Fabulous new @EmpirePodUK episode-
This one is a complete cracker
The second in our Empress series-
Helena, Queen of the World, Mother of Empire and Finder of the One True Cross
with the wonderful @peter_sarris Born in poverty at a time when the Roman Empire was in danger of cracking up and disintegrating, Helena was set for a life of obscurity as a stable hand, bar maid, and, according to some, a prostitute. Yet, in the most improbable tale she rose through the social hierarchy to be proclaimed Empress, then later canonised, and declared by some as Queen of the World and Mother of Empire.

Monoliths exist throughout the length and breadth of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, often in groups of three. However, the biggest collection of Megalithic stones can be found in the market village of Nartiang, which is a sort of Himalayan Callanish. These consist of both Menhirs (upright stones, believed to be male) and Dolmens (flat stones in the horizontal position, conceived as female) and known as Moo Kynthai. The elders of the village still sit on the stones on market day once a week, divide revenue due to the village and decide where to spend it. Villages here still give each other menhirs, though today they usually arrive by truck 🚚 rather than wooden rollers from the quarry.

Is @michaelgove going to be calling in the Israeli ambassador and break off diplomatic relations?

Gove "condemned chants, including “from the river to the sea”, that have become a common feature of anti-Israel marches, suggesting that they amounted to “the legitimisation of an extremist position which intimidates and leads to hate”.

telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/0… It should also be pointed out that the same phrase which @michaelgove condemns as “the legitimisation of an extremist position which intimidates and leads to hate” appears as article 1 of the charter of the ruling Likud Party of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Time to break off diplomatic relations and apply sanctions surely?

New from @EmpirePodUK
Iran & Saudi Arabia: The Rivalry that Split the Islamic World
with the wonderful @KimGhattas 1979 was the year that changed everything in the Middle East, setting it on the path to today. In Iran, the Islamic Revolution established the nation as a theocracy that sought to defend Shi'ism across the world.

Exactly what Israel did to 530 Palestinian villages in 1948 "so that they would have nothing to come back to." Everything the IDF do every day in Gaza is a reminder that Israel is a state built on the ethnic cleansing of its Palestinian inhabitants.

https://twitter.com/MacaesBruno/status/1754254556555305132

Here are the villages they destroyed:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t…

The amazing @amiasrinivasan, Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at @UniofOxford, talks to @PragyaTiwari about free speech on campus. In Cancelled- Can I Speak Freely she discusses attempts by government and wealthy donors to control debate among scholars, while also taking on the Left for muzzling obnoxious views. The session revolves around her celebrated @LRB essay
lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/…

The Veheragala Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva- arguably the most confident, badass and downright sexy Prince of Compassion ever sculpted.

A Bodhisattva is a being on the threshold of Enlightenment who chooses to delay crossing over to Nirvana in order to help others who are struggling on the same path. Avalokitesvara, ‘The Lord of Compassionate Glance’, is the Bodhisattva of Compassion who has struggled through numerous rebirths yet chosen to postpone nirvana in order to help others escape the cycle of rebirth. Unlike Buddha Sakyamuni who has achieved Enlightenment and left this troubled world "like a flame blown out by the wind," Avalokitesvara is available in a time of danger, especially while travelling, if a devotee calls on him for help. Avalokitesvara is especially popular around coastal sites, as he was renowned as the patron of sailors, the Saviour from Perils, and for saving his devotees from shipwreck.

Masterpieces of early Buddhist art @ngma_delhi

Yesterday, while giving a lecture @ngma_delhi I stumbled across an extraordinary exhibition there called Routes & Roots, originally put up to entertain G20 delegates. Its only up for ten more days and is full of masterworks from public collections across India, but hasn't been advertised at all. Don't miss it!

1. Elephants, from the Amaravati Stupa. 3rdC CE.
2. Nag nobleman stepping gingerly into the jaws of a makara. Mathura, 100CE

New @EmpirePodUK drop:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra-
How Persian Religion Changed the World
linktr.ee/empirepoduk
Three great religions have come out of Persia: Zoroastrianism, Mithraism and Manichaeism. All of them have hugely influenced world history.

Windows of the Soul:
Another stroll through the Met

1. Portrait of a Girl from the Ruling Family (late Republican Rome, 1stC BCE) 2. One of the 24 Priests of Heaven (gondar, Ethiopia, 17thC)

I stayed in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem for several weeks in 1994, while writing From the Holy Mountain. I regularly used to hear armed Settlers shouting "Death to the Arab," as they passed along the outer walls, smashing windows and breaking into shops. Now the Settlers have seized a chunk of the Patriachate that has been Armenian land since the 4th century. The Patriach writes that the Christian presence is under "existential threat."

https://twitter.com/MacaesBruno/status/1725291213484703976

I wrote about the gradual extinction of the Palestinian Christians here. Now it's much, much worse and the very last Christians are being driven out or leaving while they still have some property to sell.

New @EmpirePodUK drop:
The opening episode of our new series
Empires of Iran-
Cyrus the Great:
Building the World's First Great Superpower Born the son of a tribal chieftain, Cyrus would go on to become a titanic figure in world history. He took Persia from being a minor regional force to the first superpower the world had ever seen.

Even the centrists in Israel now talking about emptying Gaza of Palestinian and "distributing them around the world."

https://twitter.com/MacaesBruno/status/1721289493217497563

There is a long history to the idea of "transfer" in Zionist political thought: forcing the indigenous Palestinians to leave and taking their land. It used to be mainly an idea discussed in Likud political circles, but is now much more widely canvassed.

Worth remembering this telling 1969 quote from Moshe Dayan this week as leaks indicate that Netanyahu, Ben Gvir and their extreme far right wing government are drawing up plans to expel the shattered refugees of Gaza into Egypt Here are some links about the plan:

An Israeli news report by Ynet claims that the Netanyahu government has offered a raft of proposals to entice Egypt to open its doors to two million displaced Palestinians, despite Cairo's rejection

https://x.com/MiddleEastEye/status/1719481983800070246?t=Cm_FAwZCdrzR5c7Jp9pEdA&s=03

Today is the birthday of the great king buried in this tomb. He founded a mighty empire, then the greatest the world had seen, which will be the subject of our next series @EmpirePodUK...

Any guesses? Most of you guessed correctly: that was the magnificent tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargardae, and the next series @EmpirePodUK will be on Empires of Iran: From the Rise of Cyrus to the Fall of the Shah.

New @Empirepod drop!
The Graveyard of Empires

After the calamitous retreat from Kabul left tens of thousands of British and Indian sepoys dead, the East India Company wants revenge. They will call upon the Army of Retribution which will leave Afghanistan, once the Crossroads of Civilisation, a desolate wasteland.








In charge is the meticulous but merciless Major-General George Pollock, commander of the Army of Retribution, which lays waste to south-eastern Afghanistan and burns Kabul to the ground.

linktr.ee/empirepod

New @EmpirePodUK drop-
1842: The Retreat from Kabul

When the Afghans launched their Jihad against the invading British in the winter of 1841-2, the two most senior British envoys were quickly assassinated. After a two month siege, 18,500 cold, hungry and leaderless East India Company troops and their camp followers retreated through the icy passes in the middle of winter.


On the morning of the 6th January, amid heavy snow, the Retreat begins as badly as it will continue: 4,500 troops, around 700 of them European, the rest Company sepoys, and some 12,000 camp followers begin the march towards Jellalabad

linktr.ee/empirepod

The Battle of the Spies

The rivalry between Russia and Britain continues to grow as both of their attentions begin to centre more and more on the mountains of Afghanistan.

linktr.ee/empirepod
In a bid to gain influence in the region, both empires send young, daring spies to explore and infiltrate the region, and to assess the options open to them.

linktr.ee/empirepod

Just back from New York where I spent the weekend making a deep dive into the utterly wondrous new show of early Buddhist art @metmuseum, Tree & Serpent The show is suprising and hugely original for several reasons. Firstly, it focuses on the early Buddhist art of Southern India, and borrows newly discovered masterpieces from recently excavated sites such as Phanigiri. Much of this has not been seen yet even in India, as the… https://t.co/N6sQHj3IOJtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The Picts are the most elusive of the peoples of Dark Age Britain, and ruled most of what is now Scotland between the sixth and the ninth centuries AD. They were matrilineal, the Kingship passing through the children of a king’s sister or daughter rather than through his sons; and classical authors maintained that they went into battle with their bodies covered in tattoos and war paint- hence their name Picti, which means in… https://t.co/HX8A1idoCWtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The Phantasmoragia of Kilpeck-

The tiny village of Kilpeck, half an hour from Hay on Wye, contains perhaps the most extraordinary set of Norman sculptures of any church in Britain. It's a fever-dream of dragons and basilisks...