ISLAMABAD: Arabic is not the only source of history but Persian is also equally important, as it carries considerable amount of heritage of this region.

This was stated by dean of faculty of Social Sciences, Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU), Prof Waqar Ali Shah while speaking at the International Conference on Asian History, Culture and Environment: Vernacular and Oriental Paradigms held on Monday.

The incumbent President of International Association of Historians and the Senior Research Fellow of the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research (NIHCR) Dr Sajid Mehmood Awan, in his presidential address, said that the world was in perpetual transition, eventually the discipline of history remained in persistent progression.

“Till the time world is in transition the discipline of history may certainly not cease to evolve, he observed. Increasing complexities of the ideas and every day changing patterns of thinking with reference to historic interpretations of the past events invite historians to define, refine and redefine what has happened in the previous times and the way it was reported beforehand,” he said.

Dr Sajid emphasised that the present conference on Asian History, Culture and Environment: Vernacular and Oriental Paradigms was an attempt to decipher the changing patterns of historic events and multiple approaches to understand the phenomenon of change and growth.

At least 78 historians, scholars and academicians presented their papers in four sessions consisting of 12 parallel panels on Monday.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2016