For those following my extrication/edition/translation of Umdat al-Kuttab, the 11th century book arts treatise (and major source for my own, Inks & Paints of the Islamic Golden Age), I made a bookmarkable page for all updates: majnouna.com/umda Its own password is simply: umda #medievalsky #bookarts

Fourth attempt did it 😊 This edition will soon be ready! #printmaking

First time a linnet turns up for me here, but quite upstaged by this surprise cameo! Not a Merlin hallucination this time but a very clear hoot 😍🦉 #birdlove

We're in the thick of a romanticised Renaissance, with mad Dukes, scientific minds, evil cults and dominating energy from the Dawn of Time...what's not to love? @majnouna.com @lucymccaul.bsky.social @mrrobvalentine.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

I don’t think there’s any group of people I find most despicable than PoCs who are happy to tag along with white supremacy by convincing themselves that they’re being nuanced. She’s not sophisticated. She’s just a racist. It doesn’t matter that she’s not white. It just makes her more pathetic.

Good morning with another reconstructed chapter of the Umda, the shorter-than-expected one on "synthesized" aka ferrogallic inks (more on that within): majnouna.com/2026/10/02/u... Password: 7err0gall1c #medievalsky #islamicart

Umda 5: Chapter III reconstructed - Majnouna

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

majnouna.com

Joumana Medlej@majnouna.com · 2w ago

This is a big update, a full chapter of translated ink recipes with notes. Each contrasted with its '64 word salad version. majnouna.com/2026/09/23/u... Password: 1nf0dumP #medievalsky #inkmaking

I moved the lavender cuttings to a chair in the garden, thinking I might do something with them, and…

Joumana Medlej@majnouna.com · 6d ago

Trimmed the lavender that was starting to block our front door and

I think this copyist likes this ink… "It's the best of the best. I've made it for myself as described, and I haven’t found better, may God reward with goodness the one who pointed to it. Even if I store it a whole year in a jar, it doesn’t change, doesn’t thicken, and doesn’t separate, mashallah."

Between October 2023 and April 2024, Israel dropped more explosives on Gaza than were dropped on London, Dresden, and Hamburg combined during all of WWII. The destruction of Rafah, which I believe is the city in this picture, did not begin until May 2024.

marque lawyers@marquelawyers.com.au · last wk.

Google is updating its satellite images of Gaza. The comprehensiveness of effort required to reduce an urban landscape to this is beyond imagining. Literal carpet bombing.

# You say “Mandragora”, I say “Mandragora”… # Joe, Joumana, Lucy and I decide NOT to call the whole thing off as we talk all over “Doctor Who: The Masque of Man<cough cough cough>”. 🐹 🔪

Joe Ford@docoho44.bsky.social · 5d ago

A foursome of delight as we head to Italy for some magic, mysticism, art, sword polishing, oranges and education. @majnouna.com @lucymccaul.bsky.social @mrrobvalentine.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

We're having a do at home this WE, which is our way of getting on with long-planned home improvements, and this week has been a happy madness of having stuff delivered and installed. Will share, but I'm taking a day to FOCUS ON WORK before I get back to cleaning and to making party snacks.

A foursome of delight as we head to Italy for some magic, mysticism, art, sword polishing, oranges and education. @majnouna.com @lucymccaul.bsky.social @mrrobvalentine.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Put it on my tombstone.

Trimmed the lavender that was starting to block our front door and

Joumana Medlej@majnouna.com · last wk.

Oh no lol

Oh my lord 😭😭 Himself met the new Visiting Research Fellow at lunch:

I’ve been informed it’s week Minus One, which means next week is Noughth Week for those who celebrate this incredibly Oxford word.

These Google Earth images should make the entire world stop.

Dr. Nick Posegay@nposegay.northsky.social · last wk.

Rafah, a city which had a pre-war population of 170,000 and once hosted the "humanitarian zone" for over a 1,000,000 Palestinian refugees, no longer exists in a meaningful way. Literally ground to dust.

Wow, that's amazing in the worst possible way.

Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave@wolven.blacksky.app · last wk.

So uhhhhhh… Apparently meta's muse "AI" is just straight up doxxing people to strangers on FB marketplace??? This has the potential to hurt so so many people, and I genuinely wonder how long before they roll out a fix for it.

Good.

The New Arab@thenewarab.bsky.social · last wk.

Ireland's players also wore black armbands and bowed their heads as the Israeli national anthem played. The teams skipped the traditional pre-match handshakes and did not exchange pennants either in a near-empty stadium in Debrecen, Hungary.

This is obvious and utter nonsense. The only person whose goal we can all understand is Mark Zuckerberg - and that's to make as much money as possible by stealing from the rest of us, even though it means that the planet burns and millions of people die.

CoinMarketCap@coinmarketcap.bsky.social · last wk.

LATEST: 🤖 Mark Zuckerberg says "everyone is going to have an agent" in 5 years that "intimately understands your goals and everything around you," speaking with YouTuber Jacklyn Dallas.

Reposting this for the morning crowd. I'm trying to say something intelligent about my intense dislike of generative AI, & why using this technology helps authoritarian projects.

Steffen Hope@hopesteffen.bsky.social · last wk.

I've written a short & very acerbic blogpost, outlining one of the reasons I hate generative AI, namely that it strengthens authoritarians in their constant war against reality. This is essentially a draft piece, so any feedback is very welcome. my-albion.blogspot.com/2026/09/auth...

A dear friend of mine has bravely launched all on her own a project she’s been holding in her heart for many years: The Anamnesis Project, dedicated to engaging with learning and knowledge “as forms of inner remembrance and embodied recollection of what is already essential within us.”

Heal how you learn

A £35 online webinar to heal from ego-based learning and return to deeper nature. Build heart-memory and muscle memory for a sacred way of learning.

theanamnesisproject.com

Oh no lol

Joumana Medlej@majnouna.com · 2w ago

A few days ago as I was having breakfast with the door to the garden open, a squirrel stepped into the kitchen carrying an enormous walnut. I said “No.” and he turned around to find some other place to stash it. This is the only reason I wasn’t bewildered by the bins under the apple tree today.

A dear friend of mine has bravely launched all on her own a project she’s been holding in her heart for many years: The Anamnesis Project, dedicated to engaging with learning and knowledge “as forms of inner remembrance and embodied recollection of what is already essential within us.”

Heal how you learn

A £35 online webinar to heal from ego-based learning and return to deeper nature. Build heart-memory and muscle memory for a sacred way of learning.

theanamnesisproject.com

The full moon in a sea of mottled clouds tonight is basically why people become artists.

DOO-WE-WOOOOOO

Jenny's House@uncleshady777.bsky.social · last wk.

This is seriously too good.

The latest newsletter from the studio (a shortish one): majnounanews.substack.com/p/majnouna-n...

Majnouna News: September

That “back to school” scent in the air

majnounanews.substack.com

Though it is an evolving set of thoughts, I have at last updated my website with a statement about why I don't use AI. (It's quite long. Maybe should have asked ChatGBH to condense it.) www.jameslark.co.uk/ai

Statement on AI | James Lark composer

I do not use AI at any stage of the creative process. This is why.

jameslark.co.uk

Edition done, I'm shattered! I think two of them are good, lol. But I learned lots so a third attempt should do it. What do you think, worth it? If I continued to make 10-12 good prints I'd put them in a nice mount and finish the dots with gold.

Walmart Family-owned museum hires "Museum Think Tank" founded by investment fund manager David Booth to figure out how to make something museum workers and visitors do not want happen. The question "why do something ppl don't want? isn't asked bc the reason is to strip mine institutions for profit.

The Art Newspaper - International art news and events [Unoffici…@theartnewspaper.com.web.brid.gy · 2w ago