I Speak English (fluently) And Spanish (well Enough I'm Living In Spain And All My Classes Are In Spanish

Yusuf ibn Ibrahim al-Tayyib  al-Kaysani’s Ethnicity

So I’ve read a lot of different fics and wanted to clarify the different terms I’ve seen applied to Yusuf. I’ll reference what is cannon, but more importantly I want to clarify that these terms are not synonyms. Not all Mediterranean/middle-eastern brown Arabic-speakers are the same.

Saracen: This is a historical term no longer used, but it was widespread in Europe during the period when Joe and Nicky are supposed to have met. It came to be used in place of “muslim” or “pagan” to describe someone. So, when you have Nicky call Joe “Saracen” you are both showing the narrow-mindedness of medieval Europe and only committing yourself to the fact that Joe practices Islam. However, this is more akin to a cultural slur than something Joe would every apply to himself. It’s not an ethnicity to Joe, it’s an insult. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saracen

Maghrebhi: This references a region of Northwest Africa called “the Magreb” (“the west” in Arabic) and is similar to saying something like “Eastern European” to describe oneself. The real actor, Marwan Kenzari, is the son of Tunisian immigrants and this ethnicity term is one that he might use for himself. I believe this is accurate to cannon as well. This is historically accurate as well, an identity label that existed at the time. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb

Moor: This is the European counterpart to Magrebhi which was later expanded to cover Arabs as well. This is something that Nicky might call Joe without meaning to insult, but not something that Joe would call himself. I haven’t seen this one pop up yet, but I figured that I would add it. The historical term was actually Mauri which is fun to spell. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors

Berber or Amazigh/Imazighen (plural) : Berber is both largely anachronistic and could be considered offensive. The region of Northwest Africa did not come to be commonly known are the Barbary coast until the 1500s CE. Furthermore, the term originates from the Greek for “Barbarian”…as in calling the inhabitants of the area barbarians as a name. It is understandably confusing as the term “Berber” is totally normalized in historical sources in English. The name originating within this language group to describe the people is romanized as “Amazigh” (singular) but appears to be anachronistic. It would be better to reference a specific tribal group or region like “Numidian” (reference to a 200 BCE indigenous empire) for an ethnicity. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numidians

Arab/Arabian: This one gets me mad. The Maghreb was conquered by the Arabic empire. Arab originally referred to the Arabian peninsula which is thousands of miles away. Calling Joe “Arab” is like calling Booker “Roman” (but Gualle was controlled by the Roman Empire, so the French are Roman). Modern usage has blended the ethnicity across the former Islamic Empires because of conquest and the eventual ethnic blending. If you are going to refer to him this way, be reflective about it: it’s the result of the eradication of indigenous cultures. What gets me the most upset is realizing it’s probably just uniformed white writers thinking “speaks Arabic and is from a region I consider desert” but it’s very annoying. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabs

Seljuk: This derives from the Seljuq dynasty and references Turkish-Persian (modern Turkey, Iran, and the surrounding areas) people. The Seljuk Turks never occupied the Maghreb, though it is the correct time period. Maybe Joe is fighting with the Seljuk Turks, but he is not one. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seljuq_dynasty

TL;DR: some of the identity terms I’ve seen thrown around are either plain wrong or could be considered offensive. There’s a big difference in using the language of the inhabitants of a place and the language of foreigners to describe someone’s ethnicity and we as a fandom can do better. Also, the whole fandom is looking up Ligurian and Italian for Nicky, so let’s do better for Joe…

I saw this, went 'cool photo' only to realise it was in fact a painting. This is actually insane

Lo so, siete a bocca aperta. L’opera è di Darian Rodriguez Mederos, classe 1992, artista cubano di cui sentiremo parlare ancora.

via Jacopo Veneziani 

Head Engineer, Melanie Cavill

Read more here:

Vice

Adobe Tells Users They Can Get Sued for Using Old Versions of Photoshop

"You are no longer licensed to use the software," Adobe told them.

People keep saying that the TARDIS shouldn’t have malfunctioned just from a cup of coffee but I have two theories

• The TARDIS heard that her darling newly regenerated little time Lord wasn’t going to get a cool adventure with his bestie and engineered an excuse so that he could

• The TARDIS having newly refurbished herself had coffee thrown at her nice new circuits and decided to throw a bitch fit

Look the TARDIS is the longest running female character in doctor who, has proven to be sentient, and regularly takes the Doctor to places she thinks he’d like without warning. It had to be her right?

Klaus being so offended that carmelita thinks they were expelled is so fucking FUNNY and also relatable

here's the thing I generally love living in a coastal city, the Mediterranean is gorgeous

HOWEVER sometimes we get weeks of humidity and it's actually awful, especially as we don't have ac :( the trams in particular are... unpleasant

for WHY must it be warm and humid outside

i feel fucking STICKY

I'm so honoured 💕💕💕💕💕

Ellie and Charlie

TLOU Advent fic #16 for @elpickett

Ellie paused. “If all the seas were dried up, what would Neptune say?”

There was a confused beat. “What?”

“If,” Ellie repeated, slower, “all the seas were dried up, what would Neptune say?” She looked up, a gradual, smug smile spreading across her face.

Joel sighed and rubbed his eyes. He wasn’t so quick at picking up when she was joking around, or maybe she was just too good at disguising puns in regular conversation now.

“I don’t know. What.”

More on AO3

incorrect ASOUE