Six years ago, Fox News (and imitators) ran a most ill-founded story in a genre that we may term Allah-sightings.
The underbelly of a plane was streaked, thus:
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| Mene, mene, tekel upharsin |
Omigosh!
Arabic writing! Terrorists
on the tarmac! How did they get
access to the airplane!! At whom
shall we point the finger of blame!!!
BLUF: Bogus. The streaks on the airplane are not writing of any sort, let alone a terrorist message in Arabic. (Our post
on the matter, and on the underlying problem of the semiotic ambiguity of abstract images, can be viewed here.)
Later, someone imagined that, by tilting your head
a certain way, a decorative swipe on a certain brand of sneakers looked rather
like … you guessed it,
“Allah”. Only this time, it
hadn’t been placed there by jihadis;
rather, by Islamophobes, since shoes
are well-known to be held in low esteem in circum-Mediterranean Islamic
lands. Hullabaloo on social
media. Fortunately that story died
before it could become a staple of the jihadi media, else we might have faced further
killings such as those that followed the Danish-cartoons scandal.
Here you can read about that episode:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/nike-to-trash-trainers-that-offended-islam-1257776.html
Here you can read about that episode:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/nike-to-trash-trainers-that-offended-islam-1257776.html
Again: Bogus. Judge for yourself:
And now we are being told, by such gullible
outlets as the BBC and the New York Times, that (in the words of the
headline in National Geographic),
Viking Funeral Clothes Reveal
Surprising Arabic Lettering
Namely, once again, that ubiquitous "Allah". Along with (as a bonus) "Ali", another simple graph that is little more than an extended swoop.
The proper response to such a claim (by a Swedish “textile archaeologist”, not a linguist) is to present the evidence, and weigh it. But that would be merely one step in the arduous progress of empirical science. Instead, to pump up their headlines, the media assume the truth of that unproven assertion, reporting the claims in factive mood, as “Why Are These Viking Burial Clothes Inscribed with Arabic Script? “(History) and “Why did Vikings have 'Allah' embroidered into funeral clothes?” (BBC). At the same level: Has Eric the Red stopped beating his wife?
The proper response to such a claim (by a Swedish “textile archaeologist”, not a linguist) is to present the evidence, and weigh it. But that would be merely one step in the arduous progress of empirical science. Instead, to pump up their headlines, the media assume the truth of that unproven assertion, reporting the claims in factive mood, as “Why Are These Viking Burial Clothes Inscribed with Arabic Script? “(History) and “Why did Vikings have 'Allah' embroidered into funeral clothes?” (BBC). At the same level: Has Eric the Red stopped beating his wife?
What is really going on this that the clothing is
decorated with an abstract geometrical blocky design, part of which reminded
the textile specialist of something she’d seen somewhere in Arabic script -- specifically, the early variety known as Kufic script -- or rather, a
decorative blocky variant of Kufic.
Now, it is unquestionably the case that Arabic
scripts have been used for calligraphy, typically depicting brief Koranic
quotations. Great ingenuity
was devoted to some of these, so that the results in some cases
resembled those Hispanic-American “tags” which only the initiated could
make any sense of, or the similarly cryptic Hippie-era posters for San
Francisco rock concerts.
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|
Poster for
a SF Shiite mosque
known as the “Fillmore West”. Notice the “Allah” hidden in the picture. |
The fabric pattern in question, however, is
extremely simple, and likely merely generic. Thus:
For an example of genuine
Kufic-block-script-(influenced) design, cf. this:
And sure, if you select a bit here and a bit
there, there is a sort of resemblance -- as there could hardly fail to be in
sketches so schematic. Actually,
even at that, the match is not close, so that the Swedes conceded
that, to read the thing as “Allah”, you had to read it in a mirror. Which would seem to be a sort of Black-Mass version of
the holy name, like Satanists chanting the Credo backwards. Hardly evidence of Islamic influence.
(For many examples of subjectively-similar or suggestive designs, simply google-image "fret motifs". You will find to your surprise that Islamic influence extended even to the Aztecs and the ancient Greeks!)
[Note btw, that that serious-looking graphic with the mirror and all, is by no means a photo of any part of the actual tattered garments. Rather, it is an idealization of a piece of the garment, which then in turn is given subjective interpretation. Thus, there are actually two layers of "Rorschach" here.]
(For many examples of subjectively-similar or suggestive designs, simply google-image "fret motifs". You will find to your surprise that Islamic influence extended even to the Aztecs and the ancient Greeks!)
[Note btw, that that serious-looking graphic with the mirror and all, is by no means a photo of any part of the actual tattered garments. Rather, it is an idealization of a piece of the garment, which then in turn is given subjective interpretation. Thus, there are actually two layers of "Rorschach" here.]
Medieval Islamic abstract decorative designs,
whether linguistic-influenced or not, are quite lovely, and have been
influential in many sister cultures. As to whether these Viking funeral garments were
directly or indirectly influenced by these, I can have no opinion, not being an
art historian.
But as a student of linguistic sociology, I detect a few clues as to why, despite but a slender stalk of empirical support, this story has legs. By the same NY Times reporter (though in this case, she is rather more guarded, having run her rough-draft past some skeptics) came this recent article:
Certainly it is within the bounds of historical
possibility that there was contact, since the Vikings were great seafarers, and
the Arabs great wayfarers; they
intersected, in particular, during the time of the Moors in Spain. (Raid on Seville, 844 A.D.)
But as a student of linguistic sociology, I detect a few clues as to why, despite but a slender stalk of empirical support, this story has legs. By the same NY Times reporter (though in this case, she is rather more guarded, having run her rough-draft past some skeptics) came this recent article:
[Note: In the PC Guardian's article,
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/13/viking-burial-clothes-woven-with-allah-unveiled-by-swedish-university
in a picture purporting to show a "re-enactment" of Viking combat, the only warrior with face visible is ... a woman.]
And, even more telling, this spin
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/13/viking-burial-clothes-woven-with-allah-unveiled-by-swedish-university
in a picture purporting to show a "re-enactment" of Viking combat, the only warrior with face visible is ... a woman.]
And, even more telling, this spin
(Someone bring Steve Bannon his smelling-salts.)
The pattern of journalistic dots, though as
sketchy as those on the Viking garments, at least suggests why so empirically
underbuttressed a claim would be
embraced for a comforting narrative.
[Sociopolitical footnote: It is perhaps no accident that this fond fantasy was emitted out of Sweden. As is well known, that nation has, in recent years, been wondering whether it has perhaps bitten off rather more than it can chew, so far as imported demographics. However, it has long been politically impermissible in Sweden to remark publically on the elephant in the room. So the sparring goes on in code and behind cover.]
Who knew that Vikings were so controversial? For a quite aggrieved-sounding feminist article from that same drearily reliable Guardian, try this:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/sep/15/how-the-female-viking-warrior-was-written-out-of-history
That article's headline is conclusively proven by a passage in the Protocols of the Elders of Patriarchy, where historians of old were caught bwa-ha-ha'ing as they inked out all such records.
After signing his name in a lower corner, he would usually append a small Arabic (Arabic!) numeral, showing the number of times the name was hidden in that particular drawing. Here, for example, in a (rather cruel) portrait of Katherine Hepburn, we are challenged to find three occurrences:
[Footnote for the Arabic-literate] Even with that mirror-image sleight of
hand, there isn’t really a match.
The Viking design shows three horizontal strokes, all of them connected; whereas in Arabic, the initial alif is non-connecting. And the blob that struck the Swedes as
resembling the final hā’ of Allāh would be upside-down. So, if the design had been intended to spell Allah, it was a (double) misspelling, and thus blasphemous.
Seeing Allāh
in that clothing is like spotting
Orion in a skyful of stars.
And from there to such gormless headlines as “Were some Vikings Muslim?”
(National Post), and even speculations as to whether they were indeed Shiites (based upon another supposed sighting of the simple design for "Ali"), is like concluding that the skies proclaim the truth of the Olympic religion.
For a wide-ranging
survey of Arabic language and stylistics, check out this:
[Footnote 19 October 2017] A day or so after this post went up,
another Arabist went up on Twitter to scoff at the Swedish claims, making some
of the same points (e.g. about non-connecting alif), but adding a new one based
on timelines. For, whereas Kufic
script is ancient, the subvariety of ‘square’ or blocky Kufic, supposedly
postdates the Vikings’ floruit by
centuries.
A nice idea, but there’s a hitch. For, the design was constrained by medium in which it was worked (whether
made by Vikings, or merely captured by them), a thin strip of stiff
fabric: the weave imposes its own
rectilinear preferences.
Just as Babylonian clay tablets virtually dictated the geometry of
cuneiform, so this hem would itself bring forth or invent `square Kufic’, pour les besoins de la cause, independent
of any prior existence of the style
or imitation thereof.
[Sociopolitical footnote: It is perhaps no accident that this fond fantasy was emitted out of Sweden. As is well known, that nation has, in recent years, been wondering whether it has perhaps bitten off rather more than it can chew, so far as imported demographics. However, it has long been politically impermissible in Sweden to remark publically on the elephant in the room. So the sparring goes on in code and behind cover.]
Who knew that Vikings were so controversial? For a quite aggrieved-sounding feminist article from that same drearily reliable Guardian, try this:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/sep/15/how-the-female-viking-warrior-was-written-out-of-history
That article's headline is conclusively proven by a passage in the Protocols of the Elders of Patriarchy, where historians of old were caught bwa-ha-ha'ing as they inked out all such records.
~
Appendix on
Steganography
A genuine case of a name hidden in designs, is
that of the stellar cartoonist Al Hirschfeld, who used to work-in the name of
his daughter NINA (all-caps), in drawing after drawing. Here is one with the hidden items
highlighted:
Notice that, as was the case with the Arabic
spelling of Allah and `Ali, the ease with which the name Nina can be secreted away as part of a
larger design, is dependent on its simple form; if his daughter’s name had been Murgatroyd, Hirschfeld would have been out of luck.
After signing his name in a lower corner, he would usually append a small Arabic (Arabic!) numeral, showing the number of times the name was hidden in that particular drawing. Here, for example, in a (rather cruel) portrait of Katherine Hepburn, we are challenged to find three occurrences:
And in this tour de force, the name “NINA” appears
no fewer than thirteen thousand times.:
Can you spot them all? Set aside the rest of your life, full-time, to accomplish
this necessary task.
~
An earlier instance of steganographic eisegesis:
Ancillary
to the great Hollywood witch-hunt, a satellite inquisition in 1951 was mounted against ‘subversive modern
art’ at the (old) County Museum in Exposition Park.
A
group called Sanity in art swore
they detected maps of secret defense fortifications sequestered in abstract paintings, and one painter … was
accused … of incorporating propaganda in the form of a thinly disguised
hammer-and-sickle within a seascape.
-- Mike Davis, City of Quartz
(1990), p. 63
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| NORAD installation, Cheyenne Mountain (artist’s impression) |
[Update] XXX-clusive!
[Update 25 II 2018] The latest example of seeing something that isn't there, and getting the world spun-up:
http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article201604224.html
http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article201604224.html
