Adam Sabra

Professor of History, UCSB, Mamluk and Ottoman Egypt, Social History of Sufism, Arabic literature of the Ottoman period.

[Gregg Carlstrom @glcarlstrom]

American credibility has deteriorated to the point where the president can announce a diplomatic agreement and the near-universal reaction is "let's wait for confirmation from Tasnim"

[Emma Vigeland @EmmaVigeland]

Solidarity with our friend @tparsi, one of the most important voices covering Iran and the Middle East.

US administration investigating Iran war critic Trita Parsi, says report https://t.co/8aR1sKZdQ0

[Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein]

Media’s framing of Platner as some kind of manopshere referendum on gender is idiotic. Women actually prefer Platner to Collins, as polling consistently shows, whereas men prefer Collins. You’ll never see this in a headline though because everything has to be culture war bs

[Adam Sabra @AdamSabra14]

@Cs_Confidential @jaytatum0 @Giannis_An34 No.

[Communist Front Of The Dispossessed @LouisABlanqui]

This is bad. Fuck the feds

Eight people were arrested Wednesday morning in connection with pro-Palestine advocacy at University of Michigan, according to FBI leadership.

https://t.co/RFeP06CoDx

[Roy McComb @RoyMcComb]

The murder of Pat Finucane was wrong. It was an act of cruelty and evil to kill him in front of his family.

The family are entitled to justice.

[Sara O'Neill 🐚 @SaraONeillArt]

Gwan North Belfast 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein]

I know the names of two of Graham Platner's ex girlfriends but almost none of his policy views. This media coverage is dog shit.

[Adam Sabra @AdamSabra14]

@AkbashEfendi Very interesting. Thanks!

[Taj Ali @Taj_Ali1]

“Save our kids” they chant as they destroy their homes

[Sohrab Ahmari @SohrabAhmari]

My God.

[Gaelic Stats App @GaelicStatsApp]

This is Belfast ❤️

[Bob Elder @southernphd]

I never met Gordon Wood, but I have a story about him.

In one of my grad school seminars, we read Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The sheer erudition and evidentiary depth of the book bowled me over.

Back then, before kids and before life accelerated to warp speed, I used to call my mother every Sunday to catch up. Lots of times, we ended up talking about what I was reading that week in my grad seminars or for leisure. Mom had an omnivorous mind, and she was always looking for something else to read. She was a true intellectual—curious about almost everything, always eager to integrate new arguments or ideas into her existing schemas of how the world worked or to have those schemas challenged and changed.

When we talked that particular Sunday, I think I tried to describe to her part of Wood’s argument about the relationship between the state constitutions during the Articles of Confederation era and the federal Constitution. Maybe I was tired, maybe I didn’t completely understand her questions, but the end result of the conversation was that Mom had questions about Wood’s argument that I didn’t answer satisfactorily. I told her that she should probably just read the book, and we said goodbye.

She did eventually read the book, but the next Sunday, Mom started our conversation by saying, “Well, I had a lovely conversation with Gordon Wood this week.” For a split second, I thought she was joking, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. I started to sweat. “How?” I asked. A whole variety of unlikely scenarios in which the foremost historian of the American Revolution and my mother, who lived in Wichita, Kansas, might have met ran through my mind. “Oh, I just looked up his office phone number on Brown’s website and called, and he picked up!” Mom said. I decided I would have to find another profession.

As it ended up, Gordon Wood spent about an hour on the phone with my mother answering her questions about the Constitution. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for the man when I imagine him picking up the phone in Providence and finding Becky Elder from Wichita on the other end of the line. His generosity in that moment spoke very well of him.

Rest in peace, professor.

[Hassan I. Hassan @hxhassan]

Israel-backed thugs in southern Syria executed two Christians.

[Adam Sabra @AdamSabra14]

@sfrantzman So does Israel.

[Decker Eveleth @dex_eve]

10 missiles against an air base target - a target type that Iran has in the past only been able to do limited damage do in terms of operations - is a warning shot. Iran could do much more at this point if they wanted to.

[Sizwe SikaMusi @SizweLo]

Many Africans are proud of Ethiopia for being the only African nation that was never colonised.

However, they rarely say anything about how when Ethiopia defeated European colonial invaders at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, the Ethiopian army was actually marching under the banner of the Christian Orthodox Church.

This was not even a result of modern European colonisation either, as Ethiopia converted to Christianity 1200 years before transatlantic slavery and 1500 years before Africa’s colonisation, around the same time the Roman Empire was only just beginning to tolerate the faith.
In fact, Coptic Christianity in Ethiopia and ancient Egypt developed entirely independently of European colonial influence.

The Nubian kingdoms of Sudan converted to Christianity in the 6th century AD, influenced by Egyptian Coptic and Ethiopian Christian missionaries. The resulting Nubian Christianity persisted for nearly 1000 years, only gradually giving way to Islam after the 13th-14th centuries.

It was actually Islam that prevented Ethiopia and Egypt from spreading Christianity across the Sahel and into West Africa.

It’s true that Western/Protestant Christianity spread through colonial missionary activity in Sub-Saharan Africa. In places like Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, the modern religious landscape was shaped by European missionaries and colonial institutions. But that doesn’t take away from 1500 years of indigenous African Christianity.

So, while Christianity is not originally African, it’s also not originally European, having originated in the Levant in West Asia. In fact, large parts of Africa were Christian before many parts of northern and eastern Europe were.

So, when we focus on just one screenshot of Christianity’s spread by European colonisers as the whole story, it erases a rich chapter of African history while attempting to defend it.

The bigger picture is that there was a continuous tradition of African Christianity that existed for centuries as an African phenomenon, completely independent of Europe.

[Adam Sabra @AdamSabra14]

@brandan_buck Nor are their capabilities.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb @nntaleb]

Those who claim their enemies understand only the language of force understand only the language of force.