Baghdad

[babeofbabel]

I can't

Remember the last time I was on here! It was definitely something to do with it taking ages to load - I'd stare blankly until pixel by pixel posts would load. A lesson in patience - thanks Tumblr

[historium]

The Al-Shaheed Monument, dedicated to Iraqi soldiers lost during the Iran-Iraq war. Iraq, 1984. Photograph by Steve McCurry.

[middleeasternpoetry]

[babeofbabel]

Pros & Cons

What happens when you are faced with a choice and the negatives outweigh the positives but you really want to do it anyway? As in once a lifetime opportunity that you've always wanted? I need guidance. The night is long and sleep won't rescue me from the gravity of the choice I need to make.

[hijabandthecity-deactivated2018]

[morbidology]

[babeofbabel]

Ahhhhhhhh

I'm actually doing it! There's going to be years of study ahead, but worth it I hope!

[blacktout]

He felt an irresistible urge to seek out new acquaintances, but each new acquaintance had only increased his weariness.

Franz Kafka, The Castle (via blacktout)

[julaibib]

Old Muslim Uyghur men, one leading his friend who is blind, head to the Masjid for prayers in Kashgar, China

[zakiyeh]

today i learned that Christians were almost 30% of Jordan’s population in the 1950s and now they’re 3-4%.

[kiarakirai-deactivated20200605]

[assyrian-prince]

Armota Church, an Assyrian church in northern Iraq.

The name is derived from the words “Ara” or “Land” and “Mota/Moutha” meaning “Death.” 

The legend states that either a plague killed many villagers in the past, or a large battle emerged between Muslims and Christians. 

[anamorphosis-and-isolate]

Let what comes come. Let what goes go. Find out what remains.

Ramana Maharshi (via anamorphosis-and-isolate)

[allmesopotamia]

“LAMASHTU DAUGHTER OF ANU, HER FIRST NAME IS THAT, THE SECOND IS: SISTER OF THE GODS OF THE STREETS, THE THIRD IS: DAGGER WHICH SMASHES THE HEAD, ETC. UNTIL, THE SEVENTH IS: BE EXORCISED BY THE GREAT GODS

MS in Babylonian on red jasper, Babylonia, 1000-600 BC, 1 plaque, 6,2x4,7x1,2 cm, single column, 10 lines of monumental cuneiform script, 5 illustrations, the main illustration showing the female demon Lamashtu standing on the back of a horse, suckling a piglet and a whelp and with a snake in each hand, with a loop handle.

Commentary: Commentary: This monster demon was well known in the Ancient Near East for killing or removing new-born babies, slipping unnoticed into the house at their most vulnerable period. She was the daughter of Anu, the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon. Some amulets were designed to be worn by the mother, like the present one, others by the baby, and the biggest examples to be hung on the bed, or on the wall.

A long ritual was used to combat her. A likeness of Lamashtu was placed in a little boat together with items of female apparel and offerings to distract her attention. The model boat was then placed in the swift-flowing Tigris River, and she was borne away to the Underworld, leaving mankind in peace. As a deterrent mothers often wore a bronze head of the god Pazuzu to protect them and force Lamashtu back to the underworld.”

[assyrian-prince]

A painting by Iraqi artist Ali Al Tajir in honor of the Assyrians of Mosul. 

[talesofpassingtime]

Compassion was the chief and perhaps only law of all human existence.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot (via talesofpassingtime)

[deathandmysticism]

[drrestless]

Lost Travels (533): Damascus Gate, Jerusalem, late 19th century or early 20th century