Category Archives: Blog

I passed by this graffiti tonight on my walk home from tai chi practice in Beirut…

Three hundred and sixty noble kinsmen rest,
In this holy land of saints bequest,
Like Mecca for Turkmen the land of promise,
My gold, my pearls, my diamonds best…

— Turkmenbashi

The marble minarets at the Turkmenbashi Ruhy Mosque in Turkmenistan are unlike any other minarets in the world. While minarets are often decorated with elaborate brickwork or colorful mosaics, these unusual minarets are inscribed with verses from the Qur’an and quotes from Turkmenbashi’s “Book of the Soul”–the Ruhnama.

When I was living in Turkmenistan, I frequently passed by a giant replica of the Ruhnama in Ashgabat. This “moving monument” was designed to open every night under neon lights to reveal a passage from the Ruhnama. Now that current President Berdymukhammedov is writing his own holy book to rival or replace Turkmenbashi’s guide for the nation, one has to wonder if Berdymukhammedov’s text will be getting its own monument too…

Today in Beirut, a large gust of wind swept down Bliss Street–and like a tini tornado it took down every umbrella in its path. Over the past few days in Lebanon, several people have died from weather-related accidents…

In the great powers battle over Crimea, Iran is weighing a policy of “active neutrality” in Ukraine. Beholden to its loyal backer (Russia), while on the verge of a possible détente with the United States, Iran may benefit the most by refusing to take sides.

Nothing walks in the cosmos without walking as a messenger with a message. This is a high knowledge. Even the worms, in their movements, are rushing with a message to those who can understand it…

— Ibn Arabi (1165–1240)

All winter in Beirut, I’ve had Plato on my mind–since my students and I have been busy contemplating the influence of Plato on medieval Islamic philosophers. One question, however, that we haven’t yet asked ourselves is: “What Would Plato Tweet?”

On March 8th, thousands of Gonoabadi Sufis in Iran gathered in front of Tehran’s main judicial court to protest the imprisonment of nine dervishes who have gone on hunger strike. To learn more about this dervish protest, please click here.

Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon claimed responsibility on Twitter for tonight’s suicide bombing in Lebanon. In response, armed Hezbollah and Amal members deployed in Beirut to secure the southern suburb. For live updates on tonight’s suicide bombing, please click here.

A house that lacks, seemingly, mistress and master,
With doors that none but the wind ever closes,
Its floor all littered with glass and with plaster;
It stands in a garden of old-fashioned roses…

— Robert Frost

On my way home today from volunteering at the Children’s Cancer Center in Beirut, I stopped in a vacant courtyard to explore several abandoned homes. Most of the hollowed out houses in Beirut were left behind during the civil war–and the old furniture and objects still residing inside evoke a time that most would like to forget.

When I peeked inside of the home with the teal shutters above, I was surprised to find that its beautiful tile floor was intact–though it was covered with garbage and dust. A dirty mattress in the corner suggested that some squatters had taken up residence–making me wonder what number of Syrian refugees have sought shelter in Beirut’s bombed out homes. What sad irony that homes like these, abandoned during the civil war in Lebanon, are now serving as sanctuaries for Syrians leaving behind homes of their own–as the civil war in Syria rages on…

How long this praise of self to spite the envier?
How long promoting goods that no one buys?
You are nonexistent, and imagining your being
is perverse. How long this perverse imagining?

— Displaying the Concealment of the Real Realm

I passed by this graffiti tonight on my way to a party in Beirut…

Love sometimes wants to do us a great favor:
hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out…

— Hafiz

I’m mad for minarets–especially ones that shake. When I was traveling in Iran, I visited Monar Jonban in Isfehan–where the minarets are shaken every hour. These unusual minarets rest upon a 14th century shrine containing the burial of Amu Abdollah Soqla, a Sufi hermit about whom not much is known. When one of the minarets is shaken, the other one shakes too–a phenomenon known in physics as coupled oscillation.

Before exploring the minarets, my friend and I stopped to take photos of the lush garden surrounding the shrine. Because we were the only ones there, we also had plenty of time to marvel at the impressive brick work and blue tiles decorating the interior of this medieval Sufi tomb. Since it’s difficult for me to describe the ecstatic movement of the “shaking” minarets, you can watch them dance for yourself in the video below.

After working all morning with young Syrian refugees on a creative arts project in Beirut, I needed a dip in the pool to unwind…