Category Archives: Blog

Since today is the National Day of Turkmenistan (where I’ve been fortunate to conduct research on Islam, Sufism, and archaeology), I will be posting about my travels in Turkmenistan all day…

The euphoria of love will sweep over your grave;
it will bring wine and friends, candles and food.

— Rumi

It seems like I’m always with the dead–even when I don’t plan to be. I stumbled upon these mint-door shrines in Morocco where I least expected to find them–while surveying ancient Roman ruins in Rabat. While some had their names marked on the doors, others remained nameless. A few of the shrines were open, the rest were closed. As I explored these beautiful tombs, I had the chance to witness some healing rituals happening alongside of the shrines. Spend some time in these quiet shrines was one of the best surprises I experienced in my travels through Morocco…

An article today from the NYTimes on recent news stories involving Roma children in Europe asks whether fair-skinned Roma children are in danger of being abducted or taken from their parents by state authorities out of misconceived suspicions about their background…it’s worth a read…

Define and narrow me, you starve yourself of yourself.
Nail me down in a box of cold words, that box is your coffin.
I do not know who I am.
I am in astounded lucid confusion.

— Rumi

While strolling through the medieval medina of Fez over the Eid, my family and I came across a cluttered cranny in a secluded alley where a woodworker was busy carving coffins. Next to every day objects–like ornately decorated low tables and beautiful bassinets–were coffins resting in all stages of creation. Some were painted, some were bare.

As an Egyptologist, when I saw the outline of a niche painted on this yellow coffin, I thought of the coffins from ancient Egypt decorated with a “false door” for the spirit of the deceased to pass between the two worlds. Speaking with the coffinmaker of Fez, I realized that business for him–regardless of the state of the economy–is always booming…

While I was wandering through the medina of Casablanca, I got lost in one of its many unmarked alleys. As I walked deeper into the heart of the old city–heading towards the ocean–I turned a corner, and bumped into this colorful and unexpected car…

Leave this world of ignorance.
Be with me, I will open the gate to your love.

— Rumi

Before I went to Fez with family last week, I couldn’t find any travel articles written recently about it. So without much of a guide, I was forced (happily) to improvise. But since I’ve gotten back, it seems–strangely–like Fez has become all the rage–even though the writer of today’s comprehensive New York Times article visited Fez in May, and the writer of this interesting AP piece on exploring Morocco as a woman alone visited in January and June…which is why I’m looking forward to sharing soon what’s happening in Fez today…

In silence there is eloquence.
Stop weaving and watch how the pattern improves.
You suppose you are the trouble,
but you are the cure.

— Rumi

What is bounty without a beggar?
Generosity without a guest?
Be beggar and guest;
for beauty is seeking a mirror,
water is crying for a thirsty man.
Hopelessness and need are tasteful bezel for that ruby.

— Rumi

First there is ignorance, thereafter knowledge, then follows practice upon your knowledge, thereafter sincerity upon that action and finally comes understanding and wisdom in the heart.

— Abdul Qadir al-Jilani

When I was traveling in Morocco last week with family for Eid, I visited a number of Sufi tombs, shrines, and lodges in Morocco’s legendary imperial cities. Some weren’t hard to find, since I could literally just follow the signs–similar to how I followed Rumi signs through northern Afghanistan. In fact, one of the riads in which we stayed just happened to be sandwiched between two Sufi shrines.

Be obedient with a direction; don’t become obedient to the masses. — al-Jilani

These photos were taken on my visit to a Qadiri Sufi lodge tucked away in the alleys of a medieval Moroccan medina. The Qadiri Sufi Order founded by Abdul Qadir al Jilani is one of the most widespread Sufi orders in the world. I was grateful for the opportunity to witness how the order is still thriving throughout Morocco, while wandering with my family through Sufi “spaces” in Fez, Rabat, and Casablanca for the holiday break…

A seeker is not truthful until he places the needs of sustenance
of his companions over and above the sustenance of his own soul and desires.

— al Jilani

Let us go prostrating to the sea like a torrent,
then let us go foaming upon the face of the sea…

— Rumi

Today in Baalbek, unknown men shot at an army checkpoint, injuring three soldiers. The last time my family and I journeyed to Baalbek, we saw about 30 plainclothes men with machine guns at one of the checkpoints–but it was during a particularly tense time, as Syria had just bombed the area. Some reports, however, have suggested that today’s incident was related to drug violence–not Syria. In other news today, a child in Lebanon was killed in a violent clash over the situation in Syria…

The Embrace Fund, a Lebanese non-profit organization, is teaming up with the Medical Center of the American University of Beirut (AUBMC) to address mental health issues in Lebanon through artistic expression. To read more about an art exhibit in Beirut made possible by this artistic and healing partnership–and to learn more about the psychological aftermath of the Lebanese civil war–please click here.