look at the route that such an item may have taken to travel across the Eurasian continent all the way to Japan. For more on this episode, check out https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-79 Rough Transcript: Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 79:  Ankan's Glass Bowl. We are currently in the early part of the 6th century.  Last episode was our New Year's wrapup, but just before that we talked about the reign of Magari no Ōye, aka Ohine, aka Ankan Tennō.   According to the Chronicles, he was the eldest son of Wohodo, aka Keitai Tennō, coming to the throne in 534.  For all of the various Miyake, or Royal Grannaries, that he granted, his reign only lasted about two years, coming to an unfortunate end in the 12th month of 535.  The Chronicles claim that Ohine was 70 years old when he died, which would seem to indicate he was born when his father, Wohodo, was only 13 years of age.  That seems rather young, but not impossibly so. It is said that Ankan Tennō was buried on the hill of Takaya, in the area of Furuichi.  And that is where my personal interest in him and his short reign might end, if not for a glass bowl that caught my eye in the Tokyo National Museum. Specifically, it was the Heiseikan, which is where the Tokyo National Museum hosts special exhibitions, but it also hosts a regular exhibition on Japanese archaeology.  In fact, if you ever get the chance, I highly recommend checking it out.  I mean, let's be honest, the Tokyo National Museum is one of my favorite places to visit when I'm in Tokyo.  I think there is always something new—or at least something old that I find I'm taking a second look at. The Japanese archaeology section of the Heiseikan covers from the earliest stone tools through the Jomon, Yayoi, Kofun, and up to about the Nara period.  They have originals or replicas of many items that we've talked about on the podcast, including the gold seal of King Na of Wa, the Suda Hachiman mirror, and the swords from Eta Funayama and Inariyama kofun, which mention Wakatakiru no Ōkimi, generally thought to be the sovereign known as Yuuryaku Tennō.  They also have one of the large iron tate, or shields, on loan from Isonokami Shrine, and lots of bronze mirrors and various types of haniwa. Amongst this treasure trove of archaeological artifacts, one thing caught my eye from early on.  It is a small, glass bowl, round in shape, impressed throughout with a series of round indentations, almost like a giant golf ball.  Dark brown streaks crisscross the bowl, where it has been broken and put back together at some point in the past.  According to the placard, this Juuyo Bunkazai, or Important Cultural Property, is dated to about the 6th century, was produced somewhere in West Asia, and it is said to have come from the tomb of none other than Ankan Tennō himself. This has always intrigued me.  First and foremost there is the question of provenance—while there are plenty of tombs that have been opened over the years, generally speaking the tombs of the imperial family, especially those identified as belonging to reigning sovereigns, have been off limits to most archaeological investigations.  So how is it that we have artifacts identified with the tomb of Ankan Tennō, if that is the case? The second question, which almost trumps the first, is just how did a glass bowl from west Asia make it all the way to Japan in the 6th century?  Of course, Japan and northeast Asia in general were not strangers to glassmaking—glass beads have a long history both on the Korean peninsula and in the archipelago, including the molds used to make them.  However, it is one thing to melt glass and pour it into molds, similar to working with cast bronze.  These bowls, however, appear to be something different.  They were definitely foreign, and, as we shall see, they had made quite the journey. So let's take a look and see if we can't answer both of these questions, and maybe learn a little bit more about the world of 6th century Japan along the way. To start with, let's look at the provenance of this glass bowl.  Provenance is important—there are numerous stories of famous “finds” that turned out to be fakes, or else items planted by someone who wanted to get their name out there.  Archaeology—and its close cousin, paleontology—can get extremely competitive, and if you don't believe me just look up the Bone Wars of the late 19th century.  Other names that come to mind:  The infamous Piltdown man, the Cardiff Giant, and someone we mentioned in one of our first episodes, Fujimura Shin'ichi, who was accused of salting digs to try to claim human habitation in Japan going back hundreds of thousands of years. This is further complicated by the fact that, in many cases, the situation behind a given find is not necessarily well documented.  There are Edo period examples of Jomon pottery, or haniwa, that were found, but whose actual origins have been lost to time.  Then there are things like the seal of King Na of Wa, which is said to have been discovered by a farmer, devoid of the context that would help to otherwise clear the questions that continue to surround such an object.  On top of this, there are plenty of tombs that have been worn down over the ages—where wind and water have eroded the soil, leaving only the giant stone bones, or perhaps washing burial goods into nearby fields or otherwise displacing them. So what is the story with the tomb of Ankan Tennō, and this glass bowl? To answer this, let's first look at the tomb attributed to Ankan Tennō.  The Nihon Shoki tells us in the 8th century that this tomb was located at Takaya, in the area of Furuichi.  This claim is later repeated by the Engi Shiki in the 10th century.  Theoretically, the compilers of both of these works had some idea of where this was, but in the hundreds of years since then, a lot has happened.  Japan has seen numerous governments, as well as war, famine, natural disaster, and more.  At one point, members of the royal household were selling off calligraphy just to pay for the upkeep of the court, and while the giant kofun no doubt continued to be prominent features for locals in the surrounding areas, the civilian and military governments of the intervening centuries had little to no budget to spare for their upkeep.  Records were lost, as were many details. Towards the end of the Edo period, and into the early Meiji, a resurgence in interest in the royal, or Imperial, family and their ancient mausoleums caused people to investigate the texts and attempt to identify mausoleums for each of the sovereigns, as well as other notable figures, in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.  Given that many of those figures are likely fictional or legendary individuals, one can see how this may be problematic.  And yet, the list that eventually emerged has become the current list of kofun protected by the Imperial Household Agency as imperial mausolea. Based on what we know, today, some of these official associations seem obviously questionable.  Some of them, for instance, are not even keyhole shaped tombs—for instance, some are circular, or round tombs, where the claim is often made that the other parts of the tomb were eroded or washed away.  Still others engender their own controversy, such as who, exactly, is buried in Daisen-ryō, the largest kofun, claimed to be the resting place of Ōsazaki no Mikoto, aka Nintoku Tennō.  Some people, however, claim that it is actually the sovereign Woasatsuma Wakugo, aka Ingyō Tennō, who is buried there, instead.  What is the truth?  Well, without opening up the main tomb, who is to say, and even then it is possible that any evidence may have already been lost to the acidic soils of the archipelago, which are hardly kind to organic matter. By the way, quick divergence, here—if you look up information on Daisen-ryō, aka Daisen Kofun, you may notice that there are drawings of a grave, including a coffin, associated with it.  That might get you thinking, as I did at one point, that Daisen kofun had already been opened, but it turns out that was a grave on the slopes of the square end of the kofun, and not from the main, circular burial mound.  Theoretically this may have been an important consort, or perhaps offspring or close relative of the main individual interred in the kofun, but most likely it is not for the person for whom the giant mound was actually erected.  So, yes, Daisen kofun remains unopened, at least as far as we know. As for the kofun identified for Ankan Tennō, today that is the tomb known as Furuichi Tsukiyama Kofun, aka Takaya Tsukiyama Kofun.  While the connection to Ankan Tennō may be somewhat unclear, the kofun has had its own colorful history, in a way.  Now most of the reports I could find, from about '92 up to 2022, place this kofun, which is a keyhole shaped kofun, in the correct time period—about the early to mid-6th century, matching up nicely with a 534 to 535 date for the reign given to Ankan Tennō.  But what is fascinating is the history around the 15th to 16th centuries.  It was just after the Ounin War, in 1479, when Hatakeyama Yoshihiro decided to build a castle here, placing the honmaru, the main enclosure, around the kofun, apparently incorporating the kofun and its moats into the castle design.  The castle, known as Takaya Castle, would eventually fall to Oda Nobunaga's forces in 1575, and most of the surrounding area was burned down in the fighting, bringing the kofun's life as a castle to an end. Some of the old earthworks still exist, however, and excavations in the area have helped determine the shape of the old castle, though there still have not been any fulsome excavations of the mound that I have found.  This makes sense as the kofun is designated as belonging to a member of the imperial lineage. There are, however, other keyhole shaped kofun from around the early 6th century that are also found in the same area, which also could be considered royal mausolea, and would seem to fit the bill just as well as this particular tomb.  In addition, there are details in the Chronicles, such as the fact that Magari no Ohine, aka Ankan Tennō, was supposedly buried with his wife and his younger sister.  This is, however, contradicted by records like the 10th century Engi Shiki, where two tombs are identified, one for Ankan Tennō and one for his wife, Kasuga no Yamada, so either the Chronicles got it wrong, or there were already problems with tomb identification just two centuries later.  So we still aren't entirely sure that this is Ankan Tennō's tomb. But at least we know that the glass bowl came from a 6th century kingly tomb, even if that tomb was only later identified as belonging to Ankan Tennō, right? Well, not so fast. The provenance on the bowl is a bit more tricky than that.  You see, the bowl itself came to light in 1950, when a private individual in Fuse, Ōsaka invited visiting scholar Ishida Mosaku to take a look.  According to his report at the time, the bowl was in a black lacquered box and wrapped in a special cloth, with a written inscription that indicated that the bowl had been donated to a temple in Furuichi named Sairin-ji. There are documents from the late Edo period indicating that various items were donated to Sairin-ji temple between the 16th to the 18th centuries, including quote-unquote “utensils” said to have been washed out of the tomb believed to be that of Ankan Tennō.  Ishida Mosaku and other scholars immediately connected this glass bowl with one or more of those accounts.  They were encouraged by the fact that there is a similar bowl found in the Shōsōin, an 8th century repository at Tōdai-ji temple, in Nara, which houses numerous artifacts donated on behalf of Shōmu Tennō.  Despite the gulf of time between them—two hundred years between the 6th and 8th centuries—this was explained away in the same way that Han dynasty mirrors, made in about the 3rd century, continued to show up in burials for many hundreds of years afterwards, likewise passed down as familial heirlooms. Still, the method of its discovery, the paucity of direct evidence, and the lack of any direct connection with where it came from leaves us wondering—did this bowl really come from the tomb of Ankan Tennō?  Even moreso, did it come from a 6th century tomb at all?  Could it not have come from some other tomb? We could tie ourselves up in knots around this question, and I would note that if you look carefully at the Tokyo National Museum's own accounting of the object they do mention that it is quote-unquote “possibly” from the tomb of Ankan Tennō. What does seem clear, however, is that its manufacture was not in Japan.  Indeed, however it came to our small group of islands on the northeastern edge of the Eurasian continent, it had quite the journey, because it does appear to be genuinely from the Middle East—specifically from around the time of the Sassanian or Sassanid empire, the first Iranian empire, centered on the area of modern Iran. And it isn't the only one.  First off, of course, there is the 8th century bowl in the Shousoin I just mentioned, but there are also examples of broken glass found on Okinoshima, an island deep in the middle of the strait between Kyushu and the Korean peninsula, which has a long history as a sacred site, mentioned in the Nihon Shoki, and attached to the Munakata shrine in modern Fukuoka.  Both Okinoshima and the Shōsōin—at least as part of the larger Nara cultural area—are on the UNESCO register of World Heritage sites, along with the Mozu-Furuichi kofun group, of which the Takaya Tsukiyama kofun is one.. Okinoshima is a literal treasure trove for archaeologists. However, its location and status have made it difficult to fully explore.  The island is still an active sacred site, and so investigations are balanced with respect for local tradition.  The lone occupant of the island is a Shinto priest, one of about two dozen who rotate spending 10 days out at the island, tending the sacred site.  Women are still not allowed, and for centuries, one day a year they allowed up to 200 men on the island after they had purified themselves in the ocean around the island.  Since then, they have also opened up to researchers, as well as military and media, at least in some instances. The island is apparently littered with offerings.  Investigations have demonstrated that this island has been in use since at least the 4th century.  As a sacred site, guarding the strait between Kyushu and the Korean peninsula, fishermen and sailors of all kinds would make journeys to the island and leave offerings of one kind or another, and many of them are still there: clay vessels, swords, iron ingots, bronze mirrors, and more.  The island's location, which really is in the middle of the straits, and not truly convenient to any of the regular trading routes, means that it has never really been much of a strategic site, just a religious one, and one that had various religious taboos, so it hasn't undergone the centuries of farming and building that have occurred elsewhere. Offerings are scattered in various places, often scattered around or under boulders and large rocks that were perhaps seen as particularly worthy of devotion.  Since researchers have been allowed in, over 80,000 treasures have been found and catalogued.  Among those artifacts that have been brought back is glass, including glass from Sassanid Persia.  Pieces of broken glass bowls, like the one said to have come from Ankan's tomb, as well as what appear to be beads made from broken glass pieces, have been recovered over the years, once more indicating their presence in the trade routes to the mainland, although when, exactly, they came over can be a little more difficult to place. That might be helped by two other glass artifacts, also found in the archaeological exhibit of the Heiseikan in the Tokyo National Museum: a glass bowl and dish discovered at Niizawa Senzuka kofun Number 126, in Kashihara city, in Nara. This burial is believed to date to the latter half of the 5th century, and included an iron sword, numerous gold fittings and jewelry, and even an ancient clothes iron, which at the time looked like a small frying pan, where you could put hot coals or similar items in the pan and use the flat bottom to help iron out wrinkles in cloth.  Alongside all of this were also discovered two glass vessels.  One was a dark, cobalt-blue plate, with a stand and very shallow conical shape.  The other was a round glass bowl with an outwardly flared lip.  Around the smooth sides, the glass has been marked with three rows of circular dots that go all the way around, not dissimilar from the indentations in the Ankan and Shōsōin glass bowls. All of these, again, are believed to have come from Sassanid Persia, modern Iran, and regardless of the provenance of the Ankan bowl, it seems that we have clear evidence that Sassanian glassworks were making their way to Japan.  But how?  How did something like glass—hardly known for being the most robust of materials—make it all the way from Sassanid Persia to Yamato between the 5th and 8th centuries? To start with, let's look at Sassanid Persia and its glass. Sassanid Persia—aka Sassanid or Sassanian Iran—is the name given to the empire that replaced the Parthian empire, and is generally agreed to have been founded sometime in the early 3rd century.  The name “Sassanid” refers to the legendary dynastic founder, Sassan, though the first historical sovereign appears to be Ardeshir I, who helped put the empire on the map. Ardeshir I called his empire “Eran sahr”, and it is often known as an Iranian or Persian empire, based on their ties to Pars and the use of the Middle Persian, or Farsi, language.   For those not already well aware, Farsi is one of several Iranian languages, though over the years many of the various Iranian speaking peoples would often be classified as “Persian” in English literature.  That said, there is quite a diversity of Iranian languages and people who speak them, including Farsi, Pashto, Dari, Tajik, and the ancient Sogdian language, which I'm sure we'll touch on more given their importance in the ancient silk road trade.  Because of the ease with which historical “Iranian” ethnic groups can be conflated with the modern state, I am going to largely stick with the term Persian, here, but just be aware that the two words are often, though not always, interchangeable. The Sassanid dynasty claimed a link to the older Achaemenid dynasty, and over the subsequent five centuries of their rule they extended their borders, dominating the area between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, eastward to much of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan, running right up to the Hindu Kush and the Pamir mountains.  They held sway over much of Central Asia, including the area of Transoxiana.  With that they had access to both the sea routes, south of India and the overland routes through the Tianshan mountains and the northern and southern routes around the great Taklamakan desert – so, basically, any trade passing between Central and East Asia would pass through Sassanid territory. The Persian empire of the Sassanids was pre-Islamic—Islamic Arab armies would not arrive until about the 7th century, eventually bringing an end to the Sassanid dynasty.  Until that point, the Persian empire was largely Zoroastrian, an Iranian religion based around fire temples, restored after the defeat of the Parthians, where eternal flames were kept burning day and night as part of their ritual practice.  The Sassanids inherited a Persian culture in an area that had been dominated by the Parthians, and before that the Hellenistic Seleucids, and their western edge bordered with the Roman empire.  Rome's establishment in the first century BCE coincided with the invention of glassblowing techniques, and by the time of the Sassanid Empire these techniques seem to have been well established in the region. Sassanid glass decorated with patterns of ground, cut, and polished hollow facets—much like what we see in the examples known in the Japanese islands—comes from about the 5th century onward.  Prior to that, the Sassanian taste seems to have been for slightly less extravagant vessels, with straight or slightly rounded walls. Sassanid glass was dispersed in many different directions along their many trade routes across the Eurasian continent, and archaeologists have been able to identify glass from this region not just by its shape, but by the various physical properties based on the formulas and various raw materials used to make the glass. As for the trip to Japan, this was most likely through the overland routes.  And so the glass would have been sold to merchants who would take it up through Transoxiana, through passes between the Pamirs and the Tianshan mountains, and then through a series of oasis towns and city-states until it reached Dunhuang, on the edge of the ethnic Han sphere of influence. For a majority of this route, the glass was likely carried by Sogdians, another Iranian speaking people from the region of Transoxiana.  Often simply lumped in with the rest of the Iranian speaking world as “Persians”, Sogdians had their own cultural identity, and the area of Sogdia is known to have existed since at least the ancient Achaemenid dynasty.  From the 4th to the 8th century, Sogdian traders plied the sands of Central Eurasia, setting up a network of communities along what would come to be known as the Silk Road. It is along this route that the glassware, likely packed in straw or some other protective material, was carried on the backs of horses, camels, and people along a journey of several thousand kilometers, eventually coming to the fractious edge of the ethnic Han sphere.  Whether it was these same Sogdian traders that then made their way to the ocean and upon boats out to the Japanese islands is unknown, but it is not hard imagining crates being transferred from merchant to merchant, east, to the Korean Peninsula, and eventually across the sea. The overland route from Sogdia is one of the more well-known—and well-worn—routes on what we modernly know as the Silk Road, and it's very much worth taking the time here to give a brief history of how this conduit between Western Asia/Europe and Eastern Asia developed over the centuries.  One of the main crossroads of this area is the Tarim Basin, the area that, today, forms much of Western China, with the Tianshan mountains in the north and the Kunlun Mountains, on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, to the south.  In between is a large desert, the Taklamakan desert, which may have once been a vast inland sea.  Even by the Han dynasty, a vast saltwater body known as the Puchang Sea existed in its easternmost regions.  Comparable to some of the largest of the Great Lakes, and fed by glacial run-off, the lake eventually dwindled to become the salt-marshes around Lop Nur.  And yet, researchers still find prominent boat burials out in what otherwise seems to be the middle of the desert. Around the Tarim basin were various cultures, often centered on oases at the base of the mountains.  Runoff from melting ice and snow in the mountains meant a regular supply of water, and by following the mountains one could navigate from watering hole to watering hole, creating a natural roadway through the arid lands.  In the middle of the Basin, however, is the great Taklamakan desert, and even during the Han dynasty it was a formidable and almost unpassable wasteland.  One could wander the sands for days or weeks with no water and no indication of direction other than the punishing sun overhead.  It is hardly a nice place and remains largely unpopulated, even today. While there were various cultures and city-states around the oasis towns, the first major power that we know held sway, at least over the northern route, were the Xiongnu.  Based in the area of modern Mongolia, the Xiongnu swept down during the Qin and early Han dynasties, displacing or conquering various people. An early exploration of the Tarim basin and its surroundings was conducted by the Han dynasty diplomat, Zhang Qian.  Zhang Qian secretly entered Xiongnu territory with the goal of reaching the Yuezhi—a nomadic group that had been one of those displaced by the Xiongnu.  The Yuezhi had been kicked out of their lands in the Gansu region and moved all the way to the Ferghana valley, in modern Tajikistan, a part of the region known as Transoxiana.  Although Zhang Qian was captured and spent 10 years in service to the Xiongnu, he never forgot his mission and eventually made his way to the Yuezhi.  By that time, however, the Yuezhi had settled in to their new life, and they weren't looking for revenge. While Zhang Qian's news may have been somewhat disappointing for the Han court, what was perhaps more important was the intelligence he brought back concerning the routes through the Tarim basin, and the various people there, as well as lands beyond.  The Han dynasty continued to assert itself in the area they called the “Western Regions”, and General Ban Chao would eventually be sent to defeat the Xiongnu and loosen their hold in the region, opening up the area all the way to modern Kashgar.  Ban Chao would even send an emissary, Gan Ying, to try to make the journey all the way to the Roman empire, known to the Han court as “Daqin”, using the name of the former Qin dynasty as a sign of respect for what they had heard.  However, Gan Ying only made it as far as the land of Anxi—the name given to Parthia—where he was told that to make it to Rome, or Daqin, would require crossing the ocean on a voyage that could take months or even years.  Hearing this, Gan Ying decided to turn back and report on what he knew. Of course if he actually made it to the Persian Gulf—or even to the Black Sea, as some claim—Gan Ying would have been much closer to Rome than the accounts lead us to believe. It is generally thought that he was being deliberately mislead by Parthian merchants who felt they might be cut out if Rome and the Han Dynasty formed more direct relations.  Silks from East Asia, along with other products, were already a lucrative opportunity for middlemen across the trade routes, and nobody wanted to be cut out of that position if they could help it. That said, the Parthians and, following them the Sassanid Persians, continued to maintain relationships with dynasties at the other end of what we know as the Silk Road, at least when they could.  The Sassanid Persians, when they came to power, were known to the various northern and southern dynasties as Bosi—possibly pronounced something like Puasie, at the time, no doubt their attempt to render the term “Parsi”.  We know of numerous missions in both directions between various dynasties, and Sassanian coins are regularly found the south of modern China. And so we can see that even in the first and second centuries, Eurasia was much more connected than one might otherwise believe.  Goods would travel from oasis town to oasis town, and be sold in markets, where they might just be picked up by another merchant.  Starting in the fourth century, the Sogdian merchants began to really make their own presence known along these trade routes.  They would set up enclaves in various towns, and merchants would travel from Sogdian enclave to Sogdian enclave with letters of recommendation, as well as personal letters for members of the community, setting up their own early postal service.  This allowed the Sogdian traders to coordinate activities and kept them abreast of the latest news.     I'm not sure we have a clear indication how long this trip would take.  Theoretically, one could travel from Kashgar to Xi'an and back in well under a year, if one were properly motivated and provisioned—it is roughly 4,000 kilometers, and travel would have likely been broken up with long stays to rest and refresh at the various towns along the way. I've personally had the opportunity to travel from Kashgar to Turpan, though granted it was in the comfort of an air conditioned bus.  Still, having seen the modern conditions, the trip would be grueling, but not impossible back in the day, and if the profits were lucrative enough, then why not do it—it is not dissimilar to the adventurers from Europe in the 16th century who went out to sea to find their own fortunes.  And so the glass bowl likely made its way through the markets of the Tarim basin, to the markets of various capitals in the Yellow River or Yangzi regions—depending on who was in charge in any given year—and eventually made its way to the Korean peninsula and from there to a ship across the Korean strait. Of course, those ships weren't simply holding a single glass vessel.  Likely they were laden with a wide variety of goods.  Some things, such as fabric, incense, and other more biodegradable products would not be as likely to remain, and even glass breaks and oxidizes, and metal rusts away.  Furthermore, many of the goods had likely been picked over by the time any shipments arrived in the islands, making things such as these glass bowls even more rare and scarce. Still, this bowl, whether it belonged to Ankan or not, tells us a story.  It is the story of a much larger world, well beyond the Japanese archipelago, and one that will be encroaching more and more as we continue to explore this period.  Because it wasn't just physical goods that were being transported along the Silk Road.  The travelers also carried with them news and new ideas.  One of these ideas was a series of teachings that came out of India and arrived in China during the Han dynasty, known as Buddhism.  It would take until the 6th century, but Buddhism would eventually make its way to Japan, the end of the Silk Road. But that is for another episode.  For now, I think we'll close out our story of Ankan and his glass bowl.  I hope you've enjoyed this little diversion, and from here we'll continue on with our narrative as we edge closer and closer to the formal introduction of Buddhism and the era known as the Asuka Period. Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support.  If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.      

In this episode, you will be familiar with what calendar we use in Iran, and how it works! Meanwhile, you will learn how we say season and the month of the calendar in Persian.By subscribing to us at www.patreon.com/podgap you will get access to Persian Glossary, Transcription, Transliteration & Worksheet of all the episodes that published.If Podgap helps you with learning the Persian language share it with your friends. That would mean a lot to us. We can be in touch by podgapp@gmail.com

Latter-day Saints the world over are studying the New Testament this year. Much of value can be gleaned from following the Come Follow Me lessons and questions, but it falls quite short for those wanting to explore Jesus from wider perspectives.  This episode, our first of 2023, teases a few of these additional perspectives as our guest, Mark Crego, examines the religious and cultural setting of Judaism during Jesus's time, as well as in the regions in which he taught. Who were the Sadducees, Pharisees, Scribes, Essenes, Zealots, etc.? How did they form? What did they emphasize? What are their key teachings and motivations? In getting to these questions he takes us through the history of Judaism as it emerges from captivity, often quite changed from its leaders' encounters with Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Zoroastrian philosophies and teachings. It's a fascinating ride! The final third of the episode discusses what both Mark and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon believe is the key teaching of Jesus, and how it can be kept in mind as we engage not only with Sunday School classes, but also in our regular encounters with family, friends, and strangers. Enjoy! We think you will!

A large part of the world has just celebrated Christmas. This program looks into the poetic presence of Jesus in classical Persian poetry and his symbolic dedication to perpetuating life and honoring its sanctity.

Listen here:   This week's episode is sponsored by: Carry your creativity with Erin Lane Bags! Whether you show your fiber fandom with the woolly wonder Sheepleverse, or dive into history with the Curiosities collection, our project bags, totes, and hook and needle organizers are at the ready to keep your hobby happy.     Have you ever had to frog because you forgot a step several rows back? Or lost your spot because you dropped your magnet board or lost track with your highlighter tape? Instead of wrestling with paper, use the knitCompanion app. It keeps you on track so you can knit more and frog less. knitCompanion works with ALL your patterns and is available for Apple, Android, and Kindle Fire Devices Are you feeling dis-GRUNT-eled about your stash? Are you browsing Insta-HAM looking for knitting inspiration? Is color "kind of a PIG deal" in your life? Oink Pigments offers over one hundred forty PIG-ture perfect colorways to make you SQUEAL with delight. For a limited time only, bring home the bacon with code KNITMORE and get fifteen percent off in-stock yarns and fibers at oinkpigments dot com. Shop soon, because these pigs will FLY!   Heath update On the Needles: (0:32) Gigi : Andrew's sock at Jasmin's. toe decreases done Jasmin has finished the beaded fringe on the wide houndstooth wrap for Gigi (woven on her Schacht flip loom with Tess Yarns Silk Chenille) Gigi is working on another pair of socks for Andrew for knitting at my house. Got contrast yarn. Toes are done, at Jasmin's to be grafted  Jasmin continues on the body of  her “I'll be Gnome for Christmas” (Go Big or go Gnome pattern ) pullover in Black Trillium fibers. Gigi. Cocoknits Verena cardigan pattern on knit companion    Participating in Dr Gemma's Romjule . Gigi mentions the Cocoknits Sweater Workshop, read the instructions.  Jasmin finished the Electric Mayhem coat (made in The Lemonade Shop yarns) Gigi: cast on for a new premie hat, made pompom. No progress  Gigi dug out her striped Elton cardigan. Jasmin finished her Alaska hat. The green is Neighborhood Fiber Co. She added a sasquatch (in leftover cashmere) AND LIGHTS! Jasmin mentions the Bigfoot Campfire Stories book (and series by Rusty Wilson). Wearable LED lights Knitting club!   Events:(26:54) Grinchalong is over Penzey's Romjule! Ended!  Stitches West in Sacramento in March   Mother Knows Best:(30:18) Drink Your Water! When Knitting Attacks:(31:42) Jasmin was fighting with a Cool Thing™  on her Alaska hat Brown Dog Gadgets (linked above) Knit more, know more :(37:40) A segment about Persian culture, history, or just generally cool stuff about Persian people. Protests are ongoing. Garlic pickles   And Sew on:(46:07) Gigi registered for spring semester. I would like to sew one /finish a garment per month Jasmin repaired Genevieve's backpack  Rays Sewing center Embroidery Floss from Little Skein in the Big Wool and Bzy Peach