Archive for October, 2007

Cairo Bridged with Its Fatimid Ismaili Founders The Predecessors of Present Aga Khan Fatimid Imam Caliph

At a ceremony here today, His Highness the Aga Khan, His Excellency
Farouk Hosni, Egypt’s Minister of Culture, Dr. Abdel Azim Wazir, the Governor of Cairo, inaugurated the restoration and revitalization of two historic complexes in the city’s Darb al-Ahmar district.

The restoration of the fourteenth century Umm al Sultan Shabaan mosque and the Khayrebek complex, which encompasses a 13th century palace, a mosque and an Ottoman house, represent major steps in the revitalization of
Cairo’s Islamic City.

Speaking at the ceremony inaugurating the restored sites, the Aga Khan, who is spiritual leader of the world’s Shia Ismaili community, said the restoration work has helped bridge
Cairo’s present with the era of its Fatimid Ismaili founders 1000 years ago.

“I have found that this endeavor has provided for me, personally, a profound sense of connection with my own ancestors, the Fatimid Caliphs, who founded
Cairo and who laid its physical and cultural foundations 1000 years ago,” he said.

The Aga Khan noted that the restoration work was a unique joint effort of institutions and people from across the world.

“It has involved people whose homes are thousands of miles away from
Cairo – and it has also involved, most profoundly, the people of this neighbourhood, those who live and work only minutes away, in the very shadows of these buildings,” he said.

Restoration was undertaken by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities as part of a broad programme encompassing restoration projects, housing rehabilitation, microfinance initiatives, training and apprenticeships. Hundreds of young men and women in Darb Al Ahmar have been trained in restoration techniques and have found work on the restoration projects, in Al-Azhar park and on project teams restoring 1.5 kilometers of the twelfth century Ayyubid wall which runs between the park and Darb al-Ahmar.The Aga Khan said the restoration work on the area’s historic buildings will be expanded to include other jewels of Islamic cultural heritage. But he also noted that the restoration work cannot be complete without looking after the environmental needs of the local residents.

“I cannot see how this enormous endeavor, which still lies ahead, could be considered complete without serious attention being given to the area’s ongoing infrastructure, such as the road surfaces, the sewage disposal system, the distribution of water and electricity, the signage and public lighting,” he said.
Hundreds of local houses — many structurally damaged by earthquakes or otherwise in disrepair — have been renovated and upgraded with water and sanitation facilities and returned to their owners. A housing credit scheme is aiding private individuals in the rehabilitation of their own houses.The construction of the park and the restoration of cultural monuments are seen as catalysts for social and economic development and the overall improvement of the quality of life in the district. In July of this year, the Governorate of Cairo and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture signed an historic Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement linking

Al-Azhar
Park, a future “

Urban
Plaza” project at the northern end of the Park, and ongoing work by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Darb al-Ahmar. The “

Urban
Plaza” project will be a mixed-use centre with underground car parking, shops and cultural facilities, including the

Museum of
Historic Cairo, which is being built by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt.

The Museum will house some of the great wealth of art and artefacts of
Cairo’s Islamic heritage that are not currently on display. To be built adjacent to the “

Urban
Plaza,” the Museum will give visitors insight into the urban, cultural and architectural history of the heart of
Cairo.To conserve and restore all the artefacts and artworks which will be shown in the museum, the Trust has set up a major conservation laboratory, which is training young technicians in this field. It is also being used to restore important art and architectural elements for the Cairo Museum of Islamic Art, due to open in 2007.  

Notes:
This year, the world is celebrating Golden Jubilee of the Imamat Caliphate of Prince Karim al-Hussaini Aga Khan (since1957). The 49th Fatimid Imam Caliph, His Highness Aga Khan is the direct lineal descendant of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) through his cousin and son-in- Aly, the first Imam Caliph, and his wife Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter. Prince Aga Khan is the rope of love, wisdom and unity among interpretations of the Faith, and bridge of confidence between West and Muslims.

Fatimid Heritage Foundation (The FATIMID), Geneva Peace Development Centre (Geneva Peace), and Mountain Girls Education Development Program (MGEDP) support development activities to enhance knowledge, conciliation, inter faith harmony, peace and global pluralism to establish a more secure, equitable and prosperous world in accordance with the vision of His Highness Aga Khan.

Published in:Mountain Girls Education Development Program, Fatimid Heritage Foundation, Fatimid Imamat Caliphate, Golden Jubilee, Aga Khan Fatimid Imam Caliph |on October 30th, 2007 |Comments Off

General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Receives Aga Khan Fatimid Imam Caliph in Abudhabi

General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, received today His highness Prince Karim al-Hussaini Aga Khan Fatimid Imam Caliph on a visit to this country.

The Fatimid Caliph and Sheikh Mohammed exchanged views on a range of issues of mutual interest. They also reviewed achievements made by the UAE under the leadership of President H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan through its principled approach to promoting the brotherhood based on tolerance, interfaith harmony and economic co-operation.  

The Aga Khan praised
United Arab Emirates cultural and religious diversity, whereby the UAE has set an example for others   to follow. 

The meeting was attended by Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Dr. Ali bin Abdullah Al Ka’abi, Minister of Labor and Khaldoun Al Mubarak, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority. 

Notes:

This year, the world is celebrating Golden Jubilee of the Imamat Caliphate of Prince Karim al-Hussaini Aga Khan (since1957). The 49th Fatimid Imam Caliph, His Highness Aga Khan is the direct lineal descendant of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) through his cousin and son-in- Aly, the first Imam Caliph, and his wife Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter. Prince Aga Khan is the rope of love, wisdom and unity among interpretations of the Faith, and bridge of confidence between West and Muslims.

Fatimid Heritage Foundation (The FATIMID), Geneva Peace Development Centre (Geneva Peace), and Mountain Girls Education Development Program (MGEDP) support development activities to enhance knowledge, conciliation, inter faith harmony, peace and global pluralism to promote a more secure, equitable and prosperous world in accordance with the vision of His Highness Aga Khan.

Published in:Fatimid Heritage Foundation, NEWS, Fatimid Imamat Caliphate, Golden Jubilee, Aga Khan Fatimid Imam Caliph |on October 29th, 2007 |Comments Off

Providing Food Security And Reducing Disaster Risk in Afghan Badakhshan

Through a grant awarded by the European Commission Disaster Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO) and with the assistance of the Aga Khan Foundation UK, in September 2007 FOCUS began Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) programmes in the province of Badakhshan, north-eastern Afghanistan.

 

With a population of over 820,000 Badakhshan is considered one of the most highly exposed provinces to natural hazards in Afghanistan. Every year dozens of disasters ranging from severe flooding to small-scale earthquakes and avalanches occur in the province resulting in loss of lives, economic losses and destruction of homes and property. This, combined with the remoteness of the province, has increased the vulnerability of communities living and reduced capacity to cope, resist, and recover from the impact of natural disasters. Over the last two years alone, 35 small scale disasters were reported in the province resulting in high casualties and damage to the local economy. The CBDRM programme will enable FOCUS to establish a grounded disaster risk management programme in partnership with local communities. Initially accessing four districts, the programme’s key objectives are to raise awareness of disaster risk, facilitate training of volunteer teams to respond to disasters, undertake assessments, provide an advocacy forum as well as build partnerships and disaster risk management capacity within government institutions.

And as autumn began, FOCUS and the UN World Food Programme partnered to ensure close to 1,000 MT of food was able to reach isolated communities living in districts of north-eastern Afghanistan. Accessing the mountainous communities is challenging at the best of times, however FOCUS’ expertise, local voluntary capacity and knowledge of the local terrain has ensured that vital supplies are channeled through Kulyab in Tajikistan and transported to Darwaz in the Afghanistan province of Badakhshan. The route is made complex as the only accessible road to Darwaz is across the Tajik-Afghan border and back again at a different crossing.

Published in:Mountain Girls Education Development Program, Afghanistan, Fatimid Heritage Foundation, Fatimid Imamat Caliphate, Golden Jubilee, Emergimg Economy, Aga Khan Fatimid Imam Caliph |on October 27th, 2007 |Comments Off

2008 World Development Report: Agriculture for Development

The latest World Development Report calls for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries and warns that the sector must be placed at the center of the development agenda if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realized. 

Titled ‘Agriculture for Development’, the reportsays the agricultural and rural sectors have suffered from neglect and underinvestment over the past 20 years. While 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, a mere 4 percent of official development assistance goes to agriculture in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a region heavily reliant on agriculture for overall growth, public spending for farming is also only 4 percent of total government spending and the sector is still taxed at relatively high levels.

The World Bank Group is advocating a new ‘agriculture for development’ agenda. According to the WDR, for the poorest people, GDP growth originating in agriculture is about four times more effective in reducing poverty than GDP growth originating outside the sector.  “A dynamic ‘agriculture for development’ agenda can benefit the estimated 900 million rural people in the developing world who live on less than $1 a day, most of whom are engaged in agriculture,” said Robert B. Zoellick, World Bank Group President. “We need to give agriculture more prominence across the board. At the global level, countries must deliver on vital reforms such as cutting distorting subsidies and opening markets, while civil society groups, especially farmer organizations, need more say in setting the agricultural agenda.”

According to the report, agriculture can offer pathways out of poverty if efforts are made to increase productivity in the staple foods sector; connect smallholders to rapidly expanding high-value horticulture, poultry, aquaculture, as well as dairy markets; and generate jobs in the rural nonfarm economy.

“Agricultural growth has been highly successful in reducing rural poverty in East Asia over the past 15 years,” said Francois Bourguignon, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Development Economics. “The challenge is to sustain and expand agriculture’s unique poverty-reducing power, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where the number of rural poor people is still rising and will continue to exceed the number of urban poor for at least another 30 years.”

For its part, the Bank intends to continue increasing its support for agriculture and rural development, following a decline in lending in the 1980s and 1990s.  Commitments in FY07 reached $3.1 billion, marking an increase for the fourth straight year.

DETAILED FINDINGS

The report also warns global food supplies are under pressure from expanding demand for food, feed, and biofuels; the rising price of energy; and increasing land and water scarcity; as well as the effects of climate change. This in turn is contributing to uncertainty about future food prices.

Agriculture consumes 85 percent of the world’s utilized water and the sector contributes to deforestation, land degradation, and pollution. The report recommends measures to achieve more sustainable production systems and outlines incentives to protect the environment.

The report says in agriculture-based countries—home to 417 million rural people, 170 million of whom live on less than $1 a day—the agricultural sector is essential to overall growth, poverty reduction, and food security. Most of these countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the sector employs 65 percent of the labor force and generates 32 percent of GDP growth.

For Sub-Saharan Africa’s development, the report highlights issues to be urgently confronted: too little public spending on agriculture; donor support for emergency food aid with insufficient attention to income-raising investments; rich-country trade barriers and subsidies for key commodities such as cotton and oilseeds; and the under-recognized potential of millions of women who play a dominant role in farming.

In transforming countries such as China, India, and Morocco, agriculture contributes on average only 7 percent to GDP growth, but lagging rural incomes are a major source of political tensions.  Dynamism in the rural and agricultural sectors is needed to narrow the rural-urban income gap and reduce rural poverty for 600 million poor while avoiding falling into subsidy and protection traps that will stymie growth and tax poor consumers. 

In urbanized countries, mainly in Latin America and the Caribbean and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, agriculture contributes just 5 percent of GDP growth on average. However, rural areas are still home to 45 percent of the poor, and agribusiness and food services account for as much as one third of GDP. The broad goal is to link smallholders to modern food markets and provide remunerative jobs in rural areas.

The report says rich countries need to reform policies which harm the poor. For example, it is vital that the United States reduces cotton subsidies which depress prices for African smallholders. In the emerging area of biofuels, the problem is both restrictive tariffs and heavy subsidies in rich countries, which drive up food prices and limit export opportunities for efficient developing country producers.  The report also asserts that industrialized countries that were the major contributors to global warming urgently need to do more to help poor farmers adapt their production systems to climate change.

Notes:

This year, the world is celebrating Golden Jubilee of the Imamat Caliphate of Prince Karim al-Hussaini Aga Khan (1957-2007). The 49th Fatimid Imam Caliph, His Highness Aga Khan is the direct lineal descendant of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) through his cousin and son-in- Aly, the first Imam Caliph, and his wife Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter. Prince Aga Khan is the rope of love, wisdom and unity among interpretations of the Faith, and bridge of confidence between West and Muslims.

Fatimid Heritage Foundation, Geneva Peace Development Centre and Mountain Girls Education Development Program support development activities to enhance knowledge, conciliation, inter faith harmony, peace and global pluralism. It is an expression of love and devotion Ismaili Muslims have for His Highness Aga Khan.

          Access the report and related material at: www.worldbank.org/wdr2008

Journalists are encouraged to use this url in their reports.

Published in:United Nations, Food Security, World Development Report, Islam, Fatimid Heritage Foundation, Golden Jubilee, Emergimg Economy, Fatimid Imamat Caliphate, Aga Khan Fatimid Imam Caliph |on October 27th, 2007 |Comments Off

Evidence of Continued Ismaili Activity in the South Caspian Region

The Eagle Returns: Evidence of Continued Isma‘ili Activity at Alamut and in the South Caspian Region following the Mongol Conquests
Dr Shafique N Virani

This is an edited version of an article that was originally published in the Journal of the American Oriental Society 123.2 (2003), pp. 351-370   

Abstract
Persian historians, following ‘Ata-Malik Juwayni’s eyewitness accounts in The History of the World Conqueror, record the complete annihilation of the Shi‘i Ismaili community, centred at Alamut, in the thirteenth century Mongol invasions that devastated the Muslim world. While modern research reveals that the community had, in fact, survived, its continued activities at Alamut and the south Caspian region have been underestimated. Inconsistencies and exaggerations in Juwayni’s testimony; a correction of his narrative based on other historians, including Rashid al-Din; and the evidence of regional histories, geographical tomes and inscriptions clearly point to sustained Isma‘ili presence in the area. This evidence is further supported by the fifteenth century Nasa’ih-i Shah-Rukhi and testimony in the communal literature of the Indian Subcontinent, both of which identify Alamut as an important centre of Isma‘ilism in the post-invasion period to which, significantly, community funds were sent. Furthermore, the Indic literature identifies the fortress of Alamut as the residence of the Isma‘ili Imam Islam Shah.

 Download PDF version of article (158 KB)

Key words:

Mongol, Isma‘ilis, Alamut, ta‘limiyya, Juwayni, Gilan, Mazandaran, Saljuqs, Hulagu, Maymundiz, Khwarshah, Tarkiya, Kiya Sayf al-Din, Qazwin, Mar‘ashi, Ilkhanids, mulhid, wajibat, da‘wa, Ginan, Nizaris, Hasan Sabbah, Nusayris, Nasai’ih-i Shah-Rukhi, Ul­jaytu.

Table of Contents:

It is generally believed that the fall of the castle of Alamut in A.H. 654 (A.D. 1256) marks the end of the Ismaili influence in Gilan. This is a great mistake.

-Hyacinth L. Rabino2

Published in:Mountain Girls Education Development Program, Fatimid Heritage Foundation, Ismaili Muslim, Fatimid Imamat Caliphate, Aga Khan Fatimid Imam Caliph |on October 25th, 2007 |Comments Off
« Previous Entries