A Place to Gather Threads
or herd cats, as the case may be
Welcome old and new followers, and let me tell you a bit about what I’m hoping to do here! If you don’t know me at all, check out the About tab above for some groundwork.
Why Substack?
For a while now, while working on a book or a translation or a course, I‘ve shared side notes about my research — an ink recipe re-creation, an investigation into a mystery ingredient, a closer look at an inscription, a survey of creative letterforms — either within Kickstarter updates, or as Twitter threads etc. The decline of the last, which brought about not only an exodus of my community but also a threat to all this content, has nudged me to give these a proper home, and a much more convenient one to use.
If you’re new to my madcap endeavours, you can preview several such discussions here. If you’ve followed me here across webspace, you already know what to expect; don’t be surprised if some familiar topics re-emerge to begin with, as I’d like to revise and re-post some of the old goodies so they can be preserved in the archive.
I’m very open to letting this space be shaped by reader interest, provided the topic is within my sphere of activity, so please do engage and voice your wishes!
Free for all
I don’t have plans for paywalled contents right now, other than maybe cross-posting some more private posts from Patreon. I’m more interested in building a corner of the web that’s accessible to anyone with an interest in this intersection of ideas, that will inspire me to write more and think more deeply. So basically, it’s all free, though paid subscriptions are active and I’m super grateful to anyone who feels moved to support my (self-financed) work this way. Let’s see how things shape up in the future.
I’m also not setting a schedule at this point: I’d rather post when I have good contents to share, than clutter your inbox for the sake of a timetable.
Coming up soon
What I’m working on right now, that you can expect to hear about:
Recreating a number of astrological inks from a very old magical treatise;
A critical survey of Square Kufi inscriptions in their original context (ahead of my February course), which means I have some lovely visuals and script analysis to share;
Embarking on my third translation, tackling the Umdat al-Kuttab itself. I’ve acquired digitisations of at least 4 existing copies so I have high hopes of clearing up the mess incompetent editors have made of it.
I also have thoughts on a lot of art-related questions I was asked recently, that would be worth expanding on. I’m often reluctant to voice my views, but it’s time to get past some of that.
So, step into the caravanserai and take a break from the hustle…
