KARACHI, Oct 22: The Pakistan History Conference, organized by the Pakistan Historical Society in collaboration with the Hamdard Foundation, Hamdard University and Karachi University, concluded at Madinat al-Hikmah on Monday, urging the government to provide more funds to the federal and provincial archaeological departments.

It also emphasized the proper teaching of the Persian language because most sources of the mediaeval history of the Muslims was in Persian.

It urged the government to provide liberal scholarships to students who studied mediaeval history so that bright students opted for history.

The first session of the conference, which was presided over by Prof S.I. Ahmed, the dean of the pharmacy department at Hamdard University, saw Prof Dr Affan Seljuq, Prof Dr Hafizur Rahman Siddiqui, Prof Dr Khalid Hasan Mahmood, Hakim Shahabuddin and Dr Ahmed Nabi Khan reading out excerpts from their papers.

Dr Seljuq, whose paper was titled “Islam and modern science: the end of time”, said: “We should bear in mind that the Universe will recollapse to the nebular state from where it had evolved. It is interesting to note that there exists a marked similarity in the various stages, signs and symptoms of the end of the world mentioned in the Holy Quran and the scientific knowledge. The gradual decrease in the Universal Gravitation Constant, planets and stars losing their light exploding and vanishing in space, the Green House effect and the global warming — all these complex and diverse factors that will bring this world to an end have been referred to and discussed by the Quran with remarkable harmony and agreement with science.”

Prof Dr Hafizur Rahman Siddiqui, speaking on the subject of “The Arabian science — a statistical study of the contributors”, said: “The massive effort directed to the exploration of Arabian scientific literature has, during the past hundred years, rectified the long-standing general idea that their contribution in science was limited simply to a transferring of Greek classical knowledge to the West; the contributions of their own, if at all, were not worthwhile. The historians of science now have evidence to support a contrary position that the Arabs contributed significantly to science in terms of interpretation, elaboration and addition. In this perspective, a statistical study of the contributors during the period of Arabian rise, from the 8th to 12th century, is highly warranted.”

Prof Dr Khalid Hassan Mahmood, whose paper was titled “Impact of historical developments on dissemination of knowledge”, said: “My study is limited to the findings of Ibn-i-Nafis in the 13th century and those of William Harvey who lived about 300 years after the death of Ibn-i-Nafis. I have tried to investigate the political developments during both the periods. Salahuddin Ayubi, one of the great leaders of his time died on March 4, 1193, which was also the period after the Third Crusade which ended without any success on the part of the Crusaders. After this period, Salahuddin’s successors tried to stabilize the political process. But obviously the hatred between the warring factions must have been a great obstacle in dissemination of knowledge.”

The concluding session of the conference was presided over by the chancellor of Hamdard University, Justice Ajmal Mian. The vice- chancellor of Hamdard University, Prof Dr Ismail Saad, delivered the welcome speech. Certificates were distributed to the students who had worked as volunteers during the conference. The delegates recorded their impressions about the conference.