SIMERG INVITES YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THIS CONTINUING SERIES "A very beautiful tribute to Prince Sadruddin" "Thank you for sharing this wonderful insight into the life of Prince Amyn Aga Khan" "Great piece with lots of invaluable historical information" "MashaAllah, it really raised my emotion and my spirit" These are a few of the many comments we have received for Simerg's series ...

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"I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD BECOME AN IMAM AFTER I FINISHED STUDYING" "Last Call to Prayer," an informative eight-minute video produced by the Asia Society, takes a look at the impact of China's Hui Muslim population on the spread of Islam, particularly through its all-female mosques and imams. Please clickLast Call To Prayer Please click on image for this short informative ...

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A folio from the manuscript of al-Shirazi's Sirat. Credit: The Institute of Ismaili Studies. Of the very few Ismaili historical figures who have left rich and fascinating details and imprints about their lives through their autobiographies, the personal account by Al-Mu'ayyad al-Shirazi, who served the 18th Ismaili Imam (or the 8th Fatimid Caliph), al-Mustansir Billah, has been described as a thrilling ...

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By Ghulam Abbas Hunzai This life of the world is but a pastime and a game. Lo! the home of the Hereafter -- that is Life, if they but knew -- Holy Qur'an, 29:64 The belief in akhirat (life hereafter) is one of the fundamental principles of Islam and as such its importance can hardly be over emphasized. A discussion on ...

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Editor's note: Readers often ask us to recommend English translations of the Holy Qur'an. In this informative essay Dr. Khaleel Mohammed of San Diego University, California, assesses numerous popular as well as lesser known translations of the Qur'an which have appeared in print over the last several decades, upto 2005 when this essay first appeared. Many of the works noted by ...

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During the past six months, this (literary) website's companion blog, Simergphotos, has featured hundreds of beautiful images and stories coveringpeople(His Highness the Aga Khan, President Barack Obama, Prince Amyn Aga Khan, Ibn Sina, the Maasai, Thomas Jefferson), places(Alamut, Zanzibar, Jerusalem, Bagamoyo, Tashkorgan), arts of the book (the Fatimid Blue Qur'an, the American Declaration of Independence), and calligraphy (Naade Ali). The shrinking ...

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BRIEF FACTS FROM ISMAILI HISTORY Three gold quarter dinars of the Fatimid Imam-Caliph al-Hakim were among the Fatimid objects found in a shipwreck in Turkey. Photo credit: Institute of Nautical Archaeology. "In the twelfth century the gold dinars of the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt were so highly valued throughout the Middle East, especially by Syrian merchants, that the Christian kingdoms founded ...

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A Review by David Skinner Cover of the fictional work, "The Blue Manuscript" "Calligraphy is discipline to the soul" - Sabiha Al Khemir In an essay prefacing the catalog for the 2006 exhibition "From Cordoba to Samarqand" at the Louvre, Sabiha Al Khemir writes of the "new here": the shift in surroundings that occurs as objects become removed from their original ...

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By Robert Pasnau Although Thomas Aquinas and later philosophers owed Averroës a major intellectual debt, they also fiercely criticized his writings.The depiction above of the Islamic philosopher is a detail from the Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas in Santa Maria Novella, Florence. In the fourteenth-century fresco, Andrea di Bonaiuto placed Averroës with the heretics Sabellius and Arius in the space beneath ...

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