By Malik Mirza Special to Simerg The dome of Pir Hasan Kabirdin's mausoleum. Photo: Malik Mirza. Copyright. The Journey Begins While I was on a training assignment related to micro-finance in Bahawalpur, a thought came across my mind: Why not visit the mausoleums of our ancient Pirs, and try to explore the current on ground situation of the mausoleums? After all, ...
Dai Nasir Khusraw Play on Youtube Please click to watch "The Ruby Shines On," on Youtube "The Ruby Shines On," a play about the life and works of the 12th century Ismaili missionary, poet, thinker and traveller Nasir Khusraw is now available on this Website's Youtube channel, Simergculture. A Note to Readers: Please scroll down or click Home page for other ...
The Emperor and the Seed An emperor in the Far East was growing old and knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided something different. He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next ...
By Mohezin Tejani (Special to Simerg) I was born the youngest of nine children in Singida, Tanzania in 1951. Yet, I never got a chance to know the place because my family moved to Kampala, Uganda when I was just two years old. Both my parents are Ismaili of Indian ancestry, one born in Gujarat, the other in Kenya. I grew ...
INTRODUCTION: Nahj al-Balaghah is regarded as one of the masterpieces of Arabic prose. The hundreds of sayings, sermons, letters and speeches which appear in the book are attributed to Hazrat Ali. The work is difficult to translate, yet by carefully reading through the book one comes across passages that will apppeal to everyone, including children and young adults. Here, in this ...
Introduced by the Writer and Director Amina Ishani Mrs. Amina Ishani - wrote and directed "The Ruby Shines On." 2003 was the millennium birth anniversary of the Ismaili Dai Nasir Khusraw and an International Conference on his life and works had been planned for Tajikistan. I was unaware of this important milestone in Ismaili history, and a moment of inspiration gripped ...
Editor's Note: I was a young boy of about seven years old when one very early morning, as I was preparing for school, there was a gentle knock on our 2nd floor apartment door in Lourenço Marques (LM), now Maputo, Mozambique. My father opened the door to Mukhisaheb's young son, a boy of my age. He had walked about a mile ...
By Fatima S. Nanavati ABSTRACT: Today, in the 21st century, society progresses with the use of many historical innovations. These innovations, be it in technology, medicine, mathematics, or theory, are utilized to help society develop and evolve. However, many essential innovations are left with ambiguous origins because of a vast gap in history. This gap does not account for the advancements ...
by Pervis Rawji It was Chandraat, the night of the new moon, which brings with it immense spiritual peace and barakah (happiness). I was dropping my great aunt home after Jamatkhana ceremonies, and decided to visit her before scooting off. Inside her cozy apartment, I saw an unexpected and surreal art-scape. Perfectly framed by her window was a most ethereal and ...
By Vali Jamal, PhD 3 - 5 Palace Gate in 1975, Photo: London Metropolitan Archives. © City of London. Navyn Naran writes lyrically about it - and deservedly so, as it was a special place, beyond a jamatkhana; as she also says, a home away from home for people who had just come to the capital of the British Empire. There ...
Editor's note: Please click the thumbnails at the bottom of this page for magnificent enlargements of the photos shown below. All photos are Copyright and may not be reproduced or distributed without the consent of the Press Association, UK. 1921 August 10, 1921: Sir Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan III, 48th Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, who was granted the ...
By Mohib Ebrahim Editor and Publisher, NanoWisdoms Editor's note: Mohib Ebrahim has contributed numerous articles to Simerg. We are delighted to inform our readers that he recently launchedNanoWisdoms.org. The following piece by him briefly introduces the Website for the benefit of Simerg readers. A year ago NanoWisdoms launched its Twitter microblog, which publishes a few words of wisdom from our Imams, ...
Serena Taj, right, with her Asian American Coalition of Chicago's "Youth Who Excel" award INTRODUCTION: Three Ismaili Youth with roots from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India were recipients of prestigious Awards in the State of Illinois, USA, for their academic achievements and community services. Simerg asked Mr. Sadruddin Noorani of Chicago to interview Zahra Lalani, Serena Taj and Zul Kapadia about their ...
By Norreddin Mahammed Hubble's Deepest View of Universe Unveils Never-Before-Seen Galaxies. The faintest and reddest objects in the image are galaxies that formed 600 million years after the Big Bang. No galaxies have been seen before at such early times. Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory and the University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens INTRODUCTION: Where do we come ...
3 - 5 Palace Gate in 1975, Photo: London Metropolitan Archives. © City of London. By Navyn Naran it was home away from home the only place you could plant your feet and know you belonged; 5 Palace Gate, 1970s before '57 it was at Kensington Court Mawlana Sultan Mohamed Shah's memoirs a photo with young Ismaili children and parents who ...
Portrait of Averroes, half-tone reproduction from Spanish Encyclopaedia. Credit: Wellcome Library. Copyright. Editor's note: This reading is reproduced from a special issue of the UNESCO Courier magazine (September 1986) dedicated to two great figures of universal learning, Averroes and Maimonides, the former a Muslim and the latter a Jew. We begin with an introduction excerpted from the Courier's editorial, followed by ...
THE ROLE OF PERSIANS IN FATIMID EGYPT By Hatim Mahamid Published earlier: Persians in Fatimid Egypt: (I) Their Role in the ArmyPersians in Fatimid Egypt: (II) Their Role in the Da'wah and Ismaili Doctrines Abstract: This paper deals with the role of Persians and their impact on the life of Fatimid State in Egypt. After the Fatimid conquest of Egypt and ...
Mrs. Seema Kapadia and son Zul, in his younger days, pictured with President Obama when he was not yet in the White House. Photo: Sadruddin Noorani. INTRODUCTION: Three Ismaili Youth with roots from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India were recipients of a prestigious Award in the State of Illinois, USA, for their academic achievements and community services. Simerg asked Mr. Sadruddin Noorani ...
By Mohezin Tejani Enclosed inside the O-shaped housing complex of Madras Gardens, stands a three-tiered grassy field that we Ugandan boys--some thirty of us including Sikhs, Hindus, Punjabis, Bagandas, and Muslims, both Shia and Sunni--use as much more than a playground. It is our life-after-school haven that we sprint to as soon as the three o'clock bell of the last period ...
Artist: Rubina Rajan Location: Vancouver, Canada Profile: Currently based in Vancouver, I spent my formative years in Kigali, Rwanda. This land of a thousand hills has intilled a deep reverence for Nature. After Rwanda, I lived in Belgium before moving to Canada. Professional art-making came after many years of working in various fields including French-English translation. To date, I have had ...
From l to r: Serena Taj, Zul Kapadia and Zahra Lalani - recipients of a prestigious Award in the State of Illinois. Photo: Sadruddin Noorani INTRODUCTION: Three Ismaili Youth with roots from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India were recipients of a prestigious Award in the State of Illinois, USA, for their academic achievements and community services. The Award event, which was organized ...
THE ROLE OF PERSIANS IN FATIMID EGYPT By Hatim Mahamid Published earlier:Persians in Fatimid Egypt: (I) Their Role in the Army Abstract: This paper deals with the role of Persians and their impact on the life of Fatimid State in Egypt. After the Fatimid conquest of Egypt and Syria in 358-359/969, and the seat of the Fatimid caliphate had transferred from ...
THE ROLE OF PERSIANS IN FATIMID EGYPT: THE ARMY, DA'WAH AND COMMERCE By Hatim Mahamid Abstract: This paper deals with the role of Persians and their impact on the life of Fatimid State in Egypt. After the Fatimid conquest of Egypt and Syria in 358-359/969, and the seat of the Fatimid caliphate had transferred from al-Mansuriyya in Ifriqiya to Cairo (Egypt), ...
Chapter Five of Pir Nasir-i Khusraw's Wajh-i Din A page from a 13th/19th century Persian manuscript of Wajh-i din by Nasir-i Khusraw. In this work, Nasir Khusraw masterfully applies ta'wil to the system of ideas and concepts propounded in earlier Fatimid texts. Image: The Institute of Ismaili Studies. Introduced and translated by Rukhsana Ali INTRODUCTION TO NASIR KHUSRAW AND WAJH-I DIN ...
NAVROZ MUBARAK "The Closer You Come the More You Will See Him" This digital mosaic rendering is based on an existing photo portrait of His Highness the Aga Khan, the 49th Ismaili Imam. For graphic artist Akbar Kanji of Toronto, the concept is to "portray our Imam's entire life and his dedications at a glance which we cannot imagine until we ...
RESURGENCE By Nuram It is ordained by Allah I come once a year on this day And for six months I stay in the Northern Hemisphere I shine in all my splendour I bring warmth I bring life to the dead earth I bring colour and all the hues I bring movement to all living things I bring hope for good ...
By Vali Jamal, PhD A photo of the Kampala Jamatkhana taken in 1982. Notice the broken windows, non-functioning tower clock and lone VW beetle. Photo: Vali Jamal. Copyright. Any Kampala Ismaili over 60, even though they are now in their diaspora countries and seen some remarkable Jamatkhanas, would say the Kampala Jamatkhana was the best. Of course, any Ismaili would say ...
Compiled by Abdulmalik Merchant Editor, Simerg Oil painting by a Neapolitan painter, 17th century, of an Arabic man of learning, presumably Avicenna, who is seen holding a snake over a book of herbal recipes. Photo: Wellcome Library, London. Copyright. Just as Arabs, Turks and Persians all like to claim Avicenna as their own, the Ismailis like to consider him to be ...
AVICENNA ON EDUCATION: PART II By 'Abd al-Rahman al Naqib THE AIMS OF EDUCATION Many countries around the world have honoured Avicenna, the great Muslim scientist, by depicting his vignette on their postage stamps. The symbolic value of Avicenna has been often chosen to commemorate scientific occasions, achievements and anniversaries. Avicenna sees the aims of education as the overall growth of ...
By 'Abd al-Rahman al Naqib To mark the 1,000th birth anniversary of the most influential of Islam's philosopher-scientists, UNESCO minted this commemorative medal in 1980. Abu Ali al-Husain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina was known in Europe as Avicenna. A healer and a humanist, Avicenna developed an exemplary holistic approach that captures the essence of ethics in science and has thus come ...
Editor's Note: Rumi's Mathnawi is an epic poem comprising of thousands of stanzas of allegories, fables, parables and tales which convey moral lessons as well as emphasize a spiritual connection with the Almighty. Bringing the works of a mystical poet to life is not an easy job, and Zayn Kassam in this reading retells two stories from Rumi's majestic work which ...
Tashkorgan Tashkorgan in the Xinjiang Province of China is 295km (183 miles) South West of Kashgar. The town marked the end of the Silk Routes for Chinese traders arriving from Kashgar. Their goods would be transferred to caravans, which continued on to Gilgit and thence either south to the Indian Ocean along the Indus River, or west through Kabul, Herat, and ...
On November 18, 1957, the citizens of Pemba, an island forming part of the Zanzibar archipelago (see map below), honoured the 49th Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, His Highness the Aga Khan, during his one day visit to the Island. On that historic occasion, Sheikh Sir Said bin Ali al-Mugheri presented to him a casket, bearing the words: "THESE ...
ADAPTED FROM A RESEARCH PAPER By Ali Mohammad Rajput Persian text of the letters exchanged between Sultan Malik Shah and dai Hasan-i-Sabbah in a 1962 work. Link to PDF file provided below. Photo: A.M. Rajput archives Introduction: It is reported that an exchange of letters took place between the Seljuk Sultan, Malik Shah, who ruled from 1072-1092, and Hasan-i-Sabbah. The texts ...
By Omid Safi (Special to Simerg) As we celebrate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, it is good to reflect on the ways in which various memories of Muhammad have continued to reverberate through Islamic society. One of the loveliest has been through a distinctly Turkish tradition called Mevlud (also spelled as Mevlut) which recalls and celebrates the birth of the ...
By Hatim Mahamid ABSTRACT This paper will discuss the mutual influence between politics and the Isma'ili da'wa, particularly after the establishment of the Fatimid government in Egypt. Some questions arise at this point, such as: (1) 'what were the circumstances that influenced the developments in the role of the da'wa?' and (2) 'had the office of da'i undergone a process of ...
Editor's note: The late Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (1933 - 2003) had a particular fondness for the critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal. Mr. William M. Johnson, editor of the on-line journal The Monachus Guardian, which is dedicated to "Monk Seals and their Threatened Habitats," had the pleasure of accompanying the Prince on several of his visits to Greece. Below we publish ...
A sign welcoming the current 49th Ismaili Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan, to Syria. Photo: Arif Babul, Vancouver. Copyright. Editor's Note:In a highly elaborate and absorbing four part interview with Simerg (see link below) astrophysicist Arif Babul had raised the concern about the challenges many parents in the Western World face in giving their children a sense of identity. Arif ...
By Omid Safi Omid Safi One of the lower points in the Park51 Center controversy was the comment by New York Governor David Paterson: "This group who has put this mosque together, they are known as the Sufi Muslims. This is not like the Shiites...They're almost like a hybrid, almost westernized. They are not really what I would classify in the ...
"Today's Mahdiya may seem small, but during its heyday Mahdiya was the Fatimid capital of North Africa and the successful home base that led to the conquest of Cairo, which then ultimately led to the city's demise as Cairo took over as the capital of the Fatimid empire" - excerpt from Tunisia.com Mahdiya today - Mahdiya as a fishing village has ...
