KARACHI: Contribution of Sindh to Persian highlighted
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 21: Speakers at a seminar organized on Saturday by the Khana-i-Farhang Jumhoori Islami Iran spoke about scholars of Persian language in Sindh.
All the speakers had contributed research articles which were compiled by the Khana-i-Farhang Jumhoori Islami Iran in a book form.
The first speaker of the seminar, Dr Gul Hasan Leghari, spoke on the subject of “Persian prose writing in Sindh.” He said that during the reign of the Talpurs and the Kalhoras, the Persian language had been the lingua franca. “In those periods, books were being written in Persian language. While English language had come to this region, Persian was still a significant language.”
According to Dr Nawaz Ali Shauq’s article, titled Maklinama: Thatta ki tareekh-o-saqafat ka aham makhiz, two people in Sindh did a lot of work on Persian language, literature and historiography. “The name of Mir Ali Sher Qanai comes to mind. Speaking about his literary achievements, Dr Syed Khizar Naushahi has written: “Mir Ali Sher Qanai was a prolific writer. He was at once a writer, a scholar and a poet. He played a very important role in the historiography of Sindh. If he had not written books such as Maqalat-i- Shura, Tuhafatul Karam and Maklinama, we would have been unaware of many important names of Sindh’s history.
“The second person who did great work on Sindh was Syed Hissamuddin Rashdi. Writing about Mr Rashdi’s achievements, Dr Jamil Jalbi says: ‘Syed Hissamuddin Rashdi was basically a scholar of history. Pir Sahib compiled the original historical sources of Sindh. The work on Sindh history that is being done these days is being done in the light of the works carried out by him.”
According to Najma Lateef’s article, titled Kalhora Ahad: Farsi ilm-o-adab ki taraqi ka sunahri daur, this area became a centre of knowledge following Muslim influence. “In those days, Debal, Mansoora and Bhakkar were the centres of Islamic culture. Thousands of scholars did their utmost to promote literature in this region.”
According to Dr Abdul Ghaffar Soomro’s article, Bayan al-Arifin, by the turn of the tenth/sixteenth century, Persian dominated not only as the court language, but had also become the full-fledged medium of academic and literary activities in Sindh.
“This phenomenon can better be explained by the fact that the Persian translation of the Holy Quran, which is probably the earliest in the subcontinent, was undertaken during this period by one of the celebrated scholars and religious divines of Sindh, Makhdum Noah, and was completed in 998AH/1590AD. Another most important work of this era is Tarikh-i-Masumi by Mir Masum written in 1090AH/1600AD which is second only to Fatahnama-i-Sindh, being the first chronicle of the Arab conquest of Sindh.”
According to Tania Beg’s article, titled “The quest for the meaning of a spiritual life with Qadir Bakhsh Bidel in Panj Ganj,” Faqir Qadir Bakhsh Bidel, as written by Sadarangani, was son of Mohammed Mohsin Hanafi Qadri. “Popularly known as Bidel, he was a mystic, a holy man and a scholar. Shauq writes that he began his schooling at the age of five. He also received spiritual education from his father. Bidel continued his education till the age of twelve.”
The book, which contains 32 articles of research scholars, has been published by the Khana-i-Farhang Jumhoori Islami Iran in collaboration with the Persian Department of the University of Karachi. The 344-page book has articles in English, Persian and Urdu.
The following other scholars contributed their articles: Prof (Dr) Aftab Asghar, Syed Afsar Ali Shah, Prof (Dr) Khalida Aftab, Dr Rehana Afsar, Prof (Dr) Sajid Ali Tafhimi, Dr Shehla Saleem Noori, Prof (Dr) Tahira Siddiqui, Prof (Dr) Affan Seljuk, Khanum Faiza Zehra Beg, Prof Latif Ahmed, Dr Mohammed Sarfaraz Zafar, Dr Mohammed Saleem Mazhar, Dr Mohammed Sharif, Prof (Dr) Mohammed Siddiq Khan Shibli, Syed Murtaza Musavi, Dr Najamur Rashid, Prof (Dr) Inamul Haq Kauser, Dr Syed Khizar Nau Shahi, Rafiya Taj, Salma Latif, Prof Sharafat Abbas Hashmi, Dr Arif Naushahi, Dr Ghulam Mohammed Lakho, Dr Mohammed Idrees Sindhi and Mohammed Panhal Dhar.
