Mahmoud Zaki has assembled a major resource on sources for the study of Islamic manuscripts, including links to major digital collections and publications. It can be accessed here. This is an extraordinary resource for anyone working on manuscripts of the Islamic era.
One of the most impressive architectural sites in Yemen is off the beaten track in the Hadramawt, about 90 miles north of al-Mukalla. This is the shrine of the pre-Islamic prophet Nabi Hud. The local mosque is build around a giant boulder. Hud has a surah in the Qu’ran named after him. For a video on the annual pilgrimage to the shrine, click here. I visited the shrine in 2005 and took these photographs.
Brill has recently published a Handbook of Sufi Studies. One of the editors, Alexander Knysh, discusses the new volume here.
In 1991 while on a World Bank consultancy in Aden, I had an opportunity to visit al-Shihr on the Hadrami coast. Here are some scenes from that trip.
Monument to honor the revolution against the British occupation
Commercial giants are playing fast and loose with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. These days it can be a big juicy Ramadan deal, wherever you live, when you go out after avoiding food and water all day long. Fast food chains are especially eager to break your fast. Somehow I suspect that if the Prophet Muhammad were alive today, he would not order pizza and a coke for iftar. If fasting is only about denying yourself for half a day and then living it up for the other half, it loses all spiritual meaning. There are a number of hadiths recording what the Prophet Muhammad said about the holy month of Ramadan. One of these is related as follows: “When Ramadan enters, the gates of Paradise are opened, the gates of Hellfire are closed and the devils are chained” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim). Modern day businesses are more interested in opening the gates of their franchises and leaving the gates of Hellfire ajar, while quite a few devils seem to have no problem breaking their chains.
Just as Christmas is now about putting presents under a tree and Easter is searching for colored eggs, so Ramadan has become a time to buy rather than contemplate. Capitalism captures religion whenever there is a profit to be made out of a prophet. Restaurants offer special iftar meals, usually with elaborate spreads, and hours are reduced in most Muslim countries so workers can go home and take a nap. Religiosity shines while acting on the ethical principles of the faith takes second place to making sure iftar is exactly at the adhan and not a nanosecond before. This may be the letter of the law, but it misses the whole reason for fasting in the first place.
Then there are the promotions that show the hypocrisy of the appeal. Tsk, tsk British Tesco for inviting Muslims to partake of a Ramadan special like bacon-flavored Pringles. The artificial and the superficial combine to make Ramadan just another shopping holiday.
Time Magazine has a photographic essay on “Exploring the Mawlids of Egypt.”
/© Muhammad Hamed / Reuters/REUTERS
Al Jazeera has a series of photographs of this year’s hajj to Mecca.
The sacred sites of Mecca have a long and rich history in Islamic tradition. One of the most important aspects is the well of Zamzam located close to the ka‘ba in the Meccan shrine. According to tradition this well flowed out miraculously when Ibrahim’s son Ismail was thirsty and scraped his feet on the ground. The well was later rediscovered by the Prophet Muhammad’s grandfather, Abd al-Mutallib. For centuries the well of Zamzam has provided the water for Muslim pilgrims to the site. Regardless of what one thinks about legendary attribution, Zamzam water has been a great marketing tool over the years. On Amazon you can even buy water allegedly bottled at the well in Saudi Arabia, only a mere $15 for 500 ml. In Germany you can buy the same amount for only 3.5 Euros, even though it appears that Saudi Arabia bans the export of Zamzam water.
Then there is the Burj Zamzam Clock, a virtual ibn Big Ben towering over the ka‘ba and shielding a shopping mall and luxurious hotel. Such selling of holy sites has a long history as virtually every inch of Palestine can be linked to some biblical event. But by turning a sacred site into a tourist attraction, does not Zamzam become the victim of flim flam?