Alexander Jabbari

@ajab

Professor of sundry Persianate things. I write about language, literature, history, philology, politics.

432 Folgt2.117 Follower544 Posts

Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir ajab.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· 10d

I love that this 17th century Persian dictionary describes lightning as "the brother of thunder"

ارتجك - به فتح جيم بر وزن اسپرك برق برادر رعد را گويند و به كسر جيم هم به نظر آمده است

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· 11d

Yak, Yamdroke Lake, Tibet

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· 16d

Today's reading / Lesung des Tages im Stabi

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· 17d

It should be a much earlier loan, from Sanskrit or more likely a Prakrit (see image). I would guess the word arrived as a concept in literature before the actual animal made it to the Malay archipelago.

Tom Hoogervorst - The Role of “Prakrit” in Maritime Southeast Asia through 101 Etymologies - p. 429

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· 20d

Please don't forget about Gaza. Here is a way to help.

"It is hard to find media updates now on the ongoing bombing in Gaza. It is a relentless background noise, at times flaring up or coming too close, but overall, a routine, Fatima writes. Against it, there is still a need to get clean water and gather fuel, clean and maintain the patched-together shelter, which gets scorchingly hot, buy and cook food, perhaps get an occasional ice cream to keep the heat, and life, more bearable. Last month, we were able to help Fatima, Haytham, and their four children with a sum that allowed them to relax just a bit, buy basic necessities, and even start repaying some debts. The monthly support group aims to maintain this very modest stability in the most impossible conditions of attrition. You can use the Chuffed link in the comments or just contact me if you'd like to join or hear more. A one-time donation helps immensely; a regular commitment, even of a small sum, means the world. There are so many needs everywhere, but this is a small chance to create a connection and stay involved."

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· 25d

My second appearance in the LRB 😎

More than a Village
Youssef Ben Ismail describes Rayy as ‘a village outside of Tehran’ (LRB, 21 May). Rayy is among the oldest extant cities in the world, with archaeological records showing occupation as early as 5500 bce. It was mentioned in Zoroastrian religious literature and biblical apocrypha and was the seat of several Iranian empires. Alexander the Great knew it as ‘Rhagai’ and raced through the city in pursuit of Darius III. Rayy became one of the great medieval Islamic cities and was home to the polymath scholars Abu Bakr al-Razi (known in the West as Rhazes) and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. It is Tehran that was little more than a village outside Rayy before it became Iran’s capital in 1786.

Alexander Jabbari
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· 26d

CDU's plan to defeat the far right: raise the retirement age, loosen labor laws, "goad Germans into working more". In Germany as in the US the center is working as hard as it can to lose.

These include efforts to shore up public pensions by raising the national retirement age, and a modest tax cut for middle-income families, offset by marginally higher taxes on high earners. The package also cuts regulations, loosens some labor laws and generally tries to goad Germans into working more.

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Jul 12

A Persian idiom about beer. Does anyone know what the German saying referenced here (Steingass dictionary) might be? #langsky

dar kūza fuqāʻ ast, There is (only) beer in the jug, i.e. circumstances are straitened (on the principle of the German saying "If the miller has plenty of water, he leaves the beer alone, and drinks wine").

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Jul 3

Learned that Syrians call a drinking straw شلمونة shalimone which (1) is just a great word and (2) has a wonderful etymology resulting from a universally relatable phenomenon (mishearing French)

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Jun 29

A History of Middle East Modernism (Cambridge UP, July 2026) 20% off with code AHMEM2026

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Jun 29

Free ebook - just published Radical Encounters: Islamists and leftists in the Middle East and North Africa (1960s-2010s) www.editricesapienza.it/node/11436

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Jun 21

Nearly every day I see inexplicably wrong semicolon use in publications that presumably employ professional copyeditors, which makes me wonder why they even bother with the copyeditors at this point

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Jun 17

From Fatima- No one knows the extent of the suffering we endure here every day, nor the sheer difficulty of a life that has become almost unbearable. We have lost our homes, and many have lost their jobs and livelihoods; even the most basic necessities of life have become out of reach.
Prices are constantly rising, to the point where securing food has become a distant dream for many families. Obtaining water is a daily ordeal in itself, demanding indescribable time and effort. We also lack many basic essentials—such as clean, usable sanitation facilities—things that may seem simple but are vital for a dignified life.
We live in harsh conditions, devoid of the simplest comforts and stability, yet we cling to hope. Thanks to your humanitarian support, we find the strength to carry on, believing that we will one day overcome this ordeal and these hardships, no matter how severe they may be.

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Jun 9

There is no meaningful antiwar opposition in Israel

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Jun 7

No more slop: a manifesto The deluge of AI slop has arrived. What is to be done? open.substack.com/pub/ajab/p/n...

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Jun 1

Found it! In Tabari's Tafsir. Feels like whenever they couldn't determine the origin of a word they just decided it was some kind of Aramaic 🙃

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· May 14

"Most of such words are very rarely cited, if at all, in attested usage. This is supported by the fact that the lexicographers fail to produce a single example of attested usage for some words (e.g., qudhaʿmil), whereas a single example is cited for other words (e.g., jaḥmarish)."

The earliest and most influential work on naḥw, Sībawayhi’s (d. 180/796) al-Kitāb, abounds with gharīb words, in particular those that are cited to exemplify certain patterns. One thus finds words that are very rarely used, such as qahbalis (huge woman), jaḥmarish (old woman), ṣahṣaliq (vehement voice), qudhaʿmil (short, stout camel), khubaʿthin (strong, huge), qirṭaʿb (rag, piece of cloth), ḥinbatr (strength), jirdaḥl (huge camel), and ḥinzaqr (short and ugly).
These are cited to illustrate the patterns faʿlalil, fuʿallil and fiʿlall respectively.

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· May 3

Despite claims otherwise, the US has been calling the shots in this disastrous war, not Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, at the beginning of the war with Iran, really rode high on the idea that Israel is partnering with the US, waging a major war against a regional powerhouse in Iran.

But now the debate really is focused on the fact that all the decisions come from Washington. In Lebanon, the ceasefire wasn’t decided by Netanyahu. It’s not something he wanted, but Trump decided on it and Israel had to oblige.

The discussions focus on the reality it may be turning into an extremely costly war of attrition.

While all this waiting is happening and losses keep piling up, the Israeli prime minister is feeling the cost in the poll numbers, and he really has no choice but to wait for a signal from Washington.

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Apr 6

Apropos whatever nonsense is happening on the moon

Horkheimer: I couldn't care less about sending spacecraft to the moon.
Adorno: There is nothing sacred about technology.

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Mar 29

When Israel launched its attack on Iran, on February 28th, it called the campaign Operation Roaring Lion, seemingly a nod to the Iranian monarchy. But a U.S. intelligence report, assembled prior to the events of early January, which was shown to Trump a week before the start of the war, concluded that Pahlavi lacked a sufficient network inside the country to lead an overthrow of the regime. “They never took him that seriously,” Vali Nasr, a professor at Johns Hopkins, said of the Administration. “There’s a difference between having an organization on the ground versus just having people who like you. If you’re going to help change a regime, you have to have a ground game.” Trump and his aides began referring to Pahlavi as the “loser prince.”

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Mar 16

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Mar 6

"Even compared with Israel’s initial bombardment of Gaza, Airwars said only around half as many targets were hit in those first days in Gaza as have been declared in the early phase of the Iran operation." aje.news/c86shj?updat...

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Feb 24

Thinking about the time I referred to the Islamic Republic as neoliberal and got yelled at by tankies and neoliberals alike. Anyway it's a good interview www.counterfire.org/article/iran...

Over the past two decades, successive governments have steadily reduced social provision and dismantled welfare protections, while presenting market discipline, fiscal restraint, price liberalisation, and labour flexibility as the only viable response to Iran’s systemic crises. This commitment to free market orthodoxy has increasingly been treated as “common sense” within elite policy circles, even as living standards have deteriorated and inequality has deepened. Sanctions have accelerated this trajectory by constraining state revenues and providing both justification and cover for regressive economic restructuring. The result has been a sustained transfer of risk and precarity from the state and predatory oligarchs onto workers, pensioners, and the urban and provincial poor.

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Feb 17

I wonder if the @lrb.co.uk has a policy of allowing conjunctions after a semicolon (maybe to break up long sentences?) These two stood out to me* in the 5 Feb 2026 issue *piqued my pedantic ire

In 1996 it was sealed off from the rest of Brazil, at least in theory; but illegal gold miners continued to trespass, and as late as 2017 gold prospectors could still go into a bar and boast of having just murdered ten tribespeople.

He did not conceal his political opinions: he was, he said, a ‘classical Stalinist’ and a ‘right-wing Marxist’ and he believed that the epoch of autonomous nation-states was coming to an end; but as a civil servant he was willing to promote the long-term interests of France, as he saw them.

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Jan 2

My two main reading groups this year

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Dec 28

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Nov 26

MESA book fair haul

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Nov 7

“Mysticism now rules the world, the cult of blood and violence, darkness, the longing for the past, nationalism. Do you think that anything great and noble, like this book, can come out of such chaos? No; you’ll see, our time will be remembered for its barbarity and barrenness.”

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Oct 19

"Ceviche" and "escabeche" in Spanish may have a Persian #etymology. The RAE says they're from Arabic sikbāj, itself from Middle Persian sik "vinegar" + bāg "soup" (cf. سکبا).

Alexander Jabbari@ajab· Oct 16

Hunting in America - Tehila Hakimi Devoured this violent little novel in just a couple hours. It's great.