Read on Twitter
The Qurʾan calls Pharaoh ‘Ḏū l-Awtād’ (‘possessor of stakes’; e.g., see Q. Fajr 89:10)—no one really knows the significance of it …
I'm among those who think it refers not to executions, or pyramids, but to ‘obelisks’ which could be seen by travelers to Egypt ...
… like the ruins of Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ they marked the ephemeral nature of power in Qurʾan left only as ruins ...
... but it’s often forgotten how obelisks were a Roman obsession, too, plundering them from Egypt and erecting their own (more than Egypt) …
... proliferation of ‘Cleopatra’s Needles’ in Europe in the colonial period is rooted in how Europeans (+Americans) imagined the Roman past.
With the odd result that one of Pharoah's awtad made it to Central Park in NYC of all places http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2013/cleopatras-needle
nb: the modern word for obelisk in Arabic is مسلة (misallah), which basically means 'large needle'.
