Status Updates From Tarih Notları: Bir Orta Doğ...

“Let us no more speak of tolerance as if it were by the indulgence (read appeasement) of one class of people that others enjoy the exercise of their inherent natural rights”
-George Washington

The anecdotes and the intellectual banter have made it worth reading. Too many to share here.

“…sometime in the 1960s, the British government had announced its intention of withdrawing all British troops from the Gulf sheikhdoms in Arabia, and the Gulf sheikhs were scurrying to London one after another.
Publicly they proclaimed their delight at the British decision to go.
Privately they came to express their concerns and to plead for some delay.”

“Mr. Creditor was delighted to continue my instruction. In the course of the years we proceeded from Bible to Talmud, which involved some Aramaic.
Years later, when he was elderly and retired, Mr. Creditor published a book and presented a copy to my parents. He inscribed it “To the parents of Bernard Lewis. He was my pupil, and now I am his.”
It was a touching moment.”

“We live in a time when great energies are being devoted to the falsification of history—to flatter, to deceive or to serve some sectional purpose. No good can come of such distortions, even when they are inspired by unselfish motives.”
Hear hear !