Minarets in the Mountains: A Journey Into Muslim Europe (Bradt Travel Guides (Travel Literature))

Product Information

His love and gentleness towards his wife and daughters made this book even more pleasing. His descriptions about sunni, shiah and sufism was non-divisive and non-judgmental, which led to a peaceful reading (he's sunni Muslim, in case you're wondering).

Thomas and his team identified four Jewish headstones, which added to a collection of more than 70 that had been found by Italian researchers in the 1960s. All but six of the headstones recovered thus far memorialize men who lived between 1150 and 1220, the historically recorded period of occupation in Firuzkuh. That there are no headstones from the cemetery belonging to Jewish women suggests to Thomas and his colleagues that the men likely came to the capital without families, and perhaps married local non-Jewish women. The professions listed on the gravestones include goldsmith, teacher, and religious specialist, in addition to more workaday trades. Along with the dates on the gravestones, this suggests a long-lived community had put down roots at Firuzkuh and occupied the town year-round.Writer and documentary-maker Tharik Hussain sets off with his wife and young daughters around the Western Balkans, home to the largest indigenous Muslim population in Europe, and explores the regions of Eastern Europe where Islam has shaped places and people for more than half a millennium. Encountering blonde-haired, blue-eyed Muslims, visiting mystical Islamic lodges clinging to the side of mountains, and praying in mosques older than the Sistine Chapel, he paints a picture of a hidden Muslim Europe, a vibrant place with a breathtaking history, spellbinding culture and unique identity. Alsup, William (2001). Missing in the Minarets: The Search for Walter A. Starr, Jr. El Portal California: The Yosemite Association. pp. 105-107+116. ISBN 978-1-930238-18-3. Wanting to discover more about these people, Tharik Hussain sets off with his wife and young daughters around the Western Balkans in search of the people there. As he travels from Bosnia & Herzegovina to Serbia and Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania he finds is a thriving Muslim community. He visits the Mostar Bridge that was rebuilt after it was destroyed during the Croat–Bosniak War, prays in mosques that are older than the Sistine Chapel and talks to many different factions of Muslims from Sunni’s to dervishes. Joining me today is Tharik Hussain. We’re talking about his debut book, Minarets in the Mountains: A Journey into Muslim Europe, which was published in June 2021 by Bradt and nominated for the Baille Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. My latest book review: Is 'European Islam' the future of Western Muslim identity? @The_NewArab https://t.co/JXS2a0cI8I

Criterion (iv): The Minaret of Jam is an outstanding example of Islamic architecture and ornamentation in the region and played a significant role for further dissemination. Minarets in the Mountains is a travelogue I bought on the basis of the map alone. An interesting, little-written-about part of the world (Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro) where I’ve spent some time travelling myself in recent years. It seemed an ideal choice.How many of us are aware of the many centuries of co-existence between Europe’s Muslims and its other faith communities? I suspect not many. Far fewer are likely to be able to count Europe’s Muslims who have weathered war and persecution to plant roots in Europe that run as deep as any other community’s. The Minarets are a series of jagged peaks located in the Ritter Range, a sub-range of the Sierra Nevada in the state of California. They are easily viewed from Minaret Summit, which is accessible by auto. Collectively, they form an arête, and are a prominent feature in the Ansel Adams Wilderness which was known as the Minaret Wilderness until it was renamed in honor of Ansel Adams in 1984. Hussain asks why he was taught none of this in school in England. The Greek Empire under Alexander the Great had been gone into, as had the Roman Empire. But why did so many in Europe – and not just Europe – shy away from presenting the Ottoman Empire in the rightful way? Were the Ottomans held more guilty of the crime of colonialism than the Greeks and Romans? During this session, Tharik Hussain takes us on the journey that led to this, his debut bestselling book 'Minarets in the Mountains' which was Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and shortlisted for the Stanfords Dolman Travel Book of the Year.Tharik is an author, travel writer and journalist specialising in Muslim heritage and culture. His debut book was named a Book of the Year by the New Statesman, Prospect Magazine and the Times Literary Supplement, and a Travel Book of the Year by The Washington Post and Newsweek. He has also written Lonely Planet guidebooks on Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Thailand, London and Britain, and developed Britain’s very first Muslim heritage trails in Woking, Surrey. Tharik has produced award-winning radio for the BBC World Service on America’s earliest mosques and been published by the likes of the BBC, National Geographic Traveller, The Guardian, Al Jazeera and The Sunday Telegraph. He is also a fellow at the Centre for Religion and Heritage at the University of Groningen. 'Minarets and Mountains' is the first English travel book to explore indigenous Muslim Europe, and the first to look at its living 600-year-old culture and heritage through the eyes of a Muslim writer.

Waller Minaret - 11,711ft, class 5.2 The first ascent via the Eichorn Route is 5.4. An easier, but more complicated route up the West Ridge is 5.2. The Eichorn Route is reached from The Gap while the West Ridge and 5.4 West Side are most easily reached from Ritter Pass. That’s not to say that the modern-day characters who Hussain encounters in his journey through the Balkans are any less interesting. On one wonderful occasion in Serbia, the author met a character embodying to perfection Prophet Muhammed’s instructions on generosity (peace be upon him). In this particularly moving episode, a vendor refused to take money for his daughter’s candy floss, an act of kindness which triggered a wave of emotion and an overwhelming sense of hope for humanity.

Formation Of Arete

The many mentions of Sinan the architectural genius of the 16th century Ottoman really made my read more enjoyable. I first found out about him from the historical fiction, The Architect's Apprentice by Elif Shafak. Since then I get excited everytime I saw him being mentioned or even when I looked at photos of Suleymaniye Mosque. He's responsible for the building of many many structures throughout the Ottoman empire, and at least monitoring/supervising their construction. Thomas analyzed the views from the still-extant towers, and found that most of them did not command vistas that extended beyond the valley. Rather, many of the towers seem to have been constructed to conduct surveillance of the valley itself. Thomas speculates that the fortifications might have been built in the wake of the religious riots that swept Firuzkuh toward the end of the Ghurid Dynasty’s reign. It’s possible that even after the Ghurid sultan Ghiyath al-Din quit the remote summer capital for Herat, he wanted to keep an eye on his rebellious subjects in Firuzkuh. A network of fortifications intended to monitor threats inside the capital, rather than approaching foes, might have been a result of his concern. The sultan was perhaps right to be preoccupied with the possibility of internal instability. His successor was assassinated in 1215, an event that led to the collapse of the Ghurid Empire. It had lasted less than 70 years in all. During the many weeks of their travel, of course they encountered some unpleasant personalities and alarming experience, or even confusing practices, but those occurrences did not make them suspicious towards everyone they met in the country, nor deter them from enjoying other places. In fact, they approached every locality with open hearts and minds. In 2016, Londoner Tharik Hussain set off for the western Balkans along with his wife and two young daughters. Over the course of several weeks, they travelled through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro. Each of the countries is home to sizeable Muslim populations – communities that were first established centuries ago, during the reign of the Ottomans.