Aga Khan Development Network E-mail Bulletin for September 2007

"While we cannot present an in-depth analysis right now, I think we can begin by acknowledging that, more or less everywhere in the Ummah, Muslims and others are asking themselves the right questions and are developing positive answers about their built environment: Are we building for the future in a culturally empathetic way? Do we now own and are we marshalling the necessary creative resources - ranging from new schools of architecture to new data bases, through which the architectural community can share its questions and answers, its problems and its successes? This in itself is a magnificent change from 1977, when such simple but essential questions were generally not being asked, or had only negative answers."

--His Highness the Aga Khan speaking at the Aga Khan Award for Architecture Presentation Ceremony, Kuala Lumpur, 4 September 2007

Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

On 4 September 2007, at a ceremony held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and His Highness the Aga Khan announced the nine recipients of the 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Founded in 1977, the Award marked its 30th anniversary this year, and the completion of the 10th cycle of the programme. For more information, including speeches made by His Highness the Aga Khan and Prime Minister Badawi, photographs, slide show and video, please see the Aga Khan Award for Architecture Home Page.

BBC World Television Series on the 2007 Award

BBC World will broadcast a four-part series on the 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture beginning Saturday, 15 September 2007. "Building For Islam takes a close look at the finalists of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, recognising architectural excellence throughout the Islamic world: some ancient; some modern; some utilitarian; and all unique," the BBC World website remarks. "This four-part series takes an exclusive access-all-areas look behind the scenes at the nominees as the world’s biggest architectural prize decides what’s in and what’s not in the Islamic architectural world."

On a three week tour of East Africa, His Highness the Aga Khan launched several major development projects in the region, including Uganda's largest hydroelectric power project and an Aga Khan Academy in the country; the creation of the East African Community’s first regional university to be based in Arusha, Tanzania; and the establishment of Aga Khan University's Faculty of Health Sciences for East Africa in Nairobi. His Highness was also awarded several state honours for his 50 years of development efforts in the region. For more information, including speeches, photographs and videos, please see the East Africa press page.

Seventeen musicians from Central Asia are going on tour in 11 North American cities beginning October 12, 2007. The tour, “Spiritual Sounds of Central Asia: Nomads, Mystics, and Troubadours,” will provide North American audiences with a rare opportunity to hear music from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Qaraqalpakstan (an autonomous region in Uzbekistan). Artists include legendary Azerbaijani vocalist Alim Qasimov and his daughter Fargana; Bardic Divas, four women from Kazakhstan and Qaraqalpakstan who demonstrate the power and beauty of the female voice; and the Badakhshan Ensemble, which performs trance-inducing mystical songs from the majestic Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Three new CD-DVD releases produced in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution are also being released. For more information, please see 2007 North American tour press release and tour itinerary.

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