The press, at least, gives the impression that similar radical attitudes exist in other Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia. You are right. There are parts of the Muslim world where those tendencies are present and parts of the Muslim world that have sustained the Taliban. That just goes to confirm that there is no unanimity in Islam with regard to ...
The goal is to create a building which causes the viewer to wonder how different elements and different planes relate to each other, how they work together to tickle the eye (the Aga Khan said, proposing that Mr. Maki take inspiration from rock crystal, the mineral quartz in its clear and colourless form). In a rock crystal the cuts and angles ...
Modernity is part of the concern of the award and our objective is to permeate good architecture, not to freeze it any time. The symbols of the past may be re-utilised in modern architecture, they may be dropped, new symbols may come forward -- we need continuity, particularly in conservation, but, no, we're not going to stymie creativity of the Islamic ...
Such deep and abiding affinities [between Christendom and the Muslim world] demonstrate that so-called conflicts between East and West -- whether past or present -- are political or ideological constructs that have no real basis in deeper cultural and religious fact. Beyond and apart from the controversies highlighted by contemporary observers (and acerbated by modern nationalistic concepts originally alien to Islam) ...
The integrated character of this innovative cultural development endeavour [the restored Shigar fort] has been underpinned and complemented by the work of other institutions of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), such as the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), which has a long record of supporting rural communities in the Northern Areas. When the AKDN institutions first began working in ...
I think the notion of time is different. I think in my case, I'm working in an institution whose time context is different from that of a politician.... You start with an idea and then you let it grow.... I think at the moment there is a tendency to want to see political change occurring in the developing world very rapidly. ...
NanoWisdoms' Introduction Published in 2008, Where Hope Takes Root is a collection of 13 of His Highness the Aga Khan's principal speeches, made between 2002 and 2006 (links below), along with his important 2006 interview with the CBC's Peter Mansbridge. Focused on the theme "democracy and pluralism in an interdependent world," the book -- which deserves to be read repeatedly -- ...
This year was the 40th anniversary of the yacht club, Costa Smeralda. What's been your highlights during that period? Two I would recollect, which was the first challenge for the America's Cup. Italy had never challenged and as you know it's a challenge done by clubs. So the yacht club, Costa Smeralda, was the first boat to challenge with Azzura [in ...
At the height of Islamic civilisations came a magnificent flowering of the arts and architecture: the buildings created by the great Islamic dynasties rank among the finest monuments of world culture. To focus one's attention on material details of these creations and on their representation in the pictorial arts of the time makes one understand better how they reflect the all-encompassing ...
We have no notion of the accumulation of wealth being evil ... It's how you use it. The Islamic ethic is that if God has given you the capacity or good fortune to be a privileged individual in society, you have a moral responsibility to society. Interviewer: James Reginato in Aigelmont His Highness Prince Karim, the fourth Aga Khan and 49th ...
The Christian burial ceremony and the prayers then said by the presiding ecclesiastics refer to resurrection in a way that implies some kind of similarity with the supposed historical resurrection of Christ three days after his death.... The Hindu and Buddhistic explanations of life after death, with always the influence of the soul taking forms either much lower, such as the ...
We Ismailis now in the same spirit [as Hazrat Ali had done] accept the Khalifat of the first Khalifs and such other Khalifs as during the last thirteen centuries helped the cause of Islam, politically, socially and from a worldly point of view. On the other hand the Spiritual Imamat remained with Hazrat Ali and remains with his direct descendants always ...
