http://www.derekbrownphotos.com
Introduction
From March 2008 to April 2009, we traveled throughout the Muslim world. Our trip started with India, home of the world’s second largest Muslim population, and then weaved through the religion’s heartlands of the Gulf, Syria and Iran before crossing through Central Asia to other Muslim areas of Asia, including Pakistan, Western China, Indonesia and Malaysia. We returned to the Middle East to spend most of Ramadan in Egypt, and then worked our way to Turkey via Jordan, Palestine, Israel and Cyprus. After a brief stop in Bosnia, we headed to Senegal and Mali before crossing the Mauritanian Sahara to Morocco and then the Straits of Gibraltar to Andalucia, Spain. For good measure we even threw in a short stop at Bradford, England, a West Yorkshire town known for its large South Asian community, before returning to South Asia proper and finishing up our trip in Bangladesh. By the end, we had passed through a majority of the world’s majority Muslim countries, eight of the ten countries with the world’s largest Muslim populations and countries containing over 70% (over a billion) of the world’s Muslim population.
With this photography exhibit, we want not only to show you some of our favorite images from the trip but also to share with you some of the things we learned. We're all familiar with images from the Muslim world, but so often they are ones of conflict—protests in Pakistan, destruction in Gaza or, worse yet, bearded terrorists in the latest Hollywood thriller. We don’t purport to bring you the “real” Muslim world, but we believe that our observations, even if not new to you, might be illuminating simply for what they are, things that jump out to the traveler in these regions, scenes that may at times seem common and banal but also represent things one sees day-to-day, ordinarily.
At the Mosque
Visiting places of worship, whether Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia or cathedrals in Europe, is a mainstay of travel, and it is no less so in the Muslim world. In some countries tourists are not welcome in mosques, but in most they are, and in our year we visited countless mosques, in all of their varied moods.
Jama Masjid, Fatehpur Sikri, India The basic mode of worship, from the call to prayer to the prostrations in the direction of Mecca, is essentially uniform in the Muslim world, perhaps one of the most significant constants in otherwise great diversity. At the Jama Masjid, or Friday Mosque, the entire city is supposed to gather for the Friday noon-time prayer, while other prayers are taken at smaller local mosques or anywhere else one happens to be at prayer-time. This picture shows a man praying alone in the Friday Mosque of Fatehpur Sikri, the great ghost city of Mughal Emperor Akbar.
Mausoleum of Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco. Not all visitors to a mosque are there for worship. In this photograph, a small child waits for his father to finish his prayers. Other times, we would notice perhaps a less observant family member (or at least someone who much more quickly prayed in perhaps a more perfunctory manner) waiting for the rest of his family outside of a mosque. Considering the oft-repeated requirement that all Muslims pray five times a day, we surprisingly seldom actually saw people praying, at mosques or elsewhere.
Mosque of Amir ibn al-As, Cairo. I do not know whether this man is simply dozing or performing itikaf, a sort of in-mosque retreat taken by the faithful often during the closing days of Ramadan, but it is certainly not uncommon to see people taking a rest or napping inside the cool, clean and open confines of a mosque. At one--we must have looked particularly tired that day--we were also invited to lie down, so long as our feet pointed away from Mecca.
Village of Senossa, near Djenne, Mali. Most of the Muslim world is a part of the developing world, and the general privation and poverty of this small Malian village was quite a contrast to the ornate and evocative Sudanese architecture of its mosque, which was smaller but nearly as impressive as that of the world-famous Great Mosque of nearby Djenne. Such an investment is made worthwhile by the multiple functions performed by a mosque, not only a place of worship but also a town’s principal gathering place.
Shatgumbad Mosque, Bagerhat, Bangladesh. This group of orphans was preparing for a game of Bengali “Simon Says” on a field trip to the “Sixty-Pillared” Mosque at the ruins of Bagerhat. We were told that the orphanage was funded in part by Kuwaitis. Money from the Gulf supports a wide range of activities throughout the Muslim world, but one sometimes wonders to what extent the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia in particular, serve as a good role model for developing Muslim countries.
Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria. The great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, lying as it does in the center of a dense medieval city, serves as much as a sort of a great plaza, a Central Park, as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Islam can sometimes seem austere, in its prohibitions and customary dress, but spending an hour in the Umayyad dispels this notion—the mosque is full of children running and families enjoying the quality of the light reflecting off of the glorious architecture, sometimes along with a picnic. At least outside the prayer hall itself, there is none of the hushedness that one expects with a religious site, and those in headscarves are not immune from frivolity.
Regent’s Mosque, Shiraz, Iran. It is surprising how many of the mosques in the Islamic Republic of Iran exist primarily as tourist attractions rather than active places of worship, perhaps revealing the extent of the gulf between the pious leadership of the state and the modern and forward-thinking populace. Here, a woman poses for a picture in the mihrab, or niche indicating the direction of prayer (toward Mecca), a common practice in mosques which I thought somewhat analogous to posing on a church altar for a photograph.
http://www.derekbrownphotos.com
join the mailing list for updates and news of exhibits
check me out on Facebook
With this photography exhibit, we want not only to show you some of our favorite images from the trip but also to share with you some of the things we learned. We're all familiar with images from the Muslim world, but so often they are ones of conflict—protests in Pakistan, destruction in Gaza or, worse yet, bearded terrorists in the latest Hollywood thriller. We don’t purport to bring you the “real” Muslim world, but we believe that our observations, even if not new to you, might be illuminating simply for what they are, things that jump out to the traveler in these regions, scenes that may at times seem common and banal but also represent things one sees day-to-day, ordinarily.
At the Mosque
Visiting places of worship, whether Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia or cathedrals in Europe, is a mainstay of travel, and it is no less so in the Muslim world. In some countries tourists are not welcome in mosques, but in most they are, and in our year we visited countless mosques, in all of their varied moods.
Jama Masjid, Fatehpur Sikri, India The basic mode of worship, from the call to prayer to the prostrations in the direction of Mecca, is essentially uniform in the Muslim world, perhaps one of the most significant constants in otherwise great diversity. At the Jama Masjid, or Friday Mosque, the entire city is supposed to gather for the Friday noon-time prayer, while other prayers are taken at smaller local mosques or anywhere else one happens to be at prayer-time. This picture shows a man praying alone in the Friday Mosque of Fatehpur Sikri, the great ghost city of Mughal Emperor Akbar.
Mausoleum of Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco. Not all visitors to a mosque are there for worship. In this photograph, a small child waits for his father to finish his prayers. Other times, we would notice perhaps a less observant family member (or at least someone who much more quickly prayed in perhaps a more perfunctory manner) waiting for the rest of his family outside of a mosque. Considering the oft-repeated requirement that all Muslims pray five times a day, we surprisingly seldom actually saw people praying, at mosques or elsewhere.
Mosque of Amir ibn al-As, Cairo. I do not know whether this man is simply dozing or performing itikaf, a sort of in-mosque retreat taken by the faithful often during the closing days of Ramadan, but it is certainly not uncommon to see people taking a rest or napping inside the cool, clean and open confines of a mosque. At one--we must have looked particularly tired that day--we were also invited to lie down, so long as our feet pointed away from Mecca.
Village of Senossa, near Djenne, Mali. Most of the Muslim world is a part of the developing world, and the general privation and poverty of this small Malian village was quite a contrast to the ornate and evocative Sudanese architecture of its mosque, which was smaller but nearly as impressive as that of the world-famous Great Mosque of nearby Djenne. Such an investment is made worthwhile by the multiple functions performed by a mosque, not only a place of worship but also a town’s principal gathering place.
Shatgumbad Mosque, Bagerhat, Bangladesh. This group of orphans was preparing for a game of Bengali “Simon Says” on a field trip to the “Sixty-Pillared” Mosque at the ruins of Bagerhat. We were told that the orphanage was funded in part by Kuwaitis. Money from the Gulf supports a wide range of activities throughout the Muslim world, but one sometimes wonders to what extent the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia in particular, serve as a good role model for developing Muslim countries.
Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria. The great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, lying as it does in the center of a dense medieval city, serves as much as a sort of a great plaza, a Central Park, as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Islam can sometimes seem austere, in its prohibitions and customary dress, but spending an hour in the Umayyad dispels this notion—the mosque is full of children running and families enjoying the quality of the light reflecting off of the glorious architecture, sometimes along with a picnic. At least outside the prayer hall itself, there is none of the hushedness that one expects with a religious site, and those in headscarves are not immune from frivolity.
Regent’s Mosque, Shiraz, Iran. It is surprising how many of the mosques in the Islamic Republic of Iran exist primarily as tourist attractions rather than active places of worship, perhaps revealing the extent of the gulf between the pious leadership of the state and the modern and forward-thinking populace. Here, a woman poses for a picture in the mihrab, or niche indicating the direction of prayer (toward Mecca), a common practice in mosques which I thought somewhat analogous to posing on a church altar for a photograph.
http://www.derekbrownphotos.com
join the mailing list for updates and news of exhibits
check me out on Facebook
Visiting places of worship, whether Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia or cathedrals in Europe, is a mainstay of travel, and it is no less so in the Muslim world. In some countries tourists are not welcome in mosques, but in most they are, and in our year we visited countless mosques, in all of their varied moods.
Jama Masjid, Fatehpur Sikri, India The basic mode of worship, from the call to prayer to the prostrations in the direction of Mecca, is essentially uniform in the Muslim world, perhaps one of the most significant constants in otherwise great diversity. At the Jama Masjid, or Friday Mosque, the entire city is supposed to gather for the Friday noon-time prayer, while other prayers are taken at smaller local mosques or anywhere else one happens to be at prayer-time. This picture shows a man praying alone in the Friday Mosque of Fatehpur Sikri, the great ghost city of Mughal Emperor Akbar.
Mausoleum of Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco. Not all visitors to a mosque are there for worship. In this photograph, a small child waits for his father to finish his prayers. Other times, we would notice perhaps a less observant family member (or at least someone who much more quickly prayed in perhaps a more perfunctory manner) waiting for the rest of his family outside of a mosque. Considering the oft-repeated requirement that all Muslims pray five times a day, we surprisingly seldom actually saw people praying, at mosques or elsewhere.
Mosque of Amir ibn al-As, Cairo. I do not know whether this man is simply dozing or performing itikaf, a sort of in-mosque retreat taken by the faithful often during the closing days of Ramadan, but it is certainly not uncommon to see people taking a rest or napping inside the cool, clean and open confines of a mosque. At one--we must have looked particularly tired that day--we were also invited to lie down, so long as our feet pointed away from Mecca.
Village of Senossa, near Djenne, Mali. Most of the Muslim world is a part of the developing world, and the general privation and poverty of this small Malian village was quite a contrast to the ornate and evocative Sudanese architecture of its mosque, which was smaller but nearly as impressive as that of the world-famous Great Mosque of nearby Djenne. Such an investment is made worthwhile by the multiple functions performed by a mosque, not only a place of worship but also a town’s principal gathering place.
Shatgumbad Mosque, Bagerhat, Bangladesh. This group of orphans was preparing for a game of Bengali “Simon Says” on a field trip to the “Sixty-Pillared” Mosque at the ruins of Bagerhat. We were told that the orphanage was funded in part by Kuwaitis. Money from the Gulf supports a wide range of activities throughout the Muslim world, but one sometimes wonders to what extent the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia in particular, serve as a good role model for developing Muslim countries.
Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria. The great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, lying as it does in the center of a dense medieval city, serves as much as a sort of a great plaza, a Central Park, as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Islam can sometimes seem austere, in its prohibitions and customary dress, but spending an hour in the Umayyad dispels this notion—the mosque is full of children running and families enjoying the quality of the light reflecting off of the glorious architecture, sometimes along with a picnic. At least outside the prayer hall itself, there is none of the hushedness that one expects with a religious site, and those in headscarves are not immune from frivolity.
Regent’s Mosque, Shiraz, Iran. It is surprising how many of the mosques in the Islamic Republic of Iran exist primarily as tourist attractions rather than active places of worship, perhaps revealing the extent of the gulf between the pious leadership of the state and the modern and forward-thinking populace. Here, a woman poses for a picture in the mihrab, or niche indicating the direction of prayer (toward Mecca), a common practice in mosques which I thought somewhat analogous to posing on a church altar for a photograph.
http://www.derekbrownphotos.com
join the mailing list for updates and news of exhibits
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Jama Masjid, Fatehpur Sikri, India The basic mode of worship, from the call to prayer to the prostrations in the direction of Mecca, is essentially uniform in the Muslim world, perhaps one of the most significant constants in otherwise great diversity. At the Jama Masjid, or Friday Mosque, the entire city is supposed to gather for the Friday noon-time prayer, while other prayers are taken at smaller local mosques or anywhere else one happens to be at prayer-time. This picture shows a man praying alone in the Friday Mosque of Fatehpur Sikri, the great ghost city of Mughal Emperor Akbar.
Mausoleum of Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco. Not all visitors to a mosque are there for worship. In this photograph, a small child waits for his father to finish his prayers. Other times, we would notice perhaps a less observant family member (or at least someone who much more quickly prayed in perhaps a more perfunctory manner) waiting for the rest of his family outside of a mosque. Considering the oft-repeated requirement that all Muslims pray five times a day, we surprisingly seldom actually saw people praying, at mosques or elsewhere.
Mosque of Amir ibn al-As, Cairo. I do not know whether this man is simply dozing or performing itikaf, a sort of in-mosque retreat taken by the faithful often during the closing days of Ramadan, but it is certainly not uncommon to see people taking a rest or napping inside the cool, clean and open confines of a mosque. At one--we must have looked particularly tired that day--we were also invited to lie down, so long as our feet pointed away from Mecca.
Village of Senossa, near Djenne, Mali. Most of the Muslim world is a part of the developing world, and the general privation and poverty of this small Malian village was quite a contrast to the ornate and evocative Sudanese architecture of its mosque, which was smaller but nearly as impressive as that of the world-famous Great Mosque of nearby Djenne. Such an investment is made worthwhile by the multiple functions performed by a mosque, not only a place of worship but also a town’s principal gathering place.
Shatgumbad Mosque, Bagerhat, Bangladesh. This group of orphans was preparing for a game of Bengali “Simon Says” on a field trip to the “Sixty-Pillared” Mosque at the ruins of Bagerhat. We were told that the orphanage was funded in part by Kuwaitis. Money from the Gulf supports a wide range of activities throughout the Muslim world, but one sometimes wonders to what extent the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia in particular, serve as a good role model for developing Muslim countries.
Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria. The great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, lying as it does in the center of a dense medieval city, serves as much as a sort of a great plaza, a Central Park, as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Islam can sometimes seem austere, in its prohibitions and customary dress, but spending an hour in the Umayyad dispels this notion—the mosque is full of children running and families enjoying the quality of the light reflecting off of the glorious architecture, sometimes along with a picnic. At least outside the prayer hall itself, there is none of the hushedness that one expects with a religious site, and those in headscarves are not immune from frivolity.
Regent’s Mosque, Shiraz, Iran. It is surprising how many of the mosques in the Islamic Republic of Iran exist primarily as tourist attractions rather than active places of worship, perhaps revealing the extent of the gulf between the pious leadership of the state and the modern and forward-thinking populace. Here, a woman poses for a picture in the mihrab, or niche indicating the direction of prayer (toward Mecca), a common practice in mosques which I thought somewhat analogous to posing on a church altar for a photograph.
http://www.derekbrownphotos.com
join the mailing list for updates and news of exhibits
check me out on Facebook
Mausoleum of Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco. Not all visitors to a mosque are there for worship. In this photograph, a small child waits for his father to finish his prayers. Other times, we would notice perhaps a less observant family member (or at least someone who much more quickly prayed in perhaps a more perfunctory manner) waiting for the rest of his family outside of a mosque. Considering the oft-repeated requirement that all Muslims pray five times a day, we surprisingly seldom actually saw people praying, at mosques or elsewhere.
Mosque of Amir ibn al-As, Cairo. I do not know whether this man is simply dozing or performing itikaf, a sort of in-mosque retreat taken by the faithful often during the closing days of Ramadan, but it is certainly not uncommon to see people taking a rest or napping inside the cool, clean and open confines of a mosque. At one--we must have looked particularly tired that day--we were also invited to lie down, so long as our feet pointed away from Mecca.
Village of Senossa, near Djenne, Mali. Most of the Muslim world is a part of the developing world, and the general privation and poverty of this small Malian village was quite a contrast to the ornate and evocative Sudanese architecture of its mosque, which was smaller but nearly as impressive as that of the world-famous Great Mosque of nearby Djenne. Such an investment is made worthwhile by the multiple functions performed by a mosque, not only a place of worship but also a town’s principal gathering place.
Shatgumbad Mosque, Bagerhat, Bangladesh. This group of orphans was preparing for a game of Bengali “Simon Says” on a field trip to the “Sixty-Pillared” Mosque at the ruins of Bagerhat. We were told that the orphanage was funded in part by Kuwaitis. Money from the Gulf supports a wide range of activities throughout the Muslim world, but one sometimes wonders to what extent the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia in particular, serve as a good role model for developing Muslim countries.
Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria. The great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, lying as it does in the center of a dense medieval city, serves as much as a sort of a great plaza, a Central Park, as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Islam can sometimes seem austere, in its prohibitions and customary dress, but spending an hour in the Umayyad dispels this notion—the mosque is full of children running and families enjoying the quality of the light reflecting off of the glorious architecture, sometimes along with a picnic. At least outside the prayer hall itself, there is none of the hushedness that one expects with a religious site, and those in headscarves are not immune from frivolity.
Regent’s Mosque, Shiraz, Iran. It is surprising how many of the mosques in the Islamic Republic of Iran exist primarily as tourist attractions rather than active places of worship, perhaps revealing the extent of the gulf between the pious leadership of the state and the modern and forward-thinking populace. Here, a woman poses for a picture in the mihrab, or niche indicating the direction of prayer (toward Mecca), a common practice in mosques which I thought somewhat analogous to posing on a church altar for a photograph.
http://www.derekbrownphotos.com
join the mailing list for updates and news of exhibits
check me out on Facebook
Mosque of Amir ibn al-As, Cairo. I do not know whether this man is simply dozing or performing itikaf, a sort of in-mosque retreat taken by the faithful often during the closing days of Ramadan, but it is certainly not uncommon to see people taking a rest or napping inside the cool, clean and open confines of a mosque. At one--we must have looked particularly tired that day--we were also invited to lie down, so long as our feet pointed away from Mecca.
Village of Senossa, near Djenne, Mali. Most of the Muslim world is a part of the developing world, and the general privation and poverty of this small Malian village was quite a contrast to the ornate and evocative Sudanese architecture of its mosque, which was smaller but nearly as impressive as that of the world-famous Great Mosque of nearby Djenne. Such an investment is made worthwhile by the multiple functions performed by a mosque, not only a place of worship but also a town’s principal gathering place.
Shatgumbad Mosque, Bagerhat, Bangladesh. This group of orphans was preparing for a game of Bengali “Simon Says” on a field trip to the “Sixty-Pillared” Mosque at the ruins of Bagerhat. We were told that the orphanage was funded in part by Kuwaitis. Money from the Gulf supports a wide range of activities throughout the Muslim world, but one sometimes wonders to what extent the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia in particular, serve as a good role model for developing Muslim countries.
Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria. The great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, lying as it does in the center of a dense medieval city, serves as much as a sort of a great plaza, a Central Park, as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Islam can sometimes seem austere, in its prohibitions and customary dress, but spending an hour in the Umayyad dispels this notion—the mosque is full of children running and families enjoying the quality of the light reflecting off of the glorious architecture, sometimes along with a picnic. At least outside the prayer hall itself, there is none of the hushedness that one expects with a religious site, and those in headscarves are not immune from frivolity.
Regent’s Mosque, Shiraz, Iran. It is surprising how many of the mosques in the Islamic Republic of Iran exist primarily as tourist attractions rather than active places of worship, perhaps revealing the extent of the gulf between the pious leadership of the state and the modern and forward-thinking populace. Here, a woman poses for a picture in the mihrab, or niche indicating the direction of prayer (toward Mecca), a common practice in mosques which I thought somewhat analogous to posing on a church altar for a photograph.
http://www.derekbrownphotos.com
join the mailing list for updates and news of exhibits
check me out on Facebook
Village of Senossa, near Djenne, Mali. Most of the Muslim world is a part of the developing world, and the general privation and poverty of this small Malian village was quite a contrast to the ornate and evocative Sudanese architecture of its mosque, which was smaller but nearly as impressive as that of the world-famous Great Mosque of nearby Djenne. Such an investment is made worthwhile by the multiple functions performed by a mosque, not only a place of worship but also a town’s principal gathering place.
Shatgumbad Mosque, Bagerhat, Bangladesh. This group of orphans was preparing for a game of Bengali “Simon Says” on a field trip to the “Sixty-Pillared” Mosque at the ruins of Bagerhat. We were told that the orphanage was funded in part by Kuwaitis. Money from the Gulf supports a wide range of activities throughout the Muslim world, but one sometimes wonders to what extent the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia in particular, serve as a good role model for developing Muslim countries.
Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria. The great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, lying as it does in the center of a dense medieval city, serves as much as a sort of a great plaza, a Central Park, as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Islam can sometimes seem austere, in its prohibitions and customary dress, but spending an hour in the Umayyad dispels this notion—the mosque is full of children running and families enjoying the quality of the light reflecting off of the glorious architecture, sometimes along with a picnic. At least outside the prayer hall itself, there is none of the hushedness that one expects with a religious site, and those in headscarves are not immune from frivolity.
Regent’s Mosque, Shiraz, Iran. It is surprising how many of the mosques in the Islamic Republic of Iran exist primarily as tourist attractions rather than active places of worship, perhaps revealing the extent of the gulf between the pious leadership of the state and the modern and forward-thinking populace. Here, a woman poses for a picture in the mihrab, or niche indicating the direction of prayer (toward Mecca), a common practice in mosques which I thought somewhat analogous to posing on a church altar for a photograph.
http://www.derekbrownphotos.com
join the mailing list for updates and news of exhibits
check me out on Facebook
Shatgumbad Mosque, Bagerhat, Bangladesh. This group of orphans was preparing for a game of Bengali “Simon Says” on a field trip to the “Sixty-Pillared” Mosque at the ruins of Bagerhat. We were told that the orphanage was funded in part by Kuwaitis. Money from the Gulf supports a wide range of activities throughout the Muslim world, but one sometimes wonders to what extent the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia in particular, serve as a good role model for developing Muslim countries.
Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria. The great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, lying as it does in the center of a dense medieval city, serves as much as a sort of a great plaza, a Central Park, as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Islam can sometimes seem austere, in its prohibitions and customary dress, but spending an hour in the Umayyad dispels this notion—the mosque is full of children running and families enjoying the quality of the light reflecting off of the glorious architecture, sometimes along with a picnic. At least outside the prayer hall itself, there is none of the hushedness that one expects with a religious site, and those in headscarves are not immune from frivolity.
Regent’s Mosque, Shiraz, Iran. It is surprising how many of the mosques in the Islamic Republic of Iran exist primarily as tourist attractions rather than active places of worship, perhaps revealing the extent of the gulf between the pious leadership of the state and the modern and forward-thinking populace. Here, a woman poses for a picture in the mihrab, or niche indicating the direction of prayer (toward Mecca), a common practice in mosques which I thought somewhat analogous to posing on a church altar for a photograph.
http://www.derekbrownphotos.com
join the mailing list for updates and news of exhibits
check me out on Facebook
Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria. The great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, lying as it does in the center of a dense medieval city, serves as much as a sort of a great plaza, a Central Park, as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Islam can sometimes seem austere, in its prohibitions and customary dress, but spending an hour in the Umayyad dispels this notion—the mosque is full of children running and families enjoying the quality of the light reflecting off of the glorious architecture, sometimes along with a picnic. At least outside the prayer hall itself, there is none of the hushedness that one expects with a religious site, and those in headscarves are not immune from frivolity.
Regent’s Mosque, Shiraz, Iran. It is surprising how many of the mosques in the Islamic Republic of Iran exist primarily as tourist attractions rather than active places of worship, perhaps revealing the extent of the gulf between the pious leadership of the state and the modern and forward-thinking populace. Here, a woman poses for a picture in the mihrab, or niche indicating the direction of prayer (toward Mecca), a common practice in mosques which I thought somewhat analogous to posing on a church altar for a photograph.
http://www.derekbrownphotos.com
join the mailing list for updates and news of exhibits
check me out on Facebook