How to evaluate narrative-historical sources is the subject of intense controversies in Islamic Studies and beyond. Arguably, no student of Islamic history can escape the conundrum of debates surrounding these sources. Chase Robinson aptly observed, “it is a measure of just how conservative the professional study of Islamic history remains that the noisiest controversy of the last 25 years concerns the reliability of our written sources, rather than the models according to which we are to understand and use them.” When a scholar makes a claim about the supposed “unreliability” of late antique Islamic sources, she often operates under the positivist assumption of the existence of an “original Truth” that can be discovered through a specific methodology...

Qahera, a webcomic written and drawn by the Egyptian writer and artist Deena Mohamed, started during a troubled period of Egyptian history. Qahera’s stories partly reflect the uncertainties of the situation during these years...

The media has characterized Hijarbie as part of a trend toward more physically and ethnically diverse dolls, but project reflects a deeper meaning and vision that informs a whole lifestyle...