Thomas A. Carlson
@medievalmiddleeast.bsky.social
Historian of the Middle East c. 950-1500 CE, but I teach much more broadly. I'm writing a book about religious diversity in an illiberal society.
https://www.thomasacarlson.com/
https://medievalmideast.org/
https://www.cambridge.org/9781107186279
he/ܗܘ/هو
https://www.thomasacarlson.com/
https://medievalmideast.org/
https://www.cambridge.org/9781107186279
he/ܗܘ/هو
Whole thread:
Identifying flaws in GenAI unfortunately offers a pretext for claims that perfecting the product is just a matter of time & money. So pointing to chatbots’ role in,say, suicides can only go so far if we don’t also identify the systemic, irresolvable lack of Gen AI’s human commitment bc math has none
November 8, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Whole thread:
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
me at the end of class: here's a little speculative exercises; imagine you wake up from cryosleep in 2085. what's the kind of tech-society r/ship you'd like to see around you?
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
November 6, 2025 at 6:32 AM
me at the end of class: here's a little speculative exercises; imagine you wake up from cryosleep in 2085. what's the kind of tech-society r/ship you'd like to see around you?
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
Yay! I just noticed that my book is available for preorder. Use the code PUP30 for 30% off. Share with your librarian! Will ship on Jan 20, 2026 just in time for uhhhhh someone's birthday? Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt | Princeton University Press press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt
A new global history of the slave trade, the lives of enslaved people, and the role of slavery in the formation of Jewish and Arab-Islamic culture in the medieval Middle East
press.princeton.edu
November 7, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Yay! I just noticed that my book is available for preorder. Use the code PUP30 for 30% off. Share with your librarian! Will ship on Jan 20, 2026 just in time for uhhhhh someone's birthday? Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt | Princeton University Press press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
tossing a food bank a couple bucks won’t turn SNAP on.
but you personally can’t turn SNAP on, and you maybe can toss a food bank a couple bucks.
but you personally can’t turn SNAP on, and you maybe can toss a food bank a couple bucks.
October 27, 2025 at 3:18 AM
tossing a food bank a couple bucks won’t turn SNAP on.
but you personally can’t turn SNAP on, and you maybe can toss a food bank a couple bucks.
but you personally can’t turn SNAP on, and you maybe can toss a food bank a couple bucks.
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
the Empress Zoe https://www.wikiart.org/en/byzantine-mosaics/the-empress-zoe-867
October 27, 2025 at 3:38 PM
the Empress Zoe https://www.wikiart.org/en/byzantine-mosaics/the-empress-zoe-867
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
Next month, I will be convening a short-course at University of Lille in France, titled the Orient’s East: Iran and Eurasia in the 1st Millennium. I’ll be delivering six talks on the Sasanians, Central Asia, the “Silk Roads”, & the Iranian relations with China.
ex-patria.univ-lille.fr/archives/4038
ex-patria.univ-lille.fr/archives/4038
October 24, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Next month, I will be convening a short-course at University of Lille in France, titled the Orient’s East: Iran and Eurasia in the 1st Millennium. I’ll be delivering six talks on the Sasanians, Central Asia, the “Silk Roads”, & the Iranian relations with China.
ex-patria.univ-lille.fr/archives/4038
ex-patria.univ-lille.fr/archives/4038
So what?
October 24, 2025 at 4:49 PM
So what?
An international perspective:
dear US friends, when a sitting president (re)builds the seat of government, it almost always means the president has no intention of leaving at the end of term. your African friends with decades of experience
October 24, 2025 at 4:46 PM
An international perspective:
I saw a headline that said, "Melissa Expected to Rapidly Intensify," and I thought it could be an @theonion.com "local news" headline about a conversation over coffee which is anticipated to jump past social niceties straight to existential questions, childhood trauma, and personal commitments.
October 24, 2025 at 2:08 AM
I saw a headline that said, "Melissa Expected to Rapidly Intensify," and I thought it could be an @theonion.com "local news" headline about a conversation over coffee which is anticipated to jump past social niceties straight to existential questions, childhood trauma, and personal commitments.
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
Same reason why everything has to have an app. Sweet sweet consumer data, to be sold to ad brokers.
Quick question. Why does literally everything require you to have an account.
Everything.
Everything.
October 21, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Same reason why everything has to have an app. Sweet sweet consumer data, to be sold to ad brokers.
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
Gonna start claiming a religious exemption to not use AI. "Ah sorry this is dajjal shit, its against my religion"
October 21, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Gonna start claiming a religious exemption to not use AI. "Ah sorry this is dajjal shit, its against my religion"
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
The most important thing universities should do in a world with AI is to greatly increase the number of professors, so that classes can be smaller and more class time can be spent directly interacting with students as people.
go, student newspaper of Notre Dame and Saint Mary
"employ in-class essays, oral exams+ rigorous discussions — that are far more difficult to use AI tools to complete. a close reading of the text should constitute the bulk in any introductory humanities class."
www.ndsmcobserver.com/article/2025...
"employ in-class essays, oral exams+ rigorous discussions — that are far more difficult to use AI tools to complete. a close reading of the text should constitute the bulk in any introductory humanities class."
www.ndsmcobserver.com/article/2025...
Editorial: AI-proof the Core Curriculum
The Core Curriculum is an essential part of a Catholic education that must be saved from AI.
www.ndsmcobserver.com
October 20, 2025 at 12:52 PM
The most important thing universities should do in a world with AI is to greatly increase the number of professors, so that classes can be smaller and more class time can be spent directly interacting with students as people.
Don't you think that takes "shitposting" a bit far?
I didn't think "regal incontinence" communicated strength, but hey, it's a free country.
I didn't think "regal incontinence" communicated strength, but hey, it's a free country.
October 19, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Don't you think that takes "shitposting" a bit far?
I didn't think "regal incontinence" communicated strength, but hey, it's a free country.
I didn't think "regal incontinence" communicated strength, but hey, it's a free country.
Side plot: factory owner (not a hero) inherited the factory from his WW2 vet father (now deceased) and is torn between family legacy and shutting it down to build a data center, but rediscovers his own childhood patriotism and learns that money can't buy freedom.
Brb just writing a screenplay about a struggling inflatable costume factory in a wholesome but dying American small town that unexpectedly helps save democracy, and democracy saves it right back.
October 18, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Side plot: factory owner (not a hero) inherited the factory from his WW2 vet father (now deceased) and is torn between family legacy and shutting it down to build a data center, but rediscovers his own childhood patriotism and learns that money can't buy freedom.
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
So with death of academic twitter and academia. edu, I have several things (I hesitate to say "publications") that don't really live anywhere. I'll be sharing them here for now, starting with this old thread about Quran manuscripts found in a synagogue in Cairo:
threadreaderapp.com/thread/15519...
threadreaderapp.com/thread/15519...
October 17, 2025 at 12:32 PM
So with death of academic twitter and academia. edu, I have several things (I hesitate to say "publications") that don't really live anywhere. I'll be sharing them here for now, starting with this old thread about Quran manuscripts found in a synagogue in Cairo:
threadreaderapp.com/thread/15519...
threadreaderapp.com/thread/15519...
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
A chance to learn about Mandaic from someone who knows 😎
Concerning Mandaeans, Mandaic, and other matters | A conversation with Professor Charles Häberl
YouTube video by Near East by Midwest Podcast
youtu.be
October 17, 2025 at 3:20 PM
A chance to learn about Mandaic from someone who knows 😎
For no discernible reason I'm remembering that the Romans rejected kings and would never again tolerate a king, but still the Roman Senate gave Octavian new titles (Augustus, Princeps) and basically made him the monarch of Rome, yet without ever calling him a Rex (king). Later...
October 17, 2025 at 4:03 AM
For no discernible reason I'm remembering that the Romans rejected kings and would never again tolerate a king, but still the Roman Senate gave Octavian new titles (Augustus, Princeps) and basically made him the monarch of Rome, yet without ever calling him a Rex (king). Later...
A reminder that the #Medieval #MiddleEast was commonly polyglot, and therefore the academic divisions between (Greek) #Byzantine Studies, #Armenology, #Syriac Studies, and "Christian #Arabic" Studies distort the lived reality of the medieval past.
Mind-numbing how many layers of history there can be to a single manuscript page: Syriac upper text (10th c.), Armenian undertext (pre-10th c.), Arabic material used for binding (11-12th c.?), Coptic foliation in the margin (date?), modern foliation at the bottom. Image: Leiden UL Or. 14236, link ⬇️
October 17, 2025 at 3:45 AM
A reminder that the #Medieval #MiddleEast was commonly polyglot, and therefore the academic divisions between (Greek) #Byzantine Studies, #Armenology, #Syriac Studies, and "Christian #Arabic" Studies distort the lived reality of the medieval past.
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
Mind-numbing how many layers of history there can be to a single manuscript page: Syriac upper text (10th c.), Armenian undertext (pre-10th c.), Arabic material used for binding (11-12th c.?), Coptic foliation in the margin (date?), modern foliation at the bottom. Image: Leiden UL Or. 14236, link ⬇️
October 16, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Mind-numbing how many layers of history there can be to a single manuscript page: Syriac upper text (10th c.), Armenian undertext (pre-10th c.), Arabic material used for binding (11-12th c.?), Coptic foliation in the margin (date?), modern foliation at the bottom. Image: Leiden UL Or. 14236, link ⬇️
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
Coin of Atiya b. As’ad, the Kharijite leader, minted in Kerman-Narmashir, year 73. The name of the authority, the mint mark, and the date are all written in Pahlavi Middle Persian (and 3 is written as a digit!). Atiya is identified as “Holder of authority” on the obverse margin.
October 16, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Coin of Atiya b. As’ad, the Kharijite leader, minted in Kerman-Narmashir, year 73. The name of the authority, the mint mark, and the date are all written in Pahlavi Middle Persian (and 3 is written as a digit!). Atiya is identified as “Holder of authority” on the obverse margin.
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
Bloomberg reports this compact is being extended now to all colleges, and the first threat is withholding student loans. Multiple points clearly result in desegregating higher ed. I’ll underscore again that it bans professors from talking about “societal or political events”
October 14, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Bloomberg reports this compact is being extended now to all colleges, and the first threat is withholding student loans. Multiple points clearly result in desegregating higher ed. I’ll underscore again that it bans professors from talking about “societal or political events”
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
12th-century Byzantine Cistern (İpek Bodrum, also known as Çin Ali Köşkü) located in the northwestern corner of Constantinople (Ottoman Kostantiniyye, modern İstanbul)
Photos by Nicholas V. Artamonoff (1937)
Photos by Nicholas V. Artamonoff (1937)
October 13, 2025 at 7:11 PM
12th-century Byzantine Cistern (İpek Bodrum, also known as Çin Ali Köşkü) located in the northwestern corner of Constantinople (Ottoman Kostantiniyye, modern İstanbul)
Photos by Nicholas V. Artamonoff (1937)
Photos by Nicholas V. Artamonoff (1937)
@rachelschine.bsky.social Sorry, I just realized that my long back-and-forth w/Matthew Kuiper was downthread from your post, rather than downthread from my reply directly to his post. I hope you muted it rather than getting all those notifications! Sorry to spam your notifications.
October 12, 2025 at 7:56 PM
@rachelschine.bsky.social Sorry, I just realized that my long back-and-forth w/Matthew Kuiper was downthread from your post, rather than downthread from my reply directly to his post. I hope you muted it rather than getting all those notifications! Sorry to spam your notifications.
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
Beirut folks, come if you can
October 12, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Beirut folks, come if you can
Reposted by Thomas A. Carlson
Fantastic practical joke for medieval scribes.
(from §22 of this book payhip.com/b/BoYj4 by @majnouna.com)
(from §22 of this book payhip.com/b/BoYj4 by @majnouna.com)
October 12, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Fantastic practical joke for medieval scribes.
(from §22 of this book payhip.com/b/BoYj4 by @majnouna.com)
(from §22 of this book payhip.com/b/BoYj4 by @majnouna.com)