Mystical Ecumenism

Photography from Islam's heartlands

by Iason Athanasiadis

Opening: 5 February 2008, 17:00-19:00

Center for Government and International Studies (South Building), Harvard University, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, 02138

The Dunya Ensemble will perform music from Islam’s mystical traditions at 18.30 in the Tsai Auditorium

Opening reception sponsored by the ILEX Foundation

Travel through the heartlands of Sufism with the hypnotic images of Iason Athanasiadis.

SUFISM: Mystical Ecumenism is a visual journey through Bilad ash-Sham, Khorassan and the Punjab chronicling the movement and rhythm of zikr, the ecstatic ceremony practiced by Sufi orders around the Muslim World.

Shot by photojournalist and 2008 Harvard Nieman fellow Iason Athanasiadis in present-day Iran, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey, it documents the extraordinary diversity of a mystical Islam gaining in popularity in the West but worryingly absent from media coverage of the world’s most controversial religion.

The exhibition runs 5 February through 10 March at Harvard’s Center for Government and International Studies