Category: Uncategorized
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Lessons From A Map of 12th Century Eurasia
The following map was doing the rounds on Twitter a couple of months ago. Its detail and accuracy are pretty stunning. See source here. What is particularly interesting is that, despite the changes that have taken place in the world since the 12th century, especially the colonization of the Americas, most of the world’s most […]
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Learning Arabic, Persian, and Urdu
I’m writing this to share my impressions on learning Arabic, Persian, and Urdu; I’ve studied all three languages in some capacity. Comparing the learning process of all three languages is a question that often pops up on language learning websites and forums. Interestingly, the three languages are not closely related to each other, and the […]
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Clapping with One Hand: The Persistence of the Sino-Indian Border Dispute (Excerpt)
Excerpt from “Clapping with One Hand: The Persistence of the Sino-Indian Border Dispute.” The following is a selection from Akhilesh Pillalamarri’s Thesis (2011) in the Elliott School of International Affairs’ Undergraduate Scholars Program, written under Dr. Mike Mochizuki. Abstract: Relations between China and India are often fraught with tension. One of the main reasons for […]
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Historicism, German Philosophy, and Human Nature
This essay is adapted from Akhilesh Pillalamarri’s undergraduate thesis of 2011. Introduction The philosophies of history of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) and Oswald Manuel Arnold Gottfried Spengler (1880-1936), two German philosophers, are important in the development of a new mode of historical thinking in Western intellectual history, known as historicism. However, this mode of thinking […]
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Human Nature, Historicism, and Modernity in Persian Islamic Thought
Adapted from an essay written by Akhilesh Pillalamarri in 2013. *Due to the nature of this topic and the wording of quotes, there are multiple references to “man,” and “mankind,” by which the author of this paper means “humans,” and “humankind” in an inclusive sense. Conceptions of human nature and the role of humankind upon […]
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My Series on Central Asian, Persian, and Middle Eastern History
My series on Central Asian and Persian History is presented below. Here, I present a list of my articles on Central Asian and Persian history, arranged roughly in a chronological manner. I will update this list periodically. What is Central Asia? Cyrus the Great Traitors in Ancient Persian History The Silk Road Turkic Migrations History of Xinjiang Development […]
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The Middle World
Perhaps the most fascinating and important area of the world is what we’ll dub the “Middle World” (to borrow a term from Tamim Ansary). This is not really a coherent region, but encompasses the parts of Eurasia (and Africa) between Europe and East Asia. I include in it the following regions: the Middle East and […]
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Thick and Clear Religions
One of the most interesting ways to look at and classify religions and philosophical systems (I’m lumping them together because the distinction between the two, a way of life or dharma/din/tao|धर्म/دين/道 doesn’t necessarily exist in the traditional sense in many cultures) is the idea of “thick” and “clear” religions. The distinction between the two was […]
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History’s Most Exciting Period
What is my favorite period of history? While I love both the ancient-classical and medieval worlds (to use an oversimplification of time not equally application to every region), the early-middle modern period has always been a time I have been especially fond of. While there are many different definitions of this period, let us accept […]
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The Struggle for Empire and the Forces of Regionalism in South Asia
Presented here is my Master’s thesis, “The Struggle for Empire and the Forces of Regionalism in South Asia: A Historical Study of International Relations and the Development of State Institutions.” It was written at Georgetown University and finalized in May 2014. I would like to make it available here so that my research can be read and […]
Akhi Pillalamarri 