Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Joumana Medlej

@majnouna.com

2.4K followers 750 following 4.1K posts

Artist-scholar, specialised in early Arabic (Kufi) scripts & historical/natural materials. Interest in material culture & things real. Beirut émigré in Oxford. Earth lover, plastic-free. Contemplative. Whovian/Gallifrey… Links: https://linktr.ee/Majnouna

linktr.ee

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · Nov 24

Did you know I publish a #Substack that has a large, free-to-read archive of articles based on my own research? It's called
#Caravanserai: "An artist lighting her way through dark times by relearning forgotten art practices and natural ways."
Check it out on majnouna.substack.com

Thumbnails with titles for three articles: Blue of Blues, Zafimaniry Geometry, and A Mamluk Masterpiece.

Thumbnails with titles for three articles: Lost Symbols, Quest for Lost Dyes, and Heavenly Figures

3 14 78

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 9m

Colour me surprised, that is a gorgeous result! Dyed with a handful of rosehips from Rosa pimpinellifolia.

Silk skein in a beautiful delicate silvery purple hue.

2 3

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 56m

I will, but it’s still drying. No, I didn’t spin it.

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 3h

I don’t know why this sounds like I’m in the midst of a hurricane 😝

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 3h

The drama between these two, every day!

1 7

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 6h

The way my familiar recognised me when I came home, flew into the back garden and sat near the empty feeder calling until I came out with food. And perched there quivering with excitement while I refilled.

Reposted by Joumana Medlej

Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 7h

We have built a society in which people of different skin tones, religious backgrounds & cultures get along, share power, work alongside each other, procreate with each other, recognise the each other’s humanity and democratic rights. It is a STUNNING ACHIEVEMENT OF WORLD HISTORIC PROPORTIONS.

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 23h

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

8 130 500

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 6h

No comment

Marc Morris @marcmorris.bsky.social · 9h

1 11

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 8h

I don't think they were necessarily misrepresenting, Oman is a real country, not an obscenely oil-rich plastic Disneyland. It's not as poor now as when we lived there in the early 80s but it has nothing to attract white trash.

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 10h

Looking promising… I don’t know what it will dry to but not bad for some random rose hips.

Silk and linen skeins looking handsome shortly after their first dip

Beautifully purple silk skein after a night of soaking

1 23

Reposted by Joumana Medlej

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 1d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

62 2.7K 7.4K

Reposted by Joumana Medlej

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 1d

Mourning those murdered by Hamas isn't incompatible with mourning those murdered by the Israeli state.

Demanding that the hostages return isn't incompatible with naming & demanding an end to genocide.

Naming the power imbalance & impact thereof doesn't desecrate those murdered two years ago today.

17 360 1.5K

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 1d

My garden this morning.

Alex Tomlinson @alextomlinson.com · 1d

Flat illustration of a Wood Pigeon, Magpie, and Robin in a parade-line stride holding autumn leaves up high with their beaks! (UK birds as I am there right now on vacation!)

Reposted by Joumana Medlej

Rabih Alameddine @rabihalameddine.bsky.social · 1d

National Book Award finalist. Amazing!!
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/b...

Here Are the Finalists for the 2025 National Book Awards

www.nytimes.com

13 11 73

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 1d

Mabrouk!!

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 1d

It's well-known in the UAE (and neighbours) that the British expats there are the UK's trash, the bottom of the barrel, those nobody wanted back home.

Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 1d

We must emulate the United Arab Emirates, apparently.

Where to even start...?

1 6

Reposted by Joumana Medlej

Alexa Ray Corriea @alexaray.bsky.social · 1d

It’s boiling in October because you’re using ChatGPT to write your emails, Janice.

10 940 3K

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 1d

What a liar.

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 1d

Please, UK…

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

1 9

Reposted by Joumana Medlej

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 2d

"Les gens chics se font attendre" and nobody's classier than this guy! Finally our conversation with Braxiatel, I mean Miles Richardson, is out, and what an absolute delight it was! #Gallifrey

Joe Ford @docoho44.bsky.social · 2d

The last of three Finish Big treats this weekend - Braxiatel himself, Miles Richardson talks to @majnouna.com & Joe about Shakespeare, Gallifrey and the Brax & Narvin sitcom! @seancarlsen.bsky.social - would you be down for this? ❤️

youtu.be/BjLyCZkf6KE?...

Miles Richardson Interview

YouTube video by Finish Big

youtu.be

2 9

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 2d

Day of the Ladybirds Redux. I do enjoy this phenomenon, it’s just it makes me wonder if I stepped through a wardrobe or something.
Also knowing our windows are so airtight whole-ass ladybirds can just walk through them… 👍

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 2d

I should’ve known walking home through the park wasn’t going to be a real shortcut in the end.
Also, hurrah for dresses with pockets…

Foraged rose hips, mullein blossoms and chunks of willow

1 15

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 2d

I'll probably write more about it, there was so much I couldn't fit in!

Reposted by Joumana Medlej

Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 2d

This is brilliant. Not only a serious analysis of Japanese colour, but also inspiration for what to plant in your dye garden next year.

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 2d

I've been working on this piece since last month! Please enjoy a dive into magnificent natural colours from Heian Japan, just published on #Caravanserai.
majnouna.substack.com/p/kasane

Kasane

The most refined art of wearing the seasons

majnouna.substack.com

2 2 8

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 2d

Thank you!

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 2d

Icon.

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 3d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

2 6