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Showing posts with label spice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spice. Show all posts

Thursday, August 7, 2025

"It is often forgotten that Gaza was once the richest port in the Eastern Mediterranean, super wealthy from the export of Arabian incense and Indian spices" William Dalrymple... Aphrodite,oil lamps,trade routes,churches, etc.

When Gaza was the richest port in the Eastern Mediterranean, super wealthy from the export of Arabian incense and Indian spices... Oil lamp in the form of a lion 1stC CE, found in the waters off Gaza from the exhibition Trésors sauvés de Gaza - 5000 ans d'histoire at L'Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris

Crusader-era doorway from Gaza Photographed 1920 The trade connections of ancient Gaza From the exhibition Trésors sauvés de Gaza - 5000 ans d'histoire at L'Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris

Same building, photographed January 2025

Crusader-era oculus from the al-Umari mosque, Gaza Taken 1920

Gaza in 1905, from the terrace of the Latin presbytery, next to the Catholic church of Gaza, recently bombed by the IDF

Gaza in 1922 Seen from Tell Harubah, the heart of ancient Gaza and occupied consistently since the Bronze Age

The Aphrodite of Gaza Hellenistic period (2ndC BCE?) from the exhibition Trésors sauvés de Gaza - 5000 ans d'histoire at Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris. 
The trade connections of ancient Gaza. It is often forgotten that Gaza was once the richest port in the Eastern Mediterranean, super wealthy from the export of Arabian incense and Indian spices... From the exhibition Trésors sauvés de Gaza - 5000 ans d'histoire at L'Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris

Byzantine oil lamps of Gaza, 6thC CE From the exhibition Trésors sauvés de Gaza - 5000 ans d'histoire at L'Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris

William Dalrymple
Scottish historian & art historian;  @EmpirePodUK podcaster & Jaipur Lit Fest co-director. Visiting Fellow at All Souls, Oxford. Writes the occasional book.

Multi-award-winning and bestselling historian William Dalrymple’s latest book was published on 5 September – a revolutionary new history of the diffusion of Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific.  https://williamdalrymple.com/

Friday, March 11, 2022

Picnics & Palestine

 "One of my favorite memories as a child in Palestine was when my mother (AY) used to make her scrumptious meat pies for us to eat, picnic style, on the grounds of #AlAqsa compound in #AlQuds (#Jerusalem)...She used to get very early in the day, prepare the dough and take it with her to Al Quds (the old city) ahead of us...
 

Once inside the old city, she would buy her fresh ingredients of ground lamb meat, onions, parsley, and spices and take them to the old bakery in the area that she frequented and trusted.
 
Once at the bakery, she would make triangle shaped meat pies (ikraas), which she stuffed with her magic mixture of mouth watering ingredients and give them to the baker to bake in his oven, making sure that they were baked to her exacting standards of golden perfection...
 
Afterwards, she would take the piping hot pies, mouth watering aroma wafting through the air, place them in a large tray, covering them with a blanket to keep them nice and warm, and meet up with us at the ground of Al Aqsa, whereby we would have our picnic under the shade of the ancient trees...
 
She used to make extra pies so that when strangers happened on us, drawn by that intoxicating aroma, she could share with them...
 
Till this day, the fragrance of fresh baked bread evokes memories of my beloved late mother, may Allah have mercy on her soul, and those magical moments spent with her in the holy grounds of Masjid Al Aqsa!"