Originally from Belt Magazine: April 24, 2023 By Edward Curtis IV Around 1899, my great, great-grandfather, a man named Hanna Samaha, left his beautifully green three-thousand-foot-high village located in contemporary Lebanon where, on a clear day, you could see the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean. He landed at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in the town of Cairo [pronounced “Care-oh”], Illinois. He … Continue reading Moses of Cairo (Illinois)
I was thrilled when Rashika Jaipuriar’s beautifully-written article on the Arab Indianapolis History Project, its origins, and its impact on IUPUI student Sierra Martin’s family made the front page of the Indianapolis Star on July 23, 2022. The article was also published online here. Continue reading Arab Indianapolis Gets the Front Page
The American Midwest is often thought of as uniformly white, and shaped exclusively by Christian values. However, this view of the region as an unvarying landscape fails to consider a significant community at its very heart. Muslims of the Heartland uncovers the long history of Muslims in a part of the country where many readers would not expect to find them. Edward E. Curtis IV, … Continue reading Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest
Edward E. Curtis IV 