“I set out alone, having neither fellow-traveller in whose companionship I might find cheer, nor caravan whose party I might join, but swayed by an overmastering impulse within me and a desire long-cherished in my bosom to visit these illustrious sanctuaries. So I braced my resolution to quit all my dear ones, female and male, and forsook my home as birds forsake their nests.”
-Ibn Battuta (1304-1369)
This blog began in 2017 as a simple project for a graduate course. It continued for the duration of the course, until later the writing became more scarce. From 2021, it withered to nothing, but when I took my first trip to India in 2024 after moving to Venice a year before, it felt appropriate to revive it.
This is the personal blog of Amber Elisabeth Peters, and so please do not hold on to the idea of it always sticking to the same thing. My main interests are in history, literature, and art, which I am enriching through travel. If you are interested in some reflections on our world here and now (particularly around South Asia), stay tuned and travel with me whether the journey is a physical one or simply a metaphor. I only hope that as I “forsake my nest” by leaving the country I grow up in, I will not have to quit all my dear ones as they can travel around, virtually with me.
About the author
I am a PhD student in a joint program between Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and Heidelberg University. She is particularly interested in the Deccan Sultanates and has been doing academic work at the intersection of art, history, literature, and religious studies.
Other Writings:
Master’s Thesis at the University of Alberta “The Tale of the Buraq’s Tail: Reading the Buraq’s Journey Through Indo-Persian Literature in a Comparative Study of Buraq Imagery”
Book Review Essay “From the Golden Age to the Kali Age: The evolution of the Qissa/Romance genre in South Asia”
as birds forsake their nests 