Muslim Dark Academia Things:

Academia but you're in Cairo

staying up late looking up ancient jewllery, its symbolism and the stuff it was made from and the methods they used because that was some intricatte stuff you know

having an unhealthy addiction to tea. milk tea in the morning before stting off. plain tea in the afternoon when youre back. tea with mint in the chilly hours before sunset. tea with lemon when youre sick, with honey when youre sad...

listening to asmahan and laila mourad because their voices make flowers grow in your heart. you see abd el wahab or sayed darwish's names and you know youre about to heaar the most heavenly sounds you ever have.

constant debates about history (esp modern history! which is, regarless, my favourite to study!)

thrifting books from soor al azbakeyah and soor al sayeda zeinab and coming across literal gems that were sold for cheaper than dust

your uni is probably a historical site

just kidding your entire city probably is

long walks in old cairo's warm dusty mornings

constantnly stopping short to take in the glorious architecture you see before you. buildings brimming with equal parts menace and cordial affection that are simultaneously overwhelming and welcoming

does their age take your breath or does their sheer size? does their beauty make your heart flutter or is it the deep, undeniable knowledge that theres never going to be something quite like it ever again?

youre never really out of museums to visit. theres always going to be annother you just havent spotted yet

Did i tell what "cairo" means? It is derived from the arabic word "Al Qahira" meaning, She Who is Victorious. She Who Devastates. She Who is a Conqueress. She Who Is Meciless. a drop in the rich seaof her triumphant history

Visiting the ancient temples in upper egypt, the beauty of whom is so eternally breathtaking it makes you forget the tremendous amount of stairs you had to climb to get there.

Calling north Bahari (meaning "of the sea") even tho that could also be east. But you do it anyway.

The poeple going to and fro being endearing; shout/waving greatings to one another, so full of sincerity and hope in the early morning dew. It feels less lonely somehow

Romanticising everything about life as a form of conscious escapism, like all the poets and playwrights whose blood runs i your veins

there are translated works, and then there are arabic-ized wrorks of literature. its not hard to see that you prefer the latter.

also who came up with titles like "god of sword and quill" and "prince of poets"? we need to have a conversation. i love you and so does everyone else with a basic sense of art

visiting the old palaces and castles and always coming across abandoned ones. you wonder who would dare abpndon something so beautiful. you feel an immense sadness and and a crippling blow of yearning that do nothing to remove the dust coating everything or bring the music back to the pianoforte.

going to bazaars even if you knoe youre not going to buy anything. youre here for the copper, thr bass, the spices and occasional gleap of wine red jewllery. oh and the cat you befriended right outside the coffee shop!

buying jewllery and pottery from khan el khalili or el mo'ez streerts becaue everything is just so pretty and we shop local

going to century+ old cafes and sitting at a table that might have been naguib mahfouz's who knows

analizing the "foreign" words in your dialect and feeling an otherworldluy ense of knowing when you recognize wherethe come from! plage is french! shanta is turkish! em bu comes from coptic eb mu meaning water! nunu is ancient egyptian for fragile! and so much more!

i used to be such a skeptic whenever i came across any mental health advice asking you to “move your body” or “drink more water” or “eat nutritious food and get sunlight” because how can you narrow down my psyche to these physical constraints?

to me, these seemed like empty words ringing across a hallowed hall devoid of any warmth or feeling. only once i started implementing these have i realised what a power the state of your body and biological functions hold over you. i don’t feel that heavy burden of feelings dragging behind me like a phantom, choking me and consuming me and binding me in an inescapable vortex inside my head. physical liberation from that dictator of malaise and despondency has turned me into a changed woman.

i no longer recognise myself and i couldn’t be happier about it. i should learn to forgive those past versions of myself, i really know i should but perhaps i shall need more time. i don’t think it is in my nature to be forgiving yet. does god not require penance in order to unshackle you from the manacles of your sins? perhaps more atonement from my end is required to appease my grieved subconscious. or maybe im just meant to linger in the shades of what could’ve been. either way, i think im liking who im becoming.

Bro why they say "archivist" like a slur

dawn : the first appearance of light in the sky before sunrise

~ being awake before everyone else

~ having the whole world just for yourself

~ soft rays of light filtering through the windows

~ hopeful, serene, content

~ alone, but not lonely

(my personal favorite <3)

Quick time lapse of me studying the femoral triangle ^

When Hozier said

No grave can hold my body down I'll crawl home to her

and Mahmoud Darwish said

speak of her over my grave and watch how she brings me back to life

everyone gangster until you pull on your not so platonic friend's armor

so apparently it’s cool to wear your boyfriend’s clothes now?

but when i, patroclus-

"The most scary part of TMA is the blanket episode- The most scary part of TMA is Jane Prentiss - The most scary part of TMA is the Not! Them creatures -"

Wrong! The most scary part of TMA when you're watching for the first time and realize far too deep in that you really should be have been trying to remember peoples names.

aesthetic for @mathemaphia

the glide of a fountain pen across paper

wanting to understand the world and your place in it

an organized desk, everything in its place

finding satisfaction in the precision of mathematics

a freshly steeped cup of tea with fragrant steam

your favorite tea mug set out on your desk

splotches of ink on your hands, worn like badges of honor

always hungry for knowledge, eager to know more about everything

books that make you contemplate your own existence

novels by kafka by your bed

using math as a lens through which to decipher the world and its rules

gazing out the window on long car rides

language textbooks - french, german, korean - stacked by your desk

finding order and patterns in the world 

a contemplative soul, mulling over big philosophical ideas

pages filled with long strings of calculations

muttering verb conjugations as you work on memorization

wanting everyone to see beauty in math the way you do, even though it’s considered a frightening subject

researching your favorite authors

studying language, shaping your mouth around unfamiliar words