An Individual Defence of Islamic Architecture

The story of Islamic architecture cannot be summarized in a small post on it. It is a long story of being influenced, being creative and accordingly being influential.

In the age of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and the sagacious caliphs, mosques and other Islamic buildings were so modest and not decorated. It reflects the simplicity and toughness of the first Arab Muslims' life in the desert. With the expansion of the Islamic Empire in the Umayyad Caliphate, Muslims were introduced to new architectural designs that belong to the Byzantines, Sasanians as an example. Muslims architects and designers evolved with a true Islamic art that continued to be developed in other periods and other parts of the world as in AL-Andalus.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba is really one of the wonders of Islamic architecture. It is lavishly decorated and creatively founded reflecting the wealth and the highly-developed state of Islamic art at the time. The founders of this mosque and other Islamic mosques did not imagine that some Muslims in the twentieth-first century would detest these mosques because it may distract people from concentrating while praying to God. Others believe that the founding of these mosques is an epitome of extravagance. It is apparently the result of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and our excessive veneration to the past. They think that anything that happened in the past, especially in the time of the Prophet, is the prototype of everything that has to happen in our ages disregarding the importance of the historical context that stimulates us to differentiate between each era in Islamic history. It is a real disappointing actuality that we turn against our art and civilization while there are other Westerners who celebrate this heritage.

A Critique to Spenser Sonnet No.75

""Not so", quoth i; let baser things devise

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame;

My verse your virtues rare shall eternise,

And in the heavens write your glorious name,"

This excerpt is extracted from sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser. This is a typical Elizabethan sonnet that deals with the emotional affliction of the poet and his pride in his verse. It belongs to a cycle, a collection of poems that are narrative and that have the same subject or linked together, that is called Amoretti. Spenser is one of the most experimental poets in the sixteenth century England, whose reputation is mainly based on his romantic epic, Faerie Queene. His experimental-ism and innovation are exhibited here in dealing with the theme of the eternizing power of verse through the use of imagery, rhyme scheme, and diction.

First, the poet skillfully utilizes imagery to stress the validity of the persona's scheme to immortalise his beloved through his verse, i.e."my verse your virtues rare shall eternise", and "in the heavens write your glorious name". In fact, the persona wants to evolve her beloved spiritually and immortalize her through the power of his verse and it's immortality. In the same metaphor, he underscores the rarity of her virtues which indicates that she is realistic or down-to-earth. Then the first metaphor is extended to the following line and the poet claims the power of his verse to transfigure his beloved to a heavenly being by writing her name.

Furthermore, the poet subtly uses juxtaposition and the personal pronouns to shed light on the power of his verse, and also the strength of his argument. He juxtaposes mortality with immortality, hedonism with spirituality. First, he refutes his beloved skeptical logic in the immortality by first asserting the mortality of the " baser things", then distinguishing her from these things that are object to" die in dust", and finally resolving to the power of his poetry in eternizing her, " let baser things devise/ To die in dust, but shall live by fame;/ My verse your virtues rare shall eternise". Thus, what the poet seeks is to immortalize the spiritual beauty not the physical and establish authority to his verse. The use of the personal pronouns also contributes to the same pride the poet wants to display in his verse, i.e."quoth I", "My verse".

Creatively and innovating, Edmund Spenser deftly manipulates a special rhyme scheme that demonstrate his mastery of English poetry. It follows this pattern , Abba, bcbc, cdcd, ee. The compliance of the rhyme scheme to the logical development of the poem, the first attempt of the poet upon "the strand", the beloved doubts and realizations, then the statement of his viewpoint clearlt in this passage. In fact, it gives a sense of continuity to the main line of action in the poem through this interlocking between the different stanzas.Moreover, he makes use of the inversion for the sake of the rhyme scheme, namely the verb " eternise" is positioned at the end of the line, " My Verse your virtue shall eternise".

In conclusion, Spenser resolves the common Renaissance paradox that baffled many intellectuals and poets in this passage, namely, the mortality of our beings. Spenser figures out the clue in his determination to immortalize the spiritual beauty of his beloved through his verse, which means that " virtues" and man's work can render humans immortality. In short, Spenser reflects his age in every aspect of his sonnet. According to Colin Burrow, Spenser's " interest in the power and immortality of verse" are the most " distinctive Renaissance aspects, since, it is often thought the key element in Renaissance attitudes is a sense of power and dignity of the poet."

On forgiveness "A Film Review To "Inception""

In a film that revolves around our dreams and about those supposed people who can penetrate our minds and unfold our secrets that are hidden in the unconscious,i.e. Inception, I find it full of some great philosophical ideas. Mr.Cob has a problem with his wife when he starts to extract or implant ideas in people's minds, namely she comes up to ruin everything. The young dreamer, Ariande, urges Mr.Cob to confront the memory of his wife. She tells him that they cannot save themselves without this confrontation. She teaches him that he has to forgive himself in order to save his team in their mission and to aid his children whom he wants to live with them. Eventually, he attests his responsibility for his wife's death, by implanting a dangerous idea in her mind that death is better than life pushing her to question the shades between reality and dreams. Mr. Cob does not confine himself to these feelings of guilt but he leaves her wife in his unconscious to save his children and be with them.
Confronting our past and forgiving our precious selves are two essential things for a human to advance in his life. I'm talking here about those humans who suffer from the conscious and unconscious turbulence as a result of what they believe to be their past mistakes or sins. The message I see in the film is the same Coehlo's The Valkryies deliver to its readers. The protagonist wants to be in contact with his guardian angel. On meeting the Valkryies, a group of strong women who live in the desert, he starts to figure out the problem that disturbs his life and denies him the chance to communicate with other higher beings, namely his inability to forgive himself for something he has committed in the past which is using songs to spread some magical mantras and totems.
A self-actualizer must forgive himself for anything he has made in the past because actually we have only one life to live and we need to fulfill our potentials and be what do we want to be.

On the title of Orhan Pamuk's New Life

Orhan Pamuk's novel New Life is really admirable for many things of which is the choice of the title. The title reveals many things about the novel. It is a new life promised by a book that changes the lives of the readers. Every one who has read the book feels lonely, unable to continue his life. S/he starts to embark on journeys to see the angel. Death gradually becomes the pathway to this new life. Ossman and Genan witness death on their seats while travelling between countries. The title starts to look ironic for instead of angels, they encounter death, plots by Dr.Fine who tries to rid the society of this book.

Actually, meeting Dr. Fine is turning point in the novel for Ossman finds out the read author of this book and that Mohammad/Nahit is the son of Dr. Fine. He gets this feeling that his companion in this long journey has deceived him. He has been a victim to a scheme made up by Mohammad and his girlfriend Genan. The New Life is no longer a life of innocence for there is deception and disappointment. Ossman is disappointed at the fact that Dr. Fine's agents have discovered that Genan has spent a night with Mohammad. Ossman loves her and he has tried to approach her but she turns him down claiming that se has been never touched by a man.

Dr. Fine is truly connected to the title for he reveals an important theme in the novel. He believes that the enemies of Turkey exert their best to dominate the society with their Western, especially American, values and manufactures. He presides over a secret organization that tries to resist this Western invasion. From his viewpoint, this new life promised by the book is alien to the Turkish society and it has to be fought. Therefore, he hires agents to kill Refaky, the author of the book and his son without knowing that. In fact, one of the basic themes in the novel is the influence of the Western hegemony over the Turkish society and hos Turks deal with that.

Ossman, the first-person narrator, is different because he undergoes a journey to uncover all about the book, its readers and its origins. He finds Mohammad/Nahit in another town and kills him to win Genan. Besides, he is envious of the peace Mohammad enjoys in copying the book and leading a calm life. He meets every one reported by Dr.Fine's agents to have read/been reading the book. After his return to Dr. Fine's home, he finds that Genan has left him.

He continues his life persisting on identifying the origins of this book. He reads Refaky's references to the book, i.e the poetry of Ibn Arabi and many other things. He notes the similar ideas in these references and in the book. Refaky, who has been the friend of his father, is not that original writer. He has written the book to enjoys himself using his success as a writer to the children's stories. The irony in the title is intensified as the main ideas of the book are stolen and the writer was not that serious about his ideas.

The facts continue to be unfolded. Ossman goes back behind the sweets named New Life and again we are back to the theme of this opposition between the Turkish native values, manufactures and the Western ones on his meeting Thorya, the manufacturer of these sweets.

Pamuk, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, does not propagate a clash between the Turkish Self and the American Other. He is objective in portraying the influence of the West and the reaction of the Turks. What lies behind the dogmatic rejection of American Other is a sincere call to pay attention to the Turkish identity and to take care of the past as Turks are proceeding to the future. I think this is the true New Life readers and audience have to seek.