Kohled Nomadisms

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Bonjour 🇫🇷 (France; via Rabia Z.) #france #streetart #tricolore #hijab (at France)

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Jewish woman of color: Dihya

 Dihya was born in the early 7th century and was a Amazigh Jew.  She was able to defeat as a indigenous person of Northern Africa the Arab Islamic invaders who retreated to Tripolitania. For five years she ruled a free berber state from the Aures mountains to the oasis of Gadames (695-700 AD)

Dihya succeeded Caecilius as the war leader of the Berber tribes in the 680s and opposed the encroaching Arab Islamic armies of the Umayyad Dynasty. Hasan ibn al-Nu'man marched from Egypt and captured the major Byzantine city of Carthage and other cities. Searching for another enemy to defeat, he was told that the most powerful monarch in North Africa was “the queen of the Berbers”  Dihyā, and accordingly marched into Numidia. The armies met near Meskiana in the present-day province of Oum el-Bouaghi, Algeria. She defeated Hasan so soundly that he fled Ifriqiya and holed up in Cyrenaica (Libya) for four or five years.

Ibn Khaldun records many legends about Dihyā. A number of them refer to her long hair or great size, both legendary characteristics of sorcerers. She is also supposed to have had the gift of prophecy and she had three sons, which is characteristic of witches in legends. Even the fact that two were her own and one was adopted (an Arab officer she had captured), was an alleged trait of sorcerers in tales. Another legend claims that in her youth, she had supposedly freed her people from a tyrant by agreeing to marry him and then murdering him on their wedding night. Virtually nothing else of her personal life is known. 

[5centsapound]

Khayamiya: Khedival to Contemporary, opening at Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAMM) on October 2, 2015

Khayamiya’ is Egyptian Tentmaker Appliqué, a rare and spectacular Islamic art form that is rarely seen beyond Egypt. “Khayamiya: Khedival to Contemporary”, curated by Dr Sam Bowker, is the world’s first exhibition to reveal the story of the Egyptian Tentmakers from the Late Ottoman Empire to present-day Cairo.

Khayamiya is the Egyptian art of tent-making. Bright fabric pieces are cut, folded and skillfully handsewn to large canvases to create impressive tents and textile panels. These textiles are used in many Egyptian ceremonies, including weddings, funerals, street parties and religious events.

These examples show the transformations of khayamiya from the late Ottoman Empire up to the present day. In Cairo today, magnificent screens still form colourful backdrops for street parties, weddings, Ramadan celebrations, political rallies, funerals and religious events. Sadly, these screens are now made of cheap printed fabrics that imitate real Khayamiya appliqué. The historic hand-made art of the Tentmakers now faces extinction.  “We aim to raise international awareness of khayamiya by recognizing the work of the Egyptian tentmakers as skilled craftsmen and artists.”

[lecrayonkhol]

Almaz's Story - a cartoon based on a testimony given in April 2014 by a young Ethiopian woman abused by her employers in Saudi Arabia and an example challenges faced by many immigrant workers to the region. You can read the whole story here. 

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It’s important to read a book, but also to hold the book, to smell the book… it’s perfume, it’s incense, it’s the dust of Egypt…

Ray Bradbury (via observando)

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There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

Vincent van Gogh (via observando)

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Homeward swing of a young office worker adds a fresh lilt to a time-mellowed street in Boston

National Geographic | September 1974

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 ”Having a soft heart in a cruel world is courage, not weakness

[lecrayonkhol]

This phenomenal photo series was taken in Mongolia, centred on Mongolia's only-known female eagle huntress, fierce and brazen. By day, she is but a 13-year-old schoolgirl. 

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[lecrayonkhol]

We're all part of the same design!

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با یک گل نمی اید بهار One flower does not bring spring

Afghan Proverb (via sophiaofmaihan)

[lecrayonkhol]

Sakura season hit Japan last week. Life, as the cherry blossom in the spring, is fleeting.

[lecrayonkhol]

The magnificent world of firefly photography is trending in Japan. Mostly taken in the wooded forests close to the regions of Kansai and Honshu, the artists detailed in this article are gaining fame through their documentation of one of childhoods simplest pleasures - fireflies. 

[lecrayonkhol]

Happy International Women's Day 2014, gals and guys. Enjoy this lovely photographic essay of mothers and daughters from around the globe, pieced together by Al-Jazeera.

Why not browse through a selection of inspiring quotes about women from the International Business Times, too?  My personal favourite: "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission." - Eleanor Roosevelt

[lecrayonkhol]

An abandoned, unused cinema built by an ambitious Frenchman a decade and a half ago has been rediscovered. It's location? The middle of nowhere, in a vast, deserted peninsula that is otherwise known as the Sinai. You can see more pictures of this unusual outdoor Egyptian theatre here. 

[lecrayonkhol]

A farewell to one of Spain's greatest exports - Paco de Lucia, the phenomenal guitarist. This rumba from 1973, "Entre dos aguas", sealed his reputation in his home country of Spain and also on the international scene. For more on de Lucia's life and death, you can click here to link through to the BBC.