— Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime And Punishment

from The Crown Ain’t Worth Much by Hanif Abdurraqib

love & friendship - collected writings from side wounds and other poems

ketzal_coatl

The Mughals were conquerors, not colonizers, and equating them to the British is ahistorical at best. The Mughals settled in India, made it their home, and integrated into its cultural and political fabric, even if their rule was far from perfect. They built monuments like the Taj Mahal and Red Fort, not as gifts to the locals, but as symbols of their power—just as Hindu kings built temples and palaces for their own glory. Yes, Aurangzeb reimposed the jizya and destroyed temples, but let’s not pretend this was unique to the Mughals; Hindu rulers also destroyed rival religious sites when it suited their political agendas. The British, however, were true colonizers—they exploited India’s resources to enrich themselves, treated Indians as subhuman, and left the economy in ruins. The Mughals may have been flawed rulers, but they were part of India’s story; the British were extractive outsiders who never saw India as anything more than a cash cow. To conflate the two is to ignore the nuances of history and reduce it to a simplistic, politically convenient narrative.

Not another post whining about why “mUgHaLs WeRe nOt cOlOnizErs” like girl, they were literally foreign invaders who forced you to speak their language, broke your temples, tried eradicating your culture and collected zizya taxes motivated by religious bigotry in hopes of forcing your people to convert! At least have some shame and consideration for your ancestors.

unless you literally want to crack open your rib cage and have me crawl inside do NOT flirt with me.

What are your favorite Arabic poems, if you have any?

These are some of my favorites:

An Ocean Without Shore, Ibn ‘Arabi

Fragment from Al-Buhturi’s Wolf

From the Luzumiyat of al-Ma’arri

From the Diwan of al-Ma’arri

Reality, Rabia al-Basri

Love, Rabia al-Basri

The Enchanter of Dust: Psalm, Adonis

The Wound, Adonis

I Pray Behind My Shadow, Bahija Massri Adelbi

The Spirit Bows to the Will of Love, Munir Mezyed

The Manner of Sand, Mahmood al-Braikan

Exculpation, Khalil Mutran

Revolt Against the Sun, Nazik al-Mala’ika

Myths, Nazik al-Mala’ika

Who am I?, Nazik al-Mala’ika

A Stranger at the Gulf, Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

An Alphabetical Formation, Faraj Bayraqdar

A couple of fragments from Sanieh Salh

Sorrows of the Black City, Muhammad al-Fayturi

Shadows, Wadih Sa’adah

The Strange Grief, al-Shabbi

A Storm in the Dark, al-Shabbi

A Body, Al-Saddiq al-Raddi

Annihilation, Muhammad Afifi Matar

Fragments from ‘Quartet of Joy’, Muhammad Affifi Matar

Mural, Mahmoud Darwish

We Will Choose Sophocles, Mahmoud Darwish 

Clouds, Ounsi el-Hajj

Smoke Bloom, Nadia Anjuman

Boat to Lesbos, Nourri al-Jarrah

Your body is my map, Nizar Qabbani

BOOP ISN'T PERMANENT???!?!?????😭😭😭😭

babygirl i can be the one note on all your original posts

I really don't understand how this is "hinduphobia", I have not demeaned anyone. I've grown up in a "brahmin" Hindu household. In addition, never did I once compare and came to the conclusion that one is worse than the other.

Yes, muslim rulers have destroyed temples, and this is a well-documented aspect of medieval Indian history though temple destruction was not unique to any one religion or dynasty; it was often a political tool used by rulers across faiths to assert dominance, punish rivals, or consolidate power.

Hindu rulers were no strangers to the art of destruction when it served their purposes. The Cholas, those celebrated patrons of grandeur, happily razed Chalukyan temples and Buddhist viharas in Sri Lanka when dominance was on the menu. King Harsha of Kashmir, ever the pragmatist, treated temples as personal banks, stripping them bare to fund his ambitions—because why let piety stand in the way of power? The Marathas, often painted as paragons of Hindu virtue, didn’t hesitate to target rival temples in Karnataka, proving that even the devout have a flair for hypocrisy. And the Vijayanagara Empire, while busy building architectural marvels, found time to demolish mosques during their wars with the Bahmani Sultanate.

Not another post whining about why “mUgHaLs WeRe nOt cOlOnizErs” like girl, they were literally foreign invaders who forced you to speak their language, broke your temples, tried eradicating your culture and collected zizya taxes motivated by religious bigotry in hopes of forcing your people to convert! At least have some shame and consideration for your ancestors.

movie so good i might as well start crying