Yusuf Shah Chak, the last independent Muslim Ruler of Kashmir Valley, is buried in Nalanda and his tomb is in disrepair and unprotected.
Yasir Iqbal, a descendant of Yusuf Shah Chak, at the tomb of Kashmir’s last Muslim ruler’s grave in Nalanda. (HT Photo )
With the Centre revoking Article 370 which gave special status to J&K, the Kashmir Valley is once again in focus. But Yusuf Shah Chak. the last independent Muslim ruler of the Valley, has remained obscured and unknown for a long time.
Chak is buried in Nalanda and his tomb is in disrepair and unprotected.
Chak was exiled to Bihar by the Mughal emperor Akbar. The area where he had settled along with his family and relatives in Biswak village in Nalanda and also maintained a cavalry force of 500 horses, was later known as Kashmiri Chak. Though the exiled Kashmiri ruler died in Odisha in 1592, his body was brought to Bihar and has been lying buried along with the tombs of his wife, sons and other relatives at the graveyard at Biswak near Kashmiri Chak.
Though his Mazaar is encircled with boundary wall, the land outside this wall at the cemetery is open and has remained prone to encroachments in the past. Some concrete structures and thatched roof hutments too have come up around its periphery.
Earlier, some locals erected a boundary wall around his Mazaar, but the entire area of the cemetery outside this wall is open to encroachment.
A view of the ‘mazar’ of Yusuf Shah Chak, the last Muslim ruler of Kashmir Valley. ( HT Photo )
Recently, Yasir Iqbal, a descendant of the Chak ruler’s relative, wrote a letter to the Minority Welfare Department, Bihar, drawing the attention towards the increasing threats of encroachments at the site of the cemetery .
He has made an appeal to take steps to stop encroachment and has also requested for the boundary wall at the cemetery. In the letter, Iqbal also made requests to preserve this piece of history and to take initiatives to tap tourism potential of the site.
“The minority welfare department has forwarded the request letter to the department concerned which is responsible for creating the boundary walls at graveyards and has directed to take actions as necessary,” SI Faisal, special secretary cum director, minority welfare department, said.
The site has a great tourism potential and it can be tapped. “But it’s the domain of the tourism department. They should take initiatives in this direction and should develop it,” he said.
Yasir Iqbal said many Kashmiris have been eager to come here to pay tribute to their last ruler. “Many intellectuals have also been coming here, but the place lack even basic infrastructure. Even the road to Kashmiri Chak village was developed in 1977 when Sheikh Abdulla, the prominent leader of Kashmir had arrived to witness Yusuf Shah’s tomb” he said. There is also no place at the village to stay. “You have to find the accommodation whether at Islampur or at Rajgir,” he said.
However, the biggest concern has been encroachment of the land. “The cemetery is spread over five acre land area at Biswak and over one acre land at Kashmiri Chak. But the tombs of Yusuf Shah, his wife and sons for decades remained unknown. There was almost a jungle around it and the tombs were hardly visible. Then we got it constructed a few years ago. But the area outside is still open and is being encroached inch by inch. Some concrete structures and thatched roof hutments have also come up on its border areas,” he said.
Yusuf Shah Chak ruled Kashmir from 1579 to 1586. In 1579 he was deceitfully imprisoned by the Mughal emperor Akbar, but was later released and was exiled to Biswak area of Bihar.
“He had a Mansabdaari of 500 horses. In fact, his love and knowledge of art and literature had impressed Mughal Badshaah and that became the reason for his release. He had married Habba Khatoon, the legendary poetess whose verses are still sung by the locals in Kashmir,” he said.
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> India> Cities> Patna / by Reena Sipan, Hindustan Times, Patna / August 07th, 2019
He couldn’t come out of the water as there was a strong undercurrent.
Flood in the Indian state of Kerala has claimed life of a Dubai expat. Razak Akkiparambil, a support staff of a school in Dubai, died after rescuing two children, including his son, who were caught in flood water.
The incident happened on Tuesday afternoon, Razak’s brother-in-law Shareef, said over the phone from Malappuram district, which is among the worst-hit regions.
“Razak had come to Kerala for his daughter’s marriage, which was held on August 4. The family had come to my home. The incident happened around 2.30 pm (IST). He saw these kids walk down to the water-filled paddy fields. It’s now filled up to the height of two people and soon these kids were in deep. As soon as Razak saw the kids were in danger, he rushed and jumped into the water to save them. He managed to hand over two kids safely to another person. But he couldn’t come out as there was a strong undercurrent. He is just 42 years but couldn’t cope with the sudden rush of water and collapsed. And as everyone was focusing on kids, no one noticed Razak drowning. He was pulled out of the water only after 15 minutes. We rushed him to a hospital but the doctor said he passed away before reaching there,” said Shareef, who works at Our Own English High School.
“We both work in the same school. Razak is there for some 10 years now. We had travelled together to Kerala for the marriage.”
Razak, a father of three, is survived by his family. They are devastated with the news of his untimely death.
“They were already affected by flood last year. They had somehow managed to renovate their house for the wedding. But again were hit by floods from last week. Luckily the wedding went well. It was his big dream. Now he is no more. The cremation will be tomorrow.”
ashwani@kjhaleejtimes.com
source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com / Khaleej Times / Home> UAE> Dubai / by Ashwani Kumar, Dubai / August 14th, 2019
When a reporter pointed at his fast-emptying shelves and asked but hasn’t everything gone, Noushad is seen saying “God will give more.”
An artist’s tribute to PM Noushad has set an example for many (Photo | Facebook)
“True generosity is an offering; given freely and out of pure love. No strings attached. No expectations. Time and love are the most valuable possession you can share.”
At a time when several flood relief collection units in Kerala are struggling to find enough materials, PM Noushad, an ordinary street vendor in Ernakulam’s famous Broadway market, has set an example by donating his entire stock to those in relief camps in Nilambur and Wayanad.
A resident of Malippuram near Vypeen in Kochi, Noushad had brought new clothes to sell for the festival sale but contributed them to relief volunteers instead. He says there is no better way of celebrating the Eid al-Adha this year than this.
A video of Noushad impulsively filling several sacks with clothes went viral after it was posted on Facebook by actor Rajesh Sharma. Shot at Noushad’s warehouse, Sharma explains that his team was taken there by Noushad after the latter had met them on the road on Saturday evening. Though he had locked the place by then, he reopened the room for Sharma’s men and offered them everything.
“We told him we can’t accept anything that is old. In response he told us we can take all the new clothes from here,” Sharma said in the video.
The video shows Noushad filling more than five sacks with children’s dress and unopened packs of pants and women’s wear.
“We cannot take any of these along when we leave this place. God will repay me for whatever I give today. Monday is Eid al-Adha and this is how I am planning to celebrate it this year. This is a small thing that I can do to those people who are facing nature’s fury,” Noushad said.
When a reporter pointed at his fast-emptying shelves and asked but hasn’t everything gone, Noushad is seen saying “God will give more.”
Noushad with his family
Noushad’s act was appreciated by many people and the video was widely shared on various social media platforms. Many celebrities also shared the video and said Noushad has set an example by himself to the people by his rare act of humanity.
“They say it is the invisible hands of big people that hold the sky from falling. Dear Noushad, I believe your hand is one among those…” Malayalam actor Siddique wrote on social media.
The state Health Minister KK Shailaja posted Noushad’s photo along with his words on the importance of joining the relief activities on her official Facebook page to wish all Keralites a happy Bakrid.
During the deluge of 2018, Vishnu, a youth from Madhya Pradesh who had come to Kerala to sell woollen blankets, had made news by donating his entire stock to a relief camp in Palakkad.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Online Desk / August 12th, 2019
In a moving tribute to former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, an artist in Amroha city of Uttar Pradesh created a 6 feet portrait of Sushma Swaraj by using charcoal.
“I have made this six feet portrait using charcoal as today Sushma Swaraj has left us,” said Zoaib Khan said while talking to ANI on Wednesday.
The artist has made several portraits of political leaders in the past.
Swaraj was admitted to All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) following a deterioration in her health.
According to sources at AIIMS, the 67-year-old was feeling restless at 9 pm and reached the hospital at around 9:30 pm in an ambulance. A team of doctors tried to revive her for 70 to 80 minutes but failed in their attempt. Swaraj was declared dead at 10:50 pm.
Swaraj was appointed the foreign minister in the first term of Modi government in 2014. She opted out of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections citing health reasons.
SOURCE: ANI
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> New> India / by ANI / posted: Rabia Hashimi / August 07th, 2019
India’s first flight carrying Haj pilgrims took off from Hyderabad On 22nd October 1946. Earlier, pilgrims used to travel by a sea route for performing Haj.
According to the report published in Times of India , the first flight carried 18 Haj pilgrims. Two Deccan Airways Dakota aircrafts took off from the old airport of Hyderabad located at Begumpet in 1946 amid slogans “Allah-u-Akbar”. Khan Bahadur Nawab Ahmed Nawaz Jung was also traveling on that flight.
It may be noted that at that time, there was no flight from other Indian cities to Jeddah.
The name of the pilot who took off the first flight was Captain Cox and his junior was Munshi. The technical support was provided by Nasir, Radio Officer and Lord, Flight Engineer.
It may be mentioned that Deccan Airways was the leading airlines at that time. In 1948, the flights of Deccan Airways were discontinued due to uncertain political situation in erstwhile Hyderabad State. It was again started in 1949 after the Police Action.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> News> Hyderabad / posted by Sameer / August 08th, 2019
The late IUML president had a treasured collection of vintage clocks and watches
Former Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) State president Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal had once described himself as a horophile.
But before he could show this reporter his collection as a testimony of his passion for clocks and watches, he fell ill and passed away on August 1, 2009.
On Thursday, the tenth anniversary of Thangal’s death, the watchmaker who used to support Thangal’s personal hobby by repairing some of his complicated clocks reached the Kodappanakkal house at Panakkad and overhauled dozens of timepieces that the Muslim leader had treasured.
K. Nasaruddin, the watchmaker from Thiruvananthapuram, said Thangal was an enthusiast of timepieces that he collected passionately.
Some of the winding clocks in his collection were more than 80 years old.
“It was a wonderful hobby that he cherished privately,” said Mr. Nasaruddin.
Thangal’s widow Shareefa Aysha Beevi told The Hindu that he was an aficionado of clocks, watches and pens. “During our travels abroad, he used to buy some curious clocks and pens. At home, he used to look at them closely for a long time enjoying their intricacies and beauty,” she said.
Once with his gaze fixed at the needle of a curious chronograph, Thangal told this reporter: “It reminds me of human lives. Whatever we do and however hard we try, our lives move in accordance with God’s design.”
Ms. Beevi said that Thangal used to give pens and watches from his collections to people who value them.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by Abdul Latheef Naha / Malappuram – August 01st, 2019
While Mughal rulers like Babar and Bahadur Shah Zafar have been buried on foreign soil, quite a few members of their clan rest at Humayun’s Tomb
Where do most Mughal kings, princes, and princesses sleep in Delhi? The answer lies in the vaults of Humayun’s Tomb, built with much devotion, by the emperor’s first wife, Haji Begum. Among those buried here are Hamida Bano Begum, the mother of Akbar; Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan’s heir apparent; Aurangzeb’s once beloved son, Azam Shah; the dandy Jahandar Shah, and his slayer Farrukhsiyar; Ahmed Shah and Alamgir-II.
There are many more, of lesser note, some without inscriptions, gathered within the folds of the mausoleum of their ancestor Humayun. It’s a strange feeling of beds spread out on a summer night with the kind emperor sleeping in glory among many of those who waded to the throne through the blood of their relatives. The last rites of murdered princes were generally adhered to and they were laid to rest in the family graveyard. But there were exceptions like Dara Shikoh, who was denied the ritual funeral bath by his austere brother Aurangzeb.
In Mehrauli, the precincts of the shrine of Hazrat Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki also form the burial ground of many Mughal and other princes. In Agra, Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra is the repository of the remains of a host of princes and princesses. In Calcutta, several descendants of Wajid Ali Shah, the last King of Oudh, lie buried, and in Rangoon, the family of Bahadur Shah Zafar has found a burial place denied to it in the land of its birth.
Babar’s tomb should have been the last resting place of all those descendants whose graves are found in Humayun’s mausoleum. But Babar chose to be buried in Kabul which ceased to be a part of the Mughal empire by the time most of his successors died.
Isn’t it an irony of fate that the first and last emperors could not be buried in India? While Babar loved Kabul, Bahadur Shah Zafar had no choice as the British wanted to stamp out his very memory by burying him in a nondescript grave in Rangoon, which was rediscovered by chance and formed the rallying point for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s INA during World War-II.
Bahadur Shah Zafar died on 7 November, 1862 and was hastily buried by lantern light, with the British officer deputed to escort him from India and look after his stay in Rangoon, supervising the funeral. Zinat Mahal and the other ladies of the harem who had accompanied the king did not attend the last rites, but his young son, Jawan Bakht was present. No tombstone was erected to perpetuate the memory of the star-crossed monarch, but fate willed it otherwise and Bahadur Shah Zafar seems to have had the last laugh as his name and fame survive despite his oppressors’ ill-intentions.
The king’s mazar (shrine) has now become a place of pilgrimage in Myanmar, where the last emperor is worshipped as a Pir. While on the walls are inscribed some of his heart-rending ghazals, like the one bemoaning the misfortune of his not having found even two yards of land in his country of birth “Kitna hai badnaseeb Zafar dafan ke liye / Do gaz zamin bhi na mili ku-e-yaar mein”. But he has acquired enough space in the hearts of his compatriots alright.
Babar’s mausoleum is a modest one, which lay neglected for many years. But it is heartening to note that lately it has been renovated, having somehow escaped destruction during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and then the turmoil of the Taliban period. Though demands have been made for bringing back Zafar’s remains to India, nobody has raised their voice for Babar’s reburial, not entirely because of the first Mughal emperor’s dying wish.
So Humayun’s Tomb remains the funeral parlour of the family of Babar. You go from vault to vault and nothing but inscribed stones confront you on which are enshrined a cloak-and-dagger mystery. Death, gruesome death, generally at the hands of an assassin hired by the next of kin, the ambitious prince determined to seize the throne.
Many were done to death by their brothers, uncles, nephews or treacherous wazirs. Some died of poison, administered through a favourite, but faithless, courtesan; others strangled in their sleep, yet others hacked with swords or stabbed through the heart or back. Children weren’t spared. You gaze at these tombstones with awe and pity. How many innocent lives destroyed for the sake of ambition! There is the silence of death all around, with the Grim Reaper gloating over his sickle of time with which he has laid low both those with name and those without fame. Only Clio, the muse of history, understands the secrets of these vaults and it is she who weeps in them through her tresses: Put on your shoes and tip-toe away.
The writer is a veteran chronicler of Delhi
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture> Down Memory Lane / by R.V. Smith / July 23rd, 2019
The Uttar Pradesh police on Friday said it had recovered a treasure trove of 698 “rare” Mughal-era silver coins dating back to the 16th and 17th century. A few of the coins are said to be from the eras of emperors Akbar and Aurangzeb.
The coins were found buried in a garden in Shimla, said a police officer from Moradabad district.
A DSP-rank officer from Moradabad Lallan Singh, the circle office of Highway area, said the coins were found by a Moradabad-based contractor named Ghulam Nabi while he was digging at a location in Shimla with three-four labourers.
The police came to know of the coins after Mr. Nabi and the labourers quarrelled among themselves over sharing the coins after they returned to the Mundhapandey area of Moradabad district, Mr. Singh said.
The coins weighed 7.9 kg, the officer said, adding that they had been sent to the Archaeological Survey of India.
“We struck silver!” U.P. police tweeted late on Friday as it released pictures of the recovery.
According to ASI, these are “rare 16th/17th century Mughal-era coins with legends in Persian and kalima in Arabic”, the police said.
The ASI is yet to issue a statement on the recovery or independently acknowledge their historical significance.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Omar Rashid / Lucknow – July 27th, 2019
The mosque was built as part of a vision by Dr. Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner, to include the main religions (Islam, Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism), but he passed away before he could fulfill his commitments. (Everyday Muslim/Tharik Hussain)
Everyday Muslim announced the discovery of a forgotten Arab/British princess directly descended from the Prophet Muhammad
Buried in a Muslim plot at the Brookwood Cemetery near Britain’s first Muslim Cemetery
London :
The grave of a British Muslim, believed to be a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), has been discovered in a suburban town about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of London.
Nestled in the woodlands of Woking, Surrey, Princess Sharifa Musbah Haidar El-Hasimi (also known as Musbah Khanum and Musbah Haidar El-Ghalib) lies in one of Europe’s oldest Muslim cemeteries, surrounded by the graves of other notable Muslim Britons from the late Victorian period and beyond.
The burial ground, the first Muslim cemetery established in Britain, was unearthed as part of a trail led by Everyday Muslim, a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting Muslim heritage in the UK.
“Fascinating revelations on the history of this particular princess and her final resting place have been unearthed during a self-guided trail that takes visitors to three of Britain’s most important Islamic sites, offering an overview of each one,” said Tharik Hussain, the project’s manager.
It was Hussain who first discovered the story of the Princess when he stumbled across one of her books in a small bookshop in Brighton about six years ago. Captivated by this discovery, he began researching her background.
Princess Musbah Haidar, according to Everyday Muslim, was the second daughter of the Grand Sharif of Makkah, Amir Ali Haidar of the family of Devi Zeids, who claim to be direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.
Princess Musbah Haidar was the second daughter of the Grand Sharif of Makkah, Amir Ali Haidar of the family of Devi Zeids, who claim to be direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. (Supplied, no known copyright)
Princess Musbah’s mother was an Englishwoman of Irish descent called Isabel Dunn, who converted to Islam and became Amira Fatima, the second wife of Haidar. She was employed as an English teacher for the children from his first marriage.
Everyday Muslim reported that Princess Musbah was born at the family retreat, known as Chamlujah, in Istanbul on Nov. 25 1918, and had an older sister called Sfyne and a brother named Faisal.
She was initially brought up in the city, but following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, her family was forced to leave.
Later she moved to England, and married Maj. Francis Stewart Fripp, who later converted to Islam, taking the name Ghalib.
The princess’s ancestry is not well known as, at the time, the Ottomans had installed the other side of her family on the throne in Makkah. In 1916, with the encouragement and support of Britain, the then Sharif of Makkah, Hussein bin Ali, led a revolt against the Ottomans to create a united Arab state.
Everyday Muslim states: “Her great grandfather was the late Emir Abdul Muttalib, who was the grandson of Emir Musaad, who was directly descended from the patriarch of the House of Devi Zeid, Muhsin, whose brother Abdullah was the patriarch of the House of Devi-Aoun, which is the family tree of the current monarchs of Jordan and the historic monarchs of Iraq.
“Both houses stem from Emir Hassan, whose lineage is traced directly back eleven generations to Emir Katada of Makkah in 1174 AD. Emir Katada’s lineage traces back a further eight generations to Abdullah, the son of Mohammed Al-Alaoui, who is the grandson of Abdullah, the son of Hassan Al-Mussema.”
Al-Mussema was the son of Hassan, the brother of Hussein, whose father was the fourth caliph of Islam, Ali, the husband of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad.
In her lifetime, the princess authored two books; “Arabesque: an account of Harem Life,” detailing her life as a Makkan princess, and “Dawn Beyond the Tamarisks.” Her death was announced in The Times in January 1977.
According to Hussain, the two other Muslim sites in Woking the organization promotes have also been in the media recently: The Woking Muslim War Cemetery, which was renovated a few years ago and featured in the centenary celebrations of the Great War, and the Shah Jahan Mosque, which became the first in the country to be listed as a grade I historic monument as the first purpose-built mosque in northwest Europe.
The latter of these, named after Sultan Shah Jahan Begum, ruler of the British Raj tributary state of Bhopal, has a significant history.
The 130 year-old Shah Jahan mosque, in suburban Surrey, bears the name of its key donor, the Sultan Shah Jahan Begum, ruler of the British-Indian princely state of Bhopal. (Everyday Muslim/Tharik Hussain)
It was the vision of Dr. Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner, an orientalist born of Jewish parents from Hungary. A remarkable individual, according to the mosque’s website, aged 17 he “took a degree at King’s College, London, by which time it is said he could speak 15 languages.” He later went on to found the forerunner to the School of Oriental and African Studies.
The mosque itself was designed by Anglo-Irish architect William Isaac Chambers in a style that mirrored Indian Mughal architecture from the 16th century.
FUNFACT
In popular culture, the Shah Jahan Mosque was destroyed in H.G. Wells’ novel “War of the Worlds,” which was set in the author’s hometown of Woking.
Why Woking of all places?
Lietner, a religious scholar who lived and worked for many years in India and abroad, wanted to set up a college that would allow people to study the religions of the East.
“He came up with a site just outside London, in Woking, where this beautiful gothic building, known at the time as the Royal Dramatic College, had fallen on hard times and was up for sale. So it was really about convenience. It came with lots of land and it meant he didn’t have to pay the high prices that he would have paid had he found somewhere in London,” Hussain told Arab News.
Lietner wanted to build free places of worship there as well, including a Hindu temple, an Eastern Christian church, a synagogue and a mosque. Because he anticipated people from all over the world would come, including Muslims, one of the first things he did in 1884 was secure a plot at the nearby cemetery (Brookwood) exclusively for the use of Muslim burials.
The mosque (interior pictured above with the direction of the qibla) was built initially, along with a Muslim cemetery, as Dr. Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner understood that burial rites in Islam were a very important rite. (Everyday Muslim/Tharik Hussain)
A stone still stands to this day inscribed with specific instructions on how to bury Muslims, as very few people in Victorian Britain understood the specific procedures.
His institute flourished and after five years he began building the mosque, but passed away before he could fulfill his vision.
The Shah Jahan Mosque was completed in 1889, but according to its website: “Abdullah Quilliam’s Liverpool mosque, opened in 1889, pre-dates Woking by a few months, but the Shah Jahan has the honor of being the first purpose-built mosque in Europe outside of Muslim Spain.”
FASTFACT
The Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking is the oldest purpose-built mosque in northwestern Europe and was known as the “Makkah of Europe” during the early 20th century, when it became the center of Islam in the UK.
Hussain adds: “So this is why Woking, because it had Britain’s first purpose-built mosque and Britain’s first Muslim cemetery, so naturally Muslims were drawn to it.”
Unfortunately, the mosque was neglected after Leitner’s passing for over a decade, but was then restored by an Indian lawyer, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, who had befriended influential Victorians curious about Islam, including a Lord who later became a convert.
His name was Lord Headley, also known as Sheikh Rahmatullah Al-Farooq, an Irish peer, and one of the leading members of the Woking Muslim Mission who helped the center flourish, with the aim of bringing it back to life as a platform for promoting islam in Europe, even becoming home to one of the first Muslim publications in Europe, The Islamic Review.
That is why Woking has been dubbed the “Makkah of Europe” by the organizers of the trail.
The Muslim cemetries
The Woking Muslim War Cemetery, now known as the Peace Gardens, played a prominent part in the remembrance of the centenary of the First World War, between 1914-18. It was the final resting place of 27 Muslim soldiers who fought for the British Empire and Free French Forces during the two great wars..
But it is the other cemetery that Everyday Muslim is keen to highlight, which you could say was the Westminster Abbey of Muslim cemeteries.
“This site is probably the least known and ironically is actually the oldest Muslim space we know of in Britain. It is a plot of land originally known as the ‘Muhammadan Cemetery,’ founded in 1884, within the nearby Brookwood cemetery, by Dr. Leitner,” Hussain told Arab News.
Princess Musbah resides here alongside Abdullah Quilliam (1856‑1932), founder of Britain’s first mosque and Muslim publication, Muhammad Marmaduke William Pickthall (1875‑1936), author of the first ‘native’ English translation of the Holy Qur’an, Naji Al‑Ali (1936‑1987), Palestinian political cartoonist and creator of “Handalah,” Sepoy Ahmad Khan (died 1914), the first British Muslim soldier buried on British soil, and many other famous Muslims, such as Victorians, princes and princesses, sultans and so on.
he cemetery in Woking is home to several important Muslim dignitaries. (Everyday Muslim/Tharik Hussain)
What is the aim?
Everyday Muslim wants to reach a point where sites such as these are not labelled as “British Muslim” heritage, but just “British” heritage.
Hussain, who also develops self-guided trails across the world for Lonely Planet guidebooks, said it should be recognized as a significant part of the island’s history
Sir Laurie Magnus, chairman of Historic England, which is responsible for protecting and championing the country’s heritage, said “Muslim heritage is very much a part of Britain’s heritage and I am delighted to launch this trail,” to celebrate these beautiful sites.
The initiative was aided by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, as part of a bigger project concerning the heritage and history of the mosque and the surrounding area.
Hussain said: “We wanted to put these trails out there so that Muslims and non-Muslims up and down the country could see the potential.”
He said they see this as a start, and hope to receive more funding to highlight Muslim heritage trails across the UK to make Muslim heritage in Britain more visible and a normalized part of the wider narrative.
“I think it’s really cool that in the process of trying to unearth British Muslim heritage, we are not only unearthing all these amazing stories of British people who were doing amazing things as Muslims and converts, but we find someone who has British blood and the Prophet’s blood. I think that’s just pretty fabulous, and something we should celebrate and embrace,” Hussain concluded.
source: http://www.arabnews.com / Arab News / Home> Latest News> Middle-East> Home / by Sarah Glubb / July 29th, 2019
Indian Music Experience (IME), a city-based museum that explores the evolution of Indian music with interactive, multi-sensory exhibits, is organising its grand launch on July 27.
Ustad Zakkir Hussain and Louiz Banks
Bengaluru :
Indian Music Experience (IME), a city-based museum that explores the evolution of Indian music with interactive, multi-sensory exhibits, is organising its grand launch on July 27. Announcing this at a press conference, M R Jaishankar, chairman and managing director of Brigade Group and founder of IME, said, “The grand launch of the IME is a culmination of nearly a decade of effort to set up a truly world-class museum and arts centre in India. We are hopeful that the IME will grow to become a pre-eminent arts hub of the country and preserve and propagate India’s rich cultural heritage to the next generation.”
Many dignitaries, including Tejasvi Surya, member of Parliament, Bengaluru South and S M Krishna, former union minister for External Affairs, were present. On the occasion, there will be musical confluence by Ustad Zakkir Hussain and Louiz Banks at 7pm. Talking about IME, museum director and classical vocalist Manasi Prasad, shared, “The performing arts teach us to create, communicate and collaborate. India has the most diverse musical culture in the entire world and the museum celebrates this. Going forward, the IME aims to be a centre of music education and research, providing a platform for artistes and art lovers.”
The exhibit area of IME consists of eight thematic galleries showcasing various facets of Indian music, an instruments gallery with over 100 musical instruments, three mini theatres, and several computer-based interactive installations that allow visitors to experience the process of music-making. The exhibits feature memorabilia belonging to the Bharat Ratna musicians of the country— Bismillah Khan, Bhimsen Joshi and M S Subbulakshmi.
In addition, it will also feature a rare phonograph and gramophone, a selection of microphones, gramophone records and other artifacts.
The launch will be held at IME grounds in JP Nagar at 4.30pm.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / July 27th, 2019
