# Geoffrey Billett Photography

> Culture, Ritual and Worship in India, Morocco and the UK


## Posts

- [Subtle Anecdotes from the City  :   The Skin of the City](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-skin-of-the-city/): The underpass under Lawrence Hill roundabout&nbsp; is one of the largest in Bristol.&nbsp; Much graffiti has been painted on its walkways and tunnels,&nbsp; and posters stuck to its walls.&nbsp; Also it is possible to find items deposited,&nbsp; things like cups,&nbsp; cans and bottles but also sometimes more personal and substantial items such as handbags and articles of clothing.&nbsp; &nbsp;These items can be found on the ground beside the graffited walls but also sometimes wedged in between the handrails which trail around the underpass.&nbsp; The handrails are multi-coloured and often reflect the spray paint of the walls behind. Posters advertising a [&hellip;]
- [Hinterland  :  West Penwith Still a Mining Community](https://sannyassa.co.uk/hinterland-west-penwith-still-a-mining-community/): Hinterland definitions&nbsp; : &nbsp; &nbsp; a region lying inland from a coast a region remote from urban areas,&nbsp; a region lying beyond major metropolitan or cultural centers &nbsp; &nbsp; West Penwith is a region in the far west of the United Kingdom. &nbsp; &nbsp; The region is surrounded by ocean,&nbsp; so does not meet the first of the above definitions,&nbsp; but the coastline is wild and ferocious and is a natural barrier to serious travel.&nbsp; As the most westerly region of the UK it wholly meets the second consideration. &nbsp; The following rolling blog post and photographs depict something of [&hellip;]
- [Western Sahara](https://sannyassa.co.uk/western-sahara/): Journeying south from the exotic souks of Marrakech into a controversially contested region where state oppression and violence has featured may engender trepidation. The region is that what was once called ‘Western Sahara’, a name and sovereignty which is still recognised by the United Nations , but is vehemently refuted by the Moroccan government who insist the former country has been part of Morocco since the Green March and annexation in 1975. On atlases and maps, the country is greyed out which reflects this dispute, its national borders clearly delineated with Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania. An astonishing fact is that [&hellip;]
- [St Aldhelm's Well,  Edge Tools and the Source of the River Sheppey  :  University Submission 2025](https://sannyassa.co.uk/st-aldhelm-edge-tools-and-the-source-of-the-river-sheppey/): 24.05.2025 I have received the results of my last module on my online BA Hons Photography Degree and was pleased to be awarded an aggregated mark of 78%.&nbsp; The subject was to tell a story,&nbsp; and I chose to tell the story of how a sacred spring transforms into a young river over the course of a post industrial landscape in north Somerset,&nbsp; and the collection of its water by people who used it domestically.&nbsp; The images are monochrome to reflect the use of large format film for many of them and I have included a gallery of those images [&hellip;]
- [Objects  :  Tuition at Falmouth University](https://sannyassa.co.uk/objects-tuition-at-falmouth-university/): I have commenced an online BA Hons Photography degree with Falmouth University. One of the early assignments was to photograph &#8216;Found Objects&#8217;,&nbsp; which I chose to interpret as existing environmental arrangements which caused me to experience &#8216;phenomenon&#8217;,&nbsp; or sensation.&nbsp; I am capturing a &#8216;feeling&#8217; within myself which I re-experience when I view the objects again as images,&nbsp; and maybe others experience when they view the images themselves.&nbsp; I am not trying to photograph beauty per se.&nbsp; I walked along the River Hayle from its issuing into the sea and the local beach,&nbsp; back into the town&#8217;s old dock and landscape [&hellip;]
- [Subtle  Anecdotes from the City : River Frome](https://sannyassa.co.uk/28513-2/): &nbsp; &nbsp; Images captured on 6th July 2024&nbsp; portraying graffiti along the river Frome beneath the M32 and beside the skateboard park in Bristol. On previous visits to the M32 skateboard park,&nbsp; I have noticed that the river Frome flows in a valley adjacent to the ramps and benches used for grinding and jumps.&nbsp; The slow moving river lies behind a tall metal fence,&nbsp; and that tall pillars which substitute for canvas extend beyond the fence and along the course of the river,&nbsp; suspending the concrete vault of curving motorway above like a ceiling.&nbsp; Those pillars,&nbsp; as if in a [&hellip;]
- [Lafrowda : Shifting Through the Layers](https://sannyassa.co.uk/lafrowda-shifting-through-the-layers/): &nbsp; I have recently considered the idea that the landscape around us is multi-factorial and multi-dimensional.&nbsp; A landscape may be viewed as a collection of layers of occupation where marks left by successive communities are similar in conceptual terms to those marks left by painters on a canvas.&nbsp; The only variable is the perceptual and selective preferences chosen by each person passing through that landscape;&nbsp; that landscape will be critically different for everyone who passes through. Over the past few days I have spent time in West Penwith,&nbsp; west Cornwall,&nbsp; during the time of its annual Lafrowda Festival.&nbsp; The Festival&#8217;s [&hellip;]
- [Subtle Anecdotes from the City : Rockaway Park](https://sannyassa.co.uk/subtle-anecdotes-from-the-city-cont/): Images taken Rockaway Park on 26th June 2024. &nbsp; &nbsp; In Hindu terms a Triveni is a location where three rivers meet in a confluence. It invariably has a spiritual denotation and sometimes one of the rivers is imaginary and symbolic, a waterway ( the river Saraswati ) which rises from the earth to join the other 2 actual rivers in the physical world. With imagination and a certain artistic license Rockaway Park maybe regarded in a similar manner; a confluence of 3 philosophies joining in a celebration of counter-cultural largesse in a former quarry south of Bristol on the [&hellip;]
- [The Mud Line](https://sannyassa.co.uk/mud_line/): The Somerset coastline stretches for some 80 miles from just south of Weston Super Mare to west of Porlock Weir,&nbsp; the former at the new boundary of North Somerset and the latter within the boundary of Exmoor National Park.&nbsp; The Bristol Channel has one of the greatest tidal ranges in the world,&nbsp; a phenomenon which engenders problems with mud and silt and management of its shores,&nbsp; maritime passageways and harbours.&nbsp; The Channel also retains a permanent&nbsp; muddy &#8216;brown-ness&#8217; to its colour,&nbsp; it is rarely or never &#8216;blue&#8217; like many seas. Extensive mud flats make some parts of the coastline&nbsp; dangerous [&hellip;]
- [Raghu Rai  :  Inspiration in Rishikesh](https://sannyassa.co.uk/raghu-rai-inspiration-in-rishikesh/): One of my favourite photographers of India is Raghu Rai,&nbsp; who became a world recognised Magnum photographer.&nbsp; He has documented the rhythyms,&nbsp; lives and colours of life in India since 1965.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Here is his Magnum profile : Raghu Rai was born in the small village of Jhhang, now part of Pakistan. He took up photography in 1965, and the following year joined The Statesman newspaper as its chief photographer. Impressed by an exhibit of his work in Paris in 1971, Henri Cartier-Bresson nominated Rai to join Magnum Photos in 1977. Rai left The Statesman in 1976 to work as picture [&hellip;]
- [The Painted Bridge of Rishikesh](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-painted-bridge-of-rishikesh/): The famed Laxman Jula bridge of Rishikesh,&nbsp; featured in original photographs of the Beatles in Rishikesh,&nbsp; has now closed and a new bridge with a Beatles&#8217; association has opened. Crossing the Ganges from the Kailash Gate area to the Maharaji Mahesh Yogi ashram,&nbsp; also called the Beatles&#8217; Ashram, the Janki Setu bridge provides another crossing point for both pedestrians and motor cycle users. The bridge was being painted during my stay in Rishikesh,&nbsp; portraying a decidedly Hindu spiritual narrative.&nbsp; It was a focus of attraction for Sadhus,&nbsp; whose ashram was close by.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; [&hellip;]
- [Ascent to Gangotri](https://sannyassa.co.uk/ascent-to-gangotri/): Jambudvipa is the name of the continent of Earth according to the concept of Hinduism&#8230;. is divided into four vast regions shaped like four petals of lotus with Mount Meru being located at the center like the pericarp of the flower&#8230;..Bharata lies on the south&#8230; The river Ganga or Akashganga encloses the city of Brahmapuri. River Ganga is said to emerge from the foot of Lord Vishnu and &#8230; falls &#8216;through the skies&#8217;&#8230;.. https://www.indianetzone.com/12/jambudvipa.htm &nbsp; The mountain jeep picked me up from the Five Elements hotel,&nbsp; Uttarkashi,&nbsp; at 7.30am. I had long held a desire to journey to Gangotri,&nbsp; a [&hellip;]
- [The Frost Fair   :  A Glastonbury Romance](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-frost-fair-a-glastonbury-romance/)
- [Grey Wethers](https://sannyassa.co.uk/grey-wethers/): &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Grey Wethers is a double stone circle on the south-eastern slopes of Sittaford Tor on the western edge of Dartmoor.&nbsp; Wethers is another name for &#8216;sheep&#8217; and local legend suggests the stones resemble sheep grazing on the Moor. Here is a series of photographs depicting a number of the stones. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
- [The Gallery Beneath the M32](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-gallery-beneath-the-m32/): These photographs depict the urban landscape between the River Frome and the B4058,&nbsp; and beneath the M32,&nbsp; in Bristol,&nbsp; UK. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
- [Our Modern World Seems Pretty Slim on Magic and Meaning](https://sannyassa.co.uk/our-modern-world-seems-pretty-slim-on-magic-and-meaning/): &nbsp; &#8216;Skateboarders never want to talk about religion, unless it’s to praise their favorite ‘switch god,’ show off their burning nun graphic, or ridicule an aging, born-again pro. But, as a skateboarding sociologist that focuses his research on religion, I wanted to take a different approach and ask the question: Can skateboarding itself be a religion?&#8217;
- [Uttarkashi : Life on the Banks](https://sannyassa.co.uk/uttarkashi-life-on-the-banks/): The Ganges rushed its way through Uttarkashi,&nbsp; with little to no idle chit chat.&nbsp; As a goddess, Ganga remained young,&nbsp; excitable and in a rush to leave the mountains and to slow and mature on the plains far below.&nbsp; After heavy rains Her volume swelled and the river valley was filled with Her playful abundance,&nbsp; sweeping rocks and trees down the mountain valleys in a laughing clatter of noise.&nbsp; A landscape is never truly complete without its people.&nbsp; Here,&nbsp; in a mountain town in the Himalayas,&nbsp; life went on, day by day.&nbsp; Maybe the pageantry and tableaux of Uttarkashi&#8217;s occupants [&hellip;]
- [Antyesti in Uttarkashi](https://sannyassa.co.uk/antyesti-and-agni-in-uttarkashi/): It is not long before, whilst walking along the banks of the river Ganges in India,&nbsp; one is confronted by the spectacle of flames emanating from a large fire beside the flowing river. &nbsp; Upon looking more closely,&nbsp; one sees that the flames consume a wooden pyre and,&nbsp; somewhere in the centre of the pyre,&nbsp; consume a human body.&nbsp; One becomes aware,&nbsp; maybe instinctively,&nbsp; of a graphical conversion of matter into spirit. &nbsp; &nbsp; One of the most challenging sensory experiences of visiting India is watching the antyesti ( burial ) rites of cremations. Funeral pyres, and recently specifically designated [&hellip;]
- [Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens](https://sannyassa.co.uk/tremenheere-sculpture-gardens/): Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens
- [West Penwith :  a Trojan Landscape](https://sannyassa.co.uk/west-penwith-a-trojan-landscape/): The great atlantic ocean buffets the granite cliffs of the West Penwith coastline.  The high craggy moors cut through the low scudding clouds.  The twisted knotty woods conceal groves where healing wells and clouties draw the prayers of the inhabitants.  The farms of granite and metal and barns sit quietly as autumnal storms clear.  The churches and cemeteries are as old as the lichen which live on their granite.  Pilgrims walk the sacred footpaths of the landscape meandering from night to day and saint to saint,  the mud of piety on their boots.
- ['There Is No India'  :  Healing in Uttarkashi](https://sannyassa.co.uk/there-is-no-india-uttarkashi/): &#8220;There is no such country, and this is the first and most essential fact about India that can be learned. India is a name, which we give to to a great region including a multitude of different countries. There is no general Indian term that corresponds to it. This is the first and most essential thing to learn about India &#8211; that there is not, and never was an India, or even any country of India, possessing, according to European ideas, any sort on unity, physical, political, social and religious: no Indian nation, no ‘people of India’, of which we [&hellip;]
- [Witches of the Mela](https://sannyassa.co.uk/gangetic-witches-of-the-mela/): About a decade ago I attended a magnificent religious festival at the city then called Allahabad.&nbsp; Approximately 100 million people attended from all over India and from around the world,&nbsp; gathering in a great temporary city on a sandy flood plain where three great rivers meet.&nbsp;
- [Maharishi Mahesh Yogi  : the Psychedelic Ghost of Rishikesh](https://sannyassa.co.uk/25059-2/): These are photographs taken at the decaying ashram of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.  Although it has travelled down to Rishikesh from its Himalayan hights,  the Ganges is still a young river.  More images from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ashram can be found as a Gallery here.  These images are available as digital downloads and clicking on an image will reveal a choice of image resolution for purchase.  Alternatively a reduced number of images are available on a digital download page here where other images from India can be  found and downloaded.
- [India 2023  :  Christian Hindu Cemetery in New Delhi](https://sannyassa.co.uk/india-2023-christian-cemetery-in-new-delhi/): in the teeming city of New Delhi there exists a quiet spot where the union of two nationalities and religions is celebrated.  Just outside of its large walls,  the busy markets of Paher Ganj and Delhi continue,  and inside a cemetery where the cultures and faiths join,  and portray the colour and love of nature of the Hindu faith with features of the Christian faith.
- [Subtle Anecdotes from the City](https://sannyassa.co.uk/subtle-anecdotes-from-the-city/): More urban narrative from Bristol&#8230;&#8230;.
- [Penzance to Newlyn : the Animated Landscape](https://sannyassa.co.uk/penzance-to-newlyn-an-animated-landscape/): My 5 days in Cornwall has been spent under huge ever changing skies,&nbsp; where clouds roll across an aerial landscape without cessation.&nbsp; I walked from Penzance to Newlyn today along the promenade,&nbsp; and explored a little of Newlyn.&nbsp; The journey is an almost lifelong love of mine,&nbsp; a landscape I know well.&nbsp; But there are always things to see and new discoveries to be made in the animated landscape.
- [The Tinner's Cliffs......West Penwith](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-tinners-cliffs-west-penwith/): The Cornish tin mining industry maybe history now,&nbsp; but it&#8217;s landscape remains a resounding and echoing reminder of when Cornwall contributed immensely to the development of mining practice around the world.&nbsp; The pounding and smoking residue of beam engines,&nbsp; the labour of men and the swirling danger of working on precipitous cliffs can still be felt whilst exploring this amazing region. All photographs taken on my first day of another trip to West Penwith on 13th July 2023.
- [Kif :  the Pipemakers of Ouezzane](https://sannyassa.co.uk/kif-the-pipemakers-of-ouezzane/): The green medina of Ouezzane contains an area of small workshops where artisans produce a range of products for the consumption of mostly local inhabitants.&nbsp; Around this artisanal area the haunting tapping of hammers,&nbsp; low drone of power tools and the general pallor of endeavour permeates the narrow lanes and alleyways.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; One of the most popular trades is the making of the sebsi,&nbsp; that is a pipe for smoking marijuana known in Morocco as kif.
- ['Some People are Vandals Because They Want to Make the World a Better Looking Place'](https://sannyassa.co.uk/some-people-are-vandals-because-they-want-to-make-the-world-a-better-looking-place/): This post describes a continued interest in the role and relevance of street art,&nbsp; on this occasion in Morocco.&nbsp; I have visited Morocco on at least 6 occasions over the last decade,&nbsp; and for an extended period of time rented a house in the medina in Essaouira.&nbsp; Other times I have stayed with good friends in Chefchaouen,&nbsp; made solid friendships with a family living in a Jewish cemetery in Meknes,&nbsp; stayed for several months in Fes and comprehensively visited the northern cities of Tangier and Tetouan.&nbsp; The attraction was initially in exploring the Sufi heritage of saints and the qubba,&nbsp; [&hellip;]
- [Zig Zag Building Revisited 2023](https://sannyassa.co.uk/zig-zag-building-revisited-2023/): The Zig Zag building in Glastonbury had another Open Day today.&nbsp; &#8216;Built in 1934 and known as the Bauhaus by the Morland factory family who used it for manufacturing sheepskin slippers, gloves and coats. Left derelict between 1980 and 2013, it is now hosting exhibitions, events and workshops&#8217;.&nbsp; http://www.zigzag.org.uk/
- [Isle of Portland  :  Looking It in the Eye](https://sannyassa.co.uk/isle-of-portland-looking-it-in-the-eye/): Great Stone Project 2022 I have flirted with Portland for several years,&nbsp; journeying down most years to stay at the Portland Bird Observatory,&nbsp; and walking around its coastline and exploring some of its quarries without really committing to photographing the features which make it attractive to me.&nbsp; As an extension of the Great Stone Project 2022,&nbsp; drifting into 2023,&nbsp; its time has eventually arrived. This post shall be a rolling blog post,&nbsp; with additions added every day of my stay,&nbsp; and the best photographs may latterly form a Gallery.&nbsp; I may return to Portland in March but anticipate making a [&hellip;]
- [Weston Zoyland Aerodrome Revisited](https://sannyassa.co.uk/weston-zoyland-aerodrome-revisited/): A conscientious artist often revisits locations or themes for further exploration or development.&nbsp; I am guilty of revisiting cemeteries,&nbsp; cities,&nbsp; countries, landscapes and wildernesses in the hope I will be able to see something differently.&nbsp; Looking further into the microscope and responding to the vagaries of the light,&nbsp; weather conditions,&nbsp; landscape changes and new equipment lends an excitement to returning somewhere again.&nbsp; Of course it is not just the subsequent images produced which is important;&nbsp; it is both the visual and linguistic journey.
- [Lyme Regis  :  Ghosts of John Fowles](https://sannyassa.co.uk/lyme-regis-ghosts-of-john-fowles/): The ghost of the novellist John Fowles continues to haunt Lyme Regis.&nbsp; He lived in a large house overlooking the Undercliffe,&nbsp; the wild terrain which was formed following the regular landslips which occur in the porous cliffs travelling west towards Charmouth and Seatown.&nbsp; I often wondered which house was his,&nbsp; journeying past the properties as I descended into Lyme on my many journeys there.
- ["Subversion of Public Space"  :  Democratisation in Bristol](https://sannyassa.co.uk/22929-2/): Accredited with origins in New York in the late 1960s,&nbsp; attempts have repeatedly been made to define Street Art.&nbsp; It is without doubt a phenomenon in the 21st century,&nbsp; with public spaces around the world being celebrated and decorated in visually exciting and daring styles depicting a multitude of cultural, political and personal agendas and statements.&nbsp; And its progress and development has been,&nbsp; and remains, entirely subversive.
- [Lilstock Beach  :  Creation Point](https://sannyassa.co.uk/xxxx-2/): The beach adjacent to the building site of Hinkley C nuclear power station is reached by following a non-signposted one way road until it leads to a muddy track,&nbsp; and then by driving along the track until parking beside an articulated bouy at the track&#8217; end.&nbsp; Walk through the gateway,&nbsp; over an undulating hill and along a path to the coast path which bifurcates just above the beach,&nbsp; the left path leading to Minehead and the hills of Exmoor and the right hand path down towards the beach .&nbsp; A long rusting metal pier stretches out into the sea,.&nbsp; Just [&hellip;]
- [Craig Rhos-y-felin   :   Origin of Stonehenge's Bluestones?](https://sannyassa.co.uk/22914-2/): Great Stone Project 2022 The Preseli Hills,&nbsp; in South West Wales,&nbsp; uniquely contain outcrops of a particular type of rock which has played a central role in a long time mystery at Stonehenge.&nbsp; A team of eminent archaeologists led by Professor Mike Parker-Pearson has studied Stonehenge and its ritual surroundings for a decade and believe a number of these outcrops in the Preseli Hills were ancient,&nbsp; stone age quarries where the smaller &#8216;bluestones&#8217; at Stonehenge originate.&nbsp; However some geologists dispute these claims.&nbsp; The mystery concerns how the stones travelled to Wiltshire and the site of Stonehenge from their origins 140 [&hellip;]
- [Leskernick   :   Bodmin's Neolithic Art Installation](https://sannyassa.co.uk/leskerneck/): Great Stone Project&nbsp; 2022 &nbsp; : &nbsp; Phenomenological Study of Leskernick Hill,&nbsp; Bodmin,&nbsp; 1995 -1999 The small hill of Lesternick is a relatively well preserved site of considerable Bronze Age occupation and remains.&nbsp; It&#8217;s claim to fame is that Christopher Tilley,&nbsp; archaeologist,&nbsp; developed his theories of phenomenology there over a series of summer excavations from 1995-1999. &nbsp; His,&nbsp; and his team&#8217;s aims,&nbsp; were described on the Lesterick website as : The Leskernick Project is a multidisciplinary approach to landscape and the symbolism of place on Bodmin Moor, eastern Cornwall. It involves five related strands of research: 1 ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION and [&hellip;]
- [Dartmoor   :  A Landscape of Occupation](https://sannyassa.co.uk/dartmoor-a-landscape-of-occupation/): Great Stone Project 2022&nbsp;&nbsp; :&nbsp;&nbsp; Dartmoor is a formidable lump of granite in the county of Devon.&nbsp; The seam of granite runs down from Devon and into Cornwall and becomes exposed firstly on the crags of Bodmin Moor and then later down on the moors and coastline of west Cornwall.&nbsp; My interest in Dartmoor was to visit some of the quarries, antiquities and communities and reflect on how granite had influenced the development of this landscape.&nbsp; I focussed on the region around Princetown and visited several quarries closeby,&nbsp; the church in Princetown and the antiquites nearby.&nbsp; I saw this as [&hellip;]
- [Running White Deer Revisited   :   Caponigro's Megaliths](https://sannyassa.co.uk/running-white-deer-revisited-caponigros-megaliths/): Great Stone Project 2022&nbsp;&nbsp; :&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;
- [Material Culture  :   Isle of Lewis](https://sannyassa.co.uk/material-culture-isle-of-lewis/): Great Stone Project 2022&nbsp;&nbsp; :&nbsp;&nbsp; I again use the archaeological term &#8216;Material Culture&#8217; to denote the landscape as I saw it on the Isle of Lewis,&nbsp; with a particular emphasis on documenting the structural elements of that landscape which mostly reflected human occupation or activity.&nbsp; My goal was to suggest that the geological landscape is relatively unchanging,&nbsp; but the occupation by man is ephemeral and changeable. &nbsp;
- [Material Culture   :   North Uist](https://sannyassa.co.uk/material-culture-north-uist/): Great Stone Project 2022 &nbsp; :&nbsp;&nbsp; The meaning of the archaeological term &#8216;Material culture&#8217;&nbsp; refers to the consideration of the relationship between people and their environment,&nbsp; the making, history, preservation, and interpretation of objects in their possession. It draws on theory and practice from such disciplines as art history, archaeology, anthropology, history, historic preservation, folklore, and museum studies, among others. Anything from buildings and architectural elements to books, jewelry, toothbrushes, or clothing can be considered material culture. The images below try to depict visually these relationships :
- [Colour Amidst the Monochrome](https://sannyassa.co.uk/22613-2/): Great Stone Project 2022&nbsp;&nbsp; :&nbsp;&nbsp; Colour Amidst the Monochrome Photographs of rocks off Berneray beach, Western Isles, taken on the evening of 19th June 2022
- [Tir a'Mhurian    :    The Land of Marram Grass](https://sannyassa.co.uk/tir-amhurian-the-land-of-bent-grass/): Great Stone Project 2022 &nbsp; :&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The phrase ‘Tir a’Mhurain’ is a romantic and political reference to landscape. It is taken from an emigrant&#8217;s song in praise of the island of South Uist and has several Gaelic meanings: ‘the land of bent grass’ or ‘the land of marram grass’. It is also the title of a book of photographs depicting the community of South Uist taken in 1954 by American photographer Paul Strand at a particularly tense time in the Cold War;&nbsp; the photograph at the head of this blog entry was the cover photograph of Tir a’Mhurain,&nbsp; a photograph [&hellip;]
- [Material Culture  :  Eriskay and South Uist](https://sannyassa.co.uk/eriskay-and-the-uists/): Great Stone Project 2022&nbsp;&nbsp; :&nbsp;&nbsp; The notion that people are nested within their environments,&nbsp; that the geological landscape&nbsp; is largely immutable but that &#8216;human landscapes&#8217; are relatively short lived runs through this series of Blog articles.&nbsp; So it is with this Blog entry and series of images. Material culture is fundamental to being human. Things are the medium through which we act, understand ourselves and relate to each other. They habituate our reflexes, make meanings concrete and intervene as agents in our lives. This is as true now as it has been throughout several million years of human evolution. Primates [&hellip;]
- [Simmer Dim at Barra Airport](https://sannyassa.co.uk/barra-airport/): Great Stone Project 2022&nbsp;&nbsp; :&nbsp;&nbsp; The rain had persisted all day on Barra and Vatersay and camping seemed impossible.&nbsp; I decided to wild camp overlooking the sands of Barra airport at Traig Mhor,&nbsp; in the north of Barra. &nbsp; This is reputedly the only airport in the world where scheduled flights land and take off on the sands of a beach.&nbsp; As midnight approached,&nbsp; no planes were landing tonight. This was the the first night I had truly experienced the simmer dim,&nbsp; the scottish term for the strange light where evenings are endless and nights are short,&nbsp; sometimes even non-existent.&nbsp; [&hellip;]
- [The Phenomenology of Barra and Vatersay](https://sannyassa.co.uk/barra-and-vatersay/): Great Stone Project 2022&nbsp; :&nbsp;&nbsp; The Calmac ferry brought me to Castlebay from Oban on 17th June 2022.&nbsp; I had taken the opportunity to undertake some reading,&nbsp; especially around landscapes and their interpretation,&nbsp; particularly the phenomenology of landscape.&nbsp; Although there were no stone circles on Barra and Vatersay,&nbsp; its sister island now connected by a causeway,&nbsp; stone was still predominant.&nbsp; In fact stone formed one pivotal part of a triangular relationship between the natural elements of light,&nbsp; water and the enduring rocky landscape.&nbsp; I was to learn that the interplay between these elements on the Western Isles provided a compelling [&hellip;]
- [Reversal to Lochranza](https://sannyassa.co.uk/reversal-to-lochranza/): Great Stone Project 2022&nbsp; :&nbsp; on 15th June 2022 I left the Machrie Stones and made my way back to Lochranza to catch the ferry to Claonaig.&nbsp; On the way I noticed several large stones on the foreshore overlooking the Kilbrannan Sound,&nbsp; and passed by an ancient small cemetery.&nbsp; Stone seemed to be everywhere;&nbsp; my landscape was changing.&nbsp; Here are some photographs below. &nbsp; What constitutes landscape?&nbsp; Should I see in colour or monochrome? What did stone bring to a landscape and how to measure that?&nbsp; Who were the people who built these monuments some 3000 years BC?&nbsp; What were [&hellip;]
- [Machrie Stones](https://sannyassa.co.uk/machrie-stones/): The Great Stone Project 2022&nbsp; :&nbsp; Continuing along the coastal road from Corrie,&nbsp; the A841 cuts inland at Sannox and climbs through a valley before it drops again to the coast at Lochranza.&nbsp; There is a summer ferry there I would be catching the following day back to the Scottish mainland at Claonaig.&nbsp; The road carried on,&nbsp; adjacent to the Kinytre peninsula just across the Kilbrannan Sound,&nbsp; until the settlement of Machrie is reached. The ancient moor,&nbsp; reached by an easily navigable footpath,&nbsp; is just beyond. The derelict Moss Farm announces the arrival of the major circles and ritual landscape.
- [The Quixotic Animals of Corrie](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-quixotic-animals-of-corrie/): The Great Stone Project 2022&nbsp; :&nbsp; The coast road from Brodick to Lochranza on the Scottish Isle of Arran winds its way alongside the Firth of Clyde,&nbsp; the extended vista of the mainland of Scotland eventually being replaced by the island of Bute.&nbsp;&nbsp; I had arrived on the morning of 14th June 2022 on the ferry from Ardrossan,&nbsp; the rain heavy but there was no wind.&nbsp; The small waves gently lapped onto the rocky foreshore;&nbsp; my destination was Machrie Moor and the standing stones there.&nbsp; I knew I could cross the island to the stones by taking the B880,&nbsp; or [&hellip;]
- [Castlerigg Stone Circle](https://sannyassa.co.uk/castlerigg-stone-circle/): Castlerigg Stone Circle :&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Great Stone Project 2022 I arrived at Castlerigg Stone Circle late evening on 12th June 2022,&nbsp; light rain falling on the mountains as I pulled into a layby.&nbsp; Although these were the first stones on this trip,&nbsp; they were not the first in this erstwhile project,&nbsp; not that I had any idea initially it would become a project.&nbsp; Several months before I had visited a Henry Moore sculpture exhibition in Bruton,&nbsp; where his inspiration from the stones at Stonehenge was explored and his wonderful drawings of the trilithons exhibited.&nbsp; It was clear in his scultpures and [&hellip;]
- [The Great Stone Project 2022](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-great-stone-project-2022/): &#8216; (the)&nbsp; world can be perceived as animated, alive, active, depending from the level of interaction established between body and surrounding things &#8230;&#8230;&#8230;in this sense, inert matter&#8230;&#8230;.. can be considered &#8220;alive&#8221;. &nbsp; &nbsp; Christopher Tilley
- [Sancreed](https://sannyassa.co.uk/sancreed-2/): Some photoraphs from the churchyard of Sancreed church in West Pwnwith,  Cornwall.
- [Western Isles Initial Edit](https://sannyassa.co.uk/western-isles/)
- [Together They Touch the Sky :  Callanish Stone Circle,  Monochrome](https://sannyassa.co.uk/together-they-touch-the-sky-callenish-stone-circle-monochrome/)
- [Aged Little Sadhu : Samsara in Motion](https://sannyassa.co.uk/aged-little-sadhu-samsara-in-motion/): The title of this blog entry may seem a little disparaging,  though repeated efforts to initiate conversation or a relationship came to nothing.   All I know about this man was that he was an older man,  diminutive in stature and by his appearance was definitely a sadhu.  It also seemed that Manikarnika Ghat appeared to be his home. He was there every day,  sleeping beside one of the temples amongst the goats and cows and spent his days silently watching the antyesti rituals.  I never saw him engage in conversation with another human being, apart from to ask for chai,  [&hellip;]
- [Avebury Stones : To Pareidolia or Not](https://sannyassa.co.uk/avebury-stones-to-pareidolia-or-not/): I sent some recent photographs of Avebury stone circle to a friend,  commenting that some of the stones resembled the shape of people&#8217;s expressions or the outline of animals.  I saw a shark,  a rabbit,  a smiling face,  a hunched figure,  all legitimate interpretations of random shapes of and markings on the collection of immense stones.  Her good natured laughing reply was to refer me to pareidolia. Pareidolia is the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.  It has been described as the science behind seeing faces in everyday objects,  for example [&hellip;]
- [Summer Fayre........Continuation of Maya : a Glastonbury or Personal Theme ?](https://sannyassa.co.uk/summer-fayre-continuation-of-maya-a-glastonbury-or-personal-theme/): Subsequent to my attending Frank&#8217;s talk regarding his Glastonbury murals,  I returned to the town again the following day to visit the Summer Fayre organised in the Bauhaus style Zig Zag building and the Life Building.  I had tried unsuccessfully to visit both buildings in the late afternoon the day before,  but was encouraged to return for the Fayre the following day.  I often feel myself being pulled here,  and always enjoy returning.  I do not fully understand this motivation,  but do enjoy the sense of chaos and abandonment found within both buildings and the potential they both have for [&hellip;]
- [Frank's Muralist Glastonbury](https://sannyassa.co.uk/franks-muralist-glastonbury/): The afternoon commenced with a talk about his work by Frank Harwood,  one of the artists noted for painting murals on the walls of Glastonbury.  The day then became a little messy with visits to some of the murals followed by visits to the alternative areas of the town,  including a psychadelic skate park,  in search of interest and colour.  I managed to get into one travellor&#8217;s site but the day ended with a veiled warning to leave another.  Here are the photos,  starting with an image of Frank in front of a projection of one of his murals and [&hellip;]
- [From Henry Moore to Stanton Drew](https://sannyassa.co.uk/from-henry-moore-to-stanton-drew/): The current Henry Moore : Sharing Form exhibition at the Hauser and Wirth Gallery at Bruton,  Somerset, is a meditation upon Moore&#8217;s early attraction for and inspiration by the monolithic structures at Stonehenge.  His daughter Mary is curating the exhibition and was very much present in the build up to the opening,  providing information about her father&#8217;s life and artistic values during a private party before the opening.   She recounted that Lee Miller, Peggy Guggenheim, Benjamin Britten, Graham Greene, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko and Lauren Bacall were among the guests she remembered coming round for tea during her teenage years.  [&hellip;]
- [Dancing Trees  :  King Alfred's Way and the Quantock Hills](https://sannyassa.co.uk/dancing-trees-king-alfreds-way-and-the-quantock-hills/): Another set of photographs portraying something of the landscape of Somerset. The Quantocks are a small,  narrow range of hills which follow the north Somerset coastline from Williton north to Bridgwater. On  the very ridge of them,  heading west from the Triscombe Stone,   a Saxon Army route, or ‘herepath’, known as King Alfred’s Way, allegedly marks his route to resist the Viking invasion in the 9th century.  Known also as The Drove Road,  the route was well-used by local farmers moving cattle and sheep to the market in Taunton.
- [Manikarnika Family](https://sannyassa.co.uk/manikarnika-family/): The third photographic documentationof the landscape of Manikarnika Cremation Ghat,  Varanasi,  is a collection of portraits of family members within its environs.  As a sacred site,  its general demeanour is spartan to say the least.  It is largely a series of terraced steps which lead down through the debris of previous cremation rituals to the river Ganges below,  a river considered to be a living Goddess though in reality is an inordinately polluted riverway.  There are a  number of separate areas and waiting spaces,  all constructed in concrete and blackened by the soot from the fires. Dotted amongst the families [&hellip;]
- [Muddy Waters  :  the River Brue Estuary](https://sannyassa.co.uk/muddy-waters-the-river-brue-estuary/): Building on the theme of portraying landscapes of the UK,  particularly Somerset landscapes of rivers and waterways,  these images here show the final passages of the River Brue as it winds its way through its muddy estuary and into the River Parrett and the Bristol Channel at Burnham on Sea. Originating in the parish of Brewham in Somerset,  it travels 31 miles,  providing an important drainage channel for water from the low lying,  prone to flooding Somerset Levels.
- [Manikarnika](https://sannyassa.co.uk/21586-2/): My previous blog post described the role of the Karta at Manikarnika Ghat at Varanasi;  the white cotton-clad males who lead the antyesti rituals on the ghats of Manikarnika, one of the most auspicious cremation sites in the Hindu world. Although moksha can be obtained in other circumstances, for example bathing in the waters of the Ganges in a great festival like the Kumbh Mela,  nowhere brings such liberation upon death than the Ghats here. They are the centre of the Hindu universe.
- [Karta : the White Men of Mannikarnika](https://sannyassa.co.uk/karta-the-white-men-of-mannikarnika/): The men with the white cotton clothes and the shaven heads are conspicuous amongst the sacred,  infernal landscape of Mannikarnika Ghat, the most auspicious cremation site in the entire country of India. Often separated from family and friends, they sit upon piles of wood or the concrete ghat steps and contemplate their role in the ceremonies which facilitate the passage of their relative from the temporal world into the afterlife, where moksha ( freedom from the circularity of rebirth ) is believed to be attained because of the sanctity of the Ganges at Varanasi.
- [Back to Medium Format and Forward to Where?](https://sannyassa.co.uk/back-to-medium-format/): Buying a new camera with a modern technological profile does not mean that you,  as a photographer,  have not been in a similar situation before.  A camera is just essentially a hollow receptacle ( a box that captures light ),  and the medium,  although changing from the emulsion of film to the plastic and silicon of a sensor and memory card,  may not really be quite so different either.  There is perhaps an ultimate equivalence in purchasing a medium format digital camera to replace a film medium format camera.  There may also be a surprisingly similar equivalence to swapping out [&hellip;]
- [Somerset Levels cont.](https://sannyassa.co.uk/photographs-from-weston-zoyland-airport-somerset-levels/): Landscapes are never static. They are in a state of constant flux and evolution.  In and around the 2nd world war Weston Zoyland airfield on the Somerset Levels the metal and rubber of airplanes have been replaced by the metal of containers, detritus and machinery.
- [Revisiting Kolkata's Flower Market](https://sannyassa.co.uk/revisiting-kolkatas-flower-market/): Flowers please the mind and grant prosperity. Hence, men with righteous deeds bestowed the name Sumana on them   The Mahabharata book 13, Anusasana Parva Chapter 101, verses 19-21 Situated under the famous Howrah Bridge in Kolkata,  the flower market is a riot of colour,  hard working characters and testament to the role of flowers within the Hindu world.  One of the largest markets in India, its products are at the heart of the majority of ritual and worship in the West Bengal area.
- [Return to Kolkata : A Tale of Devas and Suras](https://sannyassa.co.uk/xxxx/): Seven years ago I spent 2 months in Kolkata,  arriving for the first time at the wonderful Howrah station,  planning to take a taxi to my pre-booked hotel.  Stepping outside the bustle and noise of the station I immediately saw that taking a taxi would not be wise;  the traffic jam stretched out of the station and apparently right across the gleaming,  silver meccano bridge which is Howrah.  Pushing my wheely suitcase I threaded my way through the immobile taxi ranks,  avoiding the elongated puddles which harboured foul water as best as I could,  and joined the long line of [&hellip;]
- [The Gallery that is No More](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-gallery-that-is-no-more/): One of the charms of visiting different cultures is exploring the hidden nooks and crannies and discovering areas of well used and tarnished,  but living,  cultural landscapes.  One of those areas could once be found in the old harbour area of Tangiers,  a centuries old sanctuary of buccaneering.  The harbour once contained a boat repair yard which was a veritable graveyard for unrepairable boats and a busy,  noise filled area for boats actually being repaired.  All boats would be monolithic chunks of sculpted wood designed to survive the uncompromising seas,  tides and weathers around the confluence of the Atlantic Ocean [&hellip;]
- [The King Will Come](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-king-will-come/): The Moroccan king Mohammed 6 visited Essaouira just a few weeks ago.  This is a feature installed for that visit down near the docks.  The words below are from the song The King Will Come recorded by Wishbone Ash.
- [Mellah Labyrinth](https://sannyassa.co.uk/mellah-labyrinth/): Mellahs across Morocco have become synonomous with urban decay,  poverty and increased risk.  There is nothing different about the Mellah in Essaouira.  Although culturally rich it has become neglected and necrosed.  Here are some photographs at dusk portraying some of its inhabitants who walk through its narrow lanes every day.
- [We Shall Not Cease From Exploration...](https://sannyassa.co.uk/we-shall-not-cease-from-exploration/): UNFINISHED POST We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time. Little Gidding T.S. Elliott It may seem incongruous to entitle a page about Islamic and African culture with a quote originating from the heart of English literature. There are however substantial reasons for doing so which relate mainly to my own cultural orientation and state of mind.  I need to extricate myself a little from affiliation with Morocco. I have now spent a long time in Morocco,  travelling down [&hellip;]
- [Portrait of the Artist as a Young Souiri no 2](https://sannyassa.co.uk/portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-souiri-1/)
- [Portrait of the Artist as a Young Souiri no 1](https://sannyassa.co.uk/portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-souiri/): Filali Mostafa paints in a small studio in Jotiya, close to the surging waves of the Atlantic ocean.  Sourounded by the detritis of a flea market,  his paintings of ordered simplicity and detail could not be further away from the unmitigated chaos of the landscape outside of his door. It is easy to mistake simplicity for lack of content.  Filali&#8217;s work consistently portrays important themes within Moroccan culture;  berber design,  jewish symbolism, the marriage ceremony,  and superstitions which he believes he remains a victim of.
- [Larbi's Tannery,  Essaouira](https://sannyassa.co.uk/larbis-tannery-essaouira/): Tanneries are synonomous with Morocco.  In Fez especially the large tanneries throughout the city draw tourists by their thousands,  each tourist being offered a sprig of mint as they gaze down from a terrace to counter the smell of the ancient processes.  Many of these tanneries have been renovated and working conditions improved for workers there. A traditional tannery appears to exist in Essaouira,  on the road from Bab Doukalla towards Jotiya.  Stepping inside the door is like stepping back several millenia.
- [Haddarates Souiriyattes](https://sannyassa.co.uk/haddarates-souiriyattes/): It is with enormous pleasure that I am able to document a group of women playing music in Essaouira.  The Haddarates Souiriyattes practice regularly at La Recontre cafe which is next door to where I have resided.    The chanting and drumming of Sufi music has certainly been an integral part of my living here.  An association led by Latifa Boumazzourh  ( who features on the heading photograph on the blog page ), they are certainly a vibrant and important part of local culture.  
- [Zaida Gania and Zaouia des Gnawa](https://sannyassa.co.uk/zaida-gania-and-zaouia-des-gnawa/): I had tried on three previous occasions to visit Sidna Blal,  the zaouia des Gnawa,  but the formidable woman who seemed to live there steadfastly refused all my entreaties to enter.  Today I visited with this woman&#8217;s son,  Youssef,  a guimbri player training to achieve Maâlem status like his three uncles Mahmoud, Abdellah and Mokhtar Gania.  These are perhaps three of the most famous of all Maâlem from Essaouira.  Youssef&#8217;s mother Zaida was a sister to these Maâlem;  he said there were originally 7 brothers and 2 sisters in total however  all had died except Mohktar and his mother.  He [&hellip;]
- [Malleem  Najib Soudani :  Gnawa of Essaouira](https://sannyassa.co.uk/malleem-najib-soudani-gnawa-of-essaouira/): Najib Soudani is a maâlem (Master) practicing among the Gnaoua of Essaouira, Morocco
- [Gnaoua at Diabat](https://sannyassa.co.uk/gnaoua-at-diabat/): Essaouira is one of the primary locations in Morocco where Gnaoua music comes to a focus.  The Gnaoua World and Music Festival,  unique in Morocco and held annually in Essaouira,  is indicative of the cultural significance that Gnaoua music has in Essaouira. Gnaoua is the music of the former slaves appropriated from Niger and surrounding countries by Moulay Ismael.  Having no written history,  the songs and the music constitutes their living history.  Whenever their songs are played,  parts of their history and philosophies are retold. I attended a night of Gnaoua music in nearby Diabat several nights ago.  Below are [&hellip;]
- [I Will Leave Buildings But Not People : Revolution in Essaouira](https://sannyassa.co.uk/revolution-in-essaouira/): Downtown Mogadishu,  circa 1991,  amidst scenes depicting what appears to be the Somali Civil War,  has temporarily been relocated to Essaouira.  It is the location for a movie being made,  so I am advised,  by a South Korean film company. By the large murals on the sides of houses the movie appears to be about the rule of Somalian dictator Siad Barre who came to power in 1969 following a coup.  Subsequent to introducing radical change and instigating human rights abuses he was removed from power in the 1991 Civil War and died in exile in 1995. It is ironic [&hellip;]
- [Led Zeppelin and the Gnaoua](https://sannyassa.co.uk/led-zeppelin-and-the-gnaoua/): The Gnaoua have long sacrificed the absolute sacredality of its music and have evolved public performances which they called xxxxxx.  Traditionally a form of healing music where the Mallem ( master musician )  supported by several other musicians and a clairvoyant,  negotiated with jinn ( spirits ),  fusion with other forms of music brought abouxxxxxxx.   Early forms of this fusion was with American jazz players and some rock and blues musicians.  The latter included Robert Plant and Jimmy Page who developed a special interest in north African music,  attending concerts and festivals. Famously members of British rock band Led Zeppelin,  [&hellip;]
- [Sidi Ishaq and Meditations on Baraka](https://sannyassa.co.uk/sidi-ishaq-and-meditations-on-baraka/): The zaouia/koubba of Sidi Ishaq is located beautifully on the Atlantic coast.  It is a short caleche ride along sandy tracks from the small town of Sidi Ishaq some 3 miles inland.  The caleche park is situated in the centre of the town just off the R301 which dramatically follows the coast as far north as Safi. &nbsp; The final stage of the journey,  when the koubba can first be seen against the surf and the track drops down to the small sandy delta of the dried up river,  is spectacular. &nbsp; I can find no information about Sidi Ishaq,  [&hellip;]
- [Tamesloht : a Town of Camels,  Sacrifice and Marriage](https://sannyassa.co.uk/tamesloht-a-town-of-camels-sacrifice-and-marriage/): A gaggle of older men in djellabas were sitting outside of the main entrance into the zaouia of Moulay Abdel Hussein, the grandfather of Moulay Brahim who&#8217;s tomb and  zaouia resides a little further south in the foothills of the Atlas mountains.  Both grandfather and grandson and their zaouias, play significant roles in a ritual which forms part of the living history of the Sidna Bilal Gnaoua brotherhood;  a history which is primarily contained in the very music and rituals it performs. The legend and associated moussem ( festival ) is documented in a former blog post here .
- [Down by the Harbour](https://sannyassa.co.uk/down-by-the-harbour/): Disparate images from the vicinity of the harbour in Essaouira &nbsp;
- [Castles Made of Sand Revisited : Dar Soltane](https://sannyassa.co.uk/castles-made-of-sand-revisited-dar-sultan/): Dar Soltane ( the Sultan&#8217;s House built in the late 18th century ) is an impressive ruin in the sand dunes south of Essaouira.  It was once the home of the sultan of Morocco,  Sidi Mohamed III Ben Abdallah al Qatib. I initially considered including some of the photographs below in a recent blog post ( here ) regarding the legend of Jimi Hendrix.  Legend incorrectly suggests he was inspired by Dar Soltane to write his song Castles Made of Sand .   However because of the interesting history of the palace in its own right I decided to document [&hellip;]
- [Talmud Torah of Essaouira and a Contemporaneous Document of Exile](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-talmud-school-of-essaouira-and-a-contemporaneous-document-of-exile/): I had lunch today in the old Jewish Mellah in Essaouira,  in a restaurant converted on the second  ( top ) floor of a former Talmud Torah,  or Jewish primary school.  On the ground floor the building had been converted into a Day Hospital for people suffering with Alzheimers Disease,  the first floor was now a creche and the top floor,  with a large terrace area,  was the children&#8217;s playground and the small restaurant. The walls of the terrace had been painted with animals and symbols,  in common with many if not all schools I have seen in Morocco.  An [&hellip;]
- [Castles Made of Sand : Jimi Hendrix in Essaouira](https://sannyassa.co.uk/castles-made-of-sand/): The scant information above regarding Jimi Hendrix' trip to Essaouira in 1969 appears to be true;  subsequent events are a little open to interpretation.  The most incredible myths appear to centre on the small village of Diabat,  3 kilometres south of Essaouira next to the Oued ( river ) Ksob.  Here a ruined Sultan's palace continues to deteriorate in the sand dunes and directly opposite,  in the village,  a cafe ( perhaps once a hotel ) celebrates Hendrix with many paintings of him.  Legends improbably suggests he stayed in Diabat for as many as the entire 11 nights of his stay in Essaouira with a local woman called Aicha and wrote his famous song Castles Made of Sand about the Sultan's Palace.  These stories are untrue.
- [Sidi Bou Ali,   Lalla Taouirt,   Sidi Hamou Ben Hmida](https://sannyassa.co.uk/sidi-bou-ali-lalla-taouirt-sidi-hamou-ben-hmida/): Rather than portraying each zaouia as a separate blog entry I have decided to present them in groups.  Here are  zaouias I have visited over the last week or so.  They are located in the vicinity of Akermoud and Telmest,  almost the furthest that the bus travels north of Morocco.  I am quite restricted by the bus times and must take the lighting conditions as I find them. These are traditionally near the beginning of the Regraga pilgrimage;  Sidi Bou Ali is the second zaouia to be visited in the Daour. &nbsp;
- [Jacques Majorelle : Beautiful Girls, Venerable Old Men](https://sannyassa.co.uk/jacques-majorelle-beautiful-girls-venerable-old-men/): At dawn, the spirits are lit. Listen to the whispers of the waves Beautiful music, beautiful banner To Sidi Mogdoul I&#8217;m heading Great is the joy of Essaouira; Beautiful girls, venerable old men, All are hurrying in the middle of the paths &#8230;
- [Akermoud : The Beginning of the Daour](https://sannyassa.co.uk/akermoud-the-beginning-of-the-daour/): The first zaouia of the annual Regraga pilgrimage is at Akermoud,  a small town north of Essaouira.  The zaouia holds the mausoleum Sidi Abdellah ou Hmad.    The Regrega tribe leaders are the descendants of the saint apostles of Islam who, legend suggest, learnt the new religion of Islam on a visit to Mecca. Here they were told by the Prophet to spread Islam to the Maghreb. Every spring (March-April) the descendants carry out a pilgrimage which lasts 39 days and visits 44 sacred places in the region. Pilgrims visit a series of local shrines, from the mouth of the Tensift river south of Safi to the northern outskirts of the High Atlas, including the city of Essaouira .
- [Of Tea and Henna : A Nice Welcome](https://sannyassa.co.uk/of-tea-and-henna-a-nice-welcome/): For the first time whilst visiting shrines in the Chiadme region I had come across stalls selling items either as souvenirs or for consumption at the shrine as part of a ritual.  The shrine was in a small village called Sidi Abdeljalil some 3 kilometres from Talmest where the bus had dropped me.  I then travelled to Sidi Abdeljalil by calèche,  where the driver of the horse drawn cart allowed me to take the reins whilst he smoked a pipe of kiff. The road was bumpy and twisty and the horse had a mind of its own.  The minimal instructions [&hellip;]
- [Of Love Between Saints and a Jinniyya](https://sannyassa.co.uk/of-love-between-saints-and-a-jinniya/): You know that you have arrived at the correct destination when the hotel proprietor seriously enquires whether you would like to sacrifice a sheep the following day in  the grotto of Lalla Aisha.  I had arrived at possibly the  strangest place yet on my travels through Morocco. The small town of Beni Rashid on the Zerhoun mountain is better known as Sidi Ali,  named after the 17th century sufi saint Sidi Ali ben Hamdush.  His tomb lies in his zaouia in a small gulley at the edge of the town looking out over the fertile valley where Meknes can be [&hellip;]
- [Sufi Brotherhoods and Trance Ceremonies in the Maghreb](https://sannyassa.co.uk/sufi-brotherhoods-and-trance-ceremonies-in-the-maghreb/): &nbsp; Article taken from here  Entering the Sufi Spiritual World of North Africa Sufi Brotherhoods and Trance Ceremonies in the Maghreb &nbsp; This zawiya is in Souk Ahras in East of Algeria, sometimes people call the zawiya a marabout – they really mean the saint. It happens that meals are offered to the poor every Friday of the week, here we see in the middle of the picture people sitting and eating bread, on the left of the picture a man is standing, he is the caretaker.
- [Dâr Damânah in Tangier ;  the Home of Emily Keane](https://sannyassa.co.uk/dar-damanah-in-tangier/): Several weeks ago I wrote a blog post regarding Emily Keane,  the Sharifa of Ouezzane,  an English woman who,  in a remarkable story,  married one of the most powerful and spiritual men in Morocco.  The post can be read here. Her husband was the Sharif of Ouezzane,  Hadj Ahmed Ben Abdeslam, an exalted and powerful religious leader directly descended from the Prophet Mohammed.  His religious order formally resided in Ouezzane, a town in northern Morocco on the edge of the Rif mountains,  famous for olive and wool production.  The Sharif&#8217;s former 3 wives continued to live in Ouezzane,  and after [&hellip;]
- [Had Dra : Sidi Ali Ben Mâachou and the End of Regraga](https://sannyassa.co.uk/had-dha-dra-sidi-ali-ben-maachou-and-the-end-of-regraga/): Had Dra is famous for its Sunday souk,  one of the largest in Morocco.   It is also locally renowned for the zaouia of Sidi Ali Ben Mâachou,  a part of a fascinating mosque and madrassa complex where the 40 day Regraga pilgrimage comes to an end every spring time.
- [Sidi Ouasmine  :  The Sultan of Regraga](https://sannyassa.co.uk/sidi-ouasmine-the-sultan-of-regraga/): Sidi Ouasman's zaouia and mausolem is sited just outside of Akermoud,  on the holy mountain of Djebel el Hadid.  The Regragas, all Berber,  are the inhabitants of Chiadma,  a territory located in the south of Morocco, dwelling mainly at the Atlantic coast in the region between Safi and Essaouira.  The Daour (tour) of Regraga starts in the zaouia of Sidi Ali Ben Bouali and ends in Sidi Messaoud Boutritiche  ( in Had Draa )
- [I Am He Who I Love](https://sannyassa.co.uk/i-am-he-who-i-love/): I Am He Whom I Love  I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I:  We are two spirits dwelling in one body.  If thou seest me,  thou seest Him,  And if thou seest Him, thou seest us both.   Hussein Ibn Mansur Al Hallaj On the bus recently from Casablanca I was fortunate to sit next to a teacher of English from Safi,  a Portuguese coastal city in between Casablanca and Essaouira.  Of the diverse topics we discussed,  perhaps the most interesting was the subject of the current dichotomy in Moroccan society regarding the relevance [&hellip;]
- [Sidi Abdellah ben Ouasmine](https://sannyassa.co.uk/sidi-abdellah-ben-ouasmine/): Below is a series of photographs documenting the zaouia and mausoleum of sufi Sidi Abdellah ben Ouasmine located in el Hanchane,  a small town in Essaouira Province. Sidi Abdellah ben Ouasmin is the grandson of Sidi Ouasmin,  the Sultan of Regraga,  found near Akermoud on Djebel el Hadid.
- [Moulay Bouzerktoun](https://sannyassa.co.uk/moulay-bouzerktoun/): Some 20 kilometres north of Essaouira is the small village of Moulay Bouzerktoun,  named after the Marabout of the same name.  His mausoleum/zaouia is part of a mosque complex founded on the top of a cliff looking over the Atlantic ocean. Little seems to be known about his life.  His tomb is included in the annual Regraga,  a month long pilgrimage around the Sufi tombs of the local tribes.
- [Pilgrimage : Moulay Brahim and the Gnaoua](https://sannyassa.co.uk/pilgrimage-moulay-brahim-and-the-gnaoua/): Moulay Brahim,  a small town  40 miles south of Marrakech is named after the saint of the same name,  whose common local name is Tayr al Jabal,  meaning the Bird of the Mountain.   A famous pilgrimage, moussem,  and festival on the anniversary of the Mouloud,  the Prophet's birth,  is held in the mountain town,  where Gnaoua musicians lead pilgrims to symbolically and actually recreate ancient legends and creation beliefs,  including lila and the ritual sacrifice of a camel symbolically at Tamesloht and actually at Moulay Brahim.

## Pages

- [Lawrence Hill Roundabout Exhibition Images](https://sannyassa.co.uk/lawrence-hill-roundabout-exhibition-images/): These are images selcted for exhibition at Lawrence Hill Roundabout.&nbsp; They depict found objects and graffiti on the 4 Underpasses of&nbsp; the Roundabout,&nbsp; as well as on the lamps and other objects on the pathways between the Underpasses. Exhibition date to be arranged.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;
- [Byron Wallen,  Cygnet Theatre,  Exeter 4th September 2025](https://sannyassa.co.uk/byron-wallen-cygnet-theatre-exeter-4th-september-2025/): Many thanks for letting me take some images last Thursday at the Cygnet.&nbsp; Here are 2 galleries of monochrome images below,&nbsp; one gallery of Byron and one of the Trio.&nbsp; I&nbsp; hope you like them,&nbsp; the colour versions were quite flat..just click on an image and follow through the gallery.&nbsp; If you want any or all images,&nbsp; and there is no charge,&nbsp; we can arrange a file transfer on maybe We Transfer or similar. Maybe if you are happy I can occasionally take more images at future gigs,&nbsp; again with no charge.&nbsp; It helps my online studies with Falmouth University [&hellip;]
- [Pathways within Longrun Meadow](https://sannyassa.co.uk/pathways-within-longrun-meadow/)
- [Zig Zag and The Island March 2025](https://sannyassa.co.uk/zig-zag-and-the-island-march-2025/)
- [University Lecture Notes](https://sannyassa.co.uk/university-lecture-notes/): Week 10 Lectures Critical Writing. Catarina Fontoura Hello and welcome to this short lecture, which is an introduction to Critical Writing. This may be a term that you&#8217;ve heard before or something that is completely new to you. Either way, I want to take the time to start by saying that this is not something to be worried about or being slightly scared of. Hopefully this lecture will really simplify things and show you that anybody can do a bit of critical writing and start doing it. So what is critical writing? In short, critical writing is an evaluation of [&hellip;]
- [Chris Tipping Portraits](https://sannyassa.co.uk/chris-tipping-portraits/): &nbsp; &nbsp;
- [Constructed Images](https://sannyassa.co.uk/constructed-images/)
- [Photographer's Video Presentations](https://sannyassa.co.uk/photographers-video/): Michael Christopher Brown
- [Referencing](https://sannyassa.co.uk/referencing/): Introduction to Harvard Referencing https://studyhub.fxplus.ac.uk/node/1554?path=1613&amp;track=107 Intext Citations https://studyhub.fxplus.ac.uk/node/1554?path=1613&amp;track=107 Referencing Images https://studyhub.fxplus.ac.uk/node/1560?path=1613&amp;track=107 Falmouth Guide to Harvard Referencing ref guide continuous sep23 v24 Translator https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/harvard-style/ &nbsp; Plagiarism Proofreading Citing AI Writing Learn &nbsp; &nbsp; FAQ Contact Log in &nbsp; &nbsp; Home Knowledge Base Referencing A Quick Guide to Harvard Referencing | Citation Examples &nbsp; A Quick Guide to Harvard Referencing | Citation Examples Published on 14 February 2020 by Jack Caulfield. Revised on 15 September 2023. Referencing is an important part of academic writing. It tells your readers what sources you’ve used and how to find them. Harvard is the most common [&hellip;]
- [BA ( Hons ) Course Falmouth notes](https://sannyassa.co.uk/ba-hons-course-falmouth/): Password Protected To view this protected post, enter the password below: Password: Submit
- [Nitroville](https://sannyassa.co.uk/nitroville/): Hiya&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;Hope you like the images.&nbsp; Select the images you want by choosing the last 4 numbers of each file,&nbsp; and let me know by email. I&#8217;ll send the files back by email.&nbsp; I&#8217;ve made each file&#8217;s resolution 2500 pixels so they are big enough for most web usage,&nbsp; If you want bigger,&nbsp; ask me.&nbsp; If you would like some black and white I can do that too&#8230;..but only a maximum of 10 images because of the extra work.&nbsp;&nbsp; Hope you enjoy them.&nbsp; I&#8217;m doing this cos I like music 🙂
- [Photographers from Morocco](https://sannyassa.co.uk/photographers-from-morocco/): Leila Alaoui &nbsp; Hassan Hajjaj &nbsp; Laila Hida &nbsp; Achraf Baznani &nbsp; Daoud Aoulad-Syad &nbsp; Lamia Naji &nbsp; Hicham Benohoud &nbsp; Hicham Gardaf &nbsp; Allal Fadili
- [Portfolio to Support Application to Falmouth University BA(Hons) Photography (PT Accelerated, Online) Sept 2024](https://sannyassa.co.uk/portfolio-to-support-application-to-falmouth-university-ba-hons-online-photography-course-sept-2024/): &nbsp; &nbsp; All photographs have been taken in the last 12 months and are presented in approximate chronological order. &nbsp; &nbsp; India&nbsp; :&nbsp; Spirituality Along the River Ganges &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Sub-culture :&nbsp; Skateboard Parks,&nbsp; Wall Art and Rockaway Park centred on Bristol and environs &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; West Penwith :&nbsp; Still a Mining Community &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; [&hellip;]
- [Test](https://sannyassa.co.uk/test/): &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
- [](https://sannyassa.co.uk/25321-2/): &nbsp; &nbsp;
- [Home 3](https://sannyassa.co.uk/home-3/)
- [Home 2](https://sannyassa.co.uk/)
- [United Kingdom](https://sannyassa.co.uk/galleries-unitedkingdom/)
- [Morocco](https://sannyassa.co.uk/galleries-morocco/)
- [India](https://sannyassa.co.uk/galleries-india/)
- [Purchase](https://sannyassa.co.uk/purchases/): Please find below and in the drop down menu above links to images available for digital download,&nbsp; a developing service where Galleries are being replaced&nbsp; with galleries of images for purchase and download.&nbsp; Similarly printing is a service becoming available;&nbsp; please see here.&nbsp; The images are from travels throughout the countries of India, Morocco and the UNited KIngdom,&nbsp; and mostly portray the notion of &#8216;Sacred Landscapes&#8217; found within those countries.&nbsp; A &#8216;Sacred Landscape&#8217;&nbsp; can be considered a landscape which constitutes an amalgum of history,&nbsp; tradition,&nbsp; myth and sacredality.&nbsp; Each country has its own set of characteristics. An image can be [&hellip;]
- [United Kingdom](https://sannyassa.co.uk/united-kingdom/)
- [Morocco](https://sannyassa.co.uk/morocco/)
- [India](https://sannyassa.co.uk/india/)
- [Prints](https://sannyassa.co.uk/prints-2/): IN DEVELOPMENT A selection of images will be available to order as fine art prints in due course.&nbsp; More information will be available soon. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
- [United Kingdom](https://sannyassa.co.uk/gallery-of-photographs-from-the-united-kingdom/): This service is not available currently.&nbsp; The images provide a sense of how the service might look when implemented.&nbsp;&nbsp; Downloads will be available at low resolution ( 1000 dpi ),&nbsp; medium resolution ( 2500 dpi ) and full resolution. &nbsp; I am sorry for any inconvenience caused. Please click on an image and follow the straightforward procedure until it prompts you to make a payment by PayPal.&nbsp; Please note there may be a slight delay due to Paypal&#8217;s servers being busy. &nbsp;
- [Morocco](https://sannyassa.co.uk/gallery-of-photographs-from-morocco/): This service is not available currently.&nbsp; The images provide a sense of how the service might look when implemented.&nbsp;&nbsp; Downloads will be available at low resolution ( 1000 dpi ),&nbsp; medium resolution ( 2500 dpi ) and full resolution. &nbsp; I am sorry for any inconvenience caused. Please click on an image and follow the straightforward procedure until it prompts you to make a payment by PayPal.&nbsp; Please note there may be a slight delay due to Paypal&#8217;s servers being busy. &nbsp;
- [India](https://sannyassa.co.uk/gallery-of-photographs-from-india/): Please click on an image and follow the straightforward procedure until it prompts you to make a payment by PayPal.&nbsp; Please note there may be a slight delay due to Paypal&#8217;s servers being busy.&nbsp; Downloads are available at low resolution ( 1000 dpi ),&nbsp; medium resolution ( 2500 dpi ) and full resolution.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
- [Downloads](https://sannyassa.co.uk/galleries-prints-and-downloads/): My photographic interest over the last decade has primarily revolved around the landscapes of India,&nbsp; Morocco and the United Kingdom.&nbsp; Please find below links to galleries of images from each country.&nbsp; Each image is available for download in 3 different resolutions for a fee payable by Paypal.&nbsp; Descriptions regarding each image is contained within the image by clicking on the image. &nbsp; India Gallery &nbsp; Morocco Gallery &nbsp; UK Gallery &nbsp; My interest in India has centred around the course of the river Ganges from its sources in the Himalaya mountains to its entering the Indian Ocean at Ganga Sagar.&nbsp; [&hellip;]
- [](https://sannyassa.co.uk/24230-2/)
- [Sales](https://sannyassa.co.uk/sales-2/)
- [Proofed Images](https://sannyassa.co.uk/proofed-images/)
- [Angie Zanini](https://sannyassa.co.uk/angie-zanini/)
- [Art of Photography   :    Video Discussions of Legendary Photographers](https://sannyassa.co.uk/art-of-photography-video-discussions-of-great-photographers/): A selection of videos is included below by Ted Forbes which provides introductions to the lives and art of legendary photographers.&nbsp;&nbsp; Mr Forbes&#8217; YouTube site is here. I do this because I enjoy Mr Forbes&#8217; presentational style and is purely for educational purposes. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
- [Украина сообщает](https://sannyassa.co.uk/%d1%83%d0%ba%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%b8%d0%bd%d0%b0-%d1%81%d0%be%d0%be%d0%b1%d1%89%d0%b0%d0%b5%d1%82/)
- [Ukraine War Updates](https://sannyassa.co.uk/ukraine-war-updates/): Статья/Аналитический указатель Российские власти наконец признали задержание крымской правозащитницы после того, как продержали ее 9 дней На видео видно, как российские солдаты убивают 2 мирных жителя, прежде чем разграбить бизнес Украина дает Европе еще один тревожный сигнал по поводу российского газа Российские корабли, перевозившие украденное украинское зерно, отвернулись от средиземноморских портов &#8211; но не все из них Лидеры Финляндии заявляют о поддержке членства в НАТО, приближая страну к вступлению в альянс Украина приостанавливает некоторые поставки российского газа в Европу Финляндия находится на грани того, чтобы попросить о вступлении в НАТО. Вот почему это плохая новость для Путина Джилл Байден: Чему [&hellip;]
- [Sufi Exhibition in Morocco](https://sannyassa.co.uk/sufi-exhibition-in-morocco/): Premise &nbsp;
- [Image](https://sannyassa.co.uk/image/)
- [Academic Links re Jinn Possession,  Mental Health Issues and features of Islam Relevant to Sufism.](https://sannyassa.co.uk/academic-links/): https://www.academia.edu/6062617/_Satan_Has_Afflicted_Me_Jinn_Possession_and_Mental_Illness_in_the_Quran?email_work_card=abstract-read-more &#8216;Mental health stigma in Muslim communities may be partly due to a commonly held belief among some Muslims about the supernatural causes of mental illness (i.e. jinn-possession brought on by one&#8217;s sinful life). A thematic analysis was carried out on four English translations and the Arabic text of the Qur&#8217;an to explore whether the connection between jinn-possession and insanity exists within the Muslim holy book. No connection between spirit-possession and madness or mental illness was found. Pagans taunted and labelled people as jinn-possessed only to ostracize and scapegoat. Linking the labelling of people as jinn-possession to a pagan practice [&hellip;]
- [Regraga Research](https://sannyassa.co.uk/regraga-research/): https://maroc-diplomatique.net/essaouira-chorfas-adeptes-de-confrerie-regraga-entament-periple-printanier/ Essaouira: The Chorfas and followers of the Regraga brotherhood begin their spring journey The Chorfas and followers of the Regraga brotherhood have just recently perpetuated an unchanging tradition, launching themselves from the Zaouia of Ben Hmida (53 km from Essaouira) in their annual spring trip (Daour). ADVERTISING During the official launching ceremony of this Moussem, the governor of the province of Essaouira, Jamal Makhtatar and the members of the delegation accompanying him, went to the Zaouia of Ben Hmida, then to the Zaouia of Sidi Ali Ben Bouali, opportunity to visit the mausoleum of this Saint and to attend [&hellip;]
- [Springtime of the Regragas   /    Le Printemps Des Regraga](https://sannyassa.co.uk/springtime-of-the-regragas-le-printemps-des-regraga/): THE REGRAGA SPRING by Abdelkader Mana &nbsp; The Water Bride and the Cave People In the solitude of the dream A way aspires to be born, In the kingdom of words. She will have for frame The interior horizons And the fiancée of water A.M. &nbsp; THE FIANCEE OF WATER AND THE PEOPLE OF THE CAVE The essential witnesses of this inquiry were the Regraga themselves, who initiated me at the head of the fields and of whom I was the marveled scribe. This book is dedicated to their exemplary hospitality. It is also dedicated to my family who has [&hellip;]
- [Evil Eye, Jinn Possession, and Mental Health Issues](https://sannyassa.co.uk/evil-eye-jinn-possession-and-mental-health-issues/): Evil Eye, Jinn Possession, and  Mental Health Issues Evil Eye, Jinn Possession, and Mental Health Issues raises awareness of the cultural considerations, religion and spirituality involved in the assessment of Muslim patients with mental health problems. The belief that Jinn spirits can cause mental illness in humans through affliction or possession is widely accepted among Muslims, meaning this belief is a crucial, but frequently overlooked, aspect of mental health problems with Muslim patients in psychiatric care. This book explores the nature of such beliefs, their relationship to mental health and the reasons for their importance in clinical practice. The book [&hellip;]
- [Jinn in Islamic Texts and Culture](https://sannyassa.co.uk/jinn-in-islamic-texts-and-culture/): Jinn (Arabic: al-jinn), also Romanized as djinn or Anglicized as genies (with the more broad meaning of demons), are supernatural creatures in early Arabian and later Islamic mythology and theology. An individual member of the jinn is known as a jinni, djinni, or genie (al-jinnī). They are mentioned frequently in the Quran (the 72nd chapter is titled Sūrat al-Jinn) and other Islamic texts.[2]    Jinn is an Arabic collective noun whose primary meaning is "to hide". Some authors interpret the word to mean, literally, "beings that are concealed from the senses". Cognates include the Arabic majnūn ("possessed", or generally "insane"), jannah ("garden"), and janīn ("embryo"). Jinn is properly treated as a plural, with the singular being jinni.[3] The Anglicized form genie is a borrowing of the French génie, from the Latin genius, a guardian spirit of people and places in Roman religion.
- [The Daour of Regraga in Morocco : A Rite of Regeneration](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-daour-of-regraga-in-morocco-a-rite-of-regeneration/): The Regraga are a maraboutic confederation in the country Chiadma located along the Moroccan Atlantic coast between the cities of Safi and Essaouira. They are known for their thirty-nine-day annual pilgrimage that begins each year at the spring equinox and during which they visit some forty sanctuaries of their ancestors. This spring tour is called daour , which means &#8220;tower&#8221; (see the map at the end of the article), and it is said that the zaouïas of Regraga &#8220;turn on the saints&#8221;. To identify the origins of this rite, we must plunge where legends and history are one, where orality [&hellip;]
- [The Festive Sacred and the Fetish of Trance](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-festive-sacred-and-the-fetish-of-trance/): In this article, I focus on one example of such fetishization — The Essaouira Gnawa Festival of World Music in Morocco.The festival, which takes place in a Muslim country, is not religious per se, but nonetheless performs what until now has been a private and local ritual for both national and international audiences.  Lila.
- [Blog](https://sannyassa.co.uk/blog/)
- [My Life Story  by Emily Keene Shareefa of Wazan](https://sannyassa.co.uk/my-life-story-by-emily-shareefa-of-wazan/): MY LIFE STORY 3 MY LIFE STORY BY EMILY, SHAREEFA OF WAZAN EDITED FOR MME. DE WAZAN BY S. L. BENSUSAN AUTHOR OF &#8220;MOROCCO,&#8221; ETC. WITH A PREFACE BY R. B. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM ILLUSTRATED THIRD IMPRESSION LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD 1912 (All rights reserved) . .v DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO H.R.H. PRINCESS HENRY OF BATTENBERG 280087 PREFACE No one can know the Shareefa of Wazan and fail to be impressed by her. Those who have known her long, and are acquainted with the way in which she acted, in a position somewhat difficult, during the first years of her married life, [&hellip;]
- [](https://sannyassa.co.uk/18540-2/): A Historiography on the Moroccan Gnawa
- [Joujouka Resource Page](https://sannyassa.co.uk/joujouka-resource-page/): 1971 The album ‘Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka’ was posthumously released on Rolling Stones Records,  the first release on the band’s new recording label,  in 1971.  The album cover was a painting of Jones surrounded by the Joujouka musicians by Hamri 1971  After visiting the village in September 1969, Timothy Leary wrote an essay about his time with Mohamed Hamri and the Master Musicians in his 1971 book, Jail Notes, entitled “The Rock’n’roll Band of Four Thousand Years”. Leary based his central argument on Burroughs’ belief that the Boujloud ritual, played in Jajouka, owes its origin [&hellip;]
- [Animal Sacrifice in Morocco](https://sannyassa.co.uk/animal-sacrifice-in-morocco/): Mohammed V University – Agdal Faculty of Letters and Humanities – Rabat Department of English English Studies Animal Sacrifice in Morocco Between Islam and Pagan Rituals Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Licence in English Studies. Module: Research Project Seminar: Sacrifice, Punishment, and the Scapegoat, across Cultures Supervisor: Professor Mohammed Ezroura Submitted by: Oussama Benayad Spring 2018 i Table of Contents Abstract &#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230; ii Acknowledgement &#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230; iii Dedication &#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;. iv Introduction &#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;. 1 Chapter I: Animal Sacrifice in History across Cultures &#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230; 6 A. The Meaning of Animal Sacrifice &#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230; 6 B. The Function [&hellip;]
- [Tuhami /Ethno-psychiatry Research](https://sannyassa.co.uk/tuhami-ethno-psychiatry-research/): Psychological anthropology https://www.britannica.com/science/anthropology/Linguistic-anthropology Psychological anthropology focuses on the mind, body, and subjectivity of the individual in whose life and experience culture and society are actualized. Within this broad scope there is no unified theoretical or methodological consensus, but rather there are lively debates about the relative importance of culture versus individual psychology in shaping human action and about the universality versus the inherent variability of human existence. The field unites a number of disparate research traditions with different intellectual programs, but it also provides an arena for principled argumentation about the existence of a common human nature. Because of its [&hellip;]
- [Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen) (Historical Dictionaries of People and Cultures)](https://sannyassa.co.uk/historical-dictionary-of-the-berbers-imazighen-historical-dictionaries-of-people-and-cultures/): Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen) (Historical Dictionaries of People and Cultures) Home Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen) (Historical Dictionaries of People and Cultures) 06-279 01 Front.qxd 6/22/06 8:53 AM Page ii 06-279 01 Front.qxd 6/22/06 8:53 AM Page i Historical Dictionaries&#8230; Author:  Hsain Ilahiane This content was uploaded by our users and we assume good faith they have the permission to share this book. If you own the copyright to this book and it is wrongfully on our website, we offer a simple DMCA procedure to remove your content from our site. Start by pressing the button below! [&hellip;]
- [The Ḥamadsha A Study in Moroccan Ethnopsychiatry](https://sannyassa.co.uk/the-%e1%b8%a5amadsha-a-study-in-moroccan-ethnopsychiatry/): &nbsp; &nbsp; Full text of &#8220;The Ḥamadsha A Study in Moroccan Ethnopsychiatry&#8220; See other formats &nbsp; THE HAMADSHA A Study in Moroccan Ethnopsychiatry \^ncent Crapanzano Copyrighted material THE HAMADSHA A Study in Moroccan Ethnopsychiatry By Vincent Crapanzano The Hamadsha, members of a Moroccan religious brotherhood that traces its spirit- ual ancestry back to two Muslim saints of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, have achieved a certain notoriety for their head-slashing and other acts of self-mutilation while in entranced states. Appealing largely to the illiterate Arab masses, the Hamadsha brotherhood has been regarded by scholars as a degenerate offshoot [&hellip;]
- [Portfolio](https://sannyassa.co.uk/portfolio-2/)
- [Summary](https://sannyassa.co.uk/summary/)
- [Spanish Civil War](https://sannyassa.co.uk/spanish-civil-war-2/)
- [Daoud Aoulad-Syad](https://sannyassa.co.uk/daoud-aoulad-syad/): &#8221; order_by=&#8221;sortorder&#8221; order_direction=&#8221;ASC&#8221; returns=&#8221;included&#8221; maximum_entity_count=&#8221;500&#8243;] &nbsp;
- [Carole Benitah](https://sannyassa.co.uk/carole-benitah/): &#8221; order_by=&#8221;sortorder&#8221; order_direction=&#8221;ASC&#8221; returns=&#8221;included&#8221; maximum_entity_count=&#8221;500&#8243;]
- [Hicham Benohoud](https://sannyassa.co.uk/hicham-benohoud/): &#8221; order_by=&#8221;sortorder&#8221; order_direction=&#8221;ASC&#8221; returns=&#8221;included&#8221; maximum_entity_count=&#8221;500&#8243;]
- [Yto Barrada](https://sannyassa.co.uk/yto-barrada/)
- [Srinivas Kuruganti](https://sannyassa.co.uk/srinivas-kuruganti/): &nbsp; My work has focused on the lives and relationships of people in communities that face both economic and social hardships in India. My photography documents the daily lives of manual laborers, from the ship-breaking yards of Bombay to the coal mining villages of Dhanbad. The Dhanbad series in particular highlights labor and living conditions when extreme industrial pollution from mining transforms the workers&#8217; ancestral lands from fertile fields to a barren landscape. Since 2001, my work has expanded upon this theme by exploring the impact of disease- in this case the AIDS epidemic-on the living and working conditions of [&hellip;]
- [Don McCullin](https://sannyassa.co.uk/don-mccullin/): &#8221; order_by=&#8221;sortorder&#8221; order_direction=&#8221;ASC&#8221; returns=&#8221;included&#8221; maximum_entity_count=&#8221;500&#8243;] From Wikipedia Sir Donald McCullin, CBE, Hon FRPS (born 9 October 1935), is a British photojournalist, particularly recognized for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career, which began in 1959, has specialised in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and the impoverished. Biography Early life McCullin grew up in Finsbury Park, North London, but he was evacuated to a farm in Somerset during the Blitz.[1] He is slightly dyslexic[2][3] but displayed a talent for drawing at the Secondary Modern School he attended. He won a [&hellip;]
- [Zana Briski](https://sannyassa.co.uk/zana-briski/): &#8221; order_by=&#8221;sortorder&#8221; order_direction=&#8221;ASC&#8221; returns=&#8221;included&#8221; maximum_entity_count=&#8221;500&#8243;] &nbsp; Zana Briski was born in London, England and lives in New York City. After earning a master’s degree in theology and religious studies at the University of Cambridge, she studied documentary photography at International Center of Photography in New York from 1990-91. In 1992, she won First Prize, an Eastman Kodak Grant, at the Eddie Adams Workshop. In 1995, she made her first trip to India, producing a story on female infanticide. Her work earned a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in 1997 and a National Press Photographers Association Picture of the [&hellip;]
- [William Gedney](https://sannyassa.co.uk/william-gedney/): &#8221; order_by=&#8221;sortorder&#8221; order_direction=&#8221;ASC&#8221; returns=&#8221;included&#8221; maximum_entity_count=&#8221;500&#8243;] From Wikipedia William Gale Gedney (October 29, 1932 – June 23, 1989) was an American documentary and street photographer. It wasn&#8217;t until after his death that his work gained momentum and his work is now widely recognized. He is most remembered for his series of rural Kentucky, and series on India, San Francisco and New York shot in 1960s and 1970s. Early life and background He was born in Greenville, New York. He studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.[1] In 1955 he graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design and began work with [&hellip;]
- [Sanjit Das](https://sannyassa.co.uk/sanjit-das/): &#8221; order_by=&#8221;sortorder&#8221; order_direction=&#8221;ASC&#8221; returns=&#8221;included&#8221; maximum_entity_count=&#8221;500&#8243;] &nbsp; Biography from Sanjit Das website&nbsp; : Sanjit is a documentary photographer. Sanjit’s keen interest in social issues is evident in his role as a chronicler, it lends a glance at the individuals living through the transformation of the economic and political landscape of developing countries. Sanjit’s regularly works for leading international magazines, publications and corporate clients and depending on assignments, he&nbsp;incorporates his&nbsp;documentary style for&nbsp;fashion, travel and advertising clients as well. His work is published by Atlantic, Mother Jones, TIME, Newsweek, Bloomberg Businessweek, Le Monde, Financial Times, Sunday Times,&nbsp;The New York Times, &nbsp;The Wall St. [&hellip;]
- [Raghu Rai](https://sannyassa.co.uk/raghu-rai/): &#8221; order_by=&#8221;sortorder&#8221; order_direction=&#8221;ASC&#8221; returns=&#8221;included&#8221; maximum_entity_count=&#8221;500&#8243;] &nbsp; From Wikipedia Raghu Rai (born 1942) is an Indian photographer and photojournalist.[1][2] He was a protégé of Henri Cartier-Bresson, who appointed Rai, then a young photojournalist, to Magnum Photos in 1977. Cartier-Bresson co-founded Magnum Photos.[3] Rai became a photographer in 1965, and a year later joined the staff of The Statesman, a New Delhi publication. In 1976, he left the paper and became a freelance photographer.[citation needed] From 1982 until 1992, Rai was the director of photography for India Today.[4] He has served on the jury for World Press Photo from 1990 to 1997.[5] [&hellip;]
- [Raghubir Singh](https://sannyassa.co.uk/raghubir-singh/): “The fundamental condition of the West is one of guilt, linked to death—from which black is inseparable. The fundamental condition of India, however, is the cycle of rebirth, in which color is not just an essential element but also a deep inner source, reaching into the subcontinent’s long and rich past.”&nbsp; Raghubir Singh From Wikipedia Raghubir Singh (1942–1999) was an Indian photographer, most known for his landscapes and documentary-style photographs of the people of India.[1] He was a self-taught photographer who worked in India and lived in Paris, London and New York. During his career he worked with National Geographic [&hellip;]
- [Margaret Bourke-White](https://sannyassa.co.uk/margaret-bourke-white/): Margaret Bourke-White, an iconic American photographer working for LIFE magazine took a series of photographs of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and of the trauma at the of the Partition of India. These images came to international prominence, especially her portrait of Ghandi at his spinning wheel which came to symbolise the independence of India from UK rule and economic dependency. She also became a friend of Ghandi and was reputedly the last journalist to interview him hours before his execution in January 1948. MB-W Timeline 1924 Attends Purdue University&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 1927 Graduates from Cornell University&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 1927-1929 Photographs industrial sites in Cleveland, including [&hellip;]
- [Michael Ackerman](https://sannyassa.co.uk/michael-ackerman/): I had a completely raw, heart-felt, visceral engagement with the city. Almost every night that I spent in Benares I would go to sleep very, very desperate to wake up and have another chance to absorb what was there and connect with it. The city of Benares is an intense combination of fairy tale and nightmare. It is a very holy place to people and every day they come there by the hundreds, or thousands. It’s a never ending pilgrimage. At the same time it’s such a dark place where death is ever present. There’s just this poetic chaos to [&hellip;]
- [Pearl](https://sannyassa.co.uk/pearl/): &#8221; template=&#8221;/home/geoffrey/public_html/Sannyassa.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/products/photocrati_nextgen/modules/ngglegacy/view/gallery-caption.php&#8221; order_by=&#8221;sortorder&#8221; order_direction=&#8221;ASC&#8221; returns=&#8221;included&#8221; maximum_entity_count=&#8221;500&#8243;] &#8221; order_by=&#8221;sortorder&#8221; order_direction=&#8221;ASC&#8221; returns=&#8221;included&#8221; maximum_entity_count=&#8221;500&#8243;] &nbsp; &#8221; order_by=&#8221;sortorder&#8221; order_direction=&#8221;ASC&#8221; returns=&#8221;included&#8221; maximum_entity_count=&#8221;500&#8243;] &nbsp;
- [Barry Thornton's Writings](https://sannyassa.co.uk/barry-thorntons-writings/): FINE NEGATIVES, AUTOMATICALLY The clue to a fine monochrome negative is to give so much exposure as to give rich detail in the shadows, and so little development as to avoid highlights becoming too dense to print with subtle graduation. The vast majority of the negatives arriving in the Fine Print Photographers Workshop have been underexposed and overdeveloped making a fine print an impossibility This applies to amateur and professional, novice or expert, using ultra modern sophisticated cameras or old fashioned basic cameras. Actually, it is less common with people using simple older cameras. Two bath development is far from [&hellip;]
- [List of Gnawa maâlems](https://sannyassa.co.uk/list-gnawa-maalems/): List of Gnawa maâlems &nbsp; &nbsp; Mahmoud Guinia (&#8220;the King&#8221;) or Gania (as spelled in passport) Moroccan musician birth-1951- dead-August 2, 2015, &#8211; He played with the likes of Pharaoh Sanders and Carlos Santana, to name but two. guitarist Jimi Hendrix spent a few months in his house in ESSAOUIRA-MOROCCO, to take some lessons. He is the son of the late Maâllem Boubker Gania, and his two brothers Abdelah and Mokhtar are also distinguished maâllemin (masters). The Gania family also includes Zaida Gania, a very popular medium and clairvoyant at the nights of trance (leelas) as well as the head [&hellip;]
- [Kati Horna](https://sannyassa.co.uk/kati-horna-2/): Kati Horna’s adventurous life took her from her native Hungary to Berlin, Paris, and ultimately Mexico. She was born Katalin Deutsch in 1912 to a Jewish family in Budapest; there she met Robert Capa (then known as Endré Friedmann) when she was a teenager. The two quickly became inseparable, signed up in the same left-wing movement, and took up photography, often making each other’s portraits.  Both went to document the Spanish Civil War.
- [Gerda Taro](https://sannyassa.co.uk/gerda-taro-2/): Gerda Taro (born Gerta Pohorylle) was a photographer of war, as well as a work partner and companion of Robert Capa (born Friedmann Endre). She lived from 1910 until 1937 and was born in Stuttgart, Germany to a Galician Jewish family belonging to the middle class stratum. Taro is considered as the first woman photojournalist to document war frontlines and dying whilst doing this
- [Of Gods and Men](https://sannyassa.co.uk/of-gods-and-men/): The notion that a whole city can exist on a spiritual fault line where the boundaries between the secular and spiritual worlds are almost indivisible can surely only occur in India. Varanasi, the city of Shiva and considered by Mark Twain to be older than time itself, claims to be such a city. Pilgrimage is not only common in India, the Hindu faith itself requires its followers to make long journeys to temples, mountains, river confluences and religious gatherings. These journeys not only serve as acts of worship but also assist people on their spiritual pathways to Nirvana. Many of [&hellip;]
- [Border Art in Tangier](https://sannyassa.co.uk/border-art-tangier/): Making radical political and urban art in Tangiers is easy,&nbsp; as long as you don’t criticise, offend or upset either the reigning King or representatives from the Muslim faith.&nbsp; A collective of young political artists are finding their way slowly through this unusual paradigm and making art which is acerbic and has not yet led to terminal conflict with authorities. The Independent Border&nbsp; Art Factory has been open for 9 months in a large space overlooking the port.&nbsp; Situated some 50 meters from the hotel el Muniria,&nbsp; where William S Burroughs wrote The Naked Lunch in 1959,&nbsp; the atmosphere and [&hellip;]
- [Returning to Where We Have Never Been](https://sannyassa.co.uk/returning-to-where-we-have-never-been/): The invitation of Alfredo Gonzalez-Ruibal to venture down an archaeologist’s rabbit hole into a dimension of reverse-engineered history is surely appropriate for the journey he and his colleagues have made both this year and last.&nbsp;&nbsp; Belchite, a town in the northern Spanish province of Zaragoza,&nbsp; is one of the locations in Spain where the ghost of General Francisco Franco can still be felt on the wind,&nbsp; in the air and within the decaying ruins of a town he ordered to remain as a ‘living’ memorial after its total destruction in the Spanish Civil War.&nbsp; Alfredo has returned for 2 consecutive [&hellip;]
- [Chefchaouen Blue City of the Djeballa](https://sannyassa.co.uk/chefchaouen-blue-city-djeballa/): The city of Chefchaouen,&nbsp; the jewel of the fierce Djeballa tribe in the Rif Mountains of Morocco, sits cradled between the twin peaks of Jbel ech Chefchaouen,&nbsp; ‘the horned mountain’,&nbsp; 40 miles south of Tangier.&nbsp; Founded in 1471 in honour of Moulay Abd es Salam Ben Mchich, the patron saint of the area, it was first a citadel before becoming a destination for Muslim and Jewish refugees expelled from Spain under the Christian reconquestre.&nbsp;&nbsp; Crossing the Straits of Gibraltar was,&nbsp; as it remains today,&nbsp; a rite of passage for migrants driven by religious, economic and political necessity. Chefchaouen grew and [&hellip;]
- [Brutalism in Tangier](https://sannyassa.co.uk/brutalism-in-tangier/): Commanding magnificent views over the city of Tangier and the Atlantic ocean to the coast of Spain in the distance, the villa is a surrealist design constructed from re-inforced concrete.&nbsp; It is many miles away in character from the monumental concrete buildings of Auguste Perrot,&nbsp; Erno Goldfinger, and Swiss architect Le Corbusier which helped define the brutalist architectural style popular from the 1950s into the mid 1970s. Berber architect Mokhtar El Boufounas’ building in Tangier,&nbsp; although built entirely from raw concrete and large and dominating,&nbsp; is still far from completion.&nbsp; It can conservatively be described as having a greater affinity [&hellip;]
- [Tangier Boat Yard](https://sannyassa.co.uk/tangier-boat-yard/): ‘It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color – not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression’ Henri Matisse’ words hint at the spectacle of colour.&nbsp; In the boat repair yard at Tangier harbour, colour can be found everywhere;&nbsp; in the general chaos and disorder,&nbsp; in the grease and dirt of a working environment,&nbsp; in the coiled collections of nets and ropes,&nbsp; in the scarred and beaten hulls of boats,&nbsp; from the rusting abandoned machinery dotting the periphery and on the concrete walls where experiments with paint palettes are [&hellip;]
- [The Road to Ganga Sagar](https://sannyassa.co.uk/road-ganga-sagar/)
- [The Sacred and the Profane : Gnaoua and World Music Festival, Essaouira, 2016](https://sannyassa.co.uk/sacred-profane-gnaoua-world-music-festival-essaouira-2016/): The Gnaoua and World Music Festival at Essaouira, Morocco, is a unique opportunity to see and enjoy animist African culture embedded within an Islamic country. Gnaoua music is widely considered to have been introduced to Morocco from sub-saharan Africa when Sultan Moulay Ismail  introduced thousands of slaves to form his Black Guard armies.Gnawa music’s hypnotic, repetitive and drone-like tones induce trance states in ritualised ceremonies which can traditionally last through the night. Once in a trance people, through the ministrations of clairvoyants and the music played, can become possessed by and communicate with spirits which the Gnaoua believe exist around them at all times. Its sacred instruments are the gimbri, a three stringed lute constructed from a carved log whose strings are made from goat gut and percussive front from camel skin, together with oversized metal castanets called qraqabs and large drums.
- [Seven Saints of Marrakesh](https://sannyassa.co.uk/seven-saints-marrakesh/): ‘Saints’ in Morocco have a very different interpretation than those in Europe.&nbsp; In Morocco saints can be ordinary people who had a lifetime of ‘doing good’.&nbsp; Saints can be either rich or poor,&nbsp; educated or uneducated, employed or unemployed,&nbsp; living within a home or homeless.&nbsp; They are considered to have ‘ lights of guidance because of the blessings that Allah showered upon them’. The whole notion of wandering saints in Morocco fascinated me when I first visited Morocco.&nbsp; A vision of marabouts walking the countryside,&nbsp; giving solace to the poor and medicinal aid to the unwell,&nbsp; and then eventually dying [&hellip;]
- [Moons Reflecting Light](https://sannyassa.co.uk/moons-reflecting-light/): The photographs here and on the associated Gallery were taken over the Summer Solstice recently in West Penwith, Cornwall. The title of this blog post is taken from the Martha Tilston song Who Turns, found on her Lucy and the Wolves cd. The song is a meditation on the meaning of life and everything, using the metaphor of moonlight to suggest that we are more than just hapless creatures on the treadmill of life. &nbsp; Martha suggests that we all have a freedom and glory to our existence we may not currently realise. The song’s refrain summarises this struggle : [&hellip;]
- [Love is Always in the Mood of Believing Miracles](https://sannyassa.co.uk/love-always-mood-believing-miracles/): “It is strange how few people make more than a casual cult of enjoying Nature. And yet the earth is actually and literally the mother of us all. One needs no strange spiritual faith to worship the earth.” John Cowper Powys, &nbsp; A Glastonbury Romance,&nbsp; published 1933 It is perhaps a truism that disparate faiths sit uneasily together in West Penwith, Cornwall.&nbsp; Evidence of its strong Christian tradition, both Celtic and later,&nbsp; can be seen everywhere in its wild landscapes and its settlements.&nbsp; The latter contains its Methodist heritage, reflecting the impassioned ministry of John and Charles Wesley who undertook [&hellip;]
- [Qurbani](https://sannyassa.co.uk/qurbani/): It was almost 2 years ago that I was in Morocco on the occasion of the Muslim celebration of Eid al Adha,  more commonly known as the Feast of Sacrifice, a celebration of significant importance in the Arab world which marks the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. I had crossed into Africa by ferry from the Spanish port of Tarifa and completely by accident found myself at the beginning of the preparations for the festival in Tangier.   Sheep and goats were herded through the city streets,  loaded into cars and busses and chased through the colourful narrow streets of [&hellip;]
- [Articles](https://sannyassa.co.uk/articles/): 04.09.2017             Interzone &#8211; Tangier&#8217;s Hedonistic Years 12.08.2017             Qurbani 11.08.2017             Love is Always in the Mood of Believing Miracles 24.06.2017             Moons Reflecting Light 03.08.2016             Seven Saints of Marrakesh 25.06.2016             The Sacred and Profane : Gnaouia and World Music Festival, Essaouira 2016 17.02.2016             The Road to Ganga Sagar 16.02.2016             Tangier Boat Repair Yard 08.02.2016             Brutalism in Tangier 23.10.2015             Chefchaouen Blue City of the Djeballa 27.09.2015             Returning to Where We Have Never Been 27.09.2015             Border Art in Tangier 02.09.2015             Of Gods and Men
- [Spirituality in North Africa](https://sannyassa.co.uk/spirituality-north-africa/)
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