Dear Readers,
We wish to inform all our readers that we will be consolidating our Spirit and Life Blog into our Ismaili Mail Blog as we are trying to bring all related contents into one place. We would like to make it easier for our readers to access all of the published content at one location.
The change will occur in few days. Afterward, you will not be receiving any notification e-mails through Feedburner or any other subscription services.
Regards
“The complexities of world problems and societies today require people educated in broad humanistic traditions in addition to the guidance and direction provided by the teaching of their religion. The history of the twentieth century is replete with examples of the danger of the systematic propagation and uncritical acceptance of dogmas, ideologies, and even theologies. More than ever, I believe that universities must shoulder the responsibility for contributing to the process of building the capacity for moral judgement in complex settings.”
Extract from the speech by His Highness the Aga Khan
at the Centenary Celebration meeting of the
Association of American Universities,
Washington, D.C., April 22, 2001
“To the Imamat, the meaning of ‘quality of life’ extends to the entire ethical and social context in which people live, and not only to their material well-being measured over generation after generation. Consequently, the Imamat’s is a holistic vision of development, as is prescribed by the faith of Islam. It is about investing in people, in their pluralism, in their intellectual pursuit, and search for new and useful knowledge, just as much as in material resources. But it is also about investing with a social conscience inspired by the ethics of Islam.”
Extract from Speech by His Highness the Aga Khan at the opening of Alltex EPZ Limited at Athi River, Kenya, December 19, 2003
Complete article at New York Times.
Some more relevant and informational links below
Timbuktu Hopes Ancient Texts Spark a Revival
The geography that has doomed Timbuktu to obscurity in the popular imagination for half a millennium was once the reason for its greatness. It was founded as a trading post by nomads in the 11th century and later became part of the vast Mali Empire, then ultimately came under the control of the Songhai Empire.
For centuries it flourished because it sat between the great superhighways of the era — the Sahara, with its caravan routes carrying salt, cloth, spices and other riches from the north, and the Niger River, which carried gold and slaves from the rest of West Africa.
Traders brought books and manuscripts from across the Mediterranean and Middle East, and books were bought and sold in Timbuktu — in Arabic and local languages like Songhai and Tamashek, the language of the Tuareg people.
Timbuktu was home to the University of Sankore, which at its height had 25,000 scholars. An army of scribes, gifted in calligraphy, earned their living copying the manuscripts brought by travelers. Prominent families added those copies to their own libraries. As a result, Timbuktu became a repository of an extensive and eclectic collection of manuscripts.
“Astronomy, botany, pharmacology, geometry, geography, chemistry, biology,” said Ali Imam Ben Essayouti, the descendant of a family of imams that keeps a vast library in one of the city’s mosques. “There is Islamic law, family law, women’s rights, human rights, laws regarding livestock, children’s rights. All subjects under the sun, they are represented here.”
WEBSITE / INFORMATION /Articles/ VIDEOS / MEDIA / Other Resources
The term masjid literally means a place of prostration. The masjid was the formal space established for the collective performance of prayer and ritual, and for meeting the social needs of the ummah (community).
Most historians agree that in the early days of Islam (i.e. in early 7th century Mecca) the original Muslim community had no specific or special place of prayer and the arrangements for communal worship were informal. It is only after the hijra (migration) to Medina, that a specific space emerged and evolved, where Muslims could collectively perform ritual prayers together as well as manage the affairs of the state. Subsequently, wherever the Muslim community became permanently established in large numbers, the mosque became a focal point for their religious and social life.
In these new Muslim lands, there were attempts initially to reproduce, in both design and function, the first masjid of Medina. However, as the Muslim empire spread across geography, it came in contact with different cultures and traditions. In addition, internal factors, such as the increasing availability of wealth and patronage, influx of new converts, the diversity in notions of piety, and the corresponding needs of the communities of users, collectively contributed to a rapid change and evolution in mosque design and usage.
The work of revitalizing the mosques is gradually being extended to their surrounding neighbourhoods to include all residential accommodation situated in the shadow of the minarets. How wonderfully symbolic it is that the outcome of efforts to restore the mosques should be to improve the quality of life of the people whose lives follow the same rhythm as theirs!
The restoration of the Great Mosque of Mopti is the fruit of close collaboration between the Ministry of Culture and the National Cultural Heritage Department (DNPC), the regional and local authorities, the Mosque Committee and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and of the dedication of numerous professionals and craftspeople from architects and conservation experts to stone masons, brick-makers, plasterers, metal workers, potters and electricians.
This project has made it possible to combine modern heritage conservation techniques with the processes and materials traditionally employed in the construction of earth buildings. The participation in the project of the few stone masons who still practise banco pourri has meant that more than 30 young people have been trained in this traditional technique, thus ensuring that is handed down to the next generation.
This is especially relevant in Mali where there is a danger that traditional artisans will gradually disappear, taking with them the skills and knowledge accumulated by previous generations of builders. Hence, restoring this important monument has provided the opportunity to perpetuate a tradition and also to ensure the future conservation of built heritage with appropriate techniques, competently applied.
The Fatimid period was in a sense the ‘golden age’ of Ismaılism, when the Ismaılı imam ruled over a vast empire and Ismaılı thought and literature attained their apogee. It was during the Fatimid period that the Ismaılı da’ıs, who were at the same time the scholars and authors of their community, produced what were to become the classic texts of Ismaılı literature dealing with a multitude of exoteric and esoteric subjects. Ismaılı law,which had not existed during the pre-Fatimid secret phase of Ismaılısm,was also codified during the early Fatimid period. It was indeed during the Fatimid period that Ismaılıs made their important contributions to Islamic theology and philosophy in general and to Shı’ı thought in particular.
Modern recovery of their literature clearly attests to the richness and diversity of the literary and intellectual traditions of the Ismaılıs of the Fatimid times.
Farhad Daftary – The Ismailis – Their History and Doctrines
