RR365

Reflections (17 - 04 - 2022) by RR365

Reflections (18 - 04 - 2022) by RR365

Abdal Hakim is a scholar and teacher. He will discuss "Travelling Home. Essays on Islam in Europe," where he dissects the rise of Islamophobia on the basis of Muslim theological tradition.

Dede Fairchild Ruggles is Professor and Debra L. Mitchell Chair in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she also holds appointments in Art History, Architecture, Medieval Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, and Gender and Women's Studies. She is the author/editor of numerous books on Islamic gardens, architectural patronage, and heritage, has appeared in many television documentaries about Islamic art, and is current art and architecture field editor for the multi-volume third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. She will be discussing her book Tree of Pearls.

Tim Mackintosh-Smith, historian and traveller, was born in 1961 and educated at Clifton College and Oxford University. His books include a travel trilogy pursuing the fourteenth-century wanderer, Ibn Battutah, around three continents. As well as being named by Newsweek as one of the twelve finest travel writers of the past hundred years, his editions and translations of early Arabic texts have further enriched cross-cultural understanding.

Among other documentaries, Tim presented and co-wrote the major BBC TV series Travels with a Tangerine, which ʻhas the off-the-cuff feel of Michael Palin at his very bestʼ. He will be discussing Travels with a Tangerine at the Iqra Book Festival.

Etsko Schuitema is a renowned business consultant who has authored numerous books including 'Leadership' and 'The Millenium Discourses'. He is a senior partner in Schuitema, a transformational consultancy operating worldwide. He will be discussing his book "The Two Sandals."

Luqman specialised in the Islamic sciences and the languages (Arabic, Persian and Urdu), literature and cultures of the Middle East and the Indian Sub-continent. In 1997, Luqman co-founded Khayaal, the first English language professional theatre company dedicated to the exploration of classic Muslim literature through contemporary stagecraft as a means of fostering greater intercultural and interfaith engagement and understanding. He continues to serve as Khayaal's chief conceptualist and creative producer with his latest work being Edhi Means Love, the first digital biopic on the life of Abdul Sattar Edhi in English. He will be discussing the book "Riding a Donkey Backwards."

Sumayya Usmani is an award-winning author of two cookbooks about Pakistani cuisine; she is also a food educator. Sumayya was born and raised in Karachi and left a legal career to follow her passion for writing. She's known as the go-to expert of Pakistani cuisine as dubbed by BBC Good Food. Sumayya won the Scottish Book Trust Award in 2021 for work on her next book, a narrative non-fiction memoir which is to be published in 2023. Sumayya lives in Glasgow.

Carla Power is an author and journalist. Her first book, If the Oceans Were Ink, a memoir of studying the Quran with Sheikh Akram Nadwi, was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. She was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, with years in Iran, India, Afghanistan, Egypt and Italy. She began her career as a writer and foreign correspondent for Newsweek Magazine, and since then, her reportage and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Time, The New York Times Magazine, Foreign Policy, Vogue, Vanity Fair and The Guardian. She lives with her family in East Sussex. She will be discussing her new book "Home, Land, Security."

Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author, novelist, and translator. He was born in 1968 in Hyderabad, Pakistan, and now divides his time between Toronto and Karachi. He will be discussing "The Adventures of Amir Hamza."