Ed Shawe-Taylor

Image is a still from a film, of man in Ghur province in Afghanistan. He is seated with cushions visible in the background. The main is wearing a black and white patterned turban, with beige and black clothing. He has a black beard and is looking intently at the camera. Below is an image of a document which he helped to discover and overlaid is a teal block containing information about an event.

The @invisibleeast.bsky.social team is busy making final preparations for a hybrid film-screening and panel discussion we are hosting in #Oxford tomorrow afternoon - and you're invited!

The event will explore the ethical and practical challenges facing scholars and heritage institutions today...

Document of the Month 6/25: “She Smells with a Fragrant Nose" She Smells with a Fragrant Nose

🔗 Read more about the fragment here:

#digitalhumanities #medievalsky #BamiyanPapers

This gem is one of ten newly translated literary fragments from medieval #Afghanistan — available today in our latest release on @invisibleeast.bsky.social's #digitalcorpus!

#medievalsky #bamiyanpapers #glossary #digitalhumanities

Document of the Month 7/25: Invisible East Qur’ans Fragments from Once Complete Qur’ans

@invisibleeast.bsky.social's latest 𝘋𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩, 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦 𝘘𝘶𝘳’𝘢𝘯𝘴, explores treasures from the #Bamiyan and #Firuzkuh Papers, which feature in our #digitalcorpus.

Read Alya Karame's piece now at bit.ly/InvisibleEastQurans

#documents #qur'an

We’re getting ready for our summer holidays! ☀️⛱️

You might have started Duolingo or bought a phrase book you won’t touch until you panic read it on the plane.

Many of us are brushing up on handy phrases like:

👉 “Where’s the train station?”
👉 “Can I pay with card?”
👉 “A table for two, please.”

Photo is of a blue ceramic bowl, containing Haft Mewa, a salad of dried fruits and nuts in syrup. Bowl sits on a beautiful cream tablecloth with floral embroidery details in brown, green and pink.

In our latest blog Nabi Saqee finds references to #Nowruz in the #Bamiyan Papers & highlights some special traditions in modern-day #Afghanistan: bit.ly/IENowruz

Wishing our followers a happy Naw Rūz/Nowruz & a healthy, successful & joyful year!

#persiannewyear #nawruz #haftmewa #medievalsky 1/2

The picture has a cream background, with the words 'New publication' in large teal font, then 'Divided Fields, Unbroken Will: A Female Farmer's Stand in Medieval Afghanistan' in black italics, followed by 'Document of the Month 3/25' in bold teal font, the name of the author Arezou Azad in black font, a golden brushstroke, and then the logos of the University of Oxford and Invisible East below.

The picture is of a medieval document, with fold lines, tears and creases, with New Persian script in black on the brown paper background, stuck to a more modern white and lined notebook with pen notes around it.

Our 'Document of the Month' by @arezouazad.bsky.social, celebrates 🎉 the agency, confidence & hard work of medieval women, through the lens of a 12-century petition 📜 by a tenant farmer in #Afghanistan seeking to defend her livelihood 💪.

bit.ly/afemalefarmersstand

#iwd #iwd2025 #medievalsky

📢 The latest 'Document of the Month' is available now at invisibleeast.web.ox.ac.uk. Mateen Arghandehpour writes on a land sale deed in Old Uyghur.

🔍 Find this - and nearly 300 new #documents - in the third release on www.invisible-east.org!

#digitalhumanities #olduyghur #medievalsky #skystorians

We’ve all been given tasks by our seniors that weren’t quite in our job description 😩 Well, next time you're wading through your boss’s paperwork, just be grateful that the problem they dumped on your desk doesn’t also need feeding, cleaning and exercising... 🐎🧵

From feeding forgotten horses, to navigating complex local politics, these records bring the past to life in the most unexpected ways. Join us 🔍 as we dive into these captivating glimpses of history!

#medievalsky #skystorians #notmycircus

This year, I’ve been letting Manchester City handle my research plans. In April, they’re sending me to Cairo (hometown of Omar Marmoush), and in August, I’m off to Tashkent (birthplace of Abdukodir Khusanov) to present at ASPS with Invisible East. Hopefully, these trips go better than City’s season…

It was a pleasure to introduce new members of the KRC to some of the Bodleian’s illustrated Arabic manuscripts. Here, we’re examining a large, lavish copy of al-Ḥarīrī’s Maqāmāt, copied in 738/1337 in Mamluk Egypt or Syria.

Check out the manuscript here: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/927e...

From the Oxford Maqamat, copied 1337 (Bodleian Library, Marsh 458, f.54r).

From the Oxford Maqamat, copied 1337 (Bodleian Library, Marsh 458, f.54r).

Abu Zayd and al-Harith meet outside a London tube station...

🌟 The dust has settled from the holiday season, and many of us are back to work after spending some quality time with loved ones. As we all know, family reunions rarely go without a bit of argy-bargy... 🧵 1/10

📢The second release of an additional 800 #documents is now live on our #digitalcorpus!

🔎Need some help unlocking these treasures? Join us for a walk through how to search the #IEDC at bit.ly/IEDChowto
#digitalhumanities #medievalsky #sykstorians

Check out the Invisible East Document of the Month! This month is a piece I wrote about an interesting calligraphic signature on a 12th-century Persian document. This blog has been adapted from an article I've been working on for a forthcoming Invisible East publication.

#meettheteam 👋 who have been working hard digitising #documents ready for the second release onto our Digital Corpus tomorrow.

Give a 👏 to Edward Shawe-Taylor and Mateen Arghandehpour and mark your calendar 📅 ready to explore 800 new documents!

#medievalsky #digitalhumanities #skystorians