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"(Martin's) sources were steeped in outdated misogynist & colonialist perspectives, it is vital to amplify the voices of those who have a better understanding of the real history being exaggerated in #GoT." publicmedievalist.com/thrones-outdat…
Amplify Kelly Hayes on Why Daenerys Targayren was never a liberator: truthout.org/articles/daene…
Amplify @homophonous on why the diverse and complex history of medieval Spain makes Dorne look even more Orientalist than you suspected - and why that matters for the contemporary Middle East/Essos washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/0…
Amplify @siwaratrikalpa to learn about medieval southeast Asia - Yi Ti (which barely appears in #GoT) is a mere caricature of the rich culture and history of Asia in the medieval era
Amplify @Safaitic who is rewriting the history of early Islam in the most amazing way possible - using inscriptions on rocks in the desert in 2,000 year-old languages approximately five people on earth know how to read newyorker.com/culture/cultur…
Amplify @QifaNabki whose translation of a fabulous encyclopedia by a medieval Mamluk clerk will give you the world of the real slave soldiers who ruled the E Mediterranean from Cairo for 250 years - the Unsullied are mere mute ciphers in comparison. npr.org/2016/08/29/490…
Amplify @cobbpasha who...where to begin? Just read everything he's written! Here's his recent book on the Crusades - but not the Crusades you think you know. Wars of conquest: WAY MORE COMPLICATED THAN YOU THINK, DAENERYS TARGARYEN! paulmcobb.com/the-race-for-p…
Amplify @mrustow whose pathbreaking work on Cairo #Geniza won her a MacArthur "Genius" fellowship. Don't know the Cairo Geniza? A cache of 300,000 documents stashed in a wall in a synagogue and forgotten for 1,000 years? It's like the medieval Facebook. cairotothecloud.com
Want to directly help understand our diverse medieval past? If you know a little Arabic or Hebrew (or even if you don't & just have a good eye!) you can jump in to help sort & translate the Cairo #Geniza documents @judaicadh's amazing crowdsourced project
zooniverse.org/projects/judai…
zooniverse.org/projects/judai…
Amplify @krisrich who has done trailblazing work on medieval difference and disability in the Islamic world and who has now turned her astute scholarly eye to tracing a medieval #Roma or #Gypsy language inflected by Persian and Arabic. edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-differenc…
Beguiled by exquisite gardens and palaces of Dorne you saw in season 7 before D&D ruined the Sand Snakes? Amplify @abigail_balbale, whose work on medieval Spain gives us a lush, immersive vision of the rich cacophony of that intercultural world. yalebooks.yale.edu/book/978030014…
Incidentally, @abigail_balbale was a student of the magnificent Cuban-American scholar María Rosa Menocal - whose book Ornament of the World you should also read. And look for this film, due out in December vimeo.com/158674145
I can't leave the Maghreb without amplifying @Ballandalus! His blog is The Most Brilliant on all things medieval al-Andalus and medieval Mediterranean. I warn you though, set aside at least a week, because that's the minimum this will steal from your life. ballandalus.wordpress.com
Love #ASOF & #GoT but hate that it comes with an appalling dose of racism and sexism? Amplify @SAChakrabooks, whose enrapturing and delightful Daevabad Trilogy has a female protagonist worthy of Arya Stark, if Arya lived in the world of the 1,001 Nights sachakraborty.com
Love the Dothraki, hate how they epitomized the Trope of the Disposable Brown Barbarian? Amplify the sharp mind and incisive commentary of @Yael_Rice on Mughal art - as evident in this thread. Because Dothraki = Mongols and Mongols = Mughals
Upset that D&D killed the only named black female character on #GoT? Sad that Missandei will never see her home on Naath & that the continent of Sothoryos is tellingly described as "unexplored"? Amplify the rich story of medieval Africa @NUBlockMuseum blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/exhibitions/20…
Oops - dang - typing too fast - #ASOIAF
And if you want to delve deeper into the history of medieval Africa's Saharan kingdoms, when Mansa Musa of Mali may have made himself the richest man to have ever lived, Michael Gomez's masterful new book will set the scholarly standard for years to come. press.princeton.edu/titles/11181.h…
Back to Dothraki = Mongols - did you know the Mongols, despite beginning as brutal conquerors, converted to Islam & sponsored one of the most glittering eras of medieval history, culture, & art? No? Recommend you pre-order this new book by Sussan Babaie bloomsbury.com/us/iran-after-…
Imagine if instead of being depicted as spending his time raping & murdering, Khal Drogo had sent an embassy bearing a letter to Queen Cersei. Because the real Mongols did that. Letter of Mongol Ilkhanid ruler Öljeitü to King Phillip IV France (on right) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96lja…
