Mahyad Tousi | |
---|---|
Born | 1973 (age 50–51) Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Scriptwriter, producer, director |
Years active | ?–present |
Mahyad Tousi (born 1973) is an Iranian filmmaker, scriptwriter, producer and director. He has created/co-created, directed and produced several films and documentaries including Looking For Palladin (2008), Of Kings and Prophets (2016) and United States of Al (2021-22).
Tousi was born in 1973, in Portland, Oregon and raised in Tehran, Iran. He emigrated to the United States as a teenager in 1986. [1]
In 2007, along with Reza Aslan, he co-founded BoomGen Studios, an entertainment based company helping contents related to the Middle East. [2] In 2020, he founded Starfish, an accelerator program industry. [3]
Tousi produced Looking For Palladin (2008). [4] He was the executive producer of the ABC Signature TV series, Of Kings and Prophets (2016), [5] and on two seasons of the CBS primetime comedy, United States of Al . [6]
In 2022, Tousi wrote and co-created Remote , with video artist, Mika Rottenberg. [7] He was also among the executive producers of the virtual-reality documentary, Zikr: A Sufi Revival . [8]
Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, or simply Rumi, was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi faqih (jurist), Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian (mutakallim), and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran.
Sufism is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, and asceticism.
Najaf, is the capital city of Najaf Governorate in central Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2024 is about 1.41 million people. It is widely considered amongst the holiest cities of Shia Islam and one of its spiritual capitals, as well as the center of Shia political power in Iraq. It is the burial place of Muhammad's son in law and cousin, ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib, and thus a major pilgrimage destination for Shia Muslims. The largest cemetery in the world (Wadi-us-Salaam) and the oldest Shi'a Islamic seminary in the world are located in Najaf. Due to Najaf's position as a holy city in Shia Islam, it is also referred to with the honorific name Najaf al-Ashraf.
Islamic music may refer to religious music, as performed in Islamic public services or private devotions, or more generally to musical traditions of the Muslim world. The heartland of Islam is the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Balkans, and West Africa, Iran, Central Asia, and South Asia. Due to Islam being a multi-ethnic religion, the musical expression of its adherents is vastly diverse. Indigenous traditions of various part have influenced the musical styles popular among Muslims today. The word "music" in Arabic, the language of Islam, is defined more narrowly than in English or some other languages, and "its concept" was at least originally "reserved for secular art music; separate names and concepts belonged to folk songs and to religious chants".
María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien is an American broadcast journalist and executive producer. Since 2016, O'Brien has been the host for Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien, a nationally syndicated weekly talk show produced by Hearst Television. She is chairwoman of Starfish Media Group, a multiplatform media production company and distributor that she founded in 2013. She is also a member of the Peabody Awards board of directors, which is presented by the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Dhikr is a form of Islamic worship in which phrases or prayers are repeatedly recited for the purpose of remembering God. It plays a central role in Sufism, and each Sufi order typically adopts a specific dhikr, accompanied by specific posture, breathing, and movement. In Sufism, dhikr refers to both the act of this remembrance as well as the prayers used in these acts of remembrance. Dhikr usually includes the names of God or supplication from the Quran or hadith. It may be counted with either one's fingers or prayer beads, and may be performed alone or with a collective group. A person who recites dhikr is called a dhākir.
Reza Aslan is an Iranian-American scholar of sociology, writer, and television host. A convert to evangelical Christianity from Shia Islam as a youth, Aslan eventually reverted to Islam but continued to write about Christianity. He has written four books on religion: No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in the Age of Globalization, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, God: A Human History and in 2022 An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville.
Elizabeth Farnsworth is a journalist, author, and filmmaker. She is a former foreign correspondent and former chief correspondent and principal substitute anchor of PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. She has written two books, including a novella, Last Light, which was published by Flint Hills Publishing, and a memoir. Her 2008 documentary, The Judge and the General,, aired on television around the world, winning many awards. She has reported from Cambodia, Vietnam, Chile, Haiti, Iraq, and Iran, among other places. Having previously lived in Peru, Chile, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. for extended periods, she now lives in Berkeley, California.
Tazkiyah is an Arabic-Islamic term alluding to tazkiyat al-nafs, meaning 'sanctification' or 'purification of the self'. This refers to the process of transforming the nafs from its state of self-centrality through various spiritual stages towards the level of purity and submission to the will of God. Its basis is in learning the shariah and deeds from the known authentic sunnah and applying these to one's own life, resulting in spiritual awareness of God. Tazkiyah is considered the highest level of ihsan, one of the three dimensions of Islam. The person who purifies themself is called a zaki.
Philip Alexander Gibney is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, Esquire magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time."
Headbanging is the act of violently shaking one's head in rhythm with music. It is common in rock, punk, heavy metal music and dubstep, where headbanging is often used by musicians on stage. Headbanging is also common in traditional Islamic Sufi music traditions such as Qawwali in the Indian subcontinent and Iran.
Ghulam Fariduddin Ayaz Al-Hussaini Qawwal is a Pakistani Sufi devotional singer. He belongs to the Qawwal Bacchon gharana of Delhi.
Joshua Lincoln Oppenheimer is an American film director based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is known for his Oscar-nominated films The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014). Oppenheimer was a 1997 Marshall Scholar and a 2014 recipient of the MacArthur fellowship.
Michel Khleifi, born in 1950 in Nazareth, is a Palestinian (48-Palestinian) film writer, director and producer, presently based in Belgium.
The Abu Dhabi Film Festival, formerly the Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), was an international film festival held in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 2007 to 2015.
Kazemi, Kazimi, Kazmi, or al-Kadhimi is a surname found most commonly in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The surname is conventionally used by people who trace their patrilineal descent from Imam Musa al-Kazim, a Sayyid. Kazmi people are said to descend from Muhammad through his daughter Fatima. Musa al-Kadhim is revered as the seventh successor of Muhammad in Shia Islam i.e., he is the seventh Imam in the Hadith of the twelve successors.
Mehrdad Oskouei is an Iranian independent film producer, film director, screenwriter of documentary films and film educator.
Mika Rottenberg is a contemporary Argentine born US based video artist who lives and works in New York. Rottenberg is best known for her video and installation work that often "investigates the link between the female body and production mechanisms". Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally.
Sufism in Bangladesh is more or less similar to that in the whole Indian subcontinent. India, it is claimed, is one of the five great centers of Sufism, the other four being Persia, Baghdad, Syria, and North Africa. Sufi saints flourished in Hindustan (India) preaching the mystic teachings of Sufism that easily reached the common people, especially the spiritual truth seekers in India. Sufism in Bangladesh is also called pirism, after the pirs or teachers in the Sufi tradition.
Persecution of Sufis over the course of centuries has included acts of religious discrimination, persecution, and violence both by Sunni and Shia Muslims, such as destruction of Sufi shrines, tombs and mosques, suppression of Sufi orders, murder, and terrorism against adherents of Sufism in a number of Muslim-majority countries. The Republic of Turkey banned all Sufi orders and abolished their institutions in 1925, after Sufis opposed the new secular order. The Islamic Republic of Iran has harassed Sufis, reportedly for their lack of support for the government doctrine of "governance of the jurist".