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  • Parlare (philology 6)

    The middle eastern šay is used in the same way as alors is used in french. Compare with yani (Egyptian) and allora (Italiano), the following seems to be:

    • Šay: can be used to ask the attention of the listener f.e. “šay, hadhi barid al yawm.” (If you know the difference between hadhi and hadhihi please Lmk)
    • Allora: as far as we know allora is used to continue a speech, perhaps a synonym of apropos
    • Yani: same functions as allora
    • Alors: same function as allora
  • Polygyny and Islam

    Muslims make jokes about second wives etc. but they do not actually want that to happen. I remember as a child the codeswitching between two sides of the family at birthdays. Nobody voluntarily chooses that. There are very specific circumstances in which polygyny is allowed and intelligent and they do not occur in socialist countries.

  • Interreligious studies: al-hallaj and jesus from nazareth

    Let me clarify that this blog is not a space for bad-faith argumentation and bullying. Please refrain from doing so in the comments.

    There are interesting parallels between the figure-head of the Christian faith tradition, Jesus from nazareth, and of Sufi mystic Ḥosayn b. Manṣūr Ḥallāǰ (d. 309/922). For example the utterance of both of a saying similar to “I am the truth.”

    The gospel (“injeel“) reports Jesus as saying “ego eimi he hodos he aleitha kai he zoe” which is understood as “I am the Path, the Truth and the Life.”

    Ibn mansoor hallaj was reported as saying a similar thing in 896. He reportedly stated “ana al-haqq” meaning “I am the truth.” But in the Qur’an “al-haqq” describes one of the names of God. Hallaj echoes the mystical sentiments as expressed by Jesus ibn. Maryam (peace be upon him) since John 14:6 continues: “No one comes to the father except through me.”

    The idea of intercession is not foreign to Islamic sunni tradition as well. It also has roots in the Qur’an, f.e.: “no one can intercede without His leave (permission)”1

    Relevant passages

    • John 14:6 (kjv): “Jesus saith unto him: ‘I am the way, the truth (“ἀλήθεια”),2 and the life: no man cometh unto the father but by me.’”
    • Hallaj: “ana’l haqq” (“I am the Truth”)3

    1. Q: Baqarah, 255. ↩︎
    2. https://biblehub.com/john/14-6.htm#lexicon, accessed june 30th 2026. ↩︎
    3. Schimmel, Annemarie. “ANA’L-ḤAQQ.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. Published December 15, 1989. https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/anal-haqq-i-am-the-truth-the-most-famous-of-the-sufi-sathiyat-ecstatic-utterances-or-paradoxes/ ↩︎
  • Predicting the world cup winner

    Solely for academic purposes. There are no blessings in betting.

    For convenience this study uses fifa world ranking scores1 of mid-december of the year in which the world cup2 was held.3

    YearFifa ranking no. 1Fifa ranking no. 2Fifa ranking no. 3Fifa ranking no. 4Winner world cup
    1994BrazilSpainSwedenItalyBrazil (final won from Italy)
    1998BrazilFranceGermanyCroatiaFrance (finalist Brazil)
    2002BrazilFranceSpainGermanyBrazil (finalist Germany)
    2006BrazilItalyArgentinaFranceItaly (finalist France)
    2010SpainNetherlandsGermanyBrazilSpain (finalist Netherlands)
    2014GermanyArgentinaColombiaBelgiumGermany (finalist Argentina)
    2018BelgiumFranceBrazilCroatiaFrance (finalist Croatia)
    2022BrazilArgentinaFranceBelgiumArgentina (finalist France)
    2026 (pred.)4ArgentinaSpainFranceEnglandsee text

    As can be noted from the table the winner is always from the first two positions. Furthermore it is split exactly 50/50 between the first spot and the second spot. This would indicate that both Spain and Argentina have a chance of 0.5 to win the world cup.

    Can we improve on this? Believe it or not but the historical results since 1952 are absolutely equal: Argentina has won six times, drawn two times and lost six times. So the only indication that we have is the “resultaat” or “=goals scored – goals conceded” which yields “-1” on a total of 37 goals. So this favours Spain over Argentina with 1/37 = 0.027 (p).

    1. https://inside.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men?dateId=id56 ↩︎
    2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIFA_World_Cup_finals ↩︎
    3. This is possible if one assumes a point of view of cyclial time rather than linear time. ↩︎
    4. Fifa world cup rankings data as of 11th of june ↩︎
  • Italians (3)

    On the other hand you can always tease your sposato with “donna e mobile” so not all is bad.

    Edit:

    It seems fair that you call her “sole mio” then at least 23 times

  • The matrix

    The movie the Matrix makes more sense if the virus that is prevalent on earth is “love,” instead of “humans,” as the agent claims.

  • Medieval philosophy

    Sunnah – nomos pairing. Is sunnah the prepolmugation of nomos? This seems asynchronic (early Islamic thought peaked before latin philosophy).

  • Ikkje

    Yesterday evening or maybe the day before I got kissed on the street by a homeless man. I know Leiden is a city of love but this was a bit odd

  • Literature review: the harry potter saga

    Spoilers ahead for both the movies and the novels.

    To the reader that has been reading some of the posts on this blog it has become clear that I have made some allusions to series which I wanted to continue but could not or as of today have not. I am confident that this study is the first in a series that I hopefully can continue.

    The harry potter saga, i am including both the movies and the books has ammased massive space. The popularity of the world as described by J. K. Rowling1 is such that I believe now the castle and village have been recreated for the most persistent fans.

    There are a multitude of ways which one can follow if one wants to analyse the h.p. universe. It is possible to start with the characters. Another approach could be to analyse the “magic system,” which is difficult since I believe most adults would immideately associate “magic” with harry potter et al. so it might be difficult to say anything meaningful about it.

    Another approach would be a themes approach. Very clearly the theme of slavery is present, another “immortality,” or longevity. The theme of evil is pushed but is to my opinion not convicingly portrayed. In the first of the series I want to analyse the political mechanations.

    Politics is discussed in the novels. For example in the part in which the order of the phoenix fights in the department of mystifications the prime minister is said to be afraid that Dumbledore, the “high priest” so to speak is after his job. But more interestingly is the mechanics of how Voldemort “lord of the death” achieves his political goal of running the “ministry of magic.”

    When “voldemort” achieves his goal it is through the control of the new prime minister. However it should be clear to “wizards” with the ability of independent observation that this new prime minister is indeed the puppet of “he who must not be named.” As a result the only way in which this truly is a victory for the “dark lord” is if the populus or the “real wizards” are ambivalent enough to the new forerunner of the wizarding community.

    In other words “voldemort” can only come to power if enough of the population does not care enough to protest. Since we are dealing with a magical universe it is difficult to make one-to-one parallels.

    I think this is enough for the first part. The second part will perhaps analyse the motivations and goals of “voldemort” or other inspiration may arise d.v.

    1. I am aware of her trackrecord of bigotry. This state of mind that she displays was not apparent when she wrote the novels. I think it best to continue as if she has never said anything. ↩︎
  • On italians (2)

    My reponse in the previous post was not intentionally bashing deutsche kuche but rather stating my preference for tiramisu.