Culture
New Flavours for Old Recipes
Take a journey back in time more than 2700 years to a royal banquet in the palace at Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire. As you arrive, the scent of lilies and roses fills the air. Musicians play harps and pipes, sing songs and recite poems. You snack on fresh pistachios and walnuts as you […]
What is Islamic About Islamic Arts?
I was slightly disappointed at having not been able to go to Jaipur to attend India’s most reputed literary festival, especially when I read a report in the Hindu about an open forum featuring writers Ahdaf Soueif, Tahar Ben Jelloun and Selma Dabbagh, Jonathan Shainin and William Dalrymple. In the forum, Moroccan author Tahar Ben […]
Choco Fruits Pudding
Rushing to get one’s hands on a luscious pudding after meal is a familiar sight in weddings and parties. Who doesn’t fall for a delectable treat when they invite us with their tempting appearance and arresting aroma? Everyone loves sweets, especially to conclude a meal as it gives a feeling of fullness. Sweet after food […]
The Willow Tree: A saga of sight and insight
In his Mathnawi, Rumi tells the story of a lover who goes to his beloved and knocks on the door: The beloved from behind the door asked: “Who is at the door?” The lover answered: ‘I.’ Disappointed, the beloved said. “Go away! It is not the proper time! Here is no place for such a […]
Much Beyond the Dance
Type Jalauddin Rumi in your image search box. In the first page view itself, you see the white-robed dancers with one hand holding aloft to the sky and the other holding down. Martin Lings, in What is Sufism explains it as two points in human existence: Ethereal and ephemeral. In Istanbul, where in the deluge […]
Hijab : fashion in a rebellious choice
We have long got past the days, when we thought of fashion as something which turned its back to tradition. Modernity wedded to tradition has been the manthra for much too long. That is why ‘hijab fashion’ or ‘muhajjaba models’ are the active registers in the fashion world. Fashion world will now have to think […]
Tonic and Tasty
Recipe of Layered Banana Cake Yellow, fleshy n yummy –these are the things that come running to our mind when we think of bananas. Being one of the widely used tropical fruits, bananas are high in calorie, vitamins and minerals and are a good source of health. They provide a lot of energy, helps lower […]
A Celebration of Palestinian Discontent
Michel Khleifi‘s Wedding in Galeeli tells the harrowing tale of Israeli occupation in Palestine in the context of a wedding. Those who find their land fast vanishing try to give it an outlet in whatever ways possible. Culture is, definitely, such an outlet where through the diminishing geography is reborn in the form of symbols. […]
The Circumstance 2011: What is beyond the ancestral dichotomy?
Anything that is Iranian, either being itself or being included in the broader identity of ‘the oriental’ or ‘eastern’, in the scenario of cultural criticism, will always bring that same old dialogue on the dichotomy of west and east, or liberty and religion. In addition, we are in such a political situation that considering something […]
Islamic Gallery at Louvre: Good, Bad and Ugly Islams
“There is a distance between what was the Muslim civilisation, the Islamic civilisation, and its contribution to world history and what is happening now,” says Sophie Makariou, the director of the Islamic Art Department, in the context of France’s famous Louvre gallery opening a new wing dedicated to the art of Islam. The Islamic wing […]
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