Who are you? What have you sacrificed?

Barda, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Caucasian Albania. The kingdom does not exist, but Barda is still there as part of the Republic of Azerbaijan. There is a lot about the ancient kingdom in Greek, Latin, Armenian and Arabic sources. Some of these sources also talk about Prince Juansher, the ruler of the kingdom who apparently fought Persians and Arabs. The figure of Juansher looms large in the works of Azeri historians and some have even produced maps like this (how cool is that?!): 

But what do we actually know about Juansher? I am going to have to find out in 2015! 

Happy New Year! 

Mangalyaan

On September 24th an Indian spacecraft, Mangalyaan, flew to Mars. To be more specific, it flew into orbit just above Mars. Below is the first photo it captured:

'We have achieved near the impossible' says Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, puffed with pride for his country. Mr. Modi's twitter followers have now reached 6.6 followers which makes him second after President Barack Obama. The Economist reports that Prime Minister Modi communicates with everyone through twitter himself and sees no need for journalists. 

Modi said: 'Today, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has met Mangal (Mars). Today Mangal has got Mom. The time this mission was short named as Mom, I am sure that Mom won't disappoint us.'

It's a good thing to have a mother, everyone needs one, and Mars has one too now. The Earth is not just our mother after all. 

Insights from Baku

I spent the last two months in Baku. To be more precise it was in the outskirts of Baku that I spent hours watering our little garden of roses, grapes and figs that we grow there.

Being in such close contact with the earth is an interesting feeling. As you are under 50 degrees heat and you water your plants, you can't help but feel their thirst and enjoy the watering emotionally. Then every morning, at dawn, you wake up to see these beauties grow bigger and more beautiful. It is incredibly inspiring to see the earth give birth to so much goodness...

Then at some point, as you enjoy the beauty of these creations, you can't help but think: how did evil come into this world? Did it grow from a seed? What seed did it grow from? Which plant brought it in? What root did it grow from? How did it find its way into our earth? Maybe it is the sky that is evil and the falling rain carries the evil on earth? These questions remain unanswered for me..And most importantly:  Did this evil sneak into me too?

I spent some time thinking about these questions and the only thing that helped ease my mind was to carry on watering and believing that my plants will only bring goodness to our earth.

Feeling 22 acting 17

Happiness is being almost 31, going to one of the best schools in the world with smartest people in the world, and dreaming like a little girl full of naivety! 

Merry Christmas!

         If you google the phrase "Churches under Muslim rule", you will mostly read: "death to churches under Islam." This is quite sad, not only because it sounds sad, but because it is not true.

But before I carry on, I must say that my intention is not to start talking about what a peaceful religion Islam is, nor I intend to apologise for anything. 

My intention, as a student of Islamic Studies and History, is to share some information from historical sources. 

The history of church building is relatively well documented and thus it is possible to see what the situation with church construction was in the early conquest period of Islam. There are, for example, epigraphic, documentary and literary evidences of the continuation of church building in Edessa and a vibrant church and monastic culture during the seventh and eighth centuries in Mosul. 

There are many examples, such as the ones in the Life of Simeon of the Olives who wished to build churches and monasteries in Nibis, and succeeded in getting a letter from the Arab governor saying that the 'laws of the Christians' be respected in the Arabs' territory.'

Another example is in Syriac from Life of Gabriel of Qartmin, the metropolitan bishop of Dara from 634 to 648. Here is what it says: 

"Now this Mor Gabriel went to the court of the sovereign of the Arabs, who was 'Umar the son of Khattab, in the city of Jazire. He was received with great gladness and after a few days the Blessed One [i.e. Gabriel] petitioned the commander and received his written authority concerning the statutes and laws and orders and warnings and judgements and observances pertaining to the Christians; to churches and monasteries; and to priests and deacons, that they should not pay the head tax and to monks that they should be exempt from tribute, and that the use of wooden gong would not be banned; and that they might practise the chanting of anthems at the bier of dead man when he leaves his house to be taken for burial, together with many other customs. The sovereign was pleased that the Blessed One had come to him; and the holy man returned to the abbey with great joy."

The above mentioned is certainly a very brief peek into the early history of church construction under the Muslim rule, and there are certainly cases of restrictions and prohibitions, however, nothing can change the fact that Christians enjoyed their usual way of life and religious customs under the early Muslim rule. 

It is unfortunate that there is much ignorance around this subject these days, but as the saying goes: "You are now ignorant, as we are now ignorant, of how things were at the beginning."

"Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?" Rumi

Rumi  -- someone whose poems I read all the time. I always wondered though: when did he have time to write all of his works, when his main message is: "sell your cleverness
 and buy bewilderment."?

If you look up his major works it says: 27000 lines of Persian poetry, 35000 Persian couplets, 2000 Persian quatrains, 90 ghazals, 19 quatrains in Arabic, a couple of dozen couplets in Turkish and Greek!!!!!

              When did this man have time to go crazy???

Then, I thought, maybe he had his own way of going crazy?

Most of my answers came when I read about the emergence of first ascetics/mystics in early 9th century . Apparently, the word ascetic which derives from the Greek word askesis means training, exercise/discipline. The actual word athlete comes from this term too. Being ascetic meant that you would be extremely self-disciplined and would follow a very strict regime in your life to reach whatever spiritual goal you had.

Rumi says: "In this mob of I's inside, which one is me? Hear me out. I know I am wandering, but don't start putting a lid on this racket. No telling what I'll do then. Every moment I'm thrown by your story. One moment it's happy, and I'm singing. One moment it's sad, and I am weeping. It turns bitter, and I pull away. But then you spill a little grace, and just like that, I'm all light. It's not so bad, this arrangement, actually." 

He seems to be following his path and following the wave of his inner ocean, wherever it may take him. To me he is like a surfer who loved the waves but also, as time went by, would also train himself to direct the waves of the ocean to explore the endless waters...

In his exploring he trained himself to overcome fear of pain quickly as he believed that it was pain that gave him that quality of experience. It is difficult to understand and accept this , but I love his saying:  "You can recognise a man on the path to God by the scars in his heart...

I started by his quote: "Who gets up early to discover the moment light beings?". When I first read it, I thought he just means inner light, etc. But as I discovered the endless amount of effort that he put into his work I realised, he must be getting up very early in the morning just to do that.

Just once around the sun.

This year at Oxford is over. My last day was June 17, when I had to take an Arabic exam. That day, I took the Oxford tube from London and travelled for the last time this year.
The exam went well, we caught up with my friends afterwards for some drinks and it was amazing to recall how much we went through during this one year.
We all had our own difficulties this year, I know mine very well. One of the most challenging thing for me was to travel to Oxford from London every day in the first term. Every day, I would take the Oxford tube very early in the morning and travel for more than an hour. Going back was even longer...
It was especially challenging with a very complicated Arabic teacher who would make things much more difficult for me (us) than they already were. And of course, the endless amount of material to read, write, present, study.
My journeys were particularly interesting: with different drivers, people and at different times. Things had their own uniqueness at different times of the day. I remember once getting on the bus for a seminar which was at 4 and so I got on quite late and decided to go sit upstairs (which i usually never do). An old couple was sitting behind me and I enjoyed their conversation tremendously. I think they were artists and as we passed along the beautiful fields and blue skies, they would find something attractive and meaningful in everything. It was not just a silly talk, but a very interesting view of two artists in love with nature. I enjoyed that travel most of all and had a great time looking around through their eyes.

What a long year! I have learned so much, have met so many wonderful people, but most importantly I have changed significantly as I have come a bit closer to my dream.

I am grateful to everyone who has made this year so interesting and meaningful.

A year seems to be a long time. But in fact, it is not so long. Just once around the sun.