The Greatest Islamic Library Nobody Knows About
There are many reasons people come to Dublin – admiring beautifully decorated ancient Qur’ans is not one of them.Unbeknown to the vast majority of Muslims around the [...]
Places
Romania’s forgotten royal mosque
The bright August sun winked at me every time it caught Lutfi’s large, tinted sunglasses. He gave me a toothless grin, before lifting his walking stick to tap the brown [...]
The Muslim-Christian Shrine of Bulgaria
Deep in the forests of northeast Bulgaria, where green, grassy hills come tumbling down from the Romanian border, there lays an intriguing holy man revered by both Muslims [...]
Europe’s only Arabic language
“Kayf int?” enquired the middle-aged Maltese woman as she greeted her friend. “There, did you hear it that time?” I ask in a hushed tone. My 7-year-old daughter looks [...]
Albania’s medieval mirage
Wandering around Berat’s old town is like stumbling across a medieval mirage. Tiered, snow white, Ottoman houses cling to gentle slopes either side of the River Ossum. The [...]
The Vikings and the Muslims
Last month saw the fascinating claim by Annika Larsson of Uppsala University in Sweden that patterns thought to be Viking on funeral clothing could be Kufic inscriptions [...]
Mimar’s Moldovan Military Masterpiece
You have to work extremely hard to reach this forgotten gem of European Muslim heritage. The Bender Fortress sits in a harsh little corner of Eastern Europe, close to [...]
England’s little ‘Taj Mahal’
The little town of Woking in Surrey, England, sits just outside London’s motorway belt, the M25, surrounded by thick woodland with an idyllic canal running through it. It [...]
The pining palaces of Portugal
They say if you wander through the lush, green hills of the Serra di Sintra on bright moonlit nights, chances are you will come upon a stunning Moorish maiden all in white. [...]
A stunning ode to the pain of devsirme
“The first idea of the bridge, which was destined to be realised, flashed, at first naturally confused and foggy, across the imagination of a ten year old boy from the [...]
