Word: islamic
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...wonder if Buddhist philosophy influenced Greek thought as much as Greek styles had an impact on local art. Excavation of the earth around Masjid-i-No Gumbad, a 9th century brick mosque thought to be the oldest still standing in the world, could illuminate many of the mysteries regarding Islam's spread to Central Asia. In 1978, a Russian archaeologist uncovered a vast trove of gold ornaments in a 2nd century nomad necropolis. The find, which included a collapsible crown, golden daggers and thousands of jeweled buttons, "speaks to the riches of the trade routes across Afghanistan," says Brendan Cassar...
...camp in Lebanon, located near the northern city of Tripoli where a cold mountain stream meets the sea, and surrounded by orange orchards and banana plantations. Now it is a miniature Stalingrad on the Mediterranean. An uprising in the summer of 2007 by an insurgent jihadist group, Fatah al-Islam, reduced Nahr al-Bared to rubble and made its 31,000 residents homeless. Though most Fatah al-Islam members were not Palestinians but foreign Arabs from places such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the lawlessness of the camps - which lie outside the authority of the Lebanese state - make them excellent...
...There’s a certain responsibility that’s assumed when assessing a work that so obviously engages issues with a cultural pertinence. A film that concerns itself with an act of devotion whose intensity distinguishes Islam from all other faiths should naturally aspire to enrich and elucidate an understanding of Islam that transcends that of the mythological. There is a long list of questions, any one of which could be investigated, that would indicate that its makers were aware of their task—or even connected to reality. What does the Hajj...
...pilgrimage at all (especially of the Kaaba, where non-Muslims are forbidden). The segments of this footage are left, mostly, until the end, when Ibn’s experience is compared with that of modern pilgrims, to show the striking similarities. Neibaur seems to be telling us that Islam has aged considerably, but remains unchanged—an observation either criminally naïve, irresponsibly casual, or both...
...says the Harvard Gazette, “chronicling the movement and rhythm of zikr, the ecstatic ceremony practiced by Sufi orders around the Muslim world.”Through the use of photography, Athanasiadis, a photojournalist and former Nieman fellow, seeks to shed light on oft overlooked aspects of Islam, allowing for a better understanding of what has become a world religion intensely scrutinized by mainstream media. The photographs represent Islam as meditational, peaceful, and beautiful.“Sufism focuses on how an individual develops his or her own personal devotion to God,” says...