Esfahan, Iran Imam Khomeini Square is a public square, one of the largest in the Middle East, that many Iranians hold dear as the cultural heart of their country. It is one of the most popular tourism sites in Iran, and though it lacks the religious importance of Qom or Mashhad, the Imam Khomeini Square does not lack for gawking visitors, both Muslim and non-Muslim. The … [Read more...]
GOLESTAN PALACE
Teheran, Iran Persia is arguably the world’s oldest, most continuous state. Since the days of the Medes in the 1st Millenium BC, a procession of nations has existed in this neighborhood that roughly conform to Iran’s modern-day borders. Despite conquests by the Greeks, Arabs and Mongols, Persia’s geography has remained more or less intact. In the ensuing twenty five … [Read more...]
MOSQUES OF SHIRAZ (MASJID VAKIL, MASJID NASIR AL-MULK, MADRASSA KHAN)
Shiraz, Iran Shiraz is one of the oldest and most historically important cities in Iran. In addition to its prominence in ancient times, it has served as the capital of Islamic Persia twice, most recently in the 18th century. Many of the city’s most prominent mosques and other religious institutions were built or refurnished during the Qajar period, notably the Masjid Nasir … [Read more...]
KASBAH OF ALGIERS
Algiers, Algeria Few North African cities have captured the imagination in the way that Algiers has. Algiers was the city of the Barbary pirates, who held European shipping in the Western Mediterranean hostage for centuries; it is the city where Muslims first threw off the yoke of foreign occupation in the post-war era; and it is the city of the Kasbah, the great fortress and … [Read more...]
SULTAN AHMET MOSQUE (MASJID SULTAN AHMET)
Istanbul, Turkey After the Hagia Sofia and the Masjid Suleymaniye, it is almost unthinkable that Istanbul could witness an even more beautiful mosque constructed in its midst. However, the Masjid Sultan Ahmet, also known as the Blue Mosque, impossibly outshines all of its predeccesors. No other mosques in Turkey, and few other mosques in the world, can rival the stunning … [Read more...]
MOSQUES OF SARAJEVO (EMPEROR’S MOSQUE, MASJID GAZI HUSREV-BEG)
Sarajevo, Bosnia Ever since the late 15th century, when the Ottoman Empire bulged deeply into the Balkans, Bosnia has more or less marked the northernmost frontier of Islamic expansion into Eastern Europe. During the two and a half centuries of Ottoman rule over the Balkans, Sarajevo became one of the most important Islamic centers in Europe, and was the largest Muslim … [Read more...]
MOSQUES OF MIMAR SINAN (MASJID SULEYMANIYE, MASJID SELIMEYE)
Istanbul & Edirne, Turkey Mimar Sinan is renowned as the greatest architect of the Ottoman dynasty and, quite possibly, the greatest Islamic architect of all time. His career spanned five decades, during which time he oversaw the reconstruction of Istanbul as the new grand capital of the Islamic caliphate. Literally hundreds of buildings in and around Istanbul are … [Read more...]
TOPKAPI PALACE
Istanbul, Turkey The Islamic world has a long tradition of honoring its famous dead, and many mosques have at their heart a mausoleum or tomb containing the relics of important Muslims, religious, political, literary or otherwise. What is not common in the Islamic world is the preservation of important religious objects, with at least one major exception: The Sacred Trusts, … [Read more...]
HAGIA SOFIA
Istanbul, Turkey Istanbul has the unique distinction that it has served as the capital of both the Christian and Islamic worlds. From the time of Constantine until the advent of Islam, the patriarch of Constantinople nominally ruled over the vast majority of the world’s Christians. From the time of the Ottoman conquest of the city until the end of World War I, the sultan at … [Read more...]
MOSQUES OF BURSA (MASJID YESIL, MASJID MURADIE)
Bursa, Turkey The Ottoman Caliphate was the longest lasting Islamic dynasty in history and one of the largest. An offshoot of the earlier Seljuk Empire, the Ottomans at their height ruled either directly or indirectly virtually the entire Muslim world west of Persia for the better part of six centuries. For about a fifth of this period, they ruled their empire from the city … [Read more...]
