of hello, i'm mubarak hania and a warm welcome to africa today, a program that takes you on our journey through africa. we cover current

affairs in the continent and also highlight various aspects of the continent's rich 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 africa. 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 polythis 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 abisina. according to historians, najashi, the king of abisina, 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. rifai, a former secretary general of the united nations world 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 of 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 a understanding and compassion. it's a lesson that we should learn from today, people receiving people that are in need, help.

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 eastern africa. to discuss this, we have contacted professor abdul shariff, he is the 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 all muslims flare the persecution of the quraish tribe in the arabian pen. into absenia or 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 know the sahili coast, people like to claim that in fact the people, the muslims who came... i

came to zanzibar rather than ethiopia and i think this sometimes is sort of local beliefs - but there are claims here in zanzibar itself that that islam reached zanzibar before it reached medina and there 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 zansbar, because zansb 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 south. most part

of tanzania. the swahili people are also the inhabitants of several nearby indian ocean islands including zanzibar, lamu and pate. most of the... wahili 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 buana, a kenian museologist, says the history of east africa is well documented. the first recorded history like this periporus of erithran is is 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 word sahil, which means the coast. "now the coast, it is very simple concept, you think the coast is a coast, but when you think historically, the coast 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..." is very uniquely area of interaction between africa and the whole indian ocean world for very long time, historically we know at least 200 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 kiswahili. lamu old town in kenya is the best preserved swahili settlement in east africa. now the islamic architecture of this town, which is a unesco world heritage site, is characterized by the simplicity, of structural forms and reach 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. mhammed mwenje is the site manager the lamu all town world heritage property in kenya gives us a glimpse of lamu town. lamu

is credited as one of the best preserved uh 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 the would be traveler, 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 one thing 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, erapta and so on. i think what is particularly important is that lamu and it lamu is one of the islands in that area of kenya, and and on all of 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, the stories of the old towns collapsing and even poetries. written on them, one of the famous pohali poetry called kishafi is precisely talking about this, one of these old towns that have decline. 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 farafield for recitals of praise poems, music and

dances, calligraphy and art exhibits, dough and donkey races and a lively parade or zepair that winds through the narrow allways the town. lamu continues to be major center of islamic culture in east africa. what are some of the unique characteristics of this town ? "the roads are very narrow and therefore the only

cars, only donkey cars can 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 here, 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 houses were interconnected each other. between houses there would be a covered bridge and since these were relative

related families, 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, distinguished tanzanian scholar of history, for your brief insight on the impact of islam on african culture and art in eastern africa. 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. the israeli economy already shrink. almost 20%.

the israeli economy is very dependent on the exploration of palestinian workforce. what was done in agriculture with high-tech irrigation does not have the labor from foreign sources. which was bad in any case,

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... turning characteristic of west african islam. it's a world of suphism, islamic brotherhoods and rich african culture that find ample room for expression through the islamic faith. a muslim cleric. at the great journey mosque in mali speaks here about some of the activities at these grand islamic heritage site.

well now for more on the impact of islam on the culture of parts of west africa, we have contacted sayid abbas, he is 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 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 the tasaw of 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 happen to be, and it would fuse with the indigenous

culture. timbuktu in mali is home of 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. arg 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 sacred city of timbuktu, 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 abbased you know establishment and of course huge wealth, and

this wealth wasn't limited to the abbassits, we had of course the the phenomena of perhaps... arguably 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 central commerce into commerce and scholarship. mali has experienced years of conflict that has resulted in the destruction of several historical mausuleums in team book two. unesco, which declared timbuktu a world heritage site, has assisted in the reconstruction of the destroyed islamic heritage sites using traditional knowledge systems as part of an international cooperation campaign. pense que les années passées. 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. but for all the small maintenance works it is the cooperation of masons of timbuktu which takes care of it. it must be said that everyone participates. while 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 takfiri terrorists? well the reconstruction of the timb to muslims was one of the first cases. is where destruction of heritage site was prosecuted as crime of war, recognizing cultural heritage protection as an 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 within the context of armed conflict and terrorism and civil unrest, and these attacks all targeted the al-farup monument, they... they also targeted alf monument rather and will completely destroy that particular building. they say uh the traversty of an estimated 4,203 manuscripts from the institute of higher islamic studies and research were burnt. this was at ahmed baba uh research institute where they were burnt, stolen and destroyed it 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 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 quit laboriously uh the outer buildings are being fixed and the inner inner buildings have got plans for how they... to be restored to their original if you like glory. moving to nigeria, usman 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 theippate which emerged. around 1803 uh actually um lot of people refer to it as the falani empire, but it was arguably west africa's largest pre-colonial state and

lasted for a century uh coming into being around as i say 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 califit was much more i think much more forth right in the way it established islam and certainly the cultural reminance exists today um through all almost all the amires that they had initially the scholars that were chosen and and identified ethically as fulani or fulbe 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. suufism is the dominant form of islam in

senegal and actually in most west african countries. medinabai is town in senegal which is considered to be holy by many african sufis, especially those that follow the tijani or the ortarika. now these sufis were also in the forefront against colonialism, town has also attracted african muslims from the diaspora, us african americans, um, 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. irman or whichever you choose to to discuss. has a profound effect on on west west africa in terms of the islam it adopts, because you can see it throughout all of their culture, there

is, there's 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... is is that you'll see the expression of uh of koranic recitation in very beautiful sounds and very beautiful melodies and very original merged melodies with traditional african sounds, you'll see even the performance of zikrs, so the zickers will have certain rhythms and certain even movements, are very, very sedate and very serene and very, you 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 the worship of allah.

well uh, it's quite an interesting discussion, but unfortunately our time is up for today. i would like to thank our guest said 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 our social media handle appearing on the screen. thanks lot for watching and goodbye for now.

in this episode of irantech 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 portical accelerator known as the vandday graph. stay tuned, don't miss it.

your headlines here on press tv. is really occupation forces continue attacks on alsifa medical complex in gaza, killing dozens of civilians and abducting scores of others. leader of yemen's anser of the movement says intentional massacres of palestinians in gaza proves criminal nature of israel and the moral decline of the us. and iran uh strongly condemns israel's attacks on syria as unlawful and provocative.