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Ibn Fadlan's Journey to the Land of the Rus
I saw the Rusiya when they came hither on their trading voyages and had encamped by the river Itil. I have never seen people with a more developed bodily stature than they. They are as tall as date palms, blond and ruddy, so that they do not need to…
Tags: Abbasid caliphate, Baghdad, culture, customs, Ibn Fadlan, Iraq, Russia, trade, travel narratives, Vikings
From Kalila and Dimna, The Crane and the Crab
“The Crane and the Crab” A crane once dwelt upon a pleasant lake placed among little hills spread over with herbs and flowers. He lived upon such fish as he could catch, and for many years got plenty. But at length, becoming old and…
Miniature Painting Illustrating "Conference of the Birds"
A key scene in a Persian epic poem is illustrated in a 400-year-old watercolor from the holdings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This miniature illustrates the manuscript Mantiq al-Tayr (The Language of the Birds, also known as The Conference of…
Glossary of Terms about Muhammad and Islam from Oxford Islamic Studies Online
adhan Muslim call to prayer. ahl al-bayt literally, “people of the house,” referring to members of the household of the prophet Muḥammad. ahl al-kitāb literally, “people of the…
Cities of Light Documentary and Website
Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain is a documentary film and companion website. Inspired by Rosa Maria Menocal’s Ornament of the World, the documentary explores the European society in which Muslims, Jews and Christians lived…
Timeline of Iranian History
550-330 B.C.E. Achaemenid dynasty rules the first Persian Empire. The city of Persepolis, was founded in 518 B.C.E. 1914-1918 Iran declares neutrality during World War I. 1923–1926 Reza Khan is named…
The Dome of the Rock Virtual Walking Tour
Raised on a site sacred to three great faiths, the Dome of the Rock is an elaborate, architecturally significant domed shrine built over a large rock believed to be the site from which Muhammad ascended to heaven during the Night Journey, ca. 621 CE.…
Tags: architecture, Christianity, cities, Dome of the Rock, Haram al-Sharif, Holy Land, Islam, Israel, Jerusalem, Judaism, mosque, Palestine, shrine
The Suleymaniye Mosque Virtual Walking Tour
Rivaling the Hagia Sophia for architectural splendor, the Süleymaniye Mosque was built in the sixteenth century CE for the sultan known as Süleyman the Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566. The mosque, in Istanbul, is…
Gallup Polling of Turkish Women’s Opinions about Headscarves
Western discussions of Muslim women’s public attire seldom take into account what women themselves think about this issue. In the past decade, the Gallup Organization has been polling intensively in Turkey and other Muslim countries. A Gallup…
Tags: American religion, colonialism, culture, gender, headscarves, hijab, statistics, Turkey, women's dress
Veiling and the State in Iran, 1930s to 1979
The Age-Old Modesty of the Veil: Banning the Veil in Iran (1930s) By Sattareh Farman Farmaian When my mother had learned that she was to lose the age-old modesty of her veil, she was beside herself. She and all traditional people regarded Reza's…
Tags: colonialism, culture, gender, Iran, Islam, nationalism, revolution, shah, veil, women
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Visit to a Harem
To The Countess of Mar, Adrianople [now Edirne], April 18, 1717 ….I was invited to dine with the Grand Vizier's lady, and it was with a great deal of pleasure I prepared myself for an entertainment which was never given before to any…
Tags: bloomers, costume, culture, dress, England, feminism, gender, harem, Islam, Lady Montagu, letters, Ottoman Empire, pantaloons, travel narrative, Turkey
WPA Interview with Mike Abdullah, 19th Century Syrian Immigrant in North Dakota
Note: A WPA field worker, Everal J. McKinnon, interviewed Mike Abdullah in his home in Ross, North Dakota. I was born in Rufage, Rushia, Syria. I don't remember the date, nor the month[,] but I believe that it was in 1886. (People in the Old Country…
Recitation of the First Chapter of the Qur'an and Translation
Muhammad Khalil al-Hussary recites the first chapter of the Qur'an, entitled Al-Fathihah, which means "the Opening." It consists of Translated by Muhammad Asad. Transliteration from Islamicity.com.
Tags: Qur'an, recitation, religion, rituals, scripture
Persepolis
Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's inventive, wry, and tragic memoir of growing up in Tehran in the 1980s—the tumultuous years when the Islamic Revolution took hold in Iran and the country fought off an invasion from neighboring Iraq. Using a…
Tags: Britain, childhood, colonialism, culture, family, France, Iran, memoirs, Persia, politics, religion, revolution, United States, war, youth
Snow
From Nobel Prize–winning author Orhan Pamuk, the novel Snow paints a fantastic picture of daily life in Kars, a dreamlike town in the mountains of far eastern Turkey. Following an exiled poet who becomes stranded in Kars during a weeklong…
Tags: childhood, culture, journalism, Middle East, migration, novels, politics, Turkey, youth
The Story of the Qur'an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life
The Story of the Qur’an begins with an accessible account of the origins of the Qur’an that places Muhammad, the Muslim holy book, and the first adherents to Islam in historical context. Ingrid Mattson, a professor of Islamic studies,…
When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the "Riches of the East"
Stewart Gordon uses the narratives of nine travelers to tell the story of Asia’s diverse economy and cultures between 500 and 1500 CE. During those thousand years, the world’s largest continent was the hub of global cultural and economic…
Tags: Arabic, Asia, Buddhism, China, Christianity, commerce, culture, Hinduism, India, Indian Ocean, invention, Islam, merchants, philosophy, politics, Portugal, sciences, trade, travel narrative, war
The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain
The Islamic empire of al-Andalus was known in its time as “the ornament of the world.” In particular, its capital city, Córdoba, was widely noted for its cosmopolitan culture, diverse population, and artistic achievements. In this…
Tags: Andalus, Christianity, Cordoba, interfaith, Islam, Islamic art, Judaism, literature, music, North Africa, poetry, religions, science, song, Spain, tolerance
The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam
In 2004, the noted scholar of comparative religion F. E. Peters produced a new edition of his well-regarded Children of Abraham. When initially published three decades ago, the book was one of the first scholarly works to place Islam alongside…
Tags: Abrahamic, Christianity, culture, history, interfaith, Islam, Judaism, Middle East, mysticism, philosophy, religions, rituals, scripture, theology
The Art of Hajj
In the Qur’an, Muslims are instructed that at least once in their lives they must take part in the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the spiritual center of the Islamic world . Over the centuries, artists, craftspeople, and others have…
Tags: calligraphy, cartography, ceramics, cities, culture, folk art, geography, Hajj, Islamic art, Mecca (Makkah), metalwork, pilgrimage, rituals, textiles, travel
Rúmí: Poet and Mystic
Jalal al-Din Rúmí(1207–73), popularly known simply as Rúmí, was the greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, famous for his lyrics and for his didactic epic Masnavi-yi Maʿnavi [Spiritual couplets],…
House of Stone: a Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East
From the late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid comes a chronicle of his quixotic efforts to restore his family’s ancestral home in Lebanon. While House of Stone is a memorable tale of the ups and downs of house renovation, it is also a…
Tags: architecture, culture, family, immigration, journalism, Lebanon, memoir, migration, Syria, war
Islamic Arts
“Islamic Art” is a tricky label. While it does refer to art created and used in Muslim rituals and practices, it also encompasses a wide range of art that has no religious significance, but is made by and for people who once lived, or who…
Tags: arts, calligraphy, carpets, ceramics, glass, manuscripts, metalwork, mosque, painting, textiles
The Conference of the Birds
Composed in the twelfth century in northeastern Iran, Farid ud-Din Attar’s acclaimed Sufi poem is among the most significant works of Persian literature. A mystical, allegorical rendering of Sufi belief, The Conference of the Birds takes the…
The Arabian Nights
The stories of The Arabian Nights—stories within stories, and stories within stories within stories—are told in the voice of a beautiful young woman, Shahrazad, who will lose her life if the king loses interest in her nightly narratives.…
Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction
To the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims, the founder of their faith, the Prophet Muhammad, is history’s most significant figure. Born in 570 CE in the city of Mecca, on the Arabian Peninsula, Muhammad underwent a series of mystical…
The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance
The House of Wisdom in Baghdad stands as a symbol of the great synthesis of Greek science and philosophy, Indian mathematics, and Persian literature brought about by their translation into Arabic in the eighth century CE. Jim Al-Khalili details…
A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America
Highly symbolic and often misunderstood, Muslim women’s wearing of the veil sometimes evokes passionate responses, from other Muslims as well as from non-Muslims. In this insightful and often surprising analysis, Harvard University professor…
Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World (film)
This ninety-minute film takes audiences on an epic journey across nine countries and over 1,400 years of history. It explores the richness of Islamic art in objects big and small, from great ornamented palaces and the play of light in monumental…
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