The Iranian intellectual Jalal Al-e-Ahmad (1923-1969) visited #Israel in 1964, and published his rather positive impressions of the Zionist project. Being a communist, he was impressed by the Kibbutz model, among other things.
His travelogue was published by his brother only in 1984, under the title "The land of Azrael*" (سفر به ولايت عزرائيل), which was translated to English under the suggestive title "The Israeli Republic" (i.e. The Islamic Republic of Iran).
About the book:
Written by a preeminent Iranian writer who helped lay the popular groundwork for the Iranian Revolution, The Israeli Republic should be required reading for anyone interested in the history and current political landscape of the Middle East. Documenting Jalal Al-e Ahmad’s two-week-long trip to Israel in February of 1963, his account “Journey to the Land of Azrael” caused a firestorm when it was published in Iran, upsetting the very revolutionary clerics whose anti-Western sentiments Al-e Ahmad himself had fueled. Yet, in the thriving Jewish State, Jalal Al-e Ahmad saw a model for a possible future Iran. Based on his controversial travelogue, supplemented with letters between the author and his wife, Simin Daneshvar (the first major Iranian woman novelist), and translated into English for the first time, The Israeli Republic is a record of Al-e Ahmad’s idealism, insight, and ultimate disillusionment toward Israel. Vibrantly modern in its sensibility and fearlessly polemical, this book will change the way you think about the Middle East.”
🇮🇷 "The results show an autochthonous but non-homogeneous ancient background mainly composed by J2a sub-clades with different external contributions. The phylogeography of the main haplogroups allowed identifying post-glacial and Neolithic expansions toward western Eurasia but also recent movements towards the Iranian region from western Eurasia (R1b-L23), Central Asia (Q-M25), Asia Minor (J2a-M92) and southern Mesopotamia (J1-Page08)."
🇮🇷 🇮🇳 "Despite this, we infer that Indian Zoroastrians (Parsis) intermixed with local groups sometime after their arrival in India, dating this mixture to 690–1390 CE and providing strong evidence that Iranian Zoroastrian ancestry was maintained primarily through the male line."
One of my favorite historical people is Matteo Ricci. He joined the Jesuits at a young age and spent several years in Goa in India before traveling to his intended destination of Macau.
Upon his arrival, the Catholic mission in China had limited success. There were few converts and the emperor did not allow the missionaries inland.
Unlike his colleagues, Ricci spent time studying the language and culture of China. He became an expert in the Chinese classics. 1/x
@badbede@histodons
East, West, North, South, all #history is just inherently fascinating. But I just love the East/West connections, which in the dominant culture have been so neglected (not to say whitewashed, Orientalized, and falsified).
Context is everything.
Set aside the breathless tendentious (ahem, racist) sensationalisms, the petty not-so-great-power posturing of the moment. Surely #India, #China, #Russia, #Iran, #CentralAsia will continue to assert themselves, in the best sense, as the century continues. It will be fascinating to see the cultures and histories of a resurgent #Eurasia come out from behind the eclipse of the West and move back into the global mainstream.
The unacknowledged, indeed incompletely explored, linkages between (for example) early Buddhism and 'ancient Greek philosophy' will be just one juxtaposition that may grow into a very illuminating field over the next century. Who knows?