Shakespeare & ISlam and the OTHER

[Big brotheR]

some are old but still useful:

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1158658304026&pagename=Zone-English-ArtCulture/ACELayout


Shakespeare and Islam: Good Neighbors?
By Rianne C. ten Veen




Shakespeare's Globe is hosting the Islam Awareness Week this year

Ever heard of Shakespeare and Islam being mentioned in one sentence? If not, then you probably haven’t been to the UK this autumn, particularly during the week of November 22-28. Let me explain.
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and the Islamic Society of Britain (ISB) organized a Shakespeare and Islam season for the autumn of 2004. The theme for this year’s Islam Awareness Week was “Your Muslim Neighbor.”

As part of this cooperation, a souk, or traditional Arabian market, was arranged during the last weekend of November in the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s original Globe Theatre. According to the leaflet advertising the event, this souk would include “fantastic winter shopping opportunities.” This was very true, so I was glad that I left most of my money at home, or I would be bankrupt by now. Anyway, just window shopping was very satisfying for the eyes and ears. The souk also included art and craft demonstrations by the Prince’s School of Traditional Art, an exhibition of photography by Peter Sanders, a series of “souk talks,” and “wisdom-oriented entertainment” by the Khayaal Theatre Company.

Considering the time they had been allocated, speakers at the “souk talks” were encouraged to be very “souk-cinct”—how else, for example, could one explain basics of the faith and the history of Islam in just 30 minutes? It was a very diverse series of talks ranging from the practical “Islamic Calligraphy” to the multiple identities of human beings in “A Muslim Female Trajectory,” and from a preachy presentation on “The concept of the Hereafter in Islam” to the bubbly young journalist who at the last minute took over from the original speaker on “Halal meat, Headscarves, and Terrorism.”

According to the first speaker of the day, Hassan Abedin from the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OXCIS) who lectured on “Islam in the Modern World,” Ramadan is like a month-long New Year’s resolution. He reminded us that although Islam is often popularly thought of as being an Arab religion, the top five countries with the highest Muslim populations are lands which are far away from Arabia, such as Indonesia. Even though Syria and Jordan, for example, are known as Muslim countries, France has more Muslims (5 million) than either Syria or Jordan (3.2 million each).

Dr Dawud Noibi, a former Islamic consultant of the London-based Iqra Trust, suggested that Muslims should be good neighbors as their belief in life after death influences their actions and behavior in life on earth. Unfortunately, his implication that non-Muslims are “wicked infidels” did not go down very well with those keen to learn about Islam and their Muslim neighbors, and undid quite a bit of the good of the first speaker. Some excellent advice he had for Muslims though was that we should always remember that all our actions are recorded far more meticulously than CCTV cameras and DVD can ever record.

Mr. Nasser Mansour, an Islamic calligrapher and teacher at the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, mentioned that the modern version of the saying “the pen is mightier than the sword” would be “the computer is more powerful than the atom bomb.” During his talk, he focused on the four stages of making a traditional pen from material similar to bamboo—opening, sharpening, slitting, and clipping. For non-Arab speakers it was funny to hear that a pen gets tested by writing the Arabic letter waw, which looks similar to the English letter g or the number 9.

The overriding advice of Zarah Hussein, a young female journalist, speaking instead of scheduled Fareena Alam, who had to travel to Syria at the last minute, was that if we want our non-Muslim neighbors to understand us better, more Muslims should work in the media. She mentioned that ignorance about Islam is the greatest fuel for Islamophobia. As most of us get our information from the media, it is not enough for her alone, the only hijabi at the BBC (besides the cleaner) during 9/11, to carry the torch. It is important for us to explain that the vast majority of Muslims are just as interested in housing, education, and crime prevention as anybody else, though we do have to differentiate between Islam and our cultural peculiarities.

By 3 p.m. it was time for a talk on “Art and Alchemy” by Mr. David Cranswick, who is a traditional painter with a doctorate from the Prince of Wales Institute in London. The word alchemy comes from the Arabic word al-kimiya or al-khimiya, meaning cast together, or pour together, or weld, or alloy, and so on. The main element from this talk was the organization of colors with the help of the seven visible planets: That is, Mars, for example, carries colors from ochre to brown and Venus carries colors such as blue and green. Could that be where John Gray got his inspiration from when he argued that “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”?

Dr. Matthew Birchwood is a visiting scholar at the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters, Queen Mary University in London and is specialized in the role of Islam in literary-political discourses of the seventeenth century in England. He, along with Dr. Matthew Dimmock, who is an English Lecturer at the University of Sussex, was allotted a talk on “Icons and Infidels.” They focused on two visits by Moroccan ambassadors to seventeenth century England (it is amazing how much paintings can say about politics and religion!). They started off with the sad statement that 500 years on, the Moors are, once again, about to be evicted from Spain.

Sarah Joseph, the chief editor of EMEL magazine, an Islamic lifestyle magazine, mentioned that she was recently asked to squeeze herself into a description of just three words. Having so many identities and character aspects, the main thing she could mention was being human. Although she is obviously not unique in that respect, it did clarify that we have the capacity to relate to other human beings instead of always identifying ourselves as a minority: We can perceive ourselves as part and parcel of society, as human as our non-Muslim neighbors.

After mentioning having a very thick skin and being willing to handle any question, she was asked about the famous wife-beating clause in the Qur’an. She answered that, although this clause was not the one that had tipped her over the edge to decide to become Muslim some 17 years ago, she stated that with proper questioning of the historical context and interpretation of the verse, it was clear that far from introducing domestic violence, it actually sought to extinguish it. What it meant to convey is that partners who “have words” don’t automatically get a one way ticket to Hell. The life of the Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings be upon him) is, again, our great example in this respect.

To end the day, Dr Matthew Birchwood spoke again, this time about the “Alchoran,” the first translation of the Qur’an into English, dating back to 1649. This shows that Islam has been a good neighbor in the UK for much longer than the Asian invasion of the 1950s.

With all these interesting talks to attend, there was little time left to listen to the three short plays and the collection of short stories specially produced for the occasion by the British Khayaal (Arabic for imagination) Theatre Company. Just looking at them for a bit, though, on the brilliantly decorated stage and wearing beautiful, historical outfits, it was easy to drift off and believe I was actually in Arabia as it was a few centuries ago.

Finally, judging by the accents, there were quite a few of our neighbors present from across the pond. According to one of the people who had come from the US, many had come over to London as students, and they had been joined this weekend by vacationers using Thanksgiving as an excuse to visit their neighbors on the other side of the ocean.

Rianne C. ten Veen is IslamOnline.net correspondent in Birmingham, UK. Currently, she is an employee in Islamic Relief. You can reach her at riannetv@mail.com

[Big brotheR]

Saturday, September 29, 2007
Elizabeth I and Islam?

There is something of a flutter on the conservative political blogs about a lecture given by Dr Jerry Brotton published on the website of the Campaign for Racial Equality: Why Muslims make Britain a better place.

Brotton argues that the Muslims were responsible for the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Somewhat gauchely, he says "it was Turkish naval manoeuvres, rather than Drake's swashbuckling, which delivered the fatal blow to the Spanish invasion plans." Of course, Tim on Conservative Party Reptile: "Eh?" points out, this should be the "Ottoman Empire" since Turkey was not created for another 350 years.

General conservative reaction to this is that it is wacky political correctness and so indeed it seems if the claim is taken at face value. The Spanish Armada was much larger than the English navy but was outgunned and outclassed in seamanship. Any ships detained to defend Spain against the Ottomans would have made little difference to the outcome.

However, nobody seems to dispute the claim that Walsingham, Elizabeth's spymaster, sent a letter in the mid-1580s to the ambassador in Istanbul, William Harborne, ordering him to encourage the Turks to harry the Spanish navy. If so, this sheds light on the intrigues in policy of Elizabethan England. Brotton's rosy view that we might all be speaking Spanish ignores the possibility that undermining the alliance against the Ottomans might have ended with us all speaking another language entirely.

Conservative Party Reptile also points out an amusing infelicity in Brotton's wide-ranging assessment of inter-religious dialogue. In a purple passage, he enthuses:

But we do know that of all the countries of Europe, Britain enjoyed the most extensive trade with Muslim lands throughout the first millennium after Christ. Happily, today English schoolchildren are learning that there is more to Genghis Khan than the hordes.
CPR tentatively suggests:
"I'm pretty certain that Ghengis wasn't a Muslim actually - the Mongols had their own religion I believe..."
Right there; Chingis Khan (I think that is more politically correct version) dallied with various forms of shamanism and Buddhism. He was certainly not a Muslim :-)



7 COMMENTS:

Paul, South Midlands said...
Is it any surprise that the leading country of western protestantism would be on fairly good terms with the leading country of protestantisms first millenium eastern counterpart?

It does occur to me that presbyterianism and calvinism in some respects has more in common with Islam than Catholicism

9/29/2007 10:51 PM
Laban said...
Some of the later Mongols become Muslim - hence the Moghul Empire.

If you want to know what Elizabeths church thought of Islam, take a look at this :

http://tinyurl.com/2aq9e4

"The Turk goeth about to set up, to extol, and to magnify that wicked monster and dammed soul Mohumet above thy dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ, whom we in heart believe, and with mouth confess, to be our only Saviour and redeemer. Wherefore awake, O Lord our God and heavenly Father ..."

"First, the Turke with his sword, what landes, nations, and countreys, what empires, kingdomes, and provinces, with cities innumerable hath he wonne, not from us but from Thee! Where thy name was wont to be invocated, thy word preached, thy sacraments administered, there now reigneth barbarous Mahumet with his filthy Alcoran."

Not exactly what Rowan Williams would call a deepening of understanding and friendship.

9/29/2007 10:59 PM
Fr Tim Finigan said...
Thanks, Laban - as CEI would say, there were diverse sensibilities, that is to say, more attentive to one or other pastoral dimension of the application of the text of the Koran :-)

9/30/2007 12:27 PM
Francis said...
Fr. Tim,

I always take it as a marker of religious ignorance if a secular journalist writes something like “Islam needs to undergo its own Reformation.” For heaven’s sake – if a monotheistic religion is already 100% de-sacerdotalized, de-sacramentalized, iconoclastic and “sola scriptura,” how much more of a Reformation can you have? I tend to agree with Paul – it reminds me of Orange Lodge Presbyterianism minus the Bible and the Blessed Trinity.

9/30/2007 11:37 PM
Paulinus said...
Meditate on these things on the 7th of October.

Quite striking that 12000 Christian galley slaves were freed from the Ottoman ships after Lepanto. Now where's that retrospective apology for slavery? Oh, and how about some reparations? Trevor? Trevor? Are you there, Trev?

10/01/2007 10:52 AM
Benfan said...
Maybe its a case of "there is nothing more diabolical than something that is nearly true" I mean the religions not the histories. Religions that are nearly true are far worse than ones that have very little truth. Joint faith schools beware. Paul, I would agree, it comes down to Jesus Christ the reality or Jesus the really nice and amazing so lets copy him guy. One is Christ one is anti-Christ (by definition). Not terribly pc I know but I cannot find fault in this logic. Just to be clear, the intention of the above views is to focus on truth not on hatred of the other person - i.e. the battle is not with "flesh and blood".

10/01/2007 1:20 PM
Auricularius said...
Jerry Brotton was one of the leading lights behind the “Shakespeare and Islam” season at the Globe Theatre in 2004, which came "as part of a week of events focusing on Islam to address concerns raised by the 'war on terror' and improve understanding of the links between Islam and British culture."

Another leading light, Dr Martin Lings, argued that "the guiding principles of Sufi thought are evident in Shakespeare's writing” and that “the plays depict a struggle between the dawning modernist world and the traditional, mystical value system. And, like the Sufis, the playwright is firmly on the side of tradition and spiritualism.” “It was the end of the Middle Ages and the birth of atheism,” he said. “It was the beginning of the ideas of enlightenment and the beginning really of the modern era. Shakespeare is the last outpost of tradition.”

The newspaper Arab News, offered the very helpful comment that “The season was a source of great joy to everybody except, of course, the usual cultural fascists who forget to grasp the essence of what civilization is all about. No other event to be organized in the foreseeable future is likely to enrich our sense of Britishness as the Globe’s season has done. No other contribution is likely to be as original, as bold or as relevant in the struggle to define British Islam as the Shakespeare and Islam season.”

A British actor, Patrick Spottiswoode, was even more enthusiastic than Arab News. “We have had professors teaching Othello and they’d never been to the mosque”, he gushed indignantly. “So we took them to a mosque and they were able to ask questions and get answers. I am sure they will never teach the play the same way again. I am not sure how big the ripple will be. We will soon begin our educational outreach program on Othello and Islamic design. We are sending a group of four actors to faith and non-denominational schools to work with kids to explore the story from Othello’s perspective with children playing an active role in the play. The work will culminate with the making of two handkerchiefs — one of love and one of peace —using Islamic designs which so influenced handkerchief design.”

So now you know.

Sufi or not Sufi. That is the question.

[Big brotheR]

Sufi or not Sufi? That is the question
Islam week at the Globe Theatre will link Shakespeare with a mystic Muslim sect
Buzz up!
Digg it
Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
The Observer, Sunday 24 October 2004
Article history
The influence of William Shakespeare on western culture has made him arguably Britain's greatest export. Now it is being claimed that his work resembles the teachings of the Islamic Sufi sect.
The argument will be put forward next month at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. It comes as part of a week of events focusing on Islam to address concerns raised by the 'war on terror' and improve understanding of the links between Islam and British culture.

While it has been suggested that Shakespeare dabbled with espionage and Catholic political activism, the new theory will attempt to persuade Shakespeare scholars that the playwright was a member of a religious or spiritual order which can best be compared to the philosophy of Sufism.

The respected academic Dr Martin Lings will put forward this thesis in his lecture on 23 November. 'Shakespeare would have delighted in Sufism,' said Lings, who is 96 and an adherent of Sufism. 'We can see he obviously knew a lot about some kind of equivalent sect or order.'

Lings argues that the guiding principles of Sufi thought are evident in Shakespeare's writing. The plays, he believes, depict a struggle between the dawning modernist world and the traditional, mystical value system. And, like the Sufis, the playwright is firmly on the side of tradition and spiritualism.

'It was the end of the Middle Ages and the birth of atheism,' he says. 'It was the beginning of the ideas of enlightenment and the beginning really of the modern era. Shakespeare is the last outpost of tradition.'

Lings believes that characters in some of the best known works exemplify the Sufi quest for purification, while others represent Shakespeare himself.

'I am going to say that it is wrong to say we know very little about Shakespeare because he is present in his plays to a remarkable degree,' said Lings, who was keeper of oriental manuscripts and printed books and in charge of Koranic manuscripts at the British Museum. He argues that the journey of Edgar, in King Lear , is like the Sufi's search for truth, in which the seeker is helped by angelic characters and impeded by diabolic agents.

While the magician-like figure of Prospero, orchestrating the action in The Tempest, and the manipulative Duke of Vienna in Measure for Measure are commonly seen as Shakespeare's alter egos, Lings traces the teachings of a spiritual order akin to Sufism in their words.

The famous line of Prospero's 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on' is a complete fit, he claims, adding that King Lear's words also eerily echo Sufi ideas when he tells his faithful daughter: 'Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, the gods themselves throw incense.' Lings makes the point that the Bard is 'quite at home' with 'Gods' in the plural.

The International Shakespeare Globe Fellowship Lecture will take place in the middle of the Islam Awareness Week on the 22-28 November and will be preceded by a lecture from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, the founder of the Zaytuna Institute in California, who will look at Shakespeare's sonnets from a Sufi perspective.

Throughout the week the outside walls of the theatre on the banks of the Thames will be illuminated with scenes of Islamic culture.

On the final weekend a souk will take over the premises, with stalls selling eastern wares. The week will also form part of the 4th centenary celebrations of the first recorded performance of Othello , which will be marked by staged readings of four plays featuring Moors and Turks.

Echoes of Sufism

'Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, the gods themselves throw incense'
King Lear to his daughter, Act V, Scene III

'We are such stuff as dreams are made on'
Prospero in The Tempest, Act IV, Scene I

[Big brotheR]

Strange bedfellows
As the Globe opens its Shakespeare and Islam season, Gary Taylor argues that the Bard could teach Bush a thing or two
Buzz up!
Digg it
Gary Taylor
The Guardian, Thursday 18 November 2004 11.25 GMT
Article history

Better known than some claim ... William Shakespeare

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Saturday November 20, 2004

In the following article we said in error that Islam Awareness Week is funded by Saudi Arabia when it is only the Globe's Shakespeare and Islam season that is in receipt of such funds. Islam Awareness Week is a national, annual event organised by the Islamic Society of Britain.



London is about to be attacked by Osama bin Sheikspeare. And the Globe's Shakespeare and Islam season has already been viewed with an element of derision. But why should anyone be surprised? Isn't "Shakespeare and Islam" the logical consequence of insisting that Shakespeare is "universal"?

Try googling "Shakespeare and". You will get more than 632,000 hits. These include: "A beautiful collection of note cards and greeting cards featuring inspirational quotes from Shakespeare and the Bible accompanied by wonderful pictures of birds in their natural settings." Anyone looking for a subject for a doctoral dissertation might investigate the statistical correlation between purchasers of this bird-brain Bible-belt Bard and the people who brought us four more years of George Bush's war on Isl- oops, I mean "terrorism".

"Shakespeare and Islam" is no more or less ridiculous than "Bard and Bush". Other American presidents have already been bardified: check out the book-length comparison of Shakespeare and Woodrow Wilson (1927). Indeed, Shakespeare can be, has been, paired on a title page with almost any other proper name, from Elizabethan authors (Shakespeare and Chapman, Jonson, Sidney, Spenser), to contemporary non-English writers (Cervantes, Montaigne), dead writers who might have influenced him (Chaucer, Ovid, Seneca, Machiavelli), English writers he might have influenced (Blake, Byron, Keats, Dickens, Woolf, Eliot), non-English authors he might have influenced (Faulkner, Freud, Marx, Nabokov), and non-English non-authors he might have influenced (Verdi, Rembrandt).

There is much virtue in "and". It works with places, too: all the world's his stage. The destinations start out obvious (Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon, London, Lancaster), before moving into Europe (France, Italy, Spain, Hungary), then English colonies (Ireland, Canada). Indeed, Shakespeare has been coupled with entire continents ("Shakespeare and Africa") and their pre-Shakespearian peoples ("Shakespeare and indigenity in Australia").

You may be tempted to attribute such developments to the shameless intellectual bankruptcy of leftwing academics. True enough, the bibliography of the Modern Language Association lists 1,256 "Shakespeare and" titles published since 1960. The first 10 months of 2004 have already given us academic books or articles on Shakespeare and: the cold war, the cowboy, Disney, American radio, the Holocaust, John Collop, the Copernican Revolution, the alchemical oven and English equity jurisdiction.

But the favourite subject of literary critics must be "Shakespeare and Myself", as testified by the two authors who actually gave their texts that title. More often, the word "and" works as a synonym for "myself". When someone writes a book on Shakespeare and Moby-Dick or Shakespeare and the Mystery of God's Judgments, you know that the critic has a big personal interest in the two subjects he has yoked together.

The granddaddy of such yokers was Nathan Drake, who published in 1817 a folio monument, 1,462 pages long, entitled Shakespeare and His Times. Drake was not an academic; a medical doctor, he belonged to the proud British tradition of amateur bardophiles. Shakespeare and His Times may seem innocent enough. But "his times" opened the floodgates to anything happening anywhere in the world between 1564 and 1623, and to the history that culminated in the objects or events or beliefs of those years. In his analysis of the sonnets, Drake was the first of innumerable critics to discuss Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton. He wrote about astrology, syphilis, lawyers, pirates, drunkenness and post-horses - all subjects of subsequent "Shakespeare and" works.

Drake did not write about Shakespeare and Islam. But he should have, because Islam was an important part of Shakespeare's world, and English superstitions about Islam shaped some of his work. Shakespeare apparently read Richard Knolles's General History of the Turks (1603), which means that he knew more about Islamic history and culture than most of us. He refers to Islam - to the prophet "Mahomet," to Morocco and Barbary and Constantinople, to Moors, Turks, Ottomites, sultans, saracens, paynims, moriscos - at least 141 times, in 21 different plays. (Much more frequently than he refers to Ireland, Scotland, Wales or Hawaii.)

Islam interested Shakespeare for the same reason it interests Tony Blair: it was simultaneously threatening and promising. In fact, Islam was a much more realistic and substantial threat to western Christian security in the 16th century than it is in the 21st. In 1529 the armies of Suleiman the Magnificent reached, and burned, the suburbs of Vienna. Vienna resisted, but in 1570 Cyprus succumbed. On September 11 2001, fewer than 3,000 fatalities reshaped American political consciousness; in 1570, the invading Muslims killed (according to western sources) 14,000 Christians at Nicosia alone.

But if Islamic power was frightening, it was also enticing. For Elizabethan Englishmen interested in making money from overseas investments, the Ottoman empire was a much better bet than Africa or America. The Levant Company, trading in Ottoman ports, was formed two decades before the East India Company, and when English merchants finally reached Asian markets in the 17th century, they had to negotiate with Islamic rulers in India and Indonesia.

Given this love-hate relationship, it's not surprising that Shakespeare scholars became interested in the Muslim connection long before 9/11. In 1964, MM Badawi published an article on Shakespeare and the Arab World, the "and" once again testifying to the author's personal investment in linking the two objects of his passion. Badawi proposed that the man we call Shakespeare was a Muslim, whose real name was "Shayk al-Sapir." An embarrassingly daft idea - but no dafter than the theory that "Shakespeare" was really the Earl of Oxford.

So the Globe's "Shakespeare and Islam" is, theoretically, a good idea. But unfortunately for those who want to promote "Shakespeare and world peace", the playwright's characterisations of Muslims are uniformly damning. They could all have been written by Berlusconi or Bush. Since "Islamic Awareness Week" is being bankrolled by the Saudis, don't expect that embarrassing fact to get mentioned. "Shakespeare anti-Islam" would probably not sit well with HRH Prince Turki Al-Faisal.

· Shakespeare and Islam at at Shakespeare's Globe, London SE1 (020-7401 9919), from Monday.

[Big brotheR]

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0618 Tuesday, 4 July 2006

From: Nabie Swaray <nyswaray@yahoo.com>
Date: Monday, 3 Jul 2006 09:18:22 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 17.0588 Shakespeare and Islam
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0588 Shakespeare and Islam

The Ottoman Empire as a major player in European conquest, as a
formidable foe that threatens Europe's expansionist ambition, and of
course, of her military might are factors that must have led to the
spread of Islam and a passionate interest in Islamic teachings.
Shakespeare refers to the Ottomans, now Turkey, as " The barbarous
Turks" who poses a threat to Cyprus, a Christian establishment.
Eventually, this immediate threat leads to the employment of Othello as
General to tame the " barbarous Turks." Today, the "September 11"
incident that led to the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York, The
Pentagon and other tragic incidents linked to Alqaeda have ignited a
love-hate interest in Islam. Some American Universities are not only
recommending courses in Islam but that student must read the 'Quran
itself as the source to understand the enemy. The entire world is
gripped in this dilemma, and the media continues to bombard us with
images and news about Islamic atrocities. The parallels are similar. If
the method of conquest and conversion employed by the " barbarous Turks"
are as frightening and threatening to the safety of the rest of the
world and her citizens, this and other factors must have fueled a
passionate interest in Islam. How can one fight a treacherous and
barbaric enemy if you failed to understand the source that motivates
him/her. This must have been the dilemma Shakespeare and even other
writers such as the Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists had to face. If
Islam was becoming a threat and an overwhelming force at Shakespeare's
time, the audience, with an awe-inspiring attitude, thirst for knowledge
about Islam and the "Turks." As a result, Shakespeare must have found
Islam an interesting topic to write about. Today, we are gripped with
important and dominating subjects such as "Islamic Terrorists", HIV/AIDS
and other great issues. During the cold war, the spy novel thrived and
dominated the world of fiction. John Updike has a new novel, titled:
"Terrorists." Why did he choose to write a novel based on the subject?
The answer is, Terrorism is now the most popular subject and it has
dominated our lives since the "911" incident. Therefore, Islam, which
is linked with the rise and dominance of the Ottoman Empire at that
period must have sparked a global interest, especially when that part
of the world remained threatened by this unfamiliar enemy. I hope my
answer has shed some light on this question: Why Islam in Shakespeare's
three plays: Othello, Titus Andronicus and The Merchant of Venice.

Thanks, Cary DiPietro for bringing up this subject. I am very interested
in writing about Islam in Africa. There are other African authors who
have already treated this subject in some of their works. Here, I will
name a few: "Ambiguous Adventure" by Sheik Hamid Kane; "Bound To
Violence" by Ologuem; " The Dark Child" by Camara Laye; in film: the
most notorious is the Senegalese Filmmaker, Osman Sembene, in films such
as: "Cedo," "Mandabe" or "The Money Order" and " Xala." My play: " Worl'
Do For Fraid" published by Three Continents Press also addresses this
question-not the violence that is connected with radical Islam but Islam
as taught by the Sunii Muslims. My great grandfather was the first to
build an Islamic college in one of the Anglo-phone sub-Saharan West
Africa-Sierra Leone. This college inspired early British colonialists,
and the late Blyden the First in his writings discussed the spread of
Islam in my home town, Kambia. Islam became such a powerful force in
early colonial Sierra Leone that Governor Rowe was forced to practice a
policy of tolerance and compromise if Britain was to hold on to this
principality. But when Islam of the sword practiced by a tragic-figure
from Mauritania, Hyedara "Konthorfilli" came to Sierra Leone to spread a
radical form of Islam that involved the same violent methods practiced
today by Osama Bin Laden and Alqaeda, his rebellious group provoked the
British colonial government, it ended in tragedy. Records at the British
Museum are available that showed the savgery, brutality and terrorists
activities employed by Hyedara in spreading Islam from Franco-phone
countries to Anglo-phone countries in Sub-Saharan West Africa. The
climax of this conflict resulted in the death of a British District
Officer, a young Oxford educated in charge of Kambia District, a region
in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Hyedara's methods have
terrorized the African natives and conquered many territories. He was
bent on expanding his Islamic Empire that would infringe upon British
Rule and principalities. Hyedara's ambition to drive the British from
Sierra Leone resulted in his death. He and his men were poised to
unleash a reign of terror in order to subdue the rest of Sierra Leone.
On a very fateful day, he began his Islamic conquest to gain more
territories in Sierra Leone. The British Colonial Government was by now
greatly determined to stop his movement. The young district officer set
out to meet him at the Kambia Barracks. His method was to persuade him
not continue his conquest. Just when the young officer stepped forward
to ask him and his men to turn back, Hyedara drew his sword, cut off his
head and killed him. Although there were rumors about Hyedara's
invincibility and supernatural powers, the soldiers protecting the young
British officer, also slaughtered him. This ended the spread of radical
Islam in many West African countries. Although the British succeeded in
this, the spread of radical Islam is spreading like wild fire today in
the African continent. I have given you this account to show you that
Islam, not just as a religious force but also as a political force had
and continue to play a part in the conflict between the Islamic world
and Western World. Writers influenced by such events are bound to write
about it. This was the situation with Shakespeare.

Have a nice Fourth of July holiday.

Sincerely,
Nabie Y. Swaray.

PS. My play about radical Islam I am working on is called: "The Day
Allah Died in My Father's House." The novel and Film I plan to write
about Radical Islam is: "Hyedara: The Prophet and the Sword of Allah. A
play like "Tamborine" also discusses Islam.

[Big brotheR]

Shakespeare & Islam
Fouad Nahdi | Q-News | Arab News



Khayal Theater performing at the Globe Theater in London.

IT would be difficult to find another cultural event in contemporary Britain that turned so many hats (or turbans, for that matter) than the Globe Theatre’s season on Shakespeare and Islam. It was not only an exercise in imagination and creativity but also a bold adventure into our shared humanity: An explosion aimed at blowing apart the restricted understanding we have today of the nature and essence of things great and universal.

If anything the initiative reiterated the power of culture as a factor for the furtherance of cohesion and harmony within communities. In both the souk and the lecture theater what was obvious was the goodwill, the energy and the desire for something better — bigger and grander than the mundane reality we are relentlessly being sold in our everyday existence. For the majority of those who participated in the season, the experience was not only uplifting but everlasting: Who can forget the atmosphere of brotherhood and exchange in the souk? And is it really possible to erase from the memory the deep understanding of our humanity that Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Dr. Martin Lings shared with Shakespeare?

Okay, so the bard wasn’t really Shaykh Zubair; Romeo and Juliet wasn’t a direct plagiarization of Leila and Majnoon. But who really cares so long as Othello is a great play and the sonnets are a pleasure to listen to.

The season was a source of great joy to everybody except, of course, the usual cultural fascists who forget to grasp the essence of what civilization is all about. No other event to be organized in the foreseeable future is likely to enrich our sense of Britishness as the Globe’s season has done. No other contribution is likely to be as original, as bold or as relevant in the struggle to define British Islam as the Shakespeare and Islam season. So, what next?

We at Q-News have always believed in the power of culture in bringing people together. We are convinced that for Islam to take root prosper healthily in Britain and other Western societies, it is vital that we invest and develop a comprehensive cultural agenda. The aim should be to inculcate in our young the desire for what is beautiful and enlightening for both mind and spirit.

Our communities must be re-educated on producing and appreciating what is beautiful and aesthetically pleasing: For God is beautiful and loves beauty, said our Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. We need, particularly our young, to reconnect with our rich heritage of arts and crafts, songs and poetry. We need them to know how — when caught in moments of frustration and despair, to seek refuge in prayer and tranquility as well. This year Q-News plans to intensify and focus even more on the project of creating a cultural agenda for British Islam.

In April, Inshallah (God Willing) — we plan to hold a massive mawlid ceremony, a celebration of the Prophet’s birthday, which we hope will be an improvement on a similar event we held ten years ago.

Like all our other events it will be ambitious, inclusive and not a snooze-zone. But it is enough to warn you that the intention, like always, is to share the joy of being alive, kicking and Muslims. And to do so with our relatives, friends and neighbors.

Behind the Season’s immense and unparallel success lies a simple formula: Sincerity, openness and respect. From the beginning the whole project was based on a genuine desire to reach out, to embrace the other and, more significantly, to make it a civilized human endeavor.

Our sincere thanks to Patrick Spottiswoode and his team at the Globe Theatre for their respect, dedication and professionalism. It was a pleasure to work with a group of people who epitomized all the qualities that Islam encourages. We look forward to many more seasons of sharing, civilization and joy.

Patrik Spottiswoode joined the Shakespeare’s Globe when the theater building was just a dream. Now, twenty years later, he reflects on a spectacular year of Shakespeare and Islam.

“On a cab journey to the Globe one morning, I noticed that my driver had prayer beads hanging from his rear-view mirror. I asked him, “Are you Muslim?” For a moment he flinched, afraid of what I would say or what I would do, if he said yes. The driver knew me since he’d picked me up before, but his immediate reaction was of fear. ‘Are you a Nigerian Muslim?” Grudgingly, he said yes. Then I asked, “Do you know Dr. Dawud Noibi?” This time he smiled and brightly replied in the affirmative. I told him that Dr. Noibi — a Nigerian Muslim scholar known for his innovative interfaith work — was speaking at the Globe in three weeks. Everything changed between us and we had a wonderful, animated conversation for the rest of the trip. When I got home that evening, there was a note awaiting from my driver — who had come back sometime during the day -giving me a list of mosques that he asked me to send information about the season to. From a fear and concern, my cab driver had been able to find a way to celebrate and participate in the season. One of my undergraduate students studying at the Globe is an American Catholic who came to the souk and decided at some point in the afternoon to head into the prayer room. She took off her shoes and went to the women’s section. One of the women praying there told her that she needed to tie her hair back and cover her head if she wanted to join. The woman asked my student if she was Muslim. I’m Catholic, she replied. The woman then took her aside and introduced her to the rituals of prayer, explaining what the actions and words meant and why the daily prayer played such a central role in Muslim life. The undergraduate student later told me that it was the most profound experience of her time in London. This young woman had been introduced to a faith and the Muslim woman was able to share and celebrate it with her and build mutual respect. Celebration and understanding were the guiding principles of the Shakespeare and Islam season and I’ve loved the mix activity that brought that about. Who would have thought that the Globe would be lit up, illuminated with beautiful images of the Muslim world taken by photographer Peter Sanders. The theater has never been lit up like that before. We wanted Islam to inform and fill the Globe and it has. We transformed our exhibition area into a lecture hall and hosted Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Dr. Martin Lings. Hundreds of people came, lining up to hear about Shakespeare, Sufism and Islam. This was a year of “wow” moments.

The souk fed both our intellectual appetite and our aesthetic sensibility. The mix of sixteen talks, beautiful designs and crafts from the Prince’s school, performances from Khayaal — the atmosphere was magical. The individual parts came together beautifully and memorably. I think other institutions will follow our example after seeing how successful this effort has been. Those in the theater and arts community I have spoken to are incredibly inspired by the whole thing.

The aim of the year was to explore the context of Othello. For us at the Globe, using “Shakespeare and ...” is a marketing device to get people interested in the work we do. We have had programs on Shakespeare and Spain, Shakespeare and the Jews.

We know that Shakespeare hadn’t read the Qur’an. We don’t know what his knowledge of Islam would have been. But there was knowledge of an Ottoman threat and of treaties England had with Morocco and the Ottoman Empire against its European enemies. I think we addressed some of the most under-researched areas of the 16th and 17th centuries. It wasn’t really until the works of Nabil Matar and Jerry Brotton that we have really begun to explore the relationship between Islam and Shakespeare’s world and the political and cultural negotiations between Elizabethan England and the lands of Islam. As Nabil Matar has said. most scholarship has made us look westward for an understanding of Shakespeare, when much of his inspiration came from the East.

The arrival of the Moroccan ambassador in 1600 itself was a major theatrical event. It’s not like a modern ambassador who steps off the plane into a limousine, racing to his embassy and getting on with business. The 1600 visit was a grand arrival. It wasn’t just the ambassador, but his whole retinue. It wasn’t just his retinue, it was their clothing. It wasn’t Just their clothing, but the music that accompanied them. I agree with the current Moroccan ambassador that the visit a template for Othello. It was an event rich in sounds visuals that must have blown people’s minds in the 1600.

I think the season is very justified and as a theater organization working in the “now” moment, it is particularly justified. We are using Shakespeare and Islam as a catalyst for exploring the faith now and engaging young Muslims with Shakespeare and the arts.

I love the idea of the Globe being a meeting ground. That’s what it was built for. People came, from Shakespeare’s time until now, to hear ideas and stories bouncing around its rounded walls. It’s a worrying responsibility for this organization — how do we maintain the mission and energy of this work? We want to inspire others and find a less threatening way for someone who is not a Muslim to understand Islam and Muslim issues on a neutral ground.

We have had professors teaching Othello and they’d never been to the mosque. So we took them to a mosque and they were able to ask questions and get answers. I am sure they will never teach the play the same way again. I am not sure how big the ripple will be. We will soon begin our educational outreach program on Othello and Islamic design. We are sending a group of four actors to faith and non-denominational schools to work with kids to explore the story from Othello’s perspective with children playing an active role in the play. The work will culminate with the making of two handkerchiefs — one of love and one of peace —using Islamic designs which so influenced handkerchief design.

We intend to collect all the handkerchiefs of peace and sew them together to create a tent of peace that will be used as a place of storytelling, theater and discussion.

[cute angel]

Hello,

I'm impressed indeed by the title first

for the subject I've printed it insha'allah soon will read it

thanks a lot

[cute angel]

peace be upon you again

as I promised I read most of the topic I've learnt too many things

but to be honest I didn't see that link between Islam andShakespeare coz those professors are just talking in general with the use of so little examples

Othello I didn't read it but I've heard that he is a black man so I thought he is talking about racism

and for the merchant of venice I've watched it as a movie where there is no mention of Islam except Jews?