A young man in a vivid green thobe and yellow turban lays on his stomach, absorbed in a book. In Young Emir Studying by Osman Hamdi Bey, the subject's right hand props his chin, while the fingers of his left hand trace the lines from right to left – a remnant of the old Ottoman Turkish script written in Arabic letters.
I often think about this niche that the young man, an emir no less, has carved for himself. From his title – Arabic for “prince” – we can assume he had access to every distraction and luxury, yet chose to spend his time reading and learning. Had this emir lived in 2025, would he still hold a book? Or a phone? Would he study a sacred or historical text, or scroll endlessly through social media?
Digital access isn’t all-bad; the internet can also be a vessel for learning. My thoughts drift to the young women of Afghanistan, once again barred from education, whose only refuge was online learning – until their internet was cut off for
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