Wednesday, July 27, 2016



“It was only when she got older and moved along a different set of psychics that she realized how vulgar and stupid Morris really was.  Other mediums have spirit guides with a bit more about them – dignified impassive medicine men or ancient Persian sages – but she had this grizzled grinning apparition in a bookmaker’s checked jacket, and suede shoes with bald toe caps.”

~ excerpt from a 2005 novel by Hilary Mantel entitled “Beyond Black”…

[pic archive.org:  Cover page to “Persia, the land of the Magi” (1913) by S. K. Nweeya… for educational purposes only]

Monday, July 18, 2016




According to Colin Wilson’s book on Existentialism published in 1983, the 12th c. Iranian mathematician and philosopher “Omar Khayyam is in a far sounder position than Sartre as an existential thinker.  Sartre says we know nothing except that men need bread and justice.  Omar Khayyam replies that we know nothing except that politicians and philosophers die like animals, so we had better ‘fill the cup’ and enjoy the present.”

[pic source @ Harry Ransom Center-The Univ of Texas:  “Souvenir menu for the annual dinner of The Omar Khayyam Club of America, 1919”… for educational purposes only]

Tuesday, July 12, 2016




According to a 2016 report by Das et al. published in Genome Biology and Evolution journal, “Yiddish is a Slavic language created by Irano-Turko-Slavic Jewish merchants along the Silk Road” with German and Hebrew elements added post 9th century…

In another 2016 report by Univ. of Sheffield prof. Eran Elhaik published in Genome Biology and Evolution journal, one notes:

“Contemporary Eastern European Jews comprise the largest ethno-religious aggregate of modern Jewish communities, accounting for nearly 90% of over 13 million Jews worldwide”… Elhaik’s study supports the Khazarian Hypothesis which “considers Eastern European Jews to be the descendants of Khazars…The Khazars were a confederation of Slavic, Scythian, Hunnic-Bulgar, Iranian, Alans, and Turkish tribes who formed in the central-northern Caucasus one of most powerful empires during the late Iron Age and converted to Judaism in the 8th century CE”… 

Recall that the Scythians, Bulgarians, and Alans are all members of the Iranian tribes… so Elhaik should have said:  “The Khazars were a confederation of Slavic, Hunnic, Iranian, and Turkish tribes”…

[pic source bibliotecapleyades: for educational purposes only]

Sunday, July 3, 2016




In his book on "The Armies of Islam 7th-11th Centuries," David Nicolle claims “[i]t is even possible that the kite-shaped so-called Norman shield was of Byzantine origin, ultimately being a development of an Iranian infantry shield."

[pic source Wiki:  11th c. Bayeux Tapestry… for educational purposes only]