IIS Co-sponsors Conference on Art, Architecture and Shi‘ism

April 2009

IIS and the British Museum co-sponsored the conference, People of the Prophet’s House: Art, Architecture and Shi’ism in the Islamic World, which took place at the British Museum from 26th – 28th March 2009. The conference was associated with the exhibition Shah ‘Abbas: The Remaking of Iran.



Three scholars from the IIS, Dr Shainool Jiwa, Nacim Pak-Shiraz and Dr Fahmida Suleman gave papers at the conference, which the latter also organised. Dr Farhad Daftary chaired a session on Fatimid contexts.

The conference aimed to answer two key questions: Who are the Shi‘a and whether we can distinguish art and material culture as being inherently Shi‘i? Papers had a broad historical and geographical scope, from West Africa to Spain and the Middle East. The conference brought together international scholars, who presented a wide range of material including mosque and shrine architecture, iconography, manuscript painting, cinema and ritual. Subjects were explored using various methodologies from art history, history and social anthropology.
Professor Azim Nanji opened the conference with the idea that the British Museum’s preservation of Muslim artefacts from all over the world provides us with themes that transcend both history and their geographical provenance.


http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=110222


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Agakhan Palace pune.

Aga Khan Palace was built in the year 1892 by Sultan Mohammad Shah Aga Khan III in Pune. Since then it is one of the biggest landmark in Indian history. The Aga Khan Palace of Pune was an act of charity by the Sultan who wanted to help the poor in the neighboring areas of Pune who were drastically hit by the famine.

Aga Khan Palace is one of the finest piece of architectural beauty in the western India. The exquisite palace is surrounded by the lavish green gardens all around. Aga Khan Palace in Pune also houses some lavishly decorated guest rooms and suites which take you back to the royal past of the heritage building.

Historically, Aga Khan Palace of Pune holds great significance as from 9th August 1942 to 6th May 1944, this palace was the prison for Mahatama Gandhi, his wife Kasturba and his secretary Mahadev Bhai Desai though the last two passed away in between their captivity at the Aga Khan Palace at Pune. Both of them have memorials in their name in the same complex near Mula river and everyday several visitors visit them.

In 1969, the Aga Khan Palace at Pune was donated to the Indians by Aga Khan IV as a mark of respect to Gandhi and his philosophy. Today the Aga Khan Palace in Pune also houses a memorial on Gandhi where his ashes were kept. The historical palace also hosts a shop that deals in khaadi and hand loomed textiles.

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Being human together

“…and do good – to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbours who are near, neighbours who are strangers, the companion by your side, the way-farer (you meet)…”
— Qur’an, Sura 4, Ayat 36
Every generation faces the challenges of its time in its own way. The current economic crisis, which is affecting the wellbeing of people everywhere, serves to remind us of the global nature of our world. In presenting his recommendations for overcoming this challenge, United States President Barack Obama spoke to individuals as much as communities, both locally and globally, as citizens indigenous to the Earth.

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Seeking knowledge to the ends of the universe

“How did all the stars get in the sky?” asks a child of her parent as they look up into the speckled darkness of a clear night. This question has persistently challenged the human imagination since the beginning of time.

Modern science tells us that stars are balls of burning gas, located light-years away from the Earth and held in their courses by the force of gravity. But the question of how they got there is one that Professor Arif Babul, an Ismaili cosmologist, researcher, and professor, seeks to understand.


This composite of three separate images of the same galaxy cluster collision in one image allows Professor Babul to view the whole system. This method has become crucial to his research over the last decade. Photo: NASA / CXC / CFHT / UVic / A Mahdavi et alEquipped with some of the most powerful technologies of our age, and collaborating with colleagues around the world, Professor Babul’s work is to search for science’s answer to the puzzle of creation and the evolution of our infinite universe.

With a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Princeton, Professor Babul taught at several prominent universities before accepting a position at the University of Victoria in his home country of Canada. He was recently awarded the title Distinguished Professor — the highest academic honour that the university bestows on a faculty member for their research and the international recognition that they have garnered. It also acknowledges his work in founding the Canadian Computational Cosmology Collaboration, which brings together geographically isolated cosmologists so that they may share ideas and work together on answering the question.

MOre @ http://www.theismaili.org/cms/700/

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Aga Khan Speaking at the Global Philanthropy Forum-Images

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Speech by His Highness the Aga Khan at the Global Philanthropy Forum

23 April 2009

President Jane Wales, thank you for those very generous comments.
I’d like to say how happy I am to share in this year’s Global Philanthropy Forum.Participants, Excellencies,Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a special pleasure for me to be with you tonight, for I look upon you as particularly serious and informed partners in the work of global understanding and international development.
As you may know, I recently marked my 50th anniversary in my role as Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims. This responsibility connects me intimately with the traditions of the Islamic faith and cultures, even while my education and a host of personal and professional associations have acquainted me with the non-Islamic West. The relationship of these two worlds is a subject of considerable importance for me – a relationship which some define, regrettably, as an inevitable Clash of Civilizations. My own observation, however – and my deep conviction – is that we can more accurately describe it as a Clash of Ignorances.
It is not my purpose tonight to detail the misunderstandings which have plagued this relationship. Let me only submit that educational systems on both sides have failed mightily in this regard – and so have some religious institutions. That – at this time in human history – the Judeo Christian and Muslim societies should know so little about one another never ceases to astonish – to stun – and to pain me.
As a Muslim leader speaking in Washington this evening, it seems appropriate that I cite the words of President Obama, in his recent speech in Ankara. As he put it, pledging a “broader engagement with the Muslim world, we will listen carefully, we will bridge misunderstandings, and we will seek common ground.” I know that the vast majority of the Islamic world shares these objectives.
Among the areas where we can find common ground is our mutual effort to address the problem of persistent global poverty, especially the endemic poverty of the developing world. Surely this is an area where we can listen and learn and grow together – establishing ever-stronger bonds of understanding. One of the great principles of Islam, in all its interpretations, is the elimination of poverty in society, and philanthropy's centrality in this duty.
When I succeeded my grandfather as Aga Khan in 1957, I was a student at Harvard – but speaking mostly French. I got extra English practice, however, from my new official routine of regular communication with Africa and Asia – and, in the bargain, was kept in great good humour by the amazing typographic errors which inevitably arose. But then computerized spell check programs came along - and all those charming idiosyncrasies disappeared!
I recently noticed, to my joy, however, that this new invention is not a fail safe protection. Consider this recent item in the publication “The Week: “Bad week for spell-check: Several Pennsylvania high school students had their last names changed in their yearbook by an automatic computer program, Alessandra Ippolito was listed as Alexandria Impolite, while Max Zupanovic was rechristened Max Supernova. And Kathy Carbaugh’s photo appeared next to the name Kathy Airbag.”
After reading this, I decided that maybe I should act prudently and spell check my own name. And I found that, while there was no “Aga Khan”, there was an “Aga” Cooker. It was defined as one of England’s oldest stoves and ovens – now somewhat outdated – but with a distinctive whistle every time it frizzled the food within!
But returning to a more serious topic let me submit this evening a few of my own reflections on the developing world that I know a central focus of my interests over fifty years. For, in coming to understand the life of widely dispersed Ismaili communities across the globe, I have also become immersed in their host societies.
The essential goal of global development has been to create and sustain effective nation states – coherent societies that are well governed, economically self-sustaining, equitable in treating their peoples, peaceful amongst themselves, and sensitive to their impact on planetary sustainability.
This is a complex objective, a moving target, and a humbling challenge. Sadly, the response in the places I know best has often been “one step forward and two steps back.“ Today, some forty percent of UN member nations are categorized as “failed democracies” – unable to meet popular aspirations for a better quality of life. The recent global economic crisis – along with the world food crisis – has sharply accentuated these problems.
But why have our efforts to change that picture over five decades not borne greater fruit? Measured against history, where have things gone wrong? Given the progress we have made in so many fields, why have we been so relatively ineffective in sharing that progress more equitably, and in making it more permanent?
My response centers on one principal observation: I believe the industrialized world has often expected developing societies to behave as if they were similar to the established nation states of the West, forgetting the centuries, and the processes which molded the Western democracies. Forgotten, for one thing, is the fact that economic development in Western nations was accompanied by massive urbanization. Yet today, in the countries of Asia and Africa where we work, over 70 percent of the population is rural. If you compare the two situations, they are one and a half to two and half centuries apart. Similarly, the profound diversity of these impoverished societies, infinitely greater than that among nascent European nation states, is too often unrecognized, or under-estimated, or misunderstood. Ethnic, religious, social, regional, economic, linguistic and political diversities are like a kaleidoscope that history shakes every day.
One symptom of this problem has been the high failure rate of constitutional structures in many developing countries, often because minority groups – who often make up the bulk of the population – fear they will be marginalized by any centralized authority. But did today’s developed countries not face similar challenges as they progressed toward nationhood?
If there is an historic misperception here, it has had several consequences for development activities.
The first concerns what I would call the dominant player fallacy – a tendency to place too much reliance in national governments and other institutions which may have relatively superficial connections to life at the grass-roots level.
Urban-based outsiders often look at these situations from the perspective of the city center looking out to a distant countryside, searching for quick and convenient levers of influence. Those who look from the bottom-up, however, see a much much more complex picture. The lines of force in these rural societies are often profoundly centrifugal, reflecting a highly fragmented array of influences. But was this not also true during the building of Western nation states?
Age old systems of religious, tribal or inherited family authority still have enormous influence in these societies. Local identities which often cross the artificial frontiers of the colonial past are more powerful than outsiders may assume. These values and traditions must be understood, embraced, and related to modern life, so that development can build on them. We have found that these age-old forces are among the best levers we have for improving the quality of life of rural peoples, even in cross frontier situations.
Nation building may require centralized authority, but if that authority is not trusted by rural communities, then instability is inevitable. The building of successful nation states in many of the countries in which I work will depend – as it did in the West – on providing significantly greater access for rural populations, who are generally in the majority.
If these reflections are well founded, then what is urgently needed is a massive, creative new development effort towards rural populations. Informed strategic thinking at the national level must be matched by a profound, engagement at the local level. Global philanthropy, public private partnerships and the best of human knowledge must be harnessed. As the World Bank recognized in its recent Poverty Study, local concerns must be targeted, providing roads and markets, sharpening the capacities of village governments, working to smooth social inequalities, and improving access to health and education services. The very definition of poverty is the absence of such quality of life indicators in civil society among rural populations.
It is in this context that I must share with you tonight my concern that too much of the developmental effort – especially in the fields of health and education - have been focused on urban environments.
I whole-heartedly support, for example, the goal of free and universal access to primary education. But I would just as whole-heartedly challenge this objective if it comes at the expense of secondary and higher education. How can credible leadership be nurtured in rural environments when rural children have nowhere to go after primary school? The experience of the Aga Khan Development Network is that secondary education for rural youth is a condition sine qua non for sustainable progress.
Similarly despite various advances in preventive medicine, rural peoples – often 70% of the population – are badly served in the area of curative care. Comparisons show sharp rural disadvantages in fields such as trauma care and emergency medicine, curbing infant mortality, or diagnosing correctly the need for tertiary care. Building an effective nation state, today as in earlier centuries, requires that the quality of rural life must be a daily concern of government. Ideally, national progress should be as effective, as equitable, and as visible, over similar time-frames, in rural areas as in urban ones. Amongst other considerations, how else will we be able to slow, if not stop, the increasing trend of major cities of Asia and Africa to become ungovernable human slums?
From this general analysis, let me turn to our own experience. The Aga Khan Development Network, if only as a matter of scale, is incapable of massively redressing the rural-urban imbalances where we work. It is possible, however, to focus on areas of extreme isolation, extreme poverty and extreme potential risk - where human despair feeds the temptation to join criminal gangs or local militia or the drug economy. The World Bank refers to these areas as “lagging regions”. We have focused recently on three prototypical situations.
Badakhshan is a sensitive region of eastern Tajikistan and eastern Afghanistan where the same ethnic community is divided by a river which has now become a national border, and where both communities live in extreme poverty and are highly isolated from their respective capitals of Dushanbe and Kabul. There is a significant Shia Ismaili Muslim presence in both areas.
Southern Tanzania and Northern Mozambique is a region of eastern Africa where large numbers of rural Sunni Muslims live in extreme poverty. A third case, Rural Bihar, in India, involves six states where the Sachar Committee Report, commissioned by the Indian government, has courageously described how Muslim peoples have been distanced from the development story since 1947.
All three of these regions are works in progress. The first two are post conflict situations, relatively homogeneous, and sparsely populated, while the third is densely populated, and culturally diverse. All three have acute potential to become explosive, and our AKDN goal is to identify such areas as primary targets for philanthropy.
We have also developed a guiding concept in approaching these situations. We call it Multi-Input Area Development – or MIAD. An emphasis on multiple inputs is a crucial consequence of looking at the development arena from the bottom up. Singular inputs alone cannot generate, in the time available, and across the spectrum of needs, sufficient effective change to reverse trends towards famine or towards conflict.
Similarly, we want to measure outcomes in such cases by a more complex array of criteria. What we call our Quality of Life Assessments go beyond simple economic measurements – considering the broad array of conditions – quantitative and qualitative – which the poor themselves take into account when they assess their own well-being.
Secretary Clinton echoed the concern for multiple inputs and multiple assessments when she mentioned to you yesterday the need for diversified partnerships among governments, philanthropies, businesses, NGO’s, universities , unions, faith communities and individuals. The Aga Khan network includes partners from most of these categories – sustaining our Multi-Input strategy. I applaud her concern – and yours – for the importance of such alliances.
Northern Pakistan provides another example, in a challenging high mountain environment, of a complex approach to rural stabilization. Innovations in water and land management have been accompanied by a new focus on local choice through village organizations. A "productive public infrastructure" has emerged, including roads, irrigation channels, and small bridges, as well as improved health and education services. Historic palaces and forts along the old Silk Route have been restored and reused as tourism sites, reviving cultural pluralism and pride, diversifying the economy and enlarging the labor market. The provision of micro credit and the development of village savings funds have also played a key role.
For nearly 25 years, we have also worked in a large, once-degraded neighborhood, sprawling among and atop the ruins of old Islamic Cairo – built 1000 years ago by my ancestors, the Fatimid Caliphs. This is an urban location – but occupied by an essentially rural population, striving to become urbanized. The project was environmental and archaeological at the start – but it grew into a residential, recreational and cultural citiscape – which last year attracted 1.8 million visitors. The local population has new access to microcredit and has been trained and employed not only for restoring the complex, but also for maintaining it – as a new expression of civil society.
Because historic sites are often located among concentrations of destitute peoples, they can become a linchpin for development. We work now with such sites as Bagh-e-Babur in Kabul, the old Stone Town in Zanzibar, the Aleppo Citadel in Syria, the historic Moghal sites at New Delhi and Lahore, and the old mud mosques of Mopti and Djenne and Timbuktu, in northern Mali. Altogether, more than one million impoverished people will be touched by these projects. Such investments in restoring the world’s cultural patrimony do not compete with investing in its social and economic development. Indeed, they go hand in hand.
In all these cases, it is the interaction of many elements that creates a dynamic momentum, bringing together people from different classes, cultures, and disciplines, and welcoming partners who live across the street – and partners who live across the planet. Each case is singular, and each requires multiple inputs. And it is here that those present tonight can have such an important impact. Working together on programme development, on sharing specialized knowledge, and on competent implementation, we can all contribute more effectively to the reduction of global poverty.
Let me say in closing, how much I admire the work you are doing, the commitment you feel, and the dreams you have embraced. I hope and trust that we will have many opportunities to renew and extend our sense of partnership as we work toward building strong and healthy nation states around our globe.
If we are to succeed we will need, first, to readjust our orientation by focusing on the immense size and diversity of rural populations whether they are in peri-urban or rural environments. For no-one can dispute, I think, that a large number of the world’s recent problems have been born in the countrysides of the poorest continents.
Finally, we will need to address these problems with a much stronger sense of urgency. What we may have been content to achieve in 25 years, we must now aim to do in 10 years.
A mighty challenge, no doubt.
Thank you.

Source: AKDN

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Awards Received by the Agencies of the AKDN

AKDN agencies have won a number of awards for their work in a variety of disciplines, from historic preservation to water and sanitation. The following awards represent just a few of the awards received by AKDN agencies and programmes in recent years.

AKPBS' Building and Construction Improvement Program (BACIP) Receives Energy Globe Award, 2008

Shigar Fort Residence in Pakistan Receives Responsible Tourism Award

Serena Hotels Receive Skål International Ecotourism Award

AKPBS Receives Dubai International Award For Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment

Azhar Park Selected One of World's Best Places

AKF Early Childhood Development Programme a Finalist in World Challenge

AKTC Receives 2008 Prince Sultan bin Salman Award for Urban Heritage

AKTC Receives 2008 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award of Excellence for Work in Herat, Afghanistan

First MicroFinance Bank Client Wins 2007 "Best Micro-Entrepreneur" Award

Music Initiative Receives 2007 Award for Cultural Preservation

AKTC Receives TIME Magazine's "Best of Asia" Award for Revitalisation of Bagh-e Babur in Kabul, Afghanistan

AKPBS Receives World Habitat Award for 2006

Shigar Fort Residence Receives 2006 UNESCO Award of Excellence

"Clean Village" Award for AKPBS Project

2006 PATA GOLD Award for Heritage and Culture to Shigar Fort Restoration

2005 Global Development Awards: Most Innovative Development Project

For More Awards List Visit AKDN.



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IIS Launches Two Recent Publications in Dubai

Two recent IIS publications were launched at the Ismaili Centre in Dubai. These included The Ismailis: An Illustrated History and An Anthology of Qur’anic Commentaries – Vol. 1: On the Nature of the Divine. Held on 3 April 2009, the programme marked the Institute’s first major book launch in that region.

Mr Mohamed Keshavjee, a member of the Institute’s Board of Governors, commenced the programme with an overview of IIS’ contributions to the promotion of scholarship and learning of Muslim cultures and societies through the production of publications and other academic resources. Mr Keshavjee also shared the rationale behind each of the publications being launched.

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The Light of Allah By Nina Nazneen Jaffer

The Light of Allah
By Nina Nazneen Jaffer

"Allah was a mystery...
'I was a hidden treasure
And yearned to be known,
Therefore I created the world' 1

He created man
And breathed of His spirit unto him
Now, He is more of a mystery...

We are told 'Allah is everywhere'
Yet He is nowhere to be seen.

Ikra! Read! I search...

'I'm closer than your jugular vein'
He reveals in the Holy Quran
I search for a hidden message and find:

'Light upon Light, Allah guides to His
Light whom He pleases' 2

Alhamdulillah, I thank Allah
For including me in the community
That is guided by the Light
Sent with Prophet Muhammad
As a mercy to mankind
Our Intercessor on the Day of Judgement
Our beloved Imam-e-Zaman

Allahuma salle Allah
Muhammadin wa Aley Muhammad"

1. Hadith Kudsi
2. Quran 24:35

Source:amaana.org


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Seminars, Conferences and Public Lectures-

Seminars, Conferences and Public Lectures

As part of its programmes, The Institute of Ismaili Studies sponsors conferences and seminars dealing with various facets of Islamic studies and themes of concern to contemporary Muslim societies. They are open to students and staff of the Institute, invited audiences from other institutions of learning, and occasionally to members of the general public. In addition, Institute faculty, staff and students are actively involved in numerous external conferences and seminars and are often invited to give public lectures at universities and organisations on their research and publications. A selection of these events is listed below.

Conferences, Workshops and Special Events

• IIS Talking Ethics Series
• Contemporary Islam(s) & Muslims Seminar Series, 2007-2008
• Devotional Expressions of South Asian Muslims, 2006
• The Esoteric interpretation of the Qur’an, 2006
• The Philosophical Poetry of Nasir Khusraw Conference 2005
• Alumni Workshop, 2005
• “The Word of God; The Art of Man - The Qur’an and its Creative Expressions” Conference, 2003
• “Muslim Pluralism: Historical and Contemporary Encounters with the Internal Others” Seminar Series, 2002
• “Religion and Tradition in Contemporary Cinema” Film Festival, 2002
• Workshop for ITREB Personnel, 2001
• Civil Society in Comparative Muslim Contexts Seminar Series, 2000-2001
• “Perspectives in Islamic Studies” Conference, 1998
• “Intellectual Traditions in Islam” Conference, 1994
• “Islam in the Contemporary World” Conference, 1990

IIS Annual Seminar and Lecture Series

• Summer Programme on Islam Series
• Central Asian Studies Lecture Series
• Department of Academic Research and Publications Seminar Series
• Graduate Studies Lecture Series
• Perspectives on Qur’anic Studies Seminar Series
• Project Tajikistan Annual Seminar Series

A Selection of IIS Participation at External Events

• People of the Prophet's House: Art, Architecture and Shi‘ism in the Islamic World
• British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Annual Meeting, 2001
• Conference on Iranian Studies, 2002
• Helen Boyle 2002 Abrahamic Initiative Lectures
• Middle Eastern Studies Association of North America (MESA) Annual Meetings
• World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES), 2002

source: www.iis.ac.uk

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Navigating towards a better tomorrow together

AKEPB Chairman, Dr Rafiq Dossani, addressed the conference on the recent economic downturn via video link. Photo: Courtesy of the Ismaili Council for the USA

With the economic downturn taking its toll across the United States, professionals, businesspersons, and recent graduates focused on upgrading their knowledge and networking skills at this year’s Regional Ismaili Business Conference (RIBC) held in Dallas on 25 January.

“It’s great to be here with people who are in the same boat as me,” said Gas and Convenience store owner Aazim Vistani. “I think that now is a good time for me to learn a new trade.”

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Agreements Reduce Natural Disaster Risk in Tajikistan

Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 9 April 2009 - Every year communities in the mountainous regions of Tajikistan are subject to natural hazards such as landslides and debris flows. In an effort to reduce the resulting risk run by those communities, the Embassy of Japan in the Republic of Tajikistan and Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS) signed an agreement to hydro-insulate a water channel in the district of Roshtqala and rehabilitate a debris flow channel in the district of Ishkashim.

The Embassy of Japan in the Tajikistan Signs Agreement with FOCUS to Reduce the Risk of Natural Hazards in Tajikistan

FOCUS will implement these activities in partnership with the Government of Tajikistan and the communities in these districts. The agreement is signed under the auspices of the Japanese Grant Assistance for Grass-root Human Security Projects and is a continuation of the long-standing partnership between the Government of Japan and FOCUS to reduce the risk of communities in Tajikistan to natural hazards.

Since 2001, FOCUS, with the support of the Government of Japan, has implemented a variety of disaster risk reduction projects in the Republic of Tajikistan.

DFID, SDC and FOCUS Sign Agreement to Reduce the Risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods on Tajik Communities

With a view to reducing the vulnerability of communities to the risks associated with glacial lake outburst floods in Tajikistan, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS) have signed an agreement to implement the Remote Geo-Hazards Capacity Building and Monitoring Project. The project (US $ 1.47 Million) will be implemented by FOCUS in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan’s Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defence, the Hydro-Meteorology Agency and the Head Agency of Geology.

This initiative, supported by the Aga Khan Development Network, is jointly-funded by DFID, SDC, and FOCUS. The project seeks to reduce the risk of communities to glacial lake outburst floods in Tajikistan as well as build the capacity of communities and institutions in Tajikistan to assess and monitor these risks

The initiative includes conducting glacial lake risk assessments in the Zarafshan Valley, the Jirgital District and the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) of Tajikistan. Implementation of community-based risk reduction activities in GBAO and institutional capacity building activities in Dushanbe are also part of the project. The total number of beneficiaries will be close to 200,000.

With a view to reducing the vulnerability of communities to the risks associated with glacial lake outburst floods in Tajikistan, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS) have signed an agreement to implement the Remote Geo-Hazards Capacity Building and Monitoring Project. The project (US $ 1.47 Million) will be implemented by FOCUS in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan’s Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defence, the Hydro-Meteorology Agency and the Head Agency of Geology.

This initiative, supported by the Aga Khan Development Network, is jointly-funded by DFID, SDC, and FOCUS. The project seeks to reduce the risk of communities to glacial lake outburst floods in Tajikistan as well as build the capacity of communities and institutions in Tajikistan to assess and monitor these risks.

The initiative includes conducting glacial lake risk assessments in the Zarafshan Valley, the Jirgital District and the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) of Tajikistan. Implementation of community-based risk reduction activities in GBAO and institutional capacity building activities in Dushanbe are also part of the project. The total number of beneficiaries will be close to 200,000.

For more information, please contact the press officer.

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SOURCE: www.akdn.org

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Dr Karen Bauer Presents Paper on “Tafsir and its Audience”

Dr Karen Bauer, Research Associate in the Institute’s Qur’anic Studies project, presented a paper at the American Oriental Society Conference, which took place 13-16 March 2009 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dr Bauer’s paper was entitled “Tafsir and its audience”.

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The Ismaili Community

The Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, generally known as the Ismailis, belong to the Shia branch of Islam. The Shia form one of the two major branches of Islam, the Sunni being the other. The Ismailis live in over 25 different countries, mainly in Central and South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as in Europe, North America and Australia.

As Muslims, the Ismailis affirm the fundamental Islamic testimony of truth, the Shahada, that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) is His Messenger. They believe that Muhammad was the last and final Prophet of Allah, and that the Holy Quran, Allah's final message to mankind, was revealed through him. Muslims hold this revelation to be the culmination of the message that had been revealed through other Prophets of the Abrahamic tradition before Muhammad, including Abraham, Moses and Jesus, all of whom Muslims revere as Prophets of Allah.

In common with other Shia Muslims, the Ismailis affirm that after the Prophet's death, Hazrat Ali, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, became the first Imam – the spiritual leader – of the Muslim community and that this spiritual leadership (known as Imamat) continues thereafter by hereditary succession through Ali and his wife Fatima, the Prophet's daughter. Succession to Imamat, according to Shia doctrine and tradition, is by way of Nass (Designation), it being the absolute prerogative of the Imam of the Time to appoint his successor from amongst any of his male descendants.

His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan is the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims. He was born on 13 December 1936 in Geneva, son of Prince Aly Khan and Princess Tajuddawlah Aly Khan and spent his early childhood in Nairobi, Kenya. He attended Le Rosey School in Switzerland for nine years and graduated from Harvard in 1959 with a BA (Honours) in Islamic History. He succeeded his grandfather Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan on 11 July 1957 at the age of 20.

Spiritual allegiance to the Imam and adherence to the Shia Imami Ismaili tariqah (persuasion) of Islam according to the guidance of the Imam of the Time, have engendered in the Ismaili Community an ethos of self-reliance, unity, and a common identity. In a number of the countries where they live, the Ismailis have evolved a well-defined institutional framework through which they have, under the leadership and guidance of the Imam, established schools, hospitals, health centres, housing societies and a variety of social and economic development institutions for the common good of all citizens regardless of their race or religion.

During the course of history, the Ismailis have, under the guidance of their Imams, made significant contributions to Islamic civilisations, the cultural, intellectual and religious life of Muslims. The University of al-Azhar and the Academy of Science, Dar al-Ilm, in Egypt and indeed the city of Cairo itself, are testimony to this contribution. Among the renowned philosophers, jurists, physicians, mathematicians, astronomers and scientists of the past who flourished under the patronage of Ismaili Imams are Qadi al-Numan, al-Kirmani, Ibn al-Haytham (al-Hazen), Nasir e-Khusraw and Nasir al-Din Tusi.

The Aga Khan, like his grandfather before him, has always been concerned about the wellbeing of all Muslims, particularly the impact on them of the challenges of the rapidly evolving world. Addressing as Chairman, the International Conference on the Example (Seerat) of the Prophet Muhammad in Karachi in 1976, he noted that the wisdom of Allah's final Prophet in seeking new solutions for problems which could not be solved by traditional methods, provides the inspiration for Muslims to conceive a truly modern and dynamic society, without affecting the fundamental concepts of Islam.

Since the present Aga Khan assumed the office of Imamat in 1957, there have been major political and economic changes in most of the countries where Ismailis live. He has adapted the complex system of administering the various Ismaili communities, pioneered by his grandfather during the colonial era, to a world of nation states. In the course of that process, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, who was twice President of the League of Nations, had already provided a contemporary articulation of the public international role of the Imamat. The Imamat today, under the present Aga Khan, continues this tradition of strict political neutrality.

In designating his successor to the Imamat in 1957, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan stated in his will:

"In view of the fundamentally altered conditions in the world…due to the great changes which have taken place…I am convinced that it is in the best interests of the Shia Muslim Ismailia Community that I should be succeeded by a young man who has been brought up in the midst of the new age and who brings a new outlook on life to his office of Imam".

Upon succeeding to the leadership of the Ismaili Muslims, the immediate concern of the Aga Khan was therefore to prepare his community, wherever they lived, for the changes that lay ahead. This rapidly evolving situation called for bolder initiatives and new programmes to reflect developing national aspirations.

In Africa, Asia and the Middle East, a major objective of the Community's social welfare and economic programmes, until the mid-fifties, had been to create a broad base of businessmen, farmers and professionals. The educational facilities of the Community tended to emphasise secondary-level education. With the coming of independence, each nation's economic aspirations took on new dimensions, focusing on industrialisation and modernisation of agriculture. The Community's educational priorities had to be reassessed in the context of new national goals.

Throughout much of the developing world, Ismailis were affected by radical changes in their respective countries. On the Indian subcontinent, and in South East Asia, major political changes followed the advent of independence, which gave rise to new nation states often followed by dislocation of populations.

In certain African countries, the Ismaili community was similarly affected. In 1972, under the regime of the then President Idi Amin, Ismailis and other Asians, despite being citizens of the country and having lived there for generations, were expelled. The Aga Khan had to take urgent steps to facilitate their resettlement elsewhere, and owing to his personal efforts most found homes, not only in Asia, but also in Europe and North America.

Most of the basic resettlement problems were overcome remarkably rapidly. This was due to the adaptability of the Ismailis themselves and in particular to their educational background and their linguistic abilities, as well as the efforts of the host countries and the moral and material support from Community programmes. Such programmes have continued and have, in fact, been given a new orientation so that the Community continues to play a fuller part in the development and progress of the countries of its adoption.

Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan established social development institutions in the subcontinent of India and Pakistan, "for the relief of humanity". They include institutions such as the Diamond Jubilee Investment Trust and the Platinum Jubilee Investments Limited which in turn assisted the growth of various types of co-operative societies. Diamond Jubilee Schools for girls were set up throughout the remote Northern Areas of Pakistan. In addition, scholarship programmes established at the time of the Golden Jubilee to give assistance to needy students were progressively expanded. In East Africa, major social welfare institutions were created, including the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi. Economic development institutions were also established in East Africa. Companies such as the Diamond Jubilee Investment Trust (now Diamond Trust Bank of Kenya ) and the Jubilee Insurance company, which are today quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, have become important national economic institutions.

In the early 1980s many new social and economic development projects were launched. These range from the establishment of the US$ 300 million international Aga Khan University with its Faculty of Health Sciences and teaching hospital based in Karachi, and the creation of a girls school and a medical centre in the Hunza region, in one of the remote parts of Northern Pakistan bordering on China and Afghanistan, to the establishment of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Gujarat, India, and the extension of existing urban hospitals and primary health care centres in Tanzania and Kenya, in East Africa.

These initiatives form part of an international network of institutions involved in fields that range from education, health and rural development, to architecture and the promotion of private sector enterprise. Known as the Aga Khan Development Network, its constituent institutions, all founded over the past thirty years, include the Aga Khan Foundation, Aga Khan University, Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, comprising the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and the Historic Cities Support Programme. The Network also includes the Aga Khan Health Services and the Aga Khan Education Services, providers of health care, schooling and other educational services in South Asia and East Africa since the beginning of the twentieth century. These institutions which are open to all, regardless of origin or creed, are described in greater detail in the brochure on the Aga Khan Development Network.

In view of the importance that Islam places on maintaining a balance between the spiritual wellbeing of the individual and the quality of his or her life, the Imam's guidance deals with both aspects of the life of his followers. The Aga Khan has encouraged Ismaili Muslims, settled in the industrialised world, to contribute towards the progress of communities in the developing world through various development programmes. In recent years, Ismaili Muslims, who went to the U.S. and Canada, often as refugees from Asia and Africa, have readily settled into the social, educational and economic fabric of urban and rural centres across the continent. As in the developing world, the Ismaili Muslim Community's settlement and the establishment of community institutions in the developed world have been characterised by an ethos of self-reliance, an emphasis on education and a pervasive spirit of philanthropy.

It is this commitment to man's dignity and the relief of humanity that inspires the Ismaili Imamat's philanthropic institutions. Giving of one's competence, sharing one's time, material or intellectual wherewithal with those among whom one lives, for the relief of hardship, pain or ignorance is a deeply ingrained tradition which shapes the social conscience of the Ismaili Muslim community.

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Alyssa Jaffer - Ismaili Student Makes it to Top 8 in the Country in Zinch Scholarship Competition

Thank you very much for your votes in the previous rounds. Alyssa has advanced to the top 8 in the country for the Zinch Scholarship Competition.

Voting for the next three rounds will last five days each so please come back and vote each time to help her advance to the top. Thanks again!

Please help an Ismaili youth win a $20,000 scholarship!

1. Go to www.Zinch.com

2. Click 'sign up' at the top

3. Create a username and password

4. Check your email from Zinch. Click 'confirm'

5. In the new window, log in with your username and password

6. Enter in this link: http://www.zinch.com/Voting/ViewMatchUp.aspx?gid=111

7. Click 'vote' under Alyssa Jaffer's profile. Thank you!

Please vote during this round today! It is ending tomorrow morning 8am PST (Monday April 6th).

If Alyssa makes it through this round, then there will be a new round of competition for the FINAL 4 and it will last five days during which you vote in the new round with an updated link. Please spread the word!

Thanks and Ya Ali Madad!

http://www.amaana.org/arch/alyssaj.htm


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A project for the little ones-theismaili.org

Younger Ismailis, whose parents migrated from Africa to Europe and North America in the 1970s, are used to hearing their elders reminisce about “the good old days” in the faraway lands that they once called home. But for Farah Williamson, who grew up in Uganda before studying in England and Canada, Africa was not far away. Although she now lives in the United Kingdom, her attention never strays far from the continent.

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WoW 1 lakh hit..ismailiworld

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Talking the talk early in life-theismaili.org'

While surfing television programmes one day, I realised that I pay for far too many channels broadcast in languages that I do not understand. My subscription includes everything from Asian-Orient and South Asian to French and Spanish. I could take courses in each of these languages to maximise my investment, but I will never achieve near-native proficiency in any.

Born in Kenya and raised in Canada, I speak Kutchi and English fluently. Still, I struggle to strengthen my French and Spanish –– languages I acquired much later in life. Research suggests that had I only been instructed in those languages from birth, I would have mastered them by now.

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IIS Scholar Addresses Muslim Perspectives on Bioethics

April 2009

Dr. Amyn B. Sajoo was invited to speak on bioethical choices and Islam at a training session for clinicians, ethicists and counsellors, convened by the London Research Ethics Committees of the British National Health Service (NHS). Dr. Sajoo was among three scholars at the session, the others being Professors Daniel Sokol and Søren Holm, which was held in London on 19 March 2009 at the Royal Society of Medicine’s Chandos House.

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