Amidst the picturesque desert landscapes of Rigan in Iran, one community is witnessing a remarkable revival of its culinary tradition while upholding environmental sustainability.

Such a transformation is the fruit of the Rehabilitation of Forest Landscapes and Degraded Lands (RFLDL) project, an initiative led by the United Nations (FAO) and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The project has become a catalyst for economic empowerment and environmental conservation in Rigan, with local communities and rural women at its core.

Known for its cultivation of dates, citrus, sesame and henna, Rigan nonetheless faces a significant threat from desertification. Characterized by its expansive plains and towering mountains, Rigan experiences temperatures that can soar above 50 degrees Celsius during the peak of summer. The area is dotted with date palms and citrus orchards that thrive in its more tropical zones. See how Lake Urmia in Iran has dried up due to human mismanagement.

Land degradation and biodiversity loss is common in Iran, primarily due to unsustainable agricultural practices and deforestation. These issues are compounded by overgrazing, excessive harvests of forest products and the relentless movement of sands, all of which exacerbate wind erosion and diminish the efficacy of watershed ecosystems.

Communities have traditionally depended on wood and shrubs for fuel for their mud ovens, a practice that further led to deforestation and environmental degradation.

As one of its responses, the UN project distributed 750 gas ovens and 500 wood-efficient stoves, especially when compared to mud stoves, cutting down deforestation while helping the revival of the traditional Komaj bread making.

Komaj bread, a delicacy infused with the sweetness of dates and aromatic cardamom, complemented by the earthy tones of cumin—a staple spice of the region—is at the heart of this revival.

The switch to gas furnaces has enabled the women of Rigan to increase the production of Komaj bread, transforming it from a household staple to a source of income. This shift not only preserves a treasured culinary tradition but also provides new economic prospects for the community’s women, who can sell their product at the local markets, further contributing to their economic resilience.

Together with implementing activities, such as planting organic windbreakers, constructing watershed management structures and setting up sediment traps, the reduced necessity of clearing trees and bushes for fuel improved the status of dryland forests and range and decreased the severity of wind erosion on almost 75,000 hectares of land in both Rigan and South Khorasan.

In Rigan, in particular, the project supported villages to restore 2,250 hectares of farm and rangeland by growing drought- and saline- resistant plants. 1,650 of these hectares were planted with species that can be safely irrigated by wastewater.

In an effort to diversify income sources away from solely forest products, the project encouraged the cultivation of alfalfa, date trees and medicinal plants, as well as the breeding of turkeys. Additionally, it supported a range of craft and artisan skills such as needlework, sewing, handicrafts and the spinning of palm fibres.

In Israel people like Yossi Oud are starting such projects which help Muslim women start small craft businesses by beekeeping.

The post Reforestation in Iran revives traditional food and creates jobs appeared first on Green Prophet.

In Western minds, jinn, or djinns, or genies – are Disney figures drawn out of the Orient’s mythical past. But belief in jinns as living creatures with supernatural forces thrives in modern times too.

According to Wikipedia, a survey undertaken by the Pew Research Center in 2012 shows that “…at least 86% in Morocco, 84% in Bangladesh, 63% in Turkey, 55% in Iraq, 53% in Indonesia, 47% in Thailand and 15% elsewhere in Central Asia, Muslims affirm the existence of jinn. The low rate in Central Asia might be influenced by Soviet religious oppression.”

The majestic jinni below was carved into the palace wall of Assyrian King Sargon II,  722-705 B.C.

So powerful is the belief that in Saudia Arabia, for example, sorcery and dealing with jinn is punishable by death.

It’s thought that jinn are figures from pre-Islamic Arabia which Islam absorbed. They are not worshiped, which may be why belief in them is acceptable to Muslims. Jinn are said to be made of fire or of air, and are neutral in character until they chose to follow Allah, or not. Although able to live untold years, they can die, and share other human characteristics, such as the need to eat, drink, and mate. Jinn can mate with humans, too. A modern story by A.S. Byatt, “The Djinn In The Nightingale’s Eye,” draws on this belief.

They are invisible, but can manifest physically in human or animal form, or as a frightful blend of both, or as fire. Lonely, deserted places are believed to be where jinn are found.  Jinn haunt ruined houses, the empty desert, and maybe even public places like this deserted train station below.

Epilepsy, narcolepsy, and mental and physical illness are attributed to the malicious workings of jinn, as well as natural phenomena like sandstorms.

Demons are a different class of creature in the hierarchy of supernatural beings. They’re believed to corrupt the hearts of the faithful and lead them astray. This weaken the human spirit and makes it easy for jinn to harm or possess the person.

Not all is bad with jinn, though. A sympathetic one may be helpful. A powerful magician can subdue a jinni to his will and make him do or get things.  The 16th-century Persian miniature below shows  jinn working to build a wall for Alexander the Great.

Humans and jinn may come to an agreement, where a jinni will do magical favors for someone in exchange for something he desires. In many stories, the jinni grants three wishes in exchange for freedom from bondage.

There are many stories where humans triumph over adversity with the help of friendly jinn – stories that have been handed down over centuries, and are still told.

Mohammad wrote throughout the Koran that adherence to the law, and reciting specific prayers at prescribed times, averts evil spirits. More advice: keep wudu (ritual hygiene), because jinn dislike cleanliness. Eating seven dates first thing in the morning also does it. Jinni are afraid of iron, so a magician can weaken and dominate a jinni by sticking a needle through the jinni’s robes.  The belief that iron averts evil spirits is shared around the world. Think of horseshoes hung near the entrance to rustic homes, barns and stables.

The toilet is also considered a jinn-ridden place. Cast a protective barrier between yourself and the jinn haunting the lavatory: enter with the left foot first, and recite, “In the Name of Allaah; my ‘ilãh I seek refuge in You from the male and female devils.”

Wearing an amulet pouch like the one pictured below will guard you against the evil eye and jinn.

Stay pure in body and heart, pray at all prescribed times, and jinn won’t bother with you. They like sinners better.

Image of female genie trapped in a bottle by Mystic Art Design at Pixabay; Deserted station by Lucas Hartman at Pexels;  16th-century Persian miniature, amulet pouch via Wikipedia;  Assyrian wall jinni via LifeScience

The post Islam’s jinns and genies are not exactly Disney appeared first on Green Prophet.

The local Bedouin knew about them for thousands of years but in the 1920s, pilots of the Royal Air Force flying over the deserts of Israel, Jordan and Egypt saw mysterious line shapes in the ground that they named “Desert Kites” Because their outlines, as seen from the air in their planes, reminded them of airborne kites.

The Middle Eastern deserts hide many traces from the dawn of mankind. Some of them are so-called desert kites, structures used to capture game animals: gazelles, wild asses, Arabian oryxes, onagers, hartebeests, ostriches and ibexes. From the satellite images, these structures look like gigantic kites that intrigued scholars who spent years researching uninhabited areas of Eastern Jordan, Sinai, Negev Desert and Saudi Arabia.

For many years scholars thought that some of the desert kites represented the border between the Roman and Sassanian empires in the Syrian Desert or water channels, but recently scientists reached a consensus that these structures served Neolithic nomads.

According to a French anthropologist Remy Crassard, it is possible that the “desert kites” in Jordan are some of the oldest in the world.

“Until now, we can estimate the use of the kites in Jordan and most probably in the neighboring regions to the end of the Neolithic, which was around 8000 years ago,” said Crassard in an interview for the Green Prophet. Crassard who leads the “Globalkites Project”, added that in northern Saudi Arabia, hunting traps were later constructed while in Armenia, where some 200 kites have been found, they appear to be used during the Bronze Age (around 5000 or 4000 years ago). By 2022, 6500 had been located in the Middle East.

The desert kites were found in areas far from the Middle East, like Kazakhstan where this human-made traps likely remained in use even in the medieval period.

Kites are different in shapes and sizes, the scholar continued, noting that thanks to a statistical approach, we are now able to propose groups of kites that show a real regionalization of them through time and space.  Also, kites might have been used not only for the hunting of wild animals but for their domestication in the Neolithic communities.

In northeastern Syria deposits of animal bones found near desert kites indicated non-selective hunting of animals whose age and sex varies. Some petroglyphs also depict scenes from gazelle and ibex hunting. The most common types of desert traps are bag-shaped kites, star-shaped kites, star-shaped kites with returned enclosures and clover –leafed kites.

In addition to the function of the desert kites, they consist of long dry-stone walls converging on a neck which opens into a confined space that ancient people used as the killing floor.  These walls can be hundreds of meters long and in more recent times, during the British and French mandate, pilots who flew over desert first spotted them in the1920s. T.E Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, recorded desert kites in the Negev in 1913 while he explored the area before World War I.

Regarding other finds, the excavations of the kites do not yield any artifacts, Crassard underlined, saying that the research team is also looking for datable elements, so that they can date the structure itself.

“During our last season of excavations in October 2019, we even found some prehistoric gazelles in one of these traps! After analyses, we will publish very soon our results in scientific journals,” Crassard noted.

Describing these enormous structures made to trap various animals by people from Neolithic period, he said that the research team recorded more than 6000 of them from Saudi Arabia to Uzbekistan in Central Asia.

“This is fascinating to study such mega-structures that were not so well understood before being excavated,” he stressed, underscoring that the new project will now provide many clarifications on the function, the dating and distribution of the desert kites that were until recently considered enigmatic structures.

In order to understand the economic and environmental impact of the desert kites, interdisciplinary studies are needed and they gather not only archaeologists but anthropologists, archaeozoologists and geo-archaeologists. The plan of the team of researchers gathered at The Globalkites is to analyze traps in different parts of the world and reconstruct the way game animals and Neolithic people interacted.

The post Desert Kites are how ancient man trapped his kill appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Azerbaijan-based mixed-media artist redefines the visual boundaries of iconic middle eastern carpets by distorting the conventional structure of their generally symmetrical patterns.  The striking results invite us to look back to the originals with new appreciation of traditional forms. His work is reminiscent of Irish photographer David Thomas Smith who “Google maps” major cities into virtual Persian carpets.

Most of Ahmed’s work revolves around the construction and deconstruction of the intricately patterned rugs and carpets native to Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkey. He rearranges aspects of  traditional composition, sometimes pulling fragments into three dimensions.

“To be honest, things I do are not always right and beautiful. I do it without thinking, it’s my instantaneous expression. I just make bold experiments, putting them into the art scene, trusting myself and my viewers,” he told website DZineTrip.

This experimentation leads to style mash-ups like tagging a classical pattern with graffiti (painstakingly woven into the piece – no spray paint was hurt in the making of this carpet!).

The artist views the carpet as a symbol of invincible Middle East tradition, an enduring icon; a painstakingly crafted artwork that functions – often for centuries – as a pragmatic household artifact. A slight change in form dramatically alters its structure, and in the process, pulls it into the 21st Century.

In his artist’s statement, Ahmed says “I’ve been always fond of investigating and researching every detail of anything that had interested me and sometimes this research reaches inconceivable depths mixing up with my imagination. I’m harried by a question others have left in childhood – ‘what is inside?’ That’s why I’m changing visually static objects making them spatial, giving them a new depth and revealing the essence of the object – which, just a moment ago, was mediocre.”

That’s quite a mouthful – so let’s stick with the images.

The carpet pictured below was one featured in the Jameel Prize 3 Exhibition held at London’s Victoria & Albert last April.  The classical pattern devolves into pixels as the expert handcrafting and brilliantly colored fibers remain consistent.  It’s simultaneously jarring and gorgeous.

Ahmed uses ancient, handmade techniques (employing local artisans) to create designs inspired by digital corruption and image manipulation. His rug patterns swirl and melt and bloat – sometimes dripping off walls or literally unraveling.

Check out his website (link here) for more of his wild reinterpretations. His carpets have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Beautiful Decay, The Grumpy Owl and Stylus.  Based in Azerbaijan capital Baku, there is no information as to when or if his rugs will be commercially available.

Images from Faig Ahmed’s website

The post Jameel prizewinner reinvents the iconic Middle Eastern rug appeared first on Green Prophet.