Ajam Media Collective

Ajam is a platform focused on culture, history, and politics across Ajamistan: West, Central, and South Asia. Check out our latest article on the website:

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

What does the most famous Hungarian dish tarhonya share with the humble Persian tarkhineh?

Far more than just a name!

Read about culinary connections between Hungary, the Ottomans, and Iran in the latest piece on Ajam, the first in our Unexpected Persianate Series:

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

"Oshin is fondly-remembered in Iran.

For the generation that came of age during the Iran-Iraq War, her story is indelibly linked to the hardships of wartime experienced at the time of airing."

https://t.co/t7p3NmoQd4

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

“There is no Hungarian food more Hungarian than tarhonya,” is how one lifestyle magazine describes the dish.

Yet the roots of the dish and the origin of its name are Persian, related to the tarkhineh (ترخینه) eaten in Iran today."

https://t.co/X4pnBpkYse

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

"The Lulis' histories of displacement, marginal labor, and exclusion render them paradoxically both hypervisible and invisible.

They are ubiquitous in public spaces in Central Asia yet excluded from national narratives."

https://t.co/oTsab2VeN0

[Divya Ravindranath @divyarrs]

There are many ways to read a city. Here’s a postcard mapping Mumbai through women’s writing (fiction) — stories that take us across trains, apartments, overbridges, memory, intimacy, labour, migration, ambition, and everyday life. 1.

[Alex Shams @alexshams_]

“There is no Hungarian food more Hungarian than tarhonya...

And yet the roots of the dish and the origin of its name are Persian, related to the tarkhineh(ترخینه) eaten in Iran today"

On the contradictions of Hungarian nationalism and culinary connections with Iran and Turkey:

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

"Tarhonya did not cross the Ural mountains into Europe with the early Hungarian tribes. Rather, it arrived in the 16th century with the Ottoman invasion."

https://t.co/X4pnBpkYse

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

What does the most famous Hungarian dish tarhonya share with the humble Persian tarkhineh?

Far more than just a name!

Read about culinary connections between Hungary, the Ottomans, and Iran in the latest piece on Ajam, the first in our Unexpected Persianate Series:

[The Armenian Weekly @ArmenianWeekly]

Heghine Aleksanyan explores the story of Jorj Abrahamian who left Tehran for Armenia in 2004, carrying within him two cultures and two homelands. His life found expression in music and translation, from Hafez and Rumi to his 2026 Persian translation of Yeghishe Charents.
https://t.co/BvWkRwAC9i

[Alex Shams @alexshams_]

Trying to understand the debates about Iran's flag at the World Cup?

My primer on the many versions of Iran's flag, and what each represents:

https://t.co/HV6yF7ZBzv

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

"Ahmedinejad insisted on an Iranian interpretation of Islam and what they called “Iranian Islam."

While this approach met backlash from certain clerical circles, it proved popular and had a long-lasting effect in Iranian nationalist discourse."

https://t.co/2QRhuJvYgT

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

"Tehran has 26 synagogues, of which 13 are active today.

Before it was destroyed in the Israeli attack, Rafi-Nia Synagogue was not merely a religious site; it was a layered environment where worship, sociality, and everyday life were intertwined."

https://t.co/goOCjWyyyo

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

"Assyrians have survived genocide, dictatorships, forced assimilation, internal conflicts, and displacement.

But our flag serves as a living symbol of resistance, standing against attempts at erasure and supporting the continuity of our people."

https://t.co/UUMAMBopZ8

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

For Assyrians across the Middle East and in diaspora, the red, white, and blue Assyrian flag is a symbol of resilience and unity.

But how does a stateless nation develop a flag?

In Ajam's latest, Ramina Samuel explores the history of the Assyrian flag:

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

"Tehran's Rafi-Nia Synagogue was destroyed by a state that claims to be their defender.

In the process, it has become a testament to the history of Iran and its Jewish community."

https://t.co/goOCjWy0IQ

[Zachary Foster @_ZachFoster]

On April 6th, the Jewish community of Iran gathered in the Rafi-Nia Synagogue to celebrate Passover.

On April 7th, Israel bombed the synagogue. Tehran has 26 synagogues, of which 13 are active today. What a lovely piece by the @AjamMC: https://t.co/O9Gzz7tpqn

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

Read our full piece about the synagogue and its community here:

https://t.co/goOCjWy0IQ

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

Marjan shared these photos of the Torah scrolls recovered from the Rafi Nia Synagogue with Ajam

[tim anderson @timand2037]

Marjan Yeshayayi, a member of the Tehran Jewish community, asked rescue workers not to use machinery [to clear the rubble] in order to preserve the scriptures.
“When I made the request, I did not believe they would accept it, but instead they said, ‘OK, we will remove it manually,’ and they really did. Each brick was removed by hand, and the scrolls came out safely and were handed over to the Jewish community.
https://t.co/FXoP1NZaxi

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

"Just the night before the attack, Tehran's Rafi-Nia Synagogue had hosted a Passover celebration.

The morning after, the community had gathered again, my friend told me, this time to survey the rubble."

https://t.co/goOCjWy0IQ

[Alex Shams @alexshams_]

US and Israeli bombs don't just kill Iranians. They destroy homes, communities, and holy places.

Here's just one story: a Tehran synagogue with a vibrant Jewish community, obliterated in an instant.

But what Israel destroyed, Iranians plan to rebuild:

https://t.co/hcuzdWYW8h

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

"In a telephone interview, one of them invoked a verse by the poet Simin Behbahani:

دوباره می‌سازمت وطن

اگر چه با خشت جان خویش

I will rebuild you, my homeland

Even if with the bricks of my own soul."

Read the latest article on Ajam here:

https://t.co/goOCjWy0IQ

[Ajam Media Collective @AjamMC]

"The night before the attack, Rafi-Nia Synagogue hosted a Passover celebration.

The morning after, the community gathered again, this time to survey the rubble."

Narciss M. Sohrabi reflects on the destruction of a Tehran synagogue and how its tight-knit community is recovering