After the Hagia Sophia was converted back into a mosque in 2020, the entrance fees that had been charged when it was functioning as a museum were removed. The number of tourists that visited the building increased dramatically as a result, to the point where it was too crowded to properly lead tours, and there was a risk of damage to the historic site.
In February, a second entrance was opened specifically for tourists, who once again are required to pay an entry fee, and are prohibited from visiting certain parts of the building, including the main floor under the dome.
Trying to juggle the Hagia Sophia’s dual roles as a heritage tourism site and a functioning place of worship has led to a number of issues and conflicts, making it clear that it’s impossible to fulfill both roles perfectly at the same time.
The Alamut Castle was originally built in the 7th century by Zaydi Muslims, its name literally meaning “the Eagle’s nest”. It went through many different periods of captures, rules, and generations of Ismailis, before eventually falling out of significance sometime in the 13th century. Since then, the castle itself has greatly deteriorated and fallen into ruins, though “the Rock of Alamut” and various sections of the castle remain as a popular tourist attraction in Northern Iran.
Eclipses in Islam have a long recorded history, dating all the way back to before the time of Prophet Muhammad. There was an eclipse during Muhammad’s life and on that day his infant son, Ibrahim, died. Muhammad declared that the eclipse did not kill his son, denouncing the astrology of the day, and instead instructed his followers to say a “prayer to the eclipse” (şalat al-kusūf). Eventually, in 1431, astronomers became advanced enough to predict when the next eclipse would happen. They ran through the streets telling everyone that there would be an eclipse and that they should start fasting, however when the sky did not turn black, these men were denounced. They would later learn that these predictions were correct but Cairo only had 45% coverage, so the light wasn’t noticeably obstructed. These predictions are remarkable becuase they were able to go far with such (relatively) simple equipment
Source: Tārīkh-e ‘Elm: Iranian Journal for the History of Science, 6 (2008), pp. 75-82, Solar Eclipses in Medieval Islamic Civilization: A Note on Cultural and Social Aspects
If you’re interested in art history (or just want to get a better idea of what the material culture of some of the groups we’ve talked about!) the Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History has a bunch of great essays that give a quick introduction to the art of a period, as well as giving some examples. The link above goes to their essay on The Art of the Ottomans before 1600, and if you scroll to the bottom of the page there are a bunch more essays for different periods of Islamic history! Additionally, if you want to dig deeper, there’s a section labelled “Further Reading” that will give you some more books or articles to check out!
Gentile Bellini, Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II, 1480, oil on canvas
I read this article last semester in my Italian Renaissance Art class when we were talking about taking a more global approach to early modern art. This painting was painted by Gentile Bellini, a Venetian painter who served as a court painter for Mehmet II.
It specifically talks about two of his books, Bustan (Garden) and Golestan (Flower Garden), and the application of their stories in a modern world. His style is described as “honeyed medicine”, because he writes beautiful stories that communicate important morals and ideals.
In class, we talked about the Aga Khan, the leader of the Ismailis, and their work in preserving art and architecture. An interesting thing I noticed is that the architectural history program at Harvard University is called the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture. The program is supported by an endowment from the Aga Khan starting in 1979. It shows that the Aga Khan supports architectural history and preservation both in the Islamic world and outside of it.
A few weeks ago in class, we discussed Nasimi (d. 1417). Recently I was doing more research on him and found that in 2019 the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan declared 2019 the year of Nasimi. This decision was part of the government’s plans to further socioeconomic and cultural development. A year prior the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture hosted the first Nasimi Festival of Poetry, Arts, and Spirituality in Azerbaijan. The festival involved “world-famous singers, philosophers, scientists, who write about spirituality in modern society, as well as professionals, amateurs in this field and young people.” This festival was also held in Russia. I found this interesting because while I knew he was influential at the time, I did not know he was this important today.
Several weeks ago, during the Islamic philosophy lecture, we learned about several philosophers prior to the Avicennan Turn that caught my interest. To my great surprise, many of these philosophers, such as Al-Razi and Al-Farabi, were in fact very skeptical of religion, or deemed it as less important or valid than reason; in other words, they priortized the findings of philosophy and rationality over spirituality. But most of these men still believed in a god, even if not necessarily God as is portrayed in the Qur’an.
One philosopher in particular really sparked my interest though: Ibn Al-Rawandi, who was at first a Mu’tazilite scholar, then a Shi’a, and finally, an atheist, rejecting and criticizing all iterations of religion. What I find most fascinating, though, is the apparent lack of persecution he experienced: there is limited information on Al-Rawandi in the first place – the only sources I found that were not behind a paywall from the brief research I did indicate that he was not persecuted or harassed for his beliefs.
According to one webpage which I found, he had written over one hundred books, but only segments of his works remain, and they existed only in critics of his work – Muslim apologetics who sought to debunk al-Rawandi’s claims. Al-Rawandi lived fairly early on in Islamic history – around the tenth century, which to me makes his story all the more fascinating. I would be curious to do further reasearch into the treatment of atheists (and skeptics in general) in the Islamic World, especially in some of the later empires such as the Timurids or the Ottomans.
