Rich Heffron

1/ A thread about ʿAbd al-Malik’s hairdresser, the Marwanid caliphs, early Islamic legal authority, and biographical literature inspired once again by Ibn ʿAsākir’s “History of Damascus”

Goethe's attempt at calligraphy

I've just finished reading the wonderful new book by @mikati_rana, Creating an Islamic City: Beirut, Jihad and the Sacred (Brill, 2024). Few books in early Islamic history combine texts and archaeology so effectively. A must read brill.com/display/title/…

A reading of that Sanā’i ghazal that Frank Lewis translated so nicely

I am please to announce that my new scholarly biography of al-Bukhari will be released very soon. Check it out here: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-al-bukhar…

Aquatic ḥajj, from an unpublished mid-8th-century chronicle: 'Ibn al-Zubayr reached a level of piety no one else ever reached. When a flood prevented people from circumambulating [the Kaaba], he showed up & circumambulated the sanctuary seven times wading through the water.'

But can anyone who was a part of the Trumpiyyun be considered thiqa?

1/What is an Ayatollah? How does one become one? A thread for non-specialists and political analysts. 🧵

@EgyptsBeer LOL. Not just proposed it, but published an exhaustive monograph on it 150 years ago.

A German Orientalist actually proposed that

This paper presents an edition and study of five early Abbasid monumental inscriptions from Mecca. Comparing the contents of three of these inscriptions which are from the Masǧid al‐Ḥarām to juridical discussions of pilgrimage rites, it argues that, academia.edu/55099627

One of the most beautiful places I've had the privilege of visiting. I wish my shirt, which I acquired at an anti-Iraq War protest, wasn't apropos. (Haraz Mountains, 2007)

New ad by the Norwegian Consumer Council: "A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator"

Important new study by Raashid Goyal: academia.edu/164713457/Arab…

@shahanSean On an unrelated note, do you know of any work that's been done on these compendia of Orientalists composed by Arab scholars in the 20th century?

The pain is real.

@ProfTCSchmidt @AdrianPirtea I published a transcription of the full text in May 2025 here: archive.org/details/the-ch… And I made corrections to Pirtea's errors in his later article here: archive.org/details/a-corr…

This is huge! A new Syriac chronicle has been discovered dating to around AD 712-13 and covering the 7th century. Absolutely amazing. heritagedaily.com/2026/02/1300-y…

Today my translation of al-Dani's Taysir has come out! I hope to write a little bit more about this later, but for now here is a link. And it's Open Access! openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647…

A new podcast on classical Arabic literature!