дорогие друзья, мне очень приятно, это воин, причём мыслят, сопереживают. hello, i'm mubarak kenya and a warm welcome to africa today, a program that takes you a journey through africa. we cover current affairs in the continent and also highlight various aspects of the continent's reach, history, culture and civilization. in our program today, we shall take a glance at how

islam impacted on the culture and arts of some of the eastern and western parts of the continent, so stay with us and please send us your comments through our social media handle appearing on the screen. the impact of islam on african culture and art. any discussion on islam in africa brings to mind a major historical fact. the first journey in the history of islam. was the migration of muslims to absenia in eastern africa and the present day ethiopia. during the advent of islam, the politis persecuted the muslims, those who proclaimed believe in one god and god's messenger, the prophet muhammad, peace be upon him and his progeny. this resulted in prophet muhammad's suggestion to muslims to leave mecca and seek protection in abicenia. according to historians, najashi, the king of... seninia welcomed the muslim refugees

from mecca into his kingdom. the muslim migrants in ethiopia built the first mosque in africa known as the al-najashi mosk in the 7th century. najash is considered to be the earliest muslim settlement in africa. taleb rifai, a former secretary general of the of united nations will tourism organization says this mosque in ethiopia is part of the history of the advent of. islam: these are the beginnings of the story of islam that spread to the entire world, but it's also important for all faiths of all people from all over the world. this is a lesson in tolerance and understanding and compassion. of it's a lesson that we should learn from today, people receiving people that are in need, helping them, supporting them and making them move forward. now in the first part of our program, we shall focus on the impact of islam on the culture and art of the people of. west and africa. to discuss these,

we have contacted professor abdul sharif. he's a distinguished tanzanian scholar of history. he has also played a crucial role in preserving zanzibar's cultural heritage. now, professor, the first migration of muslims is a period in which ali muslims fly the persecution of the quraish tribe in the arabian peninsula into absenia or modern ethiopia. now, how did these migration impact on the spread of islamic culture in eastern africa? the facts that this was the first migration of muslims outside arabia, that becomes very significant because as far as zanzibar, the sahili coast, people like to claim that in fact the people, the muslims who came, they came to zanzibar rather than ethiopia, and i think this sometimes is sort of local beliefs, but there are claims here in zansbar itself. that that islam reached

zanzibar before it reached medina, and there of is even a mosque here which is said to have been built a very long time ago, which i think some of this might be over excitement about it, but but it shows really how how high islam is held. particularly by the people in zasb because zasb is 97% muslim. for over a thousand years, swahili people, who are known as the waswahili, have been living along the east african coastal land extending from the north coast of kenya to the southernmost part of tanzania. the swahili people are also the inhabitants of several nearby indian ocean islands, including zanzibar, lamu and pata. most of

the swahili people are muslims, they became muslim through the influence of people coming from the north and also from across the indian ocean. islam has greatly. influenced the language, art and culture of the swahili people. omar banana, a kenyan museologist says the history of east africa is well documented. the first recorded history like this periporus of erithrean is is a trade book showing about the east africa and well documented. east africa is home to swahili, an official language of africa. "the interaction of muslims with east africans greatly impacted on the language and culture of this region. i think actually when you when you mention the word swahili, you should know the original of that word, it comes from of course the arabic sahil, which means the

coast. now the coast, it is very simple concept, the cost is a cost, but when you think historically, the cost is where the..." continent meets the sea, there is a area of intersection between these two worlds and it is not merely the sea, the the water of it, but it is the countries beyond it, in others, the the the slahili coast is very uniquely area of interaction between africa and the whole indian ocean world for very long time, historically we know at least 2000 years of interaction that people have been coming and trading and interacting. now when people interact, they need to have a common language, and very often it is sort of pigeon languages and mixture of both languages so

that people can understand each other, but in the process each language absorbs some of the words which are useful, which they didn't have before. and and so some of these words began to be absorbed into keswahili. lamu old town in kenya is the best preserved swahil settlement in east africa. now the islamic architecture of this town, which is a unesco world herited site is characterized by the simplicity of structural forms and reached by such features as inner courtyars, verandas and elaborately carved wooden doors. now the town is also considered a spiritual cradle of the swahili. language, mohammed monje, he is the site manager of the lamu alltown world heritage property in kenya, gives us a glimpse of lamu town. lamu is credited as one the best preserved swial towns on the east african coast. it is a place like other, it

is a peaceful, beautiful, tropical island where life is lived its own rhythm. it is town whose history is as mysterious and fascinating as the winding streets of the medieval stone town for. would be traveleller lam is a hypnoptically exotic experience made even more enjoyable by the relaxed and welcoming attitude of the locals. now lamu has maintained its social and cultural integrity. now this historical town has also retained its authentic uh building fabric up to the present day. professor, can you tell us more about this historical town? i think oneing actually, yes lamu is one of the oldest town that has been preserved in that kind of position, but it is not the oldest town on the east african coast, there have been other towns that were very prominent earlier on like kilwa in the south and some

other towns that are mentioned arapta and so on. i think what is particularly important is that lamu and it lamu is... is one of the islands in that area of kenya and and on all these islands there are towns swahili towns, but lamu was the most important in the 19th century, it was already important earlier, but in the 19th century it became became a center of trade with close connection with zansbur, which was the bigger town at that time. and therefore it was able to develop again, because that the towns have always gone through ups and downs, even in in the case of lamu and other towns in that area, there are stories of the old towns collapsing, and even poetry is written on

them, one of the famous poet (kiswai poetry) called inkishafi is precisely talking about this one these old town that have declined and people are writing poetry on it. lamu has hosted major muslim religious festivals since the 19th century and has become a significant center for the study of islamic and swahili cultures. an integral part of lamu's islamic culture is the famous molid celebrations which mark the birth anniversary of prophet muhammad, peace be upon him and his progeny. the festival brings visitors and pilgrims to lamu from for field for recitals of praise poems, music and dances, calligraphy and art exhibits, dough and donkey races and a live.

lamu continues to be major center of islamic culture in east africa. what are some of the unique characteristics of this town? um, the roads are very narrow, and therefore the only cards, only donkey carts. and pass through those narrow streets, which is perfect in some ways, because it keeps the cars out, and

therefore you are able to maintain the the character of the old town, that was one, the second one was the houses of relatives were very closely connected with each other, and therefore, and since this was also islamic, they were practicing islam, and the women... would like to visit their friends, but for muslim women to come out into the street, especially very busy street, it is uncomfortable, you being pushed around everywhere, but they built the houses in such a way that the house were interconnected each other, between houses there would be a covered bridge, and since these were relative related families. "a woman could go from one house to the next, to the third, to the fourth, without having to come down to the

street. thank you very much, professor abdul sharif, a distinguished tanzanian scholar of history, for your brief insight on the impact of islam on african culture and art in eastern africa. now we take a short break before we continue with the same subject, but shifting to the western part of africa, so stay with us. the impact of islam on african culture and art. this is for palestine. in this week show we'll be highlighting how ziness weaponization of antisemitism is beginning to spectacularly backfire. in november last year, one prominent zinist zellet made a preposterous accusation of antisemitism about a students mascot on the university challenge tv quiz show. but she was left with a copious quantity of egg on her face after legal action was taken by the student who was targeted. he came up to the rostrom and he turned around and said um, can people stop hissing behind my back? we all

looked at each other and what's a point, no one's hissing, certainly we couldn't hear any hissing from where we were sitting, and then the the uh chair of the meeting shut the meeting down and somehow um this hissing that i couldn't hear was interpreted as anti-semitic, give them pictures of octopus like this lovely hanika octopus oscar here, yes um and say actually this was... by the nazis and any any representation of a blue octopus must be antisemitic except of course the ones which are not anti-semitic. welcome back to africa today and we continue our program by looking at some aspects of how

islam influenced the culture of the people of west africa. now a quick glance at islam in west africa reveals a world in which islam has fused with local culture to such an extent that it is not easy to distinguish where one ends and the other begins. now this has been the outanding characteristic of west african islam. it's a world of suphism, islamic brotherhoods and rich african culture that finds ample room for expression through the islamic faith. a muslim cleric at the great jerney mosk in mali speaks here about some of the activities at these grand. islamic heritage site.

alhamdulillah. now for more on the impact of islam on the culture of part of west africa, we have contacted sayid abbas, he's a journalist and a political commentator, thanks for your time sir, now west africa has some of the richest. aspects of islamic culture in africa, what was the reason for the tremendous impact of islam on west africa's art and culture? research on on this region really reveals that a world in which islam became so fused with local chuck culture to such an extent that it's often difficult to tell where one ends and where the other begins, so they had a mutual mutual sort of complementary fusion

that happened it seems rather rather rapidly. "and this has been distinctive characteristic of west african islam and it's really based fundamentally on what what we could describe as sufism, and now of course islamic brotherhoods of of tasawf reach this area africa and combined with those traders, it was these kind of teachings, the very soft teachings of the the sufis which actually created a lot of attraction and i think that as with most other regions where islam..." arrived, it usually didn't impose its kind of its kind of cultures, what it did was it blended the cultures that it brought with it, usually arab cultures or persian cultures, whichever one, whichever the that they happened to be, and it would fuse with the indigenous culture. timbuktu in mali is home the prestigious quranic sancor university and

other islamic schools or madrasas. it was intellectual and spiritual capital and a center for the propagation of islam throughout africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. islam greatly influenced the establishment of this ancient city. well, of course mali today is the largest country in west africa. 90% of its 11 million people are are muslims now and mari holds a special place in muslim and african history. i mean for centuries that the the city of timbuktu, the mythical and almost s city of timbuk to located right in the center of present day mari of west africa thrived really as bustling center of culture and learning during the golden age of islam, so of course now we're talking about that period in baghdad and the abaside establishment and of course huge wealth and it wasn't limited to the abasits, we had of course the the phenomena of perhaps arguily the richest man

in the world that's ever been known is mansa musa the first who was the ruler. of that that region which covered mali and far far more, timbuktu was basically under him transformed from a small but successful trading post into a center of commerce, into commerce and scholarship. mali has experienced years of conflict that has resulted in the destruction of several historical mausuleums in timbuktu. unesco, which declared timbuktu a world heritage site, has assisted in the... construction of the destroyed islamic heritage sites using traditional knowledge systems as part of an international cooperation campaign. traditional masons have used many techniques for plastering facades. we found that it worked well and that the plastering is perfect. it is necessary to specify that there was the intervention of unesco and the experts who really made empecable follow up.

large scale work, but for all the small maintenance works, it is the corporation of masons of timbuktu which takes care of it, it must be said that everyone participates, when the masons are working, the women bring us water and food and help us at times, we also involve the children in order to prepare the next generation. now what is the state of the reconstruction or restoration of timbuktu which once face threats from? well the reconstruction of the timbuck to muslims was one of the first cases where destruction of heritage side was prosecuted as crime of war recognizing cultural heritage protection as integral part of peacekeeping efforts and in 2012 several buildings in timbuktu, including actually it was 14 of the 16 muslims which

formed part of the world heritage site which were destroyed uh within the context of armed conflict and terrorism and civil unrest, and these attacks all targeted the al-farup monument, they well they also targeted alf monument rather and will completely destroy that particular building uh they... say the travesty of an estimated 4,203 manuscripts from the institute of higher islamic studies and research were burnt, this was at ahmed baba research institute, they were burnt, stolen and destroyed its seems by armed groups mostly in 2016, and in fact the it was the international criminal court that convicted ahmed al fakih al mahdi for directing the attacks that destroyed the monuments all together, but but nonetheless now what we're seeing is the gradual restoration of those, in fact the people love that the their cultural heritage so much, that many of them are working for free with

unesco and the other various other people who are restoring these sites and slowly but surely and quite laboriously uh the outer buildings are being fixed and the inner inner buildings have got plans for how they're going to be restored to their original if you like glory. moving to nigeria, uthman danfodio was the founder of the sokoto califate in present day nigeria. it was indeed one of the largest empires in africa during the 19th century. this califate impacted on the culture and arts of the people of this region of africa. the fact that the sakoto kaliphate, which emerged around 1803, uh, actually, um, lot of people refer to it as the fulani. empire, but it was arguably west africa's largest pre-colonial state and lasted for a century coming into being around as i said 1803, 1808 that kind

of time uh through four year jihad and finally it was conquered in 1903 by britain, but during that period of course the cementing of islamic culture was very very profound and i think the the the the sakota califit was much more i think... more forth right in the way it established islam and certainly the cultural reminance exists today um through all almost all the amirs that they had initially the scholars that were chosen and and identified ethically as fulani or fullbe they were all part and parcel of the process of establishing islam particularly in northern nigeria and as with with this region again it's a very sufi orientated sort of culture. sufism is the dominant form of islam in senegal and actually in most west african countries. medina b is town in senegal which

is considered to be holy by many african sufis, especially those that follow the tijani oda or tarika. now these sufis were also in the forefront against colonialism. the senegales town has also attracted african muslims from the diaspora. us african americans ' as a place or safe haven for us to practice our religion um and learn our religion um also it's also invitation back home giving us a piece of ourself that was lost or taken away from us. now how critical is sufism in promoting the culture of tolerance in the region and africa as a whole? irfan or whichever you choose to to discuss has a profound effect on on west west africa in terms of the islam. adopts because you can see it throughout all of their culture, there is not that kind of restrictiveness that you see within many of the kind of more, far right or very very

conservative super orthodox versions of islam which the saudi arabians and others are emerging with and wahabists are emerging with, and an example of that for instance is is that you'll see the expression of of koranic. in very beautiful sounds and very beautiful melodies and very original merged melodies with traditional african sounds, you'll see even the performance of zickers, so the zickers will have certain rhythms and certain even movements are very, very sedate and very serene and very, they carry themselves very well with it, but again you can see movement and and sound are very important and and they were the cultural fusion. of quran and hadith and of course the the worship of allah. well, it's quite an interesting discussion, but unfortunately our

time is up for today. i would like to thank our guest sayed muhsin abbas for his enlightening insight on the impact of islam on west africa's culture and art. well, and that brings us to the end of this week's edition of africa. today, it's been great having you watch the show. you can watch this episode and all our previous episodes on our website pressv.ir. also send us your comments through. social media handle appearing on the screen, thanks lot for watching and goodbye for now.

in this episode of ewan we're taking a look a system that allows us to more closely examine ancient findings and uh let us know about the material that they're made from without damaging it, the time period that they were from and the location that they originated from and not necessarily found in, and that is all possible thanks to kind of portacle accelerator known as the vandday graph. stay tuned, don't miss it.

first of headlines this hour as this was on the side of war enters this 164th day. doctors without borders says the situation in gaza is catastrophic and words cannot describe it. tentions of the korean peninsula, the democratic people's republic of korea launches multiple ballistic missiles as the west secretary of state, anthony blincon visits neighboring south korea for talks. and russia's president putin warns the west against sending troops to ukraine saying that it could take the world to the brink of world war ii.