I am at present a graduate student in history at the University of Tennessee, working on my MA. I graduated in 2007 with a BA in history from this university, and spent several months in Morocco this year, studying Arabic, at this place. My area of interest is, broadly, the medieval Islamic world, with a special interest in Arabic and Syriac Christianity, particularly in the early Islamic period. But I enjoy history across the board really, especially but by no means exclusively medieval. The first book of history I remember reading was a biography of Robert E. Lee when I was six years old; I enjoyed it very much and was eager for more in the same vein. The rest, as they say, is history (sorry…).
I like to read and write about any number of things, from history (go figure) to art to philosophy. Sometimes I take photos or draw pictures of things too. I grew up in the South, and continue to live there when I’m not abroad, and continue to love it through all its good and ill. I am an Orthodox Christian and go to church here with this one priest who writes this one blog that maybe you’ve seen; I grew up Southern Baptist and converted after a long but not terribly exciting process. Politically I’m broadly libertarian, trending towards agorism/mutualism; or, probably more accurately, Dorothy Day’s anarchism/libertarianism. I grew up in a fairly standard Southern American conservative household, and my political “conversion” has also been slow and generally unexciting. And just as with the practice of my faith, I am usually more committed on blog postings and pub conversations than in real life.
I like to wander literally also, not just metaphorically, and have been to a few interesting corners of the earth and seen some history happening in front of me, which can sometimes be a little disconcerting and harrowing. Right now my goal is, insha’allah, to visit Istanbul and Damascus in the near-ish future, maybe when (well, or if…) I finish my M. A., assuming the economy doesn’t collapse entirely and we revert to the peasant mode of production, which might not be all that bad…
This blog then is about whatever interests me at the moment, which could be Bulgarian folk music or Beat poetry or medieval Christian exegesis or something. If you’re an enthusiast for Islamic and/or Eastern Christian history, you will probably find a few things of interest on a fairly regular basis. Sometime I blog politics and all that nonsense, please forgive me in advance on that if I make you unreasonably angry.
About ’Thicket & Thorp’: it’s a line from Gerard Manely Hopkins. Thorp is an archaic word that means village or hamlet. Hence, ‘thicket and thorp’ connects ‘wild’ nature and human habitation, which, in reality, aren’t strict dichotomies, anymore than many supposed dualities really are, which is an onging idea/theme of mine I suppose. But mostly I came across them while thinking up a blog title and really liked the sound of the words.
I Twitter under the handle Mar_Musa; I also have a YouTube channel.
My old blog can be accessed here.
For those who use such things, my Facebook profile is here.
That would be me on the right there with friends in Fes, Saida Fatima and Yusuf.
June 13, 2008 at 7:27 am
Jonathan,
Thank you for the link, I will return the favor!
And great site by the way–I just found it and am looking forward to reading what you post.
In Christ,
+Fr Gregory
August 29, 2008 at 1:04 am
I’ve just found your blog through your post on St Moses appearing in my wordpress tag surfer, and look forward to coming back.
You may already know about them, but if you do go to Syria you really should visit Deir Mar Musa, near Nebek: http://www.deirmarmusa.org
November 18, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Dear Jonathan,
Since you like wandering, here if you like are links to some parts of Orthodoxy you might not have yet discovered in your wanderings:
1. Epizod. A Bulgarian power-rock band that has put together a rock opera about Tsar Maryr St. Shiman and the Patriarch St. Evtimi. The music is thier own, but the words are from some classic Bulgarian poetry written after they had thrown off the Islamic yoke of the Ottomans. If you go to their webside you can find English translations to their lyric: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flgyj_m4qBM
2. I don’t know if you’ve ever explore Ethiopian Coptic mezmur music but they have some strange but hauntingly beautiful hymns such as this…which musically I don’t even know how to classify: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM2WMQ8PN3Q
Otherwise you might be pleased to learn (in case you didn’t know already) USM now has a small but functioning OCF and the foundations are being laid for a mission parish in Hattiesburg, blessed by Archbishop Dimitri as Holy Cross.
November 18, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Wow- Bulgarian power rock. That’s pretty awesome- “Scholar of pan-Slavic fame!”
I’d not heard Ethiopian music before (unless Bob Marley counts), though my collection has a fair amount from the Egyptian, Syriac, and Armenian miaphysite traditions.
I had heard about the OCF at USM- they started the year after I graduated from Carey, sadly, and I didn’t find out about that until right before I left for Morocco last spring. I did not know about the mission parish- glory to Jesus Christ! That’s really good to hear- until the OCF chapter there wasn’t any Orthodox presence particularly nearby- Jackson really was the only place (other than that one schismatic or whatever monk in the woods of Jones County…).
November 18, 2008 at 9:52 pm
The verse I liked best was “When darkness falls, sow stars”…just begs to be in a novel somewhere.
Carey..that’s my old Alma Mater.
There is Jackson and McComb which several Hattieburgers go to.
The old monk…Fr. Elia. I believe he is now with the Milan Synod…so getting closer it seems. It is a pity about his troubles about his communion because he is a font of liturgical history. He trained some at St. Catherine’s on Mt. Sinai and at Yar Saba in Palistine…at least that is what he once told me.
Also for what it is worth there was an older monk at the consecration of now his Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah who is from Mt. Athos who at present is planning to take up residence at St. Michael’s Skete in NM. Abbot John is very much looking forward to that eventuality.
Anyway though we’ve never met, I’ve followed your journey to Orthodoxy via your blogs for the past few years. It has been very interesting reading and I am glad at last to learn you have decided to swim the Bosphorus…or the Volga as it were.
BTW another corner you might want to root around in is Orthodox campanological arts…bell ringing…some wonder fascinating stuff out there. Here is a link to the Sisoy a giant 35+ton bell that you hear in the movie Andre Rublev (and speaking of Rublev go find the movie Andre Rublev by Tartovsky, and the movie Ostrov by Tartovsky’s disciple …and it is magnificent) It is one of the most beautiful deep bells I have heard…its got a voice like the the hymning of mountain: http://www.russianbells.com/zvons/zvons/rostov-georgiev.mp3 (slow stately) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8R9R9O4hIg
And finally…here is a band of homeschooled Orthodox PKs and DKs who in my opinion are enormously talented (the lead singer made these videos and did the claymation:
Great Glass Elevator links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nZvGPYLH38
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvCT_ZPFsOk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azNRk8yltFQ
Hope you like them…
well enough being a pest