A. Peter Dore

2 weeks ago | dailysabah.com | A. Peter Dore

The Harvard Gazette has not been alone this year in noting that “The Odyssey is having a moment. Again.” It is right, of course. Last year saw the release of the film "The Return" based upon the Odyssey and another film adaptation, one receiving particular hype due to its being directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matt Damon, is currently in the making. There have also been new adaptations of the work on stage and in print.

1 month ago | dailysabah.com | A. Peter Dore

At the fountainhead of Italian vernacular literature and, indeed, post-Medieval European literature stands three great Florentines – Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) and Giovanni Boccaccio. However, by the time of Italian reunification, over half a millennium later, the status of Italian literature had declined from its great height. I think that in that period and its wake, Italy once again produced three standout literary figures who all shared a common geographical origin.

1 month ago | dailysabah.com | A. Peter Dore

In my last piece for this newspaper, I wrote on the Ottoman minaret. I pointed out in that piece, that this is the standard minaret design found in Türkiye and throughout the ex-Ottoman lands of the Balkans, which were brought into the fold of Islam by Ottoman expansion. However, I also noted that the minarets of Türkiye are not exclusively of one design. In this piece, focusing on just one walk that I took through the city of Konya, I wish to illustrate that fact.

2 months ago | themuslimtimes.info | Rafiq A. Tschannen |A. Peter Dore

Mar 13, 2025 – DAILY SABAHSüleymaniye Mosque is an Ottoman mosque in Istanbul, Türkiye. (Shutterstock Photo)Islam is a religion of unity in diversity. That is, Islam provides an immutable frame of belief and action for its believers, but variation is permissible within that frame. For instance, Islam has specific dietary rules to be followed by all Muslims, yet there is a very wide variety of foods prepared according to these rules across the Muslim world.

2 months ago | dailysabah.com | A. Peter Dore

Islam is a religion of unity in diversity. That is, Islam provides an immutable frame of belief and action for its believers, but variation is permissible within that frame. For instance, Islam has specific dietary rules to be followed by all Muslims, yet there is a very wide variety of foods prepared according to these rules across the Muslim world. It is in architecture, though, that the unity in diversity aspect of Islam is quite literally set in stone.