"Make Mine Freedom!" (1948)

I have to thank Parsley for sharing this video on her blog. It is really an interesting little video and fits well with today's government:

Final Semester....Here I Come!!!

It's almost that time again! Time for a new semester at Vermont College of Union Institute & University. I am so ready for this one to begin. If all goes as planned, it will be my LAST! Yay!!! Ok, I won't party too soon 'cause ya never know. But I am sure all will go well enough.

This being my last semester, I have to put much more effort into completing my thesis. I have 2 and a half chapters to write. The half chapter is the remainder of the Introduction (Chapter 1). I have already begun researching for Chapter 4: The House of Wisdom in the West (or something to that effect). I am looking closely at Andalusia for much of the chapter and will pan out from there for a few pages. I say Andalusia because this is where the Caliphate in the West was located under the Umayyads. I am currently reading a chapter in Scott Montgomery's Science in Translation and making notes of scientists listed within. Here are a few that I am planning to look into a bit more:

• Gerbert of Aurillac
• Adelard of Bath
• Gerard of Cremona
• John of Seville
• Hugh of Santalla
• Dominicus Gundissalinus
• Michael Scot
• Petrus Alfonsi
• William Moerbeke

I am sure I will find others along the way, but this is a start for now.

In other scholarly news, Ovation networks recently aired a special called "Paradise Found: Islamic Architecture and Art".

I caught a little bit of it, more than half way through the program, where the narrator was talking about Cordoba and the Umayyad Caliphate. I am hoping to catch the whole thing sometime in the near future, through the Google link I bookmarked (lol). Apparently, this documentary is a few years old.

Looking at the Ovation website, I did find another program scheduled to air Apri1 11 at 8pm called "Andalusia: The Legacy of the Moors". I will be watching that show, but the following week on April 17 at 9pm.

Islamic Manuscripts at Michigan

The University of Michigan has put together an incredible catalog dedicated to Islamic Manuscripts. Check out their website!

Semester Break

Well, we have been on break since mid-February and I am starting to get a bit restless. Over the past couple of days, I have slowly gotten back into the research mode. I have found a few articles that I intend to read over the next week or so and have purchased a couple of books that I have had perpetually checked out from the USF library since November. I have two more that I for sure will be purchasing next month. Check back soon for some "words of wisdom" from me about my readings.

Journals and Professors

Wow! I turned in what I had at the end of the semester, well a little over a week ago, and got a great response from my professor! Now I am excited for summer to get here. You may be wondering why I am so excited so soon?! Well, I am glad you asked. I have been given the opportunity to submit one chapter of my thesis for publication in an online journal that my prof is the editor of. What a great honor! I have one more semester to go before my thesis is complete and his feedback has been most thrilling. It takes having a wonderful professor and advisor (can’t forget her and all of her input as well) to keep me focused on my work and to keep me interested. I am greatly indebted to their interest and help along the way thus far!

I will post more later as I learn more about the publication (date and link). For those interested, here is a link to The Virginia Review of Asian Studies (VRAS).

Wrapping Up this Semester

Well, this semester is nearing a close and I feel that I have accomplished quite a bit on my thesis. I still have quite a bit to go. Keep checking in for updates as I progress into al-Andalus and Europe. For the remaining two weeks of this term, I will be busily finishing Chapters 2 and 3. Over the break, I plan to continue my readings in preparation for Chapter 4 – The House of Wisdom and the West. This is the chapter that will focus on the scientific advancements coming into Europe from Baghdad. I plan to highlight some of those Arab/Muslim scientists that worked in al-Andalus and the European scientists who worked with the Muslim contributions and improved upon them. This will pave the way for the concluding chapter where I plan to discuss the importance of reclaiming this “golden age” to various regimes (such as the Taliban and Osama bin Laden) and why it is important to preserve what little is left of the primary source materials including illustrations such as a partial physician’s license.

Translation Project complete

I have finished the translation project I was working on this past week. When I first began this project, I intended to select some poems and translate into Arabic. I found the Arabic to be a bit daunting (I have only taken 1 year of the language and that was 2005-6), so I switched to a language that I am more familiar with: français! So, I chose the poems - 9 to be exact - and spent most of last weekend translating them from English into French. I asked my best friend, and native of France, to edit my translations, which she happily did. I received her edit back on Wednesday evening and was a bit surprised at how many mistakes I made. After careful review of my errors, some of which were just plain stupid mistakes, I set about to try my hand at calligraphy. I have a little practice in this writing craft, but decided for the sake of time and continuity that I would print (I know, I know, a bit too modern, but it works) the poems out onto the card stock I planned to use for the inside of the book. Here is a picture of the pages:

The font is Old English Text MT. The poem in the picture above has been published by the International Library of Poetry in the anthology "Clouds Across the Stars".

I prepared the covers using a faux leather material, the same card stock, and some spray-on adhesive. This adhesive worked out really well all the way around, although it was a bit sticky! Here is a picture of the covers before the design element was applied:

And here is the cover after the design:

I chose a traditional, simple Islamic design for the cover. I used a blue cotton fabric and overlayed that with green (almost an olive green) faux suede-like fabric.

The binding itself is a “shoelace” style binding using the faux leather material to tie the pieces together.

This was a fun project and quite simple to put together once all of the pieces were collected. I really have to thank my best friend, Christine, for her editing and my father for punching the holes into the covers for me.