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Why family ties in Kūfa mattered for early Islamic politics
Read more: Why family ties in Kūfa mattered for early Islamic politicsAliya A Ali explores how kinship and marriage alliances shaped political power and governance in the early Islamic city of Kūfa.

Flawed Crystals: Muriel Spark’s Ways of Seeing
‘How do you do it? I am dazzled’, enthused Evelyn Waugh in a letter to Muriel Spark in 1960. Spark’s latest novel, The Bachelors, was hot off the press, and this, Waugh told her, was ‘the cleverest and most elegant…