Zeno of Citium and the Stoic School Zeno of Citium who lived in 4-3 centuries B.C. is one of the most important philosophers. He, for the first time, separated philosophy to the three parts including logic, physics and ethics, and put ethics in the centre of philosophy based on the teachings of Socrates and the Cynics. Furthermore, he considered that physics is necessary to substantiate ethics scientifically, and he referred logic to corroborate physics and ethics as well. According to him logic is required for all the types of sciences. Zeno is the founder of the Stoic School. Many philosophers had been studied at the Stoic School that was continued for about 5 centuries. Chrysippus, Cleanthes, Panaetius, Seneca and Cicero is just a few of them.

After Cyprus became a part of Ottoman Empire, many institutions such as madrasas, elementary schools (sibyan mektebi), literacy schools (küttab), mosques and libraries were established here. one of these aforementioned institutions is a library, established here by Sultan Mahmud II. In 1829 this library was built by Ali Ruhi Effendi, the governor (muhassal) of Cyprus. Although this library was established as a library of a madrasa, right next to the Selimiye Mosque in Lefkose (Nicosia), in progress of time it came in a central library of the city. The library had been greatly enriched with the donated books in its establishment period and with some purchased works in time. These aforementioned works are now preserved in the National Archives and Research Department in Kyrenia Cyprus.

Ottomans conducted a military expedition to Cyprus in 1570 due to some strategic, financial and religional reasons. This expedition ended up with a victory 1571 and the island became a part of the empire. In this article, we look into the general situation of Cyprus just after the Ottoman conquest and Ottoman treatment to Cypriot people during and after the island’s conguest.

In this article, it will be examined the problems that readers of Quran translations have encountered with. In my opinion, although there are many obstacles making harder to understand Quran, we can classify all of these as meaning and expression disorders. In this study, we try to deal with two obstacles mentioned above in the light of many examples.

As one of Avicenna’s symbolic works, el-Kasîdetü’l- Ayniyye is an important eulogy on the grounds that it reflects his views on the soul. Although not widely known, the eulogy is especially considered invaluable owing to its symbolic style. The purpose of the present study is to decipher the content of the eulogy in a way that is closest to the original copy by comparing and contrasting existing versions of the eulogy. This study uses the copy from the Ali Emirî Collection available at Millet Kütüphanesi in Istanbul, Turkey. This copy is the oldest version of the eulogy that we could retrieve during our analysis. This study also describes the currently available ten versions of the eulogy and pinpoints the differences among those versions.

To understand Cyprus problem and founding out a sustainable solution we need to analyze and understand the role of religion on Cyprus issues in past and today. As it is known both Christian and Muslim cultures left their signs on island and have a strong impact on today’s relationships. As a result of this different effects in The Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, referred to the Orthodox Christianity and Islam as constituent elements. After division of Christianity, the conflicts between Catholic and Orthodox Churches, Ottomans and Cyprus Orthodox Church became allies. The Ottomans, while trying to reduce Latin’s influence, treated the Orthodox Cypriots with the consideration and gained their good will. In 1821 with the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, the Greeks of Cyprus attempted to follow in the footsteps of those of Greece; such was the accusation, which Kuchuk Mehmed brought against the bishops and the leading Greek laymen of Cyprus. As a result of this the Archbishop and his archdeacon were hanged, the three Bishops beheaded and the notables dispatched by the Janissaries. This was the break point and beginning of political separation between Ottoman administration and Cyprus Orthodox Church. In this article, I have tried to analyze the developments of relationships between Muslims and Christians under lights of history and give a right perspective to the future relationships.

Cyprus, as a region which was under control of Ottoman Empire between 1571 and 1878 for 3 centuries, is a significant source to analyze Muslim-dhimmi (non-muslim) relations thanks to its demographic structure. This situation can also be seen on Qadi registers of Cyprus law courts. These aforementioned registers, in addition to shedding light on Muslim-dhimmi relations on the island, also contain so much priceless information in terms of practices of Islamic law in the Ottoman period. Therefore, 22 volumes of qadi registers in 17th and 18th centuries constitute the basis of this research and in this article an evaluation is going to be made by focusing on issues related to Islamic family law and submitted to Islamic courts that were occured between Muslims and dhimmis in the Ottoman Cyprus, solutions generated for these cases by qadis, and within this scope the extent to which Islamic law were implemented.

The real basics of the belief system in Islam is Tawhid and the aim of Islam in socsal life is unity, solidarity and fellowship. In this article the sense of brotherhood in Islam and its results will be analyzed. In a broad perspective, all mankind is brother/sister because the roots of humanity belongs to Adam and Eve as well as, in a narrow perspective those who are sons and daughters of the same parents or those who have same mother as foster mother are brothers and sisters, and there are legal and moral results of this brother/sisterhood. There is brother/sisterhood from the perspective of having the same ancestor as well as religious brother/ sisterhood. Although there is no legal consequences of the religious brother/sisterhood as much as having the same ancestor, belief unity is examining the basics of the other brother/sisterhood and this brother/sisterhood is not only limited to this world and continues in the heaven, afterlife. As it is understood from this article the unity in the basics of belief gives a meaning to the bortherhood which is coming from foster-motherhood and ancestory. When there is no belief to brotherhood, there will not be any meaning of brotherhood which is based on ancestory.

Ziryab (Ali b. Nafi) was a pupil of the reputed musician Ibrâhim al-Mawsili and the liberated slave of the Abbasid Caliphate Mahdi (775-785). He was introduced to Harun al-Rashid by Ishak al-Mawsili and displayed a perfect performance before him. However, al-Mawsili was jealous of his admired performance, so the musician was forced to flee Baghdad. After he left Baghdad, Ziryab travelled across North Africa, reaching Andalus. Well received by the court officials in Anda lus, he became a rather influential and highly respected person. Cordially welcome by the highest protocol members in Andalus, Ziryab worked as the top musician in the palace of Amir (governor) Abdurrahman II (822-852) of Andalus Umayyad Dynasty. Ziryab’s influence in Andalus was not only restricted to his musical fame. He brought about innovations which would tremendously affect the cultural life of Andalus. He was a pioneer in many fields such as hairstyle, fashion design, gastgronomy, astrology and so on. As a person coming from Baghdad, Ziryab culturally became a prominent figure in the Andalus Umayyads’ competition with Abbassids. He was influential not only in Andalus and during his lifetime but also in the West, and North Africa, with his influence surviving nowadays. The present article deals with Ziryab’s life, education, his passage to Andalus and his activities there as well as his effects on the West.