A large number of scholars took part in the conference, and most of them, with a few praiseworthy exceptions, outstayed their welcome by consuming more time than allocated to them, putting the chairman on the spot who kept passing on chits to the speakers urging them to be to-the-point.
The first session, which was presided over by Dr Ahmed Nabi Khan and which was titled “Historigraphy archaeology and cultural heritage”, saw Dr Abdur Rehman, Ataullah Bodgan Kopanski, Prof Dr Inamul Haq Kausar, Prof Mohammad Saleem Ahmad, Mohammad Shafique Bhatti, Badshah Sardar, Mostoor Fatima Bukhari, Nargis Rashid and Tania Beg reading out excerpts from their papers.
Dr Kopanski, who was also the co-chairman of the session, did not read out his “lengthy paper”, choosing to dilate upon his subject, which was “The twisted mirrors of Dar-ul-Islam and Respublica Christiana, images of Islam and Christendom in the Arabic, Greek and Latin sources (the Middle Ages).”
“Europeans only respect those who beat them up. For instance, Salahuddin Ayubi. He was cherished in the West as a celebrated Saracen,” he said, adding that “all the sources of Mediaeval Europe were written by monks who did not think well of the Muslims and the women — the former were alien to them and considered outsiders and the latter were out of bounds for them because the monks were celibates”.
Nargis Rashid, whose paper was titled “Creating awareness for the protection of cultural heritage”, said: “All over the world the survival of archaeological sites and cultural heritage is at stake, owing to the natural and human factors. It is very difficult yet to combat with the natural phenomena whereas the human factors are getting graver, such as looting, plundering, damaging, destroying and negligence. Our cultural heritage is being looted to feed an ever-expanding antiquities market. Europe is one of the major marketplaces for the trade in material looted from archaeological sites and museums around the world. The illegal excavations of antiquities to feed this trade has led to widespread destruction. As a result, the heritage of many countries is now under threat.”
The second session, which was presided over by Prof Riazul Islam and was titled “History of South Asia: ancient and mediaeval period”, saw Prof Ashiq Mohammad Khan Durrani, Dr Mohammad Qasim Soomro, Prof Riazul Islam, Prof Shaikh Khursheed Hasan, Sultan-i-Rome, Dr lik Arifin Mansurnoor, and others, reading out excerpts from their papers.
Prof Riazul Islam, whose paper was titled “Theory and practice of Jizya in the sultanate of Delhi: 14th century, said: “The main event is the granting by the Caliph Walid b. ‘Abd ul-Malik of the status of Mushabih-i-Ahl-i Kitab (like the people of the Book) to the non-Muslims in Sindh. Also important is Hajjaj’s famous letter to Mohammad bin Qasim: ‘We have absolutely no right on the life and property of the non-Muslims.’
“Position of Jizya in the Delhi Sultanate during the 13th Century is clouded in mystery owing to the silence of the main sources. Of the main sources, Tajuddin Hasan Nizami’s Taj ul-Ma’athir, Fakhr-i Mudabbir’s Adab ul-Harb wa’l-Shuja’a and Minhaj Siraj’s Tabaqat-i Nasiri, seem to have virtually no major entry on the subject.”
Sultan-i-Rome, whose paper was titled “Mughals and Swat”, said: “In the 16th Century, the Yusufzais gained footing in Swat while Babur made himself master of Afghanistan. Collision between the two sides was unavoidable, for Babur’s route fell within the domain of the Yusufzais. Babur, however, used tact and diplomacy and established relations with the Yusufzais, which ‘gave him a strong and intimate connection with the tribe.’”
The third session, which was presided over by Prof Shariful Mujahid and which was titled “History of South Asia: modern period, freedom movement, studies on the Quaid-i-Azam and Pakistan”, saw Dr Mohammad Shah, Prof Abdus Subhan, Dr Farooq Solangi, Dr Naureen Talha Saeed, Saleemullah Khan, Samina Awan, and others, reading out excerpts from their papers.
In the fourth session, which was presided over by Dr Inamul Haq Kauser and which was titled “History of Muslim Peoples: mediaeval and modern”, Dr Mahmudu Naina Marikar Kamil Asad, Dr Ibrahim Shah and Dr S.M. Ashfaq read out excerpts from their papers.
Prof Dr Javed Hasan, the chairman of the department of general history at the University of Karachi, was the chief organizer of the programme which was also attended by Sadia Rashid, the president of the Pakistan Historical Society and the Hamdard Foundation Pakistan.