BBC – An Islamic History of Europe

“In this 90-minute documentary, Rageh Omaar uncovers the hidden story of Europe’s Islamic past and looks back to a golden age when European civilisation was enriched by Islamic learning. Rageh travels across medieval Muslim Europe to reveal the vibrant civilisation that Muslims brought to the West. This evocative film brings to life a time when emirs and caliphs dominated Spain and Sicily and Islamic scholarship swept into the major cities of Europe. His journey reveals the debt owed to Islam for its vital contribution to the European Renaissance.” (courtesy BBC from youtube)

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Stories on Paulo Coelho’s Blog

Paulo Coelho is inviting writers to submit short stories of a maximum 250 words for publication on his blog. You can read mine here It is one I wrote a while back about St. Francis of Assisi because I felt there was something about his loving and his ability to see the manifestation of the divine in all things that is akin to the Sufi path.

Jerusalem Hug 2009

The next Jerusalem Hug is happening on 21st June, 2009 when people of all faiths form a human circle of love around Jerusalem. For those who are not in Jerusalem for the event there will be virtual hugs in other cities around the world. You can go to Lovers of Jerusalem for more details.

more about “Jerusalem Hug 2009“, posted with vodpod

Moses Ibn Maimun (Maimonides) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

As I am soon going to Spain for a research month I couldn’t resist posting this film. This is an excerpt from the film ‘Cities of Light’ which is about the history of Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) and the incredible flourishing of philosophy, theology, medicine, translation, and much more, among the Jewish and Muslim scholars and mystics.

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Back to Andalucia

Photo by Philip C

Dear Friends and Readers, apologies for not having written a great deal recently but I have been deeply immersed in my research and writing plenty of academic stuff. Just another 2 weeks and I will be going to Andalucia, Spain for a field study. There will be plenty of work to do but I also plan, inshallah, to continue writing ‘Diary of an Andalucian Village’. So look out here for posts from Andalucia in May. I am looking forward to once again bathing in the beautiful light of Andalucia, seeing the mountains and the sea, visiting the beautiful architecture that remains from Al-Andalus and seeing many friends once again. May is definitely one of the most beautiful months of the year in the Alpujarra mountains as they are covered with so many beautiful wild flowers. A real bouquet of colour.

All of Us Are Chosen

“They say that other country over there, dim blue in the twilight, farther than the orange stars exploding over our roofs, is called peace, but who can find the way? This time we cannot cross until we carry each other. All of us refugees, all of us prophets. No more taking turns on history’s wheel, trying to collect old debts no one can pay. The sea will not open that way. This time that country is what we promise each other, our rage pressed cheek to cheek until tears flood the space between, until there are no enemies left, because this time no one will be left to drown and all of us must be chosen. This time it’s all of us or none.”

Text by Aurora Levins Morales. A contemporary take on the Exodus that encompasses people of all tribes.

I found this on a site that sells posters. You can reach it by clicking on the image.

Sufi Soul: Part 5

In the final part of this documentary, William Dalrymple visits Sufi orders in Morocco where the music is very ‘loud and exuberant’. Dalrymple calls it ‘a sort of spiritual music jazz’. Here we also see many female musicians who perform healing with music. Dalrymple also visits the Fez Festival of Sacred Music where musicians of all faiths participate. Youssou N’Dour, who also performs at the festival, is interviewed and expresses his belief that Sufi music can correct the present image of Islam.

more about “Sufi Soul: Part 5“, posted with vodpod

Yunus Emre and the Dervish Path

Yunus Emre was a great Sufi poet living in Anatolia in the fourteenth century at the same time as Jalaluddin Rumi. While Rumi wrote his glorious Mathnawi in Persian, Yunus Emre sang his poems in the Turkish vernacular of Anatolia. The following poem is about starting on the Sufi path. I love the humble humour with which Yunus speaks of himself.

Whoever is given the dervish path

May his posturing cease and may he shine.

May his breath become musk and amber.

May whole cities and homelands

gather fruit from his branches.

May his leaves be healing herbs for the sick.

May much good work be done in his shadow.

And among all the poets and nightingales

in the Friends garden,

may Yunus hop like a partridge.

Sufi Soul: Part 4

This is part four of the film, Sufi Soul, and William Dalrymple goes to the Pakistani province of Sindh to visit the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif. He was a poet-saint who died in 1752 and to this day his music is played every night at his shrine using a string instrument called the dambar which Shah Abdul Latif invented himself. Dalrymple also speaks to mullahs of a more recent movement influenced by Wahhabi ideas that are anti-music and anti-Sufi. However, a musician he speaks to says that the majority of the people of Pakistan understand their faith through Sufism, through its music, through dance, and true human interaction.

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Found in Translation: How a Thirteenth Century Islamic Poet Conquered America By Ryan Croken

A very thoughtful assessment of Coleman Barks translations of the poetry of Rumi put in the context of the climate in the USA of propaganda and militarism against Muslim countries. (Which will hopefully change with Obama). Click the link below to read the full article.

clipped from www.religiondispatches.org The best-selling poet in America today could never have known that someday there would be such a thing as America. Born over eight centuries ago in what is now Afghanistan, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, a Sufi mystic, has traversed some rather astonishing cultural and temporal boundaries to become one of the most improbable leaders in American letters. A study of Rumi’s success, however, would not be complete without exploring the relationship between the poet and his most popular translator, Coleman Barks. Poetically, this is significant. But politically, it is momentous. Although something may have been lost in his “translations,” something more priceless has been found: in this American Rumi we have acquired a dazzlingly cogent ambassador of a slandered religion and a most unlikely cultural bridge that could not have come at a better time.

Sufi Soul: Part 3

Here is Part 3 of this beautiful film. Part 2 was in Turkey, now in Part 3, William Dalrymple visits Sufis in Pakistan where he says the sema is more raw, more elemental. Also showing the Qawwalis of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his nephew, Rahat.

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Sufi Soul: Part 2

This is the second part of the Sufi Soul documentary. There may be a short overlap with the first part. The documentary has been divided into five parts on you tube. I will post all five parts.

more about “Sufi Soul: Part 2“, posted with vodpod

Sufi Soul: Part 1

A beautiful video on Sufism, its origins and context, by the acclaimed author, William Dalrymple. It contains a description of the meaning of the sema of the whirling dervishes and focuses on the power and transformative effect of music. This is a very informative video and a treat to watch. In this first part, William Dalrymple goes to Syria and then to Konya and speaks with Mercan Dede.

more about “Sufi Soul: Part 1“, posted with vodpod

Diary of An Andalusian Village

This morning I have been importing some posts from my former blog JourneyWoman Some of those posts are about my reflections while living in Andalucia.  To read them just go to the categories list and click on Andalucia, scroll to the bottom of the page and then click on ‘previous entries’  (there are two pages of them) now you can read them in their correct sequence.

Sufi: Expressions of the Mystic Quest

"Through the Sufi themes of the descending arc of Creation, the foundation of the human soul, and its return through the ascending arc of the Quest, Laleh Bakhtiar brings to light the spiritual reality that underlies the forms and rhythms of the Islamic tradition. Her introduction is suitable for both novice and experienced readers."

I remember when I first began reading the work of Laleh Bakhtiar many years ago and how I immediately felt that connection to the author that happens when the author is writing from her own experience and practice. As the Qur’an maintains that all things are the signs of God then all of creation is a book to be read. Then we have a third ‘book’ of signs, and that is ourselves. As we read in that well known hadith that is central to the Sufi path, know yourself and you will know your Lord. This allows us to read all of creation in the way of the path and in this book, Laleh Bakhtiar looks at the forms and the rhythms of the Sufi path in their relation to the arc of descent that brought us from our primordial creation to our present lives, and the arc of ascent, which is the journey of return to our origins in God. This is the great quest of every lover who seeks union with the Beloved and Laleh Bakhtiar takes the reader through the Islamic Sufi tradition and its reflection in the architecture, poetry, music, dreams, and geometry of the Muslim world.

This is a wonderful introduction to the core concepts of Sufism and also a great pleasure for the seasoned traveller, for learning never ceases. Sufi: Expressions of the Mystic Quest is well worth reading and digesting.