Last September, I joined a group of academics from the Arab world and Europe on their way to celebrate the life and work of a 14th-century Azerbaijani poet. Held in Baku, the Nasimi Festival was a lavishly mounted series of cultural programmes devoted to Imadaddin Nasimi’s 650th birth anniversary. President Ilham Aliyev had earlier declared 2019 as the ‘Year of Nasimi.’ Known for his revolutionary poetry in the Turkic, Arabic, and Persian languages and staunch advocacy of Hurufi philosophy that emphasised on the spiritual powers of letters and numbers, Nasimi was a bit of a misfit in his time. As he himself once remarked in a famous verse, “Both worlds can fit within me, but in this world, I cannot fit / I am the placeless essence, but into existence, I cannot fit.”
In 1417, Nasimi was accused of heresy. He was duly produced before a shariah court and ultimately executed in Aleppo by religious fundamentalists, sending shock waves across the region. Today, six centuries later, in what can be described as ‘poetic justice’, Nasimi has become one of modern Azerbaijan’s spiritual and moral guardians. “He laid the foundation of our literary and philosophical imagination,” said our host Emin Mammadov, as we whizzed past Baku’s cloud-bursting skyline with gleaming glass towers and skyscrapers interrupted at regular intervals by Soviet remnants, most starkly evident in the Brutalist architecture and ageing, Russian-made Ladas vying for space with Lamborghinis on the highway. If Nasimi were alive today he would have found it hard to recognise the new Baku, fuelled in recent years by oil riches that has made it a byword for both modernity and luxury. But here’s the one thing the Sufi mystic would be proud of—Azerbaijan’s exemplary secularism, a cause for which he had laid down his life.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2020 من National Geographic Traveller India.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2020 من National Geographic Traveller India.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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Best Of The World 2023
Travel inspiration is everywhere. The question is where to go next. Here's our annual list of enlightened destinations for the year aheadplaces filled with wonder, rewarding to travellers of all ages, and supportive of local communities and ecosystems. Framed by five categories (Community, Nature, Culture, Family, Adventure), these destinations are under the radar, ahead of the curve, and ready for you to start exploring.
Α ΗΟΜΕ IN THE HILLS
Skyview by Empyrean is a onestop destination for adventure and leisure in Jammu
ENTER THE PICTURE POSTCARD
A stylish luxury hotel in Thimphu's northern outskirts is where illustrious Bhutanese and travellers alike are finding their happy place
48 Hours : Seattle Leads The Way
The jewel of the Pacific Northwest is one of America’s greenest and grooviest culture capitals
BIG BINGE: DUBAI FOR THE JET-SETTING GOURMAND
Delightful degustation menus, French brasseries with art-inspired menus and Japanese diners excelling at nostalgia—the Dubai Food Festival 2022 justified the city’s status as one of the world’s premier food capitals
CULTURE COOL - UNDER THE EMIRATI SUN
Home to one of the world’s grandest mosques, an exciting emerging arts district on Saadiyat Island and an entertainment hub promising genuine thrills, Abu Dhabi has arrived in the league of extraordinary family destinations
ONLY IN OTTAWA
ACTIVE ADVENTURES, BUZZY BREWERIES AND NEIGHBOURHOODS THRIVING WITH BARS AND BOUTIQUES— CANADA'S BIJOU CAPITAL HAS PLENTY TO DISCOVER BEYOND THE HALLS OF PARLIAMENT
OF FRENCH FINESSE
QUENELLE DE BROCHET IS A REGIONAL LEGACY DISH HAILING FROM LYON. THE OVAL, POACHED PIKE DUMPLINGS ARE BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN INVENTED BY A PASTRY CHEF TO REGULATE FISH OVERPOPULATION
Coorg: A WILD ROAST
Back in another timber den of Karnataka, native wildlife and humble stories surprise Suhas Dwarkanath as he sips on a bold cup of robusta.
DIVING INTO RAS AL KHAIMAH
THE U.A.E'S NORTHERNMOST EMIRATE IS ALL ABOUT ENJOYING NATURAL TREASURES, FROM SOARING OVER THE AL-HAJAR MOUNTAINS ON THE WORLD'S LONGEST ZIPLINE TO PERUSING PRECIOUS PEARLS BY THE SEASHORE