The East · Art · Society

The Victory of the Red Army over Fascism, Hossein Tahirzadeh Behzad, Iran, 1945

The Red Army is embodied in the person of Stalin, Fascism in that of Hitler; behind them one can make out Roosevelt and Churchill, shooting at Mussolini.

Archive · The East · Art · Society

Iranian Second World War posters showing Hitler as Zahhak from the “Shahnameh”

Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt transport a vanquished Hitler, snakes sprouting from his shoulders, following Kaveh, the mythical blacksmith who raised a revolt against the tyrant Zahhak. Goebbels is tied to the horse's tail. During the Second World War a series of propaganda posters appeared in Iran, based on

NB! · The East · Society

In Düsseldorf, the First Arabic Street Sign Has Been Put Up

Faith · The East · Observations · Society · Rome

The Pope on the culture of encounter, cooperation and religious art

Pope Francis receives a delegation of the Fo Guang Shan Humanistic Buddhism Association from Taiwan. It is curious to watch the Vatican persist in its attempts to take part in the international political agenda. The Pope, all the same, delivered a very measured speech on the importance of cooperation. "

The East · Art · Museums · Humour

The Bespectacled Goat

The Bespectacled Goat. I hope you have someone to send it to. From the collection of the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad

NB! · The East · Geography · Observations · Paris

A marker in the paving near the Luxor Obelisk in Paris, pointing the way to Thebes, whence the obelisk was brought in the 1830s

The East · Books · Monarchies · Mores · People

Katya Desnitskaya, Prince Chakrabon and Paustovsky's story of a Siamese queen

How a Russian noblewoman might have become Queen of Siam. "At the skating rink I often met a friend of my sister Galya, Katyusha Vesnitskaya, a senior schoolgirl at the Fundukleyev Girls' Gymnasium. My elder brother Borya was courting Katyusha. He used to waltz with her on skates.

Archive · The East · Geography · Books · Nature · Rome

The greatest tragedy has struck the peoples of Turkey and Syria on Monday 6 February

The greatest tragedy has struck the peoples of Turkey and Syria on Monday 6 February. Two earthquakes, of magnitude 7.8 and 7.7, have affected vast territories in both countries. It is hard to judge as a non-specialist, but the epicentre of the earthquakes seems to lie in

The East · Geography · Monarchies · Society

Population and Population Density of the Roman and Mongol Empires Compared with Europe and Russia Today

The Roman Empire and the Mongol Empire at their height. The maximum population of the Roman Empire was around 75 million, or 20 people per square kilometre. The Mongol Empire at its peak reached 100 million, or around 3 people per square kilometre. Today the population density of Europe is

Stone wall with an Anecdotes Wall sign, metal plaques with text and two illustrations, one showing a horse-drawn carriage.

NB! · The East · Observations · Humour

Wall of Anecdotes in Three Languages on Gyumri's Central Square

The central square of Gyumri, a wall of jokes in three languages. At the very least it is charming, at the very most, inspired!

NB! · Archaeology · The East · Madrid · Museums · People

The Spanish consul in Egypt in the 1880s, Eduardo Toda y Güell, dressed as a mummy, and the collection of Egyptian antiquities assembled by him and sold in 1887, to the number of 1300 items, to the National Archaeological Museum of Spain

NB! · The East · Pop Culture · Ethnography

From mid-December to mid-April, Saint Moritz in Switzerland will host a Louis Vuitton pop-up store in the form of a Central Asian yurt, decorated in the LV style