Reference to Persian “wind tower” in 11th-c. Arab Sicily:

“On a cold man”⛄️

I saw him on a searing summer day,
his face greeted me with ice.
I said, “I don’t have a wind tower (bād-hanj)
but this guy’s face can be mine.”

—Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṭūbī (d. after 1060)

short thread🧵 https://t.co/EPpTOHrRvP

The wind catcher or wind tower is a traditional method to capture breezes to ventilate and cool houses> https://t.co/D8qg8ysaHf

It was used across N. Africa, and this early reference to both the Persian word and the architectural technique by a Sicilian poet is a nice reminder not to compartmentalize premodern people according to our geographical or national boundaries>

It's usually called bād-gīr, but I found bād-hanj in Steingass's dictionary, I assume it's proper Persian.

Images from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcatcher

Poem: Kharīdat al-qaṣr, qism shuʿarāʾ al-Maghrib, 1:64

Here's a later manuscript of the poem (BnF arabe 3330 26r)> https://t.co/d2L3IBDI07

I've been tweeting about al-Ṭūbī. He also has several poems on full beards> https://twitter.com/ClassyArabic/status/1537488676426436609?s=20&t=Iun4IWWWs-A02lEycm7Pdg

and another one about dealing with jerks (end of 🧵):
https://twitter.com/ClassyArabic/status/1535000073423175681?s=20&t=Iun4IWWWs-A02lEycm7Pdg

It's been pointed out to me that the design of (some) bādgīrs is different from what you usually see in Arab areas. It's impossible to tell from the poem which is intended, and I also wonder if bādhanj doesn't refer to a different design than bādgīr.

https://twitter.com/mafi_thani/status/1538812543858253825?t=njG1HTvqINS4ZAaEAlwaSA&s=19