Category Archives: Blog

What’s that I’m seeing in the popular Polish music video for the song My Slowianie (“We Slavs”)? Why, whirling Slavs, of course. This video–put together by the Polish rap artist Donatan and the singer Cleo–subverts the stale stereotypes of pious and wholesome Slavic girls in the fields–by showing several Slavic ladies in a more “revealing” light. As a whirling Slav myself, I’m interested in the whirling in this video, as opposed to the other “sights” currently capturing the public’s attention (with the video garnering over 20 million hits). To see the original video without subtitles, please click here.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.

— Rumi

While researching Sufi shrines and the legacy of shamanism in Turkmenistan, I got special permission to explore a mountainous region that borders Iran. Because of its remote location, the local traditions of its villagers haven’t been altered by Soviet and post-Soviet reforms. In fact, the villagers with whom I spoke on my bumpy ride through the mountains to this shrine said that they all consider themselves to be descendants of Alexander the Great. If I had hiked over those mountains in the distance, I would have found myself in Iran–but having already been there, I didn’t feel like pushing my luck. Instead, as the storm clouds rolled in, I indulged in the silence of this shamanist-inspired cemetery and shrine…

Upon a day in May, Joy and Sorrow met beside a lake. They greeted one another, and they sat down near the quiet waters and conversed.

Joy spoke of the beauty which is upon the earth, and the daily wonder of life in the forest and among the hills, and of the songs heard at dawn and eventide.

And sorrow spoke, and agreed with all that Joy had said; for Sorrow knew the magic of the hour and the beauty thereof. And Sorrow was eloquent when he spoke of May in the fields and among the hills.

And Joy and Sorrow talked long together, and they agreed upon all things of which they knew.

Now there passed by on the other side of the lake two hunters. And as they looked across the water one of them said, “I wonder who are those two persons?” And the other said, “Did you say two? I see only one.”

The first hunter said, “But there are two.” And the second said, “There is only one that I can see, and the reflection in the lake is only one.”

“Nay, there are two,” said the first hunter, “and the reflection in the still water is of two persons.”

But the second man said again, “Only one do I see.” And again the other said, “But I see two so plainly.”

And even unto this day one hunter says that the other sees double; while the other says, “My friend is somewhat blind.”

— Khalil Gibran

From matchmaking services for Mipsterz (Muslim hipsters) to self-proclaimed baby “Sushi” (born of a Sunni-Shia marriage), the news today is chock full of word play…

Remember you the trails and forest we walked, with hands
Joined, and our heads leaning against each other, as if
We were hiding ourselves within ourselves?

— Khalil Gibran

This week-end, my friends and I escaped from city life in the wake of last week’s suicide bombings in Beirut, and retreated to the peaceful grounds of a Jesuit monastery in the mountains of Lebanon. Anubis, of course, was leading the pack–since even Beiruti chihuahuas need to take a welcome breath of fresh air too…

My message to the Lebanese living abroad is: Say no to terrorism and visit Lebanon.

— Caretaker Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud

One of the best times to visit Beirut is during the Christmas holidays. This year, however, the tourism sector is looking particularly weak. Since two suicide bombers attacked the Iranian Embassy in Bir Hasan last week, the number of holiday visitors this season is predicted to be especially low. In fact, when I took my students to the National Museum in Beirut (above) this past week-end, I noticed that we were the only ones enjoying its impressive collection–which, by the way, is a must-see if you come to Beirut.

So, if visiting Lebanon is on your bucket list, the Lebanese tourism minister is giving you a new reason to come for the holidays: to take a stand against terrorism, and not let it keep you–and your badly needed tourist dollars–away.

One of my favorite places to do when I’m working in Turkmenistan is to visit the Parthian Fortresses of Nisa. Nisa was once the capital of the Parthian Empire, which controlled this region of Central Asia from the mid 3rd century BCE to the early 3rd century CE. Though it acted as a barrier to Roman expansion, Nisa incorporates architectural, artistic, and cultural elements of the Hellenistic and Roman “west.” If you go to Turkmenistan, take a ride out to Nisa, and explore the peace and quiet of these ruins alone–since there’s usually no one else there…

This masterpiece of a mosque is one of my favorite places to visit in Iran. Registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this mosque, built in 1611, is one of several architectural jewels displayed around Naghsh-i Jahan Square. With direct flights between Iran and America getting set to resume, perhaps you’ll get to see this breathtaking mosque in person sometime soon…

Mullah Nasreddin put on a woolen Sufi cloak, and decided to make a pious journey. On his way he met a priest and a yogi, and they decided to team up together. When they got to a village, the priest and the yogi asked Nasreddin to seek donations, while they carried out their devotions.  Nasreddin collected some money, and bought sweet halwa with it.

Nasreddin suggested that they divide the food, but the others, who were not yet hungry, said that eating should be postponed until night. They continued on their way, and when night fell Nasreddin asked for the first portion of halwa, since he was the one who had procured it. But the others disagreed: the priest on the grounds that he represented a properly organized hierarchical body, and should therefore have preference–and the yogi because he said he ate only once every three days, and should therefore have more. Finally, they decided to sleep, and in the morning the one who related the best dream would get to have the first slice of halwa.

In the morning, the priest said, “In my dreams, I saw the founder of my religion, who made a sign of benediction, singling me out as especially blessed.” Nasreddin and the yogi were impressed, but the yogi said: “I dreamt that I visited nirvana, and was utterly absorbed into nothing.” Then they turned to Mullah Nasreddin, who said: “I dreamt that I saw the Sufi guide Khidr, who appears only to the most sanctified. And Khidr said to me: ‘Nasreddin, eat the halwa–now!’ And, of course, I had to obey.”

If you watched Homeland last night, you might not have caught the name of the operation being planned for Brody in Iran.

According to the intelligence officer to the left, the name of the operation to get Brody safely into and out of Iran is: “Mullah Nasreddin majnoon.” Translation: “Mullah Nasreddin is crazy.”

So, who is this mysterious mullah? Mullah Nasreddin (or Nasreddin Hoca in Turkish) is a legendary “holy fool” who appears in numerous jokes and absurd anecdotes in the Middle East and Central Asia. These stories about the adventures of a wise old spiritual “teacher,” however, are much more than just jokes–since many of them point at the hypocrisy of religious, political, and social systems. Much like a court jester, Nasreddin casts himself as the crazy fool–to let him take aim at any target under the guise of being unwise.

The first time I went to the main square in Bukhara, Uzbekistan to collect Nasreddin tales for my research, I ran into a statue of Mullah Nasreddin sitting on his fabled donkey (below). Nearby, I purchased collected tales of Nasreddin in a bookstore tucked inside a restored medieval madressa. And whenever I’m strolling through the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, I always spy t-shirts and plates decorated with Nasreddin’s smiling, wise face. As for his presence in America, even President Woodrow Wilson was reportedly fond of telling Nasreddin jokes–and UNESCO declared the year 1996 as “the Year of Nasreddin Hoca.”

Even though Homeland is using his name for an operation in Iran, so many countries like to claim Nasreddin as their own. In my Sufism seminar at Columbia, some of my students did a wonderful project comparing Nasreddin stories in Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

As for Homeland, naming an operation after a wise fool whose irrational actions never seem to make any sense to anyone else until the end of the tale–well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if a number of seemingly misguided maneuvers in Iran end up looking wise and brilliant when the season finally concludes…

***

“If you want truth,” Nasreddin told a group of Sufi seekers who had come to hear this teachings, “you will have to pay for it.”

“But why should you have to pay for something like truth,” one of them asked.

“Have you not noticed,” said Nasreddin, “that it is the scarcity of a thing which determines its value?”

Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky.
We fell them down and turn them into paper
that we may record our emptiness…

— Khalil Gibran

A little knowledge that acts, is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

— Khalil Gibran

Today, I took my students on three separate field-trips in Lebanon. This rainbow flask in the National Museum in Beirut was a big hit–and you can easily see why. After all of our adventures–plus volunteering at St. Jude’s–I’m too exhausted to share the details–but come back to see more of the beauty of Beirut soon…

What you have gained, an appreciation and thanks for the nuclear negotiation body and
officials is befitting, and can be the basis for the next wise steps.
Undoubtedly, the…prayers and the backing of the Iranian nation was the
factor in this success, and will be in the future. God willing,
persistence against those who want too much has to always be the criteria
for the straight path of the officials, and will always be, God willing.

— Ayatollah Khamenei (in a letter to President Rouhani)

Ayatollah Khamenei has weighed in on today’s nuclear accord, and announced that the agreement may serve as the basis for the “next wise steps.”

Without a doubt the outcome of this agreement, will be in the interests of all the
countries in the region and will be in the direction of world peace,
and progress with a win-win approach.

— President Rouhani (in a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei)