Iskandar Ding
@iskdin
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PhD candidate in Yaghnobi and Sogdian linguistics @SOAS. Devotee of the Iranian and Persianate world.
London
Joined December 2015
Beloved Fārsī in the Museum of Applied Arts of Uzbekistan:. دنیا بمثال یک سرای دو در است.هر روز در این سرای قوم دیگر است
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A beautiful painting in the Museum of Applied Arts of Uzbekistan, and linguistically interesting - the painter signed his name as قخرمان instead of قهرمان, which reflects the lack of distinction between [h] ҳ and [x] х in Uzbek.
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Generate videos in just a few seconds. Try Grok Imagine, free for a limited time.
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If the owners are Hui, they’d be very offended by the term ‘Muslim Han’. But the real issue is with the ruthlessly and dismissively reductive term ‘Chinese’, which corresponds to so many native terms, of which ‘Han’ (ethnic Chinese) is only one. Hui ≠ ethnic Chinese Muslims.
A plate of Chinese food in Kabul, produced by Muslim Han workers from China. 📍: China Lanzhou Beef Noodles, .Shahr-e-Now, Kabul, Afghanistan
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Near identical stories about the Simurgh, one in Kurdish and one in Yaghnobi: one of three brothers slays a snake on a chinār tree and saves Simurgh's eggs/chicks; as reward, Simurgh takes him out of the netherworld and gives magical feathers for future assistance.
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Doing Iranian philology/linguistics is to realise again and again that the Soviets have written about everything but Western academia doesn't encourage us to access Soviet scholarship or teach Russian as an essential research skill. I'm so glad I know Russian. .
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RT @khalidsyossef: #OpenAccess.The Maritime Silk Road: Global Connectivities, Regional Nodes, Localities.eds. Franck Billé et al. Amsterdam….
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Awaara dubbed in Uyghur -.Awaara was among one of the earliest Bollywood imports into Communist China. Both my grandparents' and parents' generations grew up with it. I also learnt one of the songs, Ab raat guzarne waali hai, at school.
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RT @SinoMuslimLit: Among the various project outputs is this forthcoming book by @ibrar_bhatt and Heng Wang (王恒), now available for pre-ord….
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Ok this is alarming. I didn't know ChatGPT could make up Shāhnāma verses.
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There's a curious amount of Chinese YouTubers who make videos about the caste system in India, like, look how horribly backward this is, which is more of a prejudicial judgement than a critique. I mean what's there to feel good about? Chinese society is still plagued by 三六九等.
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Reflection - Chinese characters get to stay 'kanji' when Japanese and 'hanja' when Korean is talked about internationally, but can only be 'characters' when Chinese is in question. 'Hanzi', not just the origin but essentially the same thing, never has the same ring to it.
'Ramen' is a perfect example of how being positively exoticised by the West validates an Asian word. 'Noodles soup' sounds cheap and potentially dirty, 'instant noodles' sounds studenty, but 'ramen' is what transforms a £2 pack of dried noodles into a £17 story in central London.
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The ‘chop suey font’ isn’t just a US-American Orientalising phenomenon. It’s widespread in the (post-)Soviet sphere, too (not being tu quoque so don’t defend the US). There’s Perso-Arabic-styled … not only Cyrillic but also Armenian, e.g.:
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The katakana-written word's origin as 'lamian' 拉麵, best known among Hui Muslims in Central-Northwestern China, is obscured, by an international craze that was not even willing to see Islam in China until a community's tragedy was dug out to incite pity.
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'Ramen' is a perfect example of how being positively exoticised by the West validates an Asian word. 'Noodles soup' sounds cheap and potentially dirty, 'instant noodles' sounds studenty, but 'ramen' is what transforms a £2 pack of dried noodles into a £17 story in central London.
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RT @yakabikaj: English #etymology of the day: satin < Middle French zatin < Arabic zaytūn "olive", and here's where it gets even weirder.….
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[buʀdɔt irʌbʌ ãmãndɯni].
کسی تا حالا خبری از مغولستان شنیده؟ .اصلا همچین کشوری وجود داره یا زاییدهٔ تخیل ماست؟.چرا هیچ‌جا، تو هیچ خبری هیچ اسمی ازش نیست؟.آخرین باری که یک چیزی ازش شنیدیم مال زمان چنگیز بوده!. یعنی اگر کرهٔ زمین ایران باشه، مغولستان قطعا سمنانه.
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RT @ZoxeAtas: If you want to listen to me speak about Turoyo Neo-Aramaic for about 20 min in English, listen to this podcast: https://t.co/….
podcasts.apple.com
Podcast Episode · GAZE ܓܰܙܶܐ̈ – The Treasures of Syriac · 06/26/2025 · 22m
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RT @yakabikaj: Zohran Mamdani's Urdu ad had a great pun in it. He asks a group, "did you ever vote before?" to which they respond "kiyā!" (….
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