Alexander Jabbari
banner
ajab.bsky.social
Alexander Jabbari
@ajab.bsky.social
Professor of sundry Persianate things. I write about language, literature, history, philology, politics.
Pinned
My latest article "Cosmopolitan Philology and Sacred Grammar" is out in @histandtheojrnl.bsky.social. I examine the 1st Persian grammar "Minhaj al-Talab" (1660, from China), using it to think through the history of Persian philology & the relationship between cosmopolitan/vernacular & Persian/Islam.
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
#ArticleSnapshot📸: Alexander Jabbari's "Cosmopolitan Philology and Sacred Grammar" for #PhilologyNow explores "the emergence of Persian grammar within the larger trajectory of Persian philology."

doi.org/10.1111/hith...
COSMOPOLITAN PHILOLOGY AND SACRED GRAMMAR
Persian developed a formal grammatical tradition comparatively late in its thousand-year history as a lingua franca. This article takes up the emergence of Persian grammar within the larger trajector...
doi.org
January 23, 2026 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
Mood in minneapolis right now
January 24, 2026 at 11:31 PM
ICE shot and likely killed another observer here in Minneapolis this morning.
January 24, 2026 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
Today I finished cataloging 36 Arabic manuscripts from Eyes on Heritage, a cultural institution in Gaza. These manuscripts were photographed before the Israeli invasion in 2023, but the team was only recently able to send these digital images to @visithmml.bsky.social's partners in Jerusalem
January 22, 2026 at 8:52 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
In the Aures, yesterday was Pharaoh Day, ass n Ferɛun.

www.facebook.com/massa.khadid...

In local tradition, it's the day Pharaoh is thought to have drowned in the Red Sea as he pursued Moses, and the agricultural (Julian) New Year's Day.

This was calqued from a lunar calendar to a solar one:
Massa Khadidja Saad
Assa d ass n ferɛun هل كل المناطق تحتفل به وهل تسمونه مزلغ ايضا ، اتمنى اثراء الموضوع
www.facebook.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Finally deleted my Twitter account for good (long overdue)
January 14, 2026 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
Today at 34 & Park in Minneapolis, a woman tried to drive down the street where a protest had broken out in front of a home ICE was raiding, saying she had a doctor apt to get to. ICE agents busted out her windows, cut off her seatbelt, and pulled her out before arresting her.
January 13, 2026 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
Our December 2025 "Philology Now" theme issue, edited by Valeria López Fadul and Courtney Weiss Smith, is out!

Read it here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14682303...
January 12, 2026 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
#ArticleSnapshot📸: #PhilologyNow editors Valeria López Fadul and Courtney Weiss Smith "make a case for 'philology' as a useful sign under which to consider the ways historians are already working with words in their efforts to understand the past."

Read their introduction: doi.org/10.1111/hith...
PHILOLOGY NOW: EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION
In this introduction to the “Philology Now” theme issue, we make a case for “philology” as a useful sign under which to consider the ways historians are already working with words in their efforts to...
doi.org
January 13, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
Moritz Steinschneider Prize is “specifically aimed at doctoral and postdoctoral students and postdoctoral researchers who have made outstanding contributions to the development and analysis of Jewish primary sources in their research."
#jewishstudies
mjsnow.hypotheses.org/20131
Moritz Steinschneider Prize
According to their call, the Moritz Steinschneider Prize is “specifically aimed at doctoral and postdoctoral students and postdoctoral researchers who have made outstanding contributions to the develo...
mjsnow.hypotheses.org
January 4, 2026 at 9:12 PM
Fuck
January 7, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
It’s here! I’m delighted to share a new theme issue of @histandtheojrnl.bsky.social, “Philology Now.” Valeria López Fadul and I edited this issue, featuring smart contributions by Emily Apter, Peter de Bolla, Alan Durston, Cymone Fourshey, Claire Gilbert, Anthony Grafton…

historyandtheory.org/64-4
Philology Now – Volume 64, Number 4 — History and Theory
History and Theory, Volume 64, Number 4
historyandtheory.org
January 5, 2026 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
@ajab.bsky.social Alexander Jabbari, @helgejojo.bsky.social Helge Jordheim, Alexandra Lianeri, David Lurie, Nancy Partner, and Ronit Ricci.

Come think with us about the relationships between and among languages, histories, and methods!
January 5, 2026 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
woohoo! uc press cover design, fall 2026 insha'allah. ✨
January 3, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
No Blood for Oil
January 3, 2026 at 5:22 PM
My two main reading groups this year
January 2, 2026 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
my book, _Islamic Ethics and Spiritual Sovereignty: Genres of Tradition in Muslim South Asia_, will be published by @undpress.bsky.social in June 2026

i'm going through the proofs, and don't see any typos in the epilogue, so sharing this 3-page essay here

undpress.nd.edu/978026821090...
January 2, 2026 at 1:46 AM
December 28, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Alexander Jabbari
do you also sometimes feel like literally anything worth doing in life requires knowledge of Persian poetry
December 27, 2025 at 7:40 PM
I saw Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident. With less than a week left in the year it snagged the #1 spot on my worst films of 2025 list.
December 27, 2025 at 3:10 AM
There should be a new straight edge movement that shuns scrolling, slop, and AI
December 26, 2025 at 2:22 PM
MESA book fair haul
November 26, 2025 at 6:42 PM