KARACHI: Ideology, history be seen separately: Conference told ...
By Bahzad Alam Khan
KARACHI, April 14: Ideology and history, though equally important, belong to disparate domains and should be dealt with separately. A historian who does not make a distinction between the two fails to do his job properly. This was the main talking-point on Thursday at the 20th Pakistan History Conference, which began on Wednesday and will continue till Friday.
Reading out his research paper on “Dr Annemarie Schimmel and Sindhological studies”, Mohammad Qasim Soomro of the University of Sindh said: “Dr Annemarie Schimmel wrote, compiled and translated about a hundred books, mostly on mysticism, literature, religion and oriental languages. In her studies, Sindhological studies are included. She wrote a number of research papers on various aspects of the history of Sindh. To her credit, there are four books in English relating to Sindh. These are ‘Sindhi literature’, ‘Pearls from the Indus’, ‘Makli Hill’ and ‘Pain and Grace’. Apart from these books, we find additional material on Sindh in her other works. Dr Annemarie Schimmel also helped the late Pir Hassamuddin Rashidi in his research on the history of Sindh.”
Zeeba Zafar Mehmood read out a research paper on “The development of Muslim capital in India (1857-1947)” and said: “Muslims enjoyed high offices in the state. They were part of nobility and part of Muslim aristocracy. The monarch would bestow huge jagirs on them. The Muslims were part of the executive and the judiciary. Besides the Muslim aristocracy, the Muslims artisans were engaged in luxury industry as well as building industry.
“The period between 1857 and 1900 was that of economic depression for the Muslims while the non-Muslims including the Hindus and Parsis established themselves in business. At the beginning of the century, the economic gap between the Muslims and the non-Muslims had widened. However, due to competition from the Hindus, the Muslim trading classes, particularly Memons, established their business outside India, in France, South Africa and other African countries. Between 1900 and 1920, few Muslim facilities transferred their capital to India from overseas; some Muslim businessmen also established their reputation in India. Sense of economic nationalism began to take root amongst the Muslims.”
Reading out his research paper on “The Muslims of Sri Lanka: ancient to Dutch rule,” Dr Kamil Asad Mahmud Naina Mariker of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, said: “The Muslim settlement was started around the sea coast of the Island. Sri Lanka was, at the time, the most important entropy between Arabia and the Far East. There are various coins from Arabic and Persian lands in Sri Lanka. Muslim scholars came to Sri Lanka from Baghdad to teach Islam and Islamic law. The Arabic language played an important role in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese destroyed the trade settlements of the Muslims. They used various means to convert the Muslims to Roman Catholicism. The Muslim settlements suffered during Dutch rule as well.”
Dr Hyder Reza Zabeth of the Islamic Research Foundation, Iran, read out a paper on “The role of Iranian migrant scholars in the advancement of sciences during the Qutb Shahi period in Dakkan” and said: “The founder of Qutb Shahi dynasty in Dakkan, Sultan-Quli Qutubul Mulk, belonged to the cultured and noble family of Qara Quyunulu in Iran. The Qutb Shahi rulers invited great scholars, poets, historians, religious divines and the Sufis from Iran to settle down in the kingdom. The learned Iranian migrants to the Qutb Shahi dominions made the kingdom a seat of learning and extensive literary activities. The Qutb Shahi rulers and the nobility, who were mostly Iranian, were genuine patron of arts and sciences. The kingdom made an invaluable contribution to the cause of letters and bequeathed to posterity a vast treasure of knowledge which can never sink into oblivion.”
Speaking about the scholarly output of intellectuals from Iran in Golkonda, he said: “Most of the Iranian poets, epistolarians, historiographers, Ulema, Muftis, and physicians came to Golkonda and some of them settled there. Persian epistolography developed by Iranian migrants is the best artistic prose in Golkonda. Migration of great Ulema from Iran to Golkonda created a great volume of religious literature which surpassed the size of any other branch of Persian literature in Golkonda. Ulema’s religious literature relates to the interpretation of the Quran, theology, eschatology, jurisprudence and prayers.”
Hina Khan of the University of Karachi said her research paper -– “Sir Syed and Gasprinsky: a comparative study of Muslim reformist movements in India and Russia” — was an attempt to bring to light two reformist movements that emerged in the same era but in two different areas, ie South Asia and Central Asia. These two regions that had been historically linked were at that time disconnected, rather torn apart under two rival imperialist powers of Europe, namely the British and the Russian. Here in South Asia (or British India) Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and his colleagues launched a reform movement that inspired the dejected and defeated Muslim society with confidence and self-esteem. Across the Hindu Kush, Ismail Bey Gasprinsky and his followers struggled to enlighten the backward-looking Muslim population of the Russian empire. These movements of the late 19th century had a number of similarities.”
Other scholars who took part in the history conference on Thursday were Syed Umar Hayat, Dr Inamul Haq Kausar, Dr Hafizur Rehman Siddiqui, Dr Tahir Kamran, Dr Abdul Wahab Soori, Salma Latif, Dr Shaista Tabassum and Dr Musa Ali Ajetunmobi.
