The Imam
Speech of Maulana Hazir Imam
H.H. The Aga Khan being presented with the Key of the City of Lisbon 1996-12-17
Author: Aga Khan IV (H.H. Prince Karim)
Your Worship the Mayor,
City Councillors, Honoured guests,
Citizens of Lisbon.
It is with a sense of profound privilege and great personal honour that I accept the “Freedom of the City” which you have so graciously bestowed upon me today. I am most sincerely grateful that the city fathers have chosen this particular occasion to accord me this distinction.
Not only am I in your nation’s capital as the official guest of the country’s President, but I am also here to attend the ceremony which will mark the establishment of a permanent, physical presence which you have willed and assisted in every way, in the heart of Lisbon, of the Ismaili Muslim community of which I am the Imam.
Whilst Lisbon and I share the fact of a Muslim past, it is particularly meaningful that it is in its built environment that we find the historical links that provide a bridge to the present. Standing here in this magnificent hall, I am reminded by the medallion of Gil Vicente above us, of this renowned sixteenth century satirical playwright. In one of his most well-known plays, Comedia da Rubena, Vicente includes a very popular medieval song of the troubadour tradition – Qalbi Arabi.
The troubadour pines nostalgically for an Islamic past. Today a contemporary historian reminds us that whilst much of the Islamic past may have been abandoned, and I quote there are still many Alis, many Bassams, many Fatimas. And as you may know, Ali and Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet are among my earliest ancestors.
Centuries after, the Qalbi Arabi was first recited in the 1970s, a Portuguese poet, an Arabic scholar, adopted the name of this song as the title of an anthology of Andalusian Muslim poetry. It is perhaps not so coincidental that the space for cultural interaction which I hope to create in the Centro Ismaili, together with my fellow Lisboetas, will draw some of its inspiration from Andalusia.
The Centro’s architectural language will seek authenticity from the Manueline vocabulary of search and exploration, linking religious inspiration with the nautical imagery which recalls the great voyages of discovery that were launched from this serene harbour, Alis Ubbo, or in its Moorish rendering, Al Usbuna.
I find myself contemplating whether this serenity will still reign in the Lisbon which will emerge in the twenty-first century. As the city expands, this nation’s economic epicentre will radiate within the European Union and like its ancient voyages of discovery, Lisbon will continue to strive to link Europe with Africa, Asia and South America.
I have little doubt, also, that its soul will continue to aspire for spaces of contemplation, for peace, for learning and for sharing. If my own humble role in this search can be to help create such a physical and intellectual space through the Centro Ismaili, I shall feel doubly proud that its beginnings should coincide with the granting to me of the Freedom of the City of Lisbon.
Troubadours and their Medieval Music.
They emerged between the 11th and 13 th Century AD.
They were court musicians, composers and performers of old Occitan lyrics poetry during the High Middle Ages and played a very important part in history, having been political change agents, influencing political trends in many countries.
Under the influence of the Troubadours, related movements sprang up throughout Europe, the Minnesang in Germany, Trovadorismo in Galicia and Portugal and that of Troveres in Northern France.
Dante Alighieri in his De Vulgari Eloquentia, defined the Troubadours lyrics as fiction rethorica, musicaque poita: rhetorical, musical poetic fiction.
After the classical period around the turn of the 13 th Century and a mid- century resurgence, the art of the troubadours declined in the 14 th century and around the time of the Black Death (1348), the Bubonic Plague, it died.
The texts of troubadour songs mainly dealt with themes of Chivalry and Courtly Love. Most were Metaphysical, Intellectual and Formulaic. Many were humorous or vulgar satires.
The Troubadours ( female Trobairitz) were the forerunners of today’s Western music and were Jews, Christians and Muslims.
They originated in South of France in the Languedoc region, or Occitania region and spread to Spain and Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, North of Africa, India, Iran, the ex- Soviet countries, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Slovenia, Baltic Areas and many more places.
There is an alternative theory to explain the meaning of trobar as “to compose, to discuss, to invent”. It has the support of some historians, specialists of literature, and musicologists to justify the troubadours’ origins in Arabic Andalusian musical practices. According to them, the Arabic word ṭaraba “music” (from the triliteral root ṭ–r–b ط ر ب “provoke emotion, excitement, agitation; make music, entertain by singing” as in طرب أندلسي, ṭarab ʾandalusī) could partly be the etymon of the verb trobar. Another Arabic root had already been proposed before: ḍ–r–b (ض ر ب) “strike”, by extension “play a musical instrument”. They entertain the possibility that the nearly homophonous ḍ–r–b root may have contributed to the sense of the newly coined Romance verb trobar.
Some proponents of this theory argue, only on cultural grounds, that both etymologies may well be correct, and that there may have been a conscious poetic exploitation of the phonological coincidence between trobar and the triliteral Arabic root ṭ–r–b when Sufi Islamic musical forms with a love theme first spread from Al-Andalus to southern France. It has also been pointed out that the concepts of “finding”, “music”, “love”, and “ardour”—the precise semantic field attached to the word troubadour—are allied in Arabic under a single root w–j–d (و ج د) that plays a major role in Sufic discussions of music, and that the word troubadour may in part reflect this. Nevertheless, the linguistic facts do not support a hypothetical theory: the word trover is mentioned in French as early as the 10th century before trobar in Occitan (see above) and the word trovere → trouvère appears almost simultaneously in French as trobador in Occitan.
The Troubadours owe their survival to the Sufis, because they were very confused as regards their ideas of Unity of God, the principal of TAWHID.
It was the Muslim Sufis who brought clarity to the very ambiguous beliefs of the Cathars/ Albigentsians, Gnostics, Monophysites, Duophysites, Nestorians and many more “CISMS”
They took with them their knowledge and their MUSIC wherever they went. Some esoteric paths that sprang up at the time were the Kaballah (Jewish), Cathari (Christian) and Sufis (Muslim).
Sufi Music occurs all across the world.
Simon Broughton has compiled a selection of Ten Best Standout recordings of Sufi Music based on the more traditional and spiritual examples.
1. Al Kindy Ensemble (Allepian Sufi Trance) A super tribute to Allepo, the Syrian Centre of Sufism from 13th Century AD
2. Kudsi Erguner Ensemble (Ferahfeza Mevlevi Agini) Kudsi Erguner, Reed/ flute player, and his ensemble, playing music for the Sema Ceremony, Commissioned by Sultan Mahmud II from composer Ismail Dede in 1839.
3. Faiz Ali Faiz. Probably the leading figure in Qawwalli Music, the most famous style in Pakistan and India. Punjab poet Bulleh Shah uses the poetry for composition.
4. Nusrat Fatehali Khan
5. Ali Akbar Moradi ( Musique Kurde d’Iran) Kurdish Music from Iran.
6. Abida Parveen (Pakistan)
7. Sheikh Yasin Al – Tahami ( (Magic of Sufi Isshad, Egypt
8. Various Artists ( Gnawa Home Songs) Sufi Brotherhoods in Morocco.
9.Various Artists. Sufi Souls.. Sufi Music from across the Islamic World. Selections from Senegal, Afghanistan, Kurdi, ( Ostad Elahi) Mevlevi Music, Sabri Brothers, Nusrat Fatehali Khan.
10.Troubadours of Allah.
Diverse Sufi Music in Pakistan, compiled by Peter Pannke.
Mostly solo singer groups of Fakirs, playing and singing at Shrines.
‘’Listening to music, practicing music, sharing music… can be a strong cultural anchor, deepening a sense of community, identity and heritage, while simultaneously reaching out in powerful ways to people of different backgrounds.
-His Highness the Aga Khan IV
Lisbon, Portugal ‘Aga Khan Music Awards’ (31 March 2019)
Aga Khan Music Programme
#AgaKhan #Lisbon #Portugal #MusicAwards #Calouste GulbenkianFoundation.
The medium of music knows no barriers and can , be used to convey highly metaphysical, highly intellectual, Esoteric Knowledge and can be used to interpret the “Tawil” of the Qur’an.
GIL VICENTE
Gil Vicente (Portuguese: [ˈʒiɫviˈsẽtɨ]; c. 1465 – c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the “Portuguese Plautus,” often referred to as the “Father of Portuguese drama” and as one of Western literature’s greatest playwrights. Also noted as a lyric poet, Vicente worked in Spanish as much as he worked in Portuguese and is thus, with Juan del Encina, considered joint-father of Spanish drama.
Imagem158 Gil Vicente, escrevendo. Sepia.jpg
Born
c.1465
possibly Guimarães, Portugal
Died
1536 (aged 70–71)
Possibly Évora, Portugal
Occupation
Playwright, goldsmith (disputed)
Nationality
Portuguese
Subject
Religion, satires
Literary movement
Renaissance humanism
Portuguese Renaissance
Notable works
A Trilogia das Barcas, Farsa de Inês Pereira, Monólogo do Vaqueiro
Vicente was attached to the courts of the Portuguese kings Manuel I and John III. He rose to prominence as a playwright largely on account of the influence of Queen Dowager Leonor, who noticed him as he participated in court dramas and subsequently commissioned him to write his first theatrical work.
He may also have been identical to an accomplished goldsmith of the same name at the court of Évora; the goldsmith is mentioned in royal documents from 1509 to 1517 and worked for the widow of King John II, Dona Leonor. He was the creator of the famous Belém Monstrance, and master of rhetoric of King Manuel I.
His plays and poetry, written in both Portuguese and Spanish, were a reflection of the changing times during the transition from Middle Ages to Renaissance and created a balance between the former time of rigid mores and hierarchical social structure and the new society in which this order was undermined.
While many of Vicente’s works were composed to celebrate religious and national festivals or to commemorate events in the life of the royal family, others draw upon popular culture to entertain, and often to critique, Portuguese society of his day.
Though some of his works were later suppressed by the Portuguese Inquisition, causing his fame to wane, he is now recognised as one of the principal figures of the Portuguese Renaissance.[1]
ADALBERTO ALVES
Adalberto Alves (18 July 1939) is a Portuguese poet, thinker, writer, essayist, Arabist, historian, lecturer and jurist.
The QALBI ARABI, or My heart is Arab ( book shown below) is an anthology of of Muslim Poetry of Andalusia, was compiled by Adalberto Alves.
He was awarded the UNESCO Sharjah International Prize for Arab Culture – 2008.
Before April 25, 1974 he actively opposed the Salazar regime and advocated the Plenum of the Court in defence of political prisoners, having been sealed, until April 25, access to the Public Service.
Adalberto Alves was born and grew up in Lisbon, despite his affectionate ties with the Minho (S. Miguel de Fontoura), his father’s homeland, and with the Alentejo (Beja), his mother’s homeland, where he spent his holidays in his youth.
Although of modest origin, his parents António Alves and Ana das Dores Coelho Alves provided him with the means, in Lisbon, after his first primary studies, at Escola Primária nº 127 and secondary studies at the Liceu Nacional de Camões, to enter higher education in Lisbon, Universidade Clásica de Lisboa, where he graduated in Law. Subsequently, he studied Arabic at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the Universidade Nova and developed his knowledge in this field under the private tuition of Professor Beatrice Karam.
In 1967 he married Maria Adelaide de Freitas Barroso, who is also a lawyer, and from this marriage daughters Ana and Inês were born, from whom he has four grandchildren: João, Vera, Carolina and Vicente.
From a very early age, his interests were focused on different areas, such as Music, Natural Sciences, Poetry, Cinema and Philosophy, where he tried to make his way, with mixed results. In Music, after a brief initiation in violin studies, with Adolf Clandé, at the National Conservatory, he moved on to classical guitar, with António Vinagre at the Duarte Costa Guitar School. Later, he was a tenor-soloist in several choirs, particularly at the Academia de Amadores de Música, under the direction of Fernando Lopes-Graça, for whom he wrote the libretto of an opera, “D. Sebastião”, which he left only in draft form. He also wrote the lyrics for a last projected album by Amália, on music by Alain Oulman, which, due to the artist’s illness, was no longer recorded.
In Poetry and Playwriting he started early: in the former at thirteen, and in the latter at sixteen, influenced by the aesthetics of Angry Young Men of which John Osborne was the main protagonist. Spiritual restlessness led him to delve into the wisdom of the Far East.
After other occupations, he began to make his living exclusively from law.
He resumed writing and published, in 1979, his first book of poetry, in the Unicórnio collection of Editora Arcadia.
While continuing to write poetry, in the early 1980s he began to devote himself to Arabic studies at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, learning the rudiments of the respective language and continuing his studies and research in this field.
He has always lived in Lisbon, although he has his refuges and “anchorages” in Beja, land of his maternal ancestors, in Chão de Couce (Ansião), land of his wife, and in Praia Aguda (Sintra), the place chosen for his “philosopher’s mansion”.
Also S. Miguel de Fontoura (Valença do Minho), land of his paternal ancestors and Salir (Loulé), land of his maternal grandfather are references to be considered in his spiritual geography.
Literary qualifications
- Degree in Law from the Universidade Clássica de Lisboa.
- Diverse training, particularly in the areas of Management and Business Psychology (Transactional Analysis).
- Studies and participation in the musical area, namely at the National Conservatory and at the Academy of Music Amateurs (Violin, Classical Guitar and Choral).
- Studies of Arabic Language and Culture (New University of Lisbon).
- Never showed interest in pursuing an academic career, at teaching level.
- Research issues and / or interest
- Right
- Natural history (zoology and botany)
- Philosophy and religions, in particular those of the Middle East, India, China and Japan
- Song
- Poetry
- Cinema
- As a naturalist, he has participated, in addition to his own observation, as a member of institutions such as Grupo Lobo, the League for the Protection of Nature and the “Portuguese Association of Environmental Law”.
He started writing poetry at the age of 13.
In Cinema, he attended an introductory course in directing given by António da Cunha Telles.
In the early 80’s, he became interested in Arab Civilisation and started studying the respective language at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, continuing his work and research in this field, along with his other activities.
After graduating in Law, he joined Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor a few years later, where he became Director of the Legal Services Department. As a lawyer, he even represented the interests of the Portuguese State in South African courts and intervened in some trials with public repercussions, such as the sponsorship of political prisoners during the Estado Novo regime, Poetic work and dissemination of Arab culture
Since 1985, when his first work on Arabism was published, he has persistently devoted himself to the dissemination of numerous aspects of the Arab heritage in Portugal, with special emphasis on areas such as poetry, Muslim spirituality (Sufism), architecture, philosophy, music and language.
This dissemination includes the life and work of Portuguese-Arab authors, such as Al-Mu’tamid , Ibn ‘Ammâr , Abû al-Wâlid al-Bâjî or Ibn Qasî , revealing aspects that were not previously published for the general public.
KING JUAN CARLOS OF SPAIN & H. H. The Aga Khan MARK THE OPENING OF ZAFRA HOUSE – 1991-06-05
Posted March 24th, 2010 by heritage
In News Article Spain Granada English
Go To News Event: Event – 1991-06-05
Date: Wednesday, 1991, June 5
Location: On 5th June, 1991 in Granada, Spain, King Juan Carlos of Spain and MawlanaHazar Imam, participated in a ceremony marking the official opening of a restored fourteenth century Arab house in the historic Albaycin quarter of Granada.
The house, known as the Zafra House after one of its sixteenth century proprietors, has been restored by the Municipality of Granada with financial and professional assistance provided by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. The restoration work on this small Nasrid house, which will serve as the Centre for Historic Studies of Granada and its Kingdom, took two years.
In his speech marking the opening of the Zafra House, King Juan Carlos said that the increasingly interdependent character of the world today provided a special meaning to the vision of Spain as a crossroads of cultures.
Spain, King Juan Carlos said, has been home to many civilisations throughout the centuries, whose contributions, as seen particularly in Granada, are outstanding for their historical and universal significance.
The inauguration of the Zafra House was taking place at the right moment, said the King, ‘when reflection on the relationship between peoples and their cultural exchanges have become necessary for the future.’
The restoration of the Zafra House was, the King declared, ‘an exemplary contribution from the Aga Khan to the City of Granada.’
Speaking at the opening ceremony, MawlanaHazar Imam said that recent world events had raised questions of identity and cultural interdependence. ‘Issues of misperceptions and misunderstandings between cultures have become the focus of public agendas throughout the world’, he said.
‘The Zafra House is a small gesture, a modest venture, towards creating bridges between worlds which do not often know each other and when they do know something, often misunderstand the values or significance of whatever little they know’, said MawlanaHazar Imam.
Speaking of the future use of the Zafra House by the Centre for Historic Studies of the City of Granada and its Kingdom, MawlanaHazar Imam indicated that the purpose of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture itself was to explore ideas and develop strategies for revitalising the diverse culture forms and expressions of the Islamic World and to advance the humanistic vision of Islam lost in recent times. The Zafra House, he noted, reflected a period when, for many centuries, many very different religious traditions and linguistic or ethnic groups existed under the broad umbrella of an Islamic dominion that tolerated others.
‘In those days of humanism’ he said, referring to Islamic al-Andalus ‘poets and philosophers, mystics and rationalists, scientists and artisans all lived within the same environment. That world was a creative synthesis, a brilliant marriage between several consenting cultures.’
‘To us, and I hope, for generations to come, the Zafra House is a small token of gratitude towards past worlds whose cultured wealth and fruitful tolerance we are, or should be, trying to emulate’, he concluded.
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, aims to foster a better understanding of Islamic civilization through its architecture, arts and other cultural accomplishments. Among the Trust’s range of activities is a triennial prize, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, which encourages architecture for Muslims appropriate to the twentieth century. The Trust also sponsors a post-graduate educational programme at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with associated programmes in the countries of the Islamic world, including Jordan and Pakistan.
Organised by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an international seminar on architectural education in the Islamic world, was inaugurated by King Juan Carlos at the Alhambra Palace in April 1986 and on Thursday, June 6th the Trust organised a further symposium on the influence of Islam in the Iberian peninsula – Spain: Crossroads of Culture. The Symposium examined aspects of the eight centuries of the Spanish-Arab encounter, and was attended by more than thirty-five specialists on Islamic Spain from many parts of the world.
Following the 1986 seminar MawlanaHazar Imam indicated that he wished to extend a gift to the city of Granada in the form of a project which would contribute to the conservation and enhancement of its unique cultural heritage. The Zafra House was selected to receive a direct grant for this purpose from four projects proposed by the municipality.
The form and decorative elements of the Zafra House have been preserved essentially intact over many centuries. The plan of the house consists of a rectangular patio at ground level with galleries on the first and second storeys leading to a series of rooms.
White marble porticoes are located at each end of the patio; their arches are decorated with traditional limework. In the middle of the patio at ground level is a rectangular pool with two marble urns, one of which has beenremoved and is now displayed at the Alhambra museum.
Nasrid paintings and inscriptions remain on certain ceilings. On the rear facade of the building overlooking the Porteria de la Conception de Zafra Street, there are examples of ornamental stucco work of considerable historic and artistic interest. From the second gallery above the patio, there is a magnificent view of the Alhambra.
Earlier attempts to consolidate the building’s structure and restore its original form and been made in 1963, 1966 and 1982. Unfortunately, not all of them were successful and in certain cases further interventions were required to correct the errors made. This restoration project has aimed to recuperate the original structure as far as possible and identify the various transformations that the building underwent during its history.
Research clarified the various historical phases of the Zafra House’s development and whenever additions to the original structure have contributed to its cultural and historical enrichment, the project has preserved them.
Undertaken by the Municipality of Granada with the participation of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the restoration has been carried out with the use of the most advanced technological methods available. The goal was not only restoration. It also included the conversion of the building in order to meet the requirements of the new use assigned to it.
Such a function had already been designated by the Municipality: Zafra House is now the Centre for Historical Studies of the City and Kingdom of Granada.
The Centre for Historical Studies of Granada and itsKingdom needed a space for a library with reading rooms, a secretariat with offices and a meeting room for ten people. All these functions have been accommodated on the first floor, leaving the ground floor free for public functions such as exhibitions and conferences.
Restoration was completed on schedule in early 1991, after some two years of work. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture contributed professionally and financially to the restoration project, whose cost was largely covered by the Municipality of Granada. Zafra House has been restored not only as an important historic landmark but as a living and ongoing institution.
Source: Africa Ismaili (July 1991)
Similar links
Speech by His Highness the Aga Khan at the Royal Toledo foundation award ceremony 2006-03-02
KING JUAN CARLOS HONORS H. H. The Aga Khan – 1988-06-01
HONOURS CONFERRED ON H. H. The Aga Khan BY KING JUAN CARLOS – 1991-11-22
Royal Toledo Foundation award ceremony
SPEECH DELIVERED BYHis Highness the Aga Khan
LOCATION
Toledo, Spain (2 March 2006)
RELATED INFORMATION
RELATEDLINKS
Historic Cities Programme around the world
Aga Khan Trust for Culture
BismillahiRahmanir Rahim
Your Majesty,
Mr. Chairman and Distinguished Members of the Foundation Board,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
On behalf of all the award recipients, including the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, it is my privilege to thank the Royal Toledo Foundation for its generosity in recognizing their efforts as contributing to the preservation of historic, cultural and artistic heritage.
We are particularly honoured by the presence of Your Majesty among us this evening.
Some may ask if preserving the material evidence of our past influences the future positively, helps us live together in peace, and improve the quality of life.
I believe the answer is a confident yes. But there is a paradox.
In the developing, including the Muslim, world, many historic cities are home to large populations who live in extreme poverty. They may contain some of the greatest treasures of Muslim architecture, yet many of their inhabitants lack even the most basic services. They live on the margins of society and feel trapped in a cycle of poverty.
The risk is that when hope fades, extremist ideologies feed on the despair that is born from limitless poverty. Thus, a recent UN Development Programme study in Latin America reports that a majority of people surveyed would support authoritarian rule if it delivered economic progress.
This confirms a universal tendency. Whatever their faiths or value systems, the primary, daily concern of peoples everywhere is their quality of life.
Indeed, the revelation of Islam – my faith – looks upon freedom from hunger, provision of appropriate shelter and clothing, security against fear for one’s safety, good health, learning and wisdom, and generation of wealth as a blessing to strive for, and to share in the creation of an equitable order of peace and harmony.
This explains my own role, as the hereditary Imam – the spiritual leader – of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, in development activities through the agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network, or the AKDN.
Like the Muslim Ummah as a whole, the worldwide Ismaili community that I lead is immensely pluralistic, culturally and linguistically. In our experience and conviction, the creation of a humane, socially supportive built environment is critical to people’s quality of life.
For this reason, the Historic Cities Support Programme, a component of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, is not only concerned with saving buildings or historic districts for future generations. It seeks to go beyond restoration to creating mechanisms that contribute to real, measurable improvement in the quality of life in rural and urban areas, also enabling their inhabitants thereby to look after their cultural assets.
This is the goal of the multi-programme capacity-building strategies which the AKDN deploys to help the residents of historic cities or areas, whether this be the Silk Road, or Kabul and Herat in Afghanistan, Aleppo in Syria, Mopti in Mali, Zanzibar, or Cairo, the city that my forefathers, the Fatimid Imam-Caliphs of Egypt, founded more than a thousand years ago. In all such places, rehabilitation of cultural heritage is supported by the work of AKDN agencies specialising in microfinance, health, education, water and sanitation and promotion of economic enterprise.
We have evidence to believe that the processes we have been developing and testing for the past 20 years have the potential to become self-sustainable. The expertise and investment that they bring to historic cities, or indeed the Silk Road, are helping to create jobs and economic opportunities, for example, through tourism and by rendering ancient crafts and skills into marketable products and services.
At the same time, I believe conservation can play a central role in helping different civilizations understand each other, to appreciate how mutually enriching their historic interactions have been, and the contribution of each to the common heritage of humanity.
Undeniably, there have been periods in history when the genius of different civilisations was perceived as a threat.In recent times also, we have witnessed attempts by antagonistic social, cultural and religious forces to impose their own norms on vulnerable groups.
Be that as it may, the reality is that our world is pluralistic and multi-cultural, and destined to remain so.
Ought we not, then, to focus our attention on periods of history when pluralism was happily embraced? May we not learn thereby the need to nurture what I have recently called a cosmopolitan ethic? For this is the foundation of a merit-based civil society capable of harnessing the best in all walks of life from all groups of people. This is the only way to manage, and build on, pluralism, the critical test of democracy anywhere.
This brings me to Toledowhich has so successfully preserved, over many centuries, the evidence of its three-fold culture: magnificent churches, synagogues and mosques.
This was an era when each of these cultures, Christian, Jewish and Muslim, retained its independent identity while all worked and came together in a glorious intellectual and spiritual adventure. The legacy was a truly enabling environment conducive to prosperity, harmony, scientific discovery, philosophical insights and artistic flowering – all the defining features of a thriving civilisation.
I believe, therefore, that the past has the potential to inspire the future positively, and in the wisdom of investing in its protection, particularly the protection of cultures under threat.
The Royal Toledo Foundation deserves admiration for its commitment to keeping alive this spirit of Toledo.
Thank you.
ISLAM ‘IN THE SOUL OF PORTUGAL’
About Islam & News Agencies
18 June, 2019
Centuries after the end of the Islamic period in Al-Andalus, the Islamic monuments in Portugal have left a deep trace in the country’s language, culture, and soul, Albawaba reported.
“Al-Andalus was a golden age for humanity. Muslims, Jews, and Christians coexisted relatively peacefully and science and culture thrived,” says the writer, poet, and scholar Adalberto Alves.
“The influence of five centuries of Islamic presence is immense.”
Last year, Lisbon’s Islamic Community celebrated its 50th anniversary. The community was established by migrants in the 1960s.
Yet, Islam has deeper roots in the country which remained for 500 under the rule of Muslims in what was known as Al-Andalus.
Standing at the entrance of the Central Mosque of Lisbon for the 50th-anniversary commemorations, Portuguese president Marcelo Ribelo de Souza says “Islam is the soul of Portugal”
Centuries after the end of the Islamic period in Al-Andalus, the Islamic monuments in Portugal have left a deep trace in the country’s language, culture, and soul, Albawaba reported.
“Al-Andalus was a golden age for humanity. Muslims, Jews, and Christians coexisted relatively peacefully and science and culture thrived,” says the writer, poet, and scholar Adalberto Alves.
“The influence of five centuries of Islamic presence is immense.”
Last year, Lisbon’s Islamic Community celebrated its 50th anniversary. The community was established by migrants in the 1960s.
Yet, Islam has deeper roots in the country which remained for 500 under the rule of Muslims in what was known as Al-Andalus.
Standing at the entrance of the Central Mosque of Lisbon for the 50th-anniversary commemorations, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said, “Islam is in Portugal’s soul.”
“We might at times not be fully aware of the profound heritage left by Arabs in Portuguese society and culture,” the president said. “But it was and continues to be very important.”
To bring Europe closer to the Islamic world, Adalberto Alves spent the last 45 years exploring the influence of centuries of Muslim rule in Portugal.
“My family is from the south of Portugal, from an area that was very influenced by the Islamic presence. So I grew up with this interest in the other and ended up discovering that the other is also part of us,” he says.
For 10 years, Alves also worked on a dictionary of Portuguese words of Arabic origin.
“I found there were almost 19 000 words of Arabic origin in the Portuguese language, and my dictionary keeps expanding,” he says.
“The European Enlightenment was prepared by the Arabs. It was their contribution in the Iberian Peninsula that made it possible,” he added.
According to the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (the National Statistical Institute of Portugal), there were, according to the 1991 census, 9,134 Muslims in Portugal, about 0.1% of the total population.
Yet, the Islamic Community of Lisbon presently points to a number of about 40,000 according to 2011 estimates.
Muslims ruled Spain and Portugal for centuries starting from 711 to 1492. Their last king was defeated by the Catholic king and queen, Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492.
After that Muslims mosques were either left to ruin or converted into churches.