Spirit & Life

From ArchNet.org

The Middle East Garden Tradition

The Gardens of the Mughal Empire

Two new web sites focusing on gardens of the Middle East are now online. The Middle East Garden Tradition includes an ongoing catalog of Ottoman, Al-Andalus, Mughal, Syrian, and Persian gardens, as well as a catalog of plants of Al-Andalus, a glossary, a historical dictionary of Ottoman Turkish terms for gardens and gardening, and a bibliography. The Gardens of the Mughal Empire is an interactive web site that provides information about 11 gardens and sites, which center on Lahore in modern Pakistan.

Derived from the Persian khwajah, a term of honour, the word Khoja referred to those converted to Nizari Ismaili Islam in the Indian sub-continent from about the thirteenth century onward. More particularly, it included certain groups, predominantly from Gujarat and Kutch, who retained strong Indian ethnic roots and caste customs while sustaining their Muslim religious identity under continual threats of persecution. In the nineteen century, the Ismaili imamat (office of the imam) became established in India and a programme of consolidation and reorganisation of the community and its institutions began. These changes led to differences of opinion among Khojas. While the majority of Khojas remained Ismaili, one group became Ithna‘ ashari and a smaller group adopted Sunnism.

In the context of the overall policy of the Ismaili imam of the time, Aga Khan III, of consolidating the Shi‘a Ismaili identity of his followers, the ethnic connotation of being “Khoja” became diluted over time and a wider sense of self-identification as Ismaili Muslims began to emerge. With the increasing recognition of the diversity of the worldwide Ismaili community itself and the positive value of the pluralist heritage represented within each of the traditions, the Khojas now regard themselves as an integral part of the larger Nizari Ismaili community, to whose development they make a strong contribution.

The Khoja Ithna‘ asharis, while seeking to develop relationship with the larger Twelver Shi‘a community, retain their own organisational framework.

The Khojas live today in East Africa, the Indian sub-continent, Europe and North America, and show a strong commitment to values of Muslim philanthropy in their entrepreneurship and contribution to societies in which they live.

Source: Institute of Ismaili Studies

Source

Timeline

Over a thousand years ago, Europe experienced one of its greatest periods of cultural enlightenment.

For more than three centuries in Medieval Spain, Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together and prospered in a thriving multicultural civilization. Here, remarkable individuals of different faiths made lasting contributions in such areas as poetry, art, architecture, music, dining etiquette, science, agriculture, medicine, engineering, navigation, textiles, and even hydraulic technology.

Their rich, complex culture reached a high point in the Mediterranean Middle Ages. However, larger forces in conquest of land and power brought about puritanical judgments, absolutism and religious extremism. The conflict they triggered extinguished the shared learning that once flourished in this enlightened land.

http://www.islamicspain.tv/Islamic-Spain/index.html

The word Ginan is derived from Sanskrit.

Derived from the Sanskrit word jnana meaning contemplative knowledge, Ginans are a large corpus of hymns and poems composed in a variety of Indic languages (including Gujarati, Sindhi, Punjabi, and Multani) and attributed to a series of dais (preachers) who taught the Ismaili interpretation of Islam in the Indian Subcontinent beginning in the twelfth century.

Scholars agree that Ginans were originally transmitted orally although it is not known whether the recording existed simultaneously – the earliest copy identified so far dates to 1736. The Nizari Ismailis of the Indian Subcontinent recorded the Ginans in Khojki script to preserve and protect their literature. The Khojki script used by the Nizari Ismailis was probably an adaptation of existing scripts, and not a new creation. Historical evidence suggests that about thirty dais composed Ginans over six centuries; the existing collection comprises about 800 Ginans of varying lengths. It is believed that Imam Ali Shah (d.1885) had assigned the task of collecting and compiling the manuscripts to some of the members of the Jamat in order to preserve the manuscripts. The Institute of Ismaili Studies has a collection of 200 volumes of manuscripts in Gujarati and Khojki. These can be viewed at

http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=108822

Religious Traditions and Early Ismaili History in South Asia: Some Historical Perspectives on Satpanthi Literature and the Ginans
Dr Samira Sheikh

Complete at the source

In recent years, there has been significant research on the literature of the Ismailis in South Asia. In addition, there has been some investigation of the parallels between Ismaili literature and practices with those of certain other groups, particularly in Western India.  Although this research has produced results with important consequences, it is still on the margins of the history of South Asian religions and literature. This might be an appropriate occasion to evaluate the implications of this research from a historical point of view and list some of the issues that might be clarified by more research.

How are the Ginans to be placed in the broader history of religious literature in South Asia? Although the earliest manuscripts of the Ginans date from the 18th century, they obviously refer to events and traditions of an earlier date.  What then can these compositions tell us about religious conditions of the medieval period? How are the Ginans and Satpanthi compositions studied at present and can alternative approaches be suggested? Although these questions cannot be answered authoritatively at present, an attempt will be made to set the context for further research.

Complete at the source

Yunus, Abu al-Hasan ibn (950-1009)

Mathematician and astronomer, born in Egypt. His father was a historian, biographer and scholar of hadith, who wrote two volumes about the history of Egypt. In Cairo, he worked as an astronomer for the Fatimid dynasty for 26 years, first for the Caliph al-Aziz and then for al-Hakim. He dedicated his most famous astronomical work, al-Zij al-Hakimi al-kabir, to the latter. This handbook of astronomical tables contained very accurate observations, many of which may have been obtained with very large astronomical instruments. Yunus was also an astrologer, predicting the date of his own death in seven days. The Ibn Yunus crater on the Moon is named after him.

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Al-Mu’ayyad fi’l-Din al-Shirazi was an outstanding Ismaili scholar.

Born in about the year 1000 in Fars, Iran, al-Mu’ayyad spent most of his life serving the Caliph- Imam al-Mustansir bi’llah as dai (missionary). Al-Mu’ayyad was first active as the regional leader in his homeland of Fars in southern Iran. Al-Mu’ayyad eventually moved to Cairo in 1046, where he was appointed as the director of the Fatimid court of justice. Al-Mu’ayyad was later sent to Syria as head of a delegation dispatched to build an alliance with the local leaders. When he returned to Cairo, al-Mu’ayyad was appointed chief dai of the Fatimid dawa. As head of the central institution, al-Mu’ayyad devoted his life to administering the affairs of the dawa, teaching missionaries, and composing theological works.

Among al-Mu’ayyad’s writings, his Sira is of particular historical significance. Written between 1051 and 1063, the Sira is an authentic source, written by an eye-witness and an active participant of the political events of the eleventh century.

Al-Mu’ayyad passed away in 1078 in Cairo.

– Verena Klemm Memoirs of a Mission (New York: I.B. Taurus & Co. Ltd., 2003)

Article by By Dr. Abbas Hamdani, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (U.S.A.)

Article by Mohamed Adra

Poetry has always been central to the spiritual life of Islam, particularly among the Sufis and other esoteric traditions of the faith. Through the ages, it has been composed in classical languages and local dialects to express love and devotion for God, and for Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Although a large body of the great poetry of Islam has been translated into English, the poetry of the Ismailis, except for a small portion, is still only accessible in the original languages.

Among the arts, the cultivation of poetry was especially encouraged by the Fatimid Caliph-Imams. As was customary with most ruling Muslim dynasties, the Fatimids maintained a staff of a few professional poets, ranked according to their skills, who performed important roles in the court rituals and public ceremonials.

The most famous of the court poets was Muhammad ibn Hani al-Andalusi, who entered the service of the Fatimids in 958, after fleeing from persecution in Muslim Spain. He was reputed as the foremost Arabic poet of the Maghrib (present-day Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) and his poetry was widely admired. He was the official court poet of Imam al-Mansur (alayhi-s-salam (a.s.)) and Imam al-Mu’izz (a.s.)

Reference:

Shimmering Light: An Anthology of Ismaili Poetry
By Faquir M. Hunzai (London, I.B. Taurus in association with the IIS, 1996)

www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=100721

By John Noble Wilford

May 20, 2008

From Timbuktu to here, to reverse the expression, the written words of the legendary African oasis are being delivered by electronic caravan. A lode of books and manuscripts, some only recently rescued from decay, is being digitized for the Internet and distributed to scholars worldwide.

These are works of law and history, science and medicine, poetry and theology, relics of Timbuktu’s golden age as a crossroads in Mali for trade in gold, salt and slaves along the southern edge of the Sahara. If the name is now a synonym for mysterious remoteness, the literature attests to Timbuktu’s earlier role as a vibrant intellectual center.

In recent years, thousands of these leather-bound books and fragile manuscripts have been recovered from family archives, private libraries and storerooms. The South African government is financing construction of a library in Timbuktu to house more than 30,000 of the books. Other gifts support renovations of family libraries and projects for preserving, translating and interpreting the documents.

Now, the first five of the rare manuscripts from private libraries have been digitized and made available online (www.aluka.org) to scholars and students. At least 300 are expected to be available online by the end of the year.

The project to collect the digital manuscripts is being organized by Aluka, an international nonprofit company devoted to bringing knowledge from and about Africa to the scholarly world.

<snip>

“The manuscripts of Timbuktu add great depth to our understanding of Africa’s diverse history and civilizations,” said Rahim S. Rajan, the collection development manager at Aluka.

Complete Story at New York Times

Overview of Aluka Initiative at the Institute of Ismaili Studies

This series of short videos was created for visitors to the Islamic Middle East gallery at the V&A. The videos show some of the great historical buildings of the Islamic period. This is the architectural setting for which many of the objects on display in the gallery were made.

The Islamic period began with the rapid rise of Islam in the 7th century AD. The religion’s founder, the Prophet Muhammad, was a political leader as well as a religious guide, and after his death in 632, his successors established a vast empire. By 750 it stretched from Spain and Morocco in the west to Central Asia and Afghanistan in the east. Two hundred years later this single Islamic empire had been replaced by a number of competing states. Despite their rivalries, the Muslim rulers of the time shared many ideas on culture and politics, as well as religion. This common Islamic heritage was maintained until the 1920s.

The videos show both secular and religious architecture from this long period. The first sequence, Three Palaces, shows surviving residences of Islamic rulers in Spain, Turkey and Iran. The subject of the second sequence, Mosques of the Middle East, is places of worship in Syria, Iran, Turkey and Egypt. The last of these short films, recorded in the mosque of Sultan Hasan in Cairo, shows worshippers gathering for the midday prayer on Friday, the main service of the week. It reminds us that Islamic art and architecture are still part of everyday life for an important part of the world’s population.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/asia/islamic_gall/videos/index.html

Ibn Sina’s book The Canon of Medicine is the most famous single book in the history of medicine in both East and West.

Ibn Sina (980-1037 CE), also known in the West as Avicenna, was the most influential of the philosopher-scientists of Islam. His Qanun fi’l-tibb (The Canon of Medicine) is the most famous single book in the history of medicine in both East and West. It is an encyclopedia of five books that add up to about one million words in length.

During the day, Ibn Sina carried out his duties as both physician and administrator. He spent almost every night with his students composing this manuscript and other works, and carrying out philosophical and scientific discussions. The earliest-known extant manuscript of any part of this text is a copy of the fifth volume devoted to compound drugs and pharmacopoeia, dated 1052.

The Qanun served as the medical textbook of the Islamic world and was first translated into Latin in the twelfth century. The Qanun became the medical textbook of the Islamic world and with the transfer of knowledge to the Latin West in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it became the most used of all mediaeval references in Europe’s medical schools almost until the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Institute of Ismaili Studies:

http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=106512#

Widely regarded as Spain’s greatest masterpiece of Islamic Architecture.

Source

Ismailis have long contributed to the advancement of science, mathematics, and architecture. In the tenth century, the Ismaili Imam al-Mahdi founded the Fatimid state in Tunisia in North Africa.  His successors spread the first Shia state to areas of North Africa including Egypt and parts of Arabia.  It was during the Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171) that the early contributions of Ismailis reached their peak, with founding of Cairo and the building of Al-Azhar Mosque (969-971) in that city. Dar al-Ilm, or the ‘House of Knowledge,’ a precursor of modern universities, was established in Cairo in 1005 by the Fatimid Imam-Caliph, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.  Studies there included jurisprudence, grammar, medicine, logic, mathematics, and astronomy.  The institution was open to everyone regardless of their religious backgrounds.

The Fatimids were noted for employing their officers based on merit rather than on heredity.  Sunnis Muslims, Christians, and Jews occupied high positions in the Fatimid government.  The Fatimids also encouraged the practice of private patronage of mosques and other religious buildings by Muslims of different persuasions.  The Muslim doctrine of justice and equality is an essential aspect of the faith and action of Ismailis.  When His Highness the Aga Khan speaks today of pluralism and acts to defend it, he is upholding a thousand-year-old tradition.  When he creates a university, as he has in Karachi and in Central Asia, he is also walking in the footsteps of his ancestors even as he looks to the future.

– Philip Jodidio. Under the Eaves of Architecture. The Aga Khan: Builder and Patron. (Prestel, 2007)

From the official website of the Ismaili Muslim community:

At the heart of the port city of Maputo, capital of Mozambique, stands a building that testifies to the long history of the Ismaili Muslim community in the region. The Maputo Jamatkhana is located a short distance from the heart of the old city’s baixa (commercial area). Flanked by two intricately carved glass-wall minarets, the concrete structure is easily identified by the words Edificio Sua Alteza Aga Khan (The Building of His Highness the Aga Khan) that adorn the central clock tower.

Complete at the source

Photo Gallery

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.”

• Video: From America To Timbuktu
• Video: A short visit to Timbuktu, Mali
• Video: High school boy travels to Timbuktu, the city in Mali, West Africa
• Video: Traveling in Mali - Niger River. This footage was taken on a 3 day trip from Mopti to Timbuktu on a cargo pinasse
• Video of Aga Khan in Mali

WEBSITE / INFORMATION /Articles/ VIDEOS / MEDIA / Other Resources

• PBU: http://www.pbs.org/wonders/fr_gt.htm
• Libraries of Timbuktu: http://www.sum.uio.no/timbuktu/index.html
• BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1911321.stm
• Resources/Info: http://www.timbuktufoundation.org/
• Article: http://africanhistory.about.com/od/mali/p/Timbuktu.htm
• Photos: http://www.danheller.com/timbuktu.html

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.

http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=106346