ISLAMIC ENLIGHTENMENT A TALE OF THREE CITIES
- BETTANY HUGHES
- Feb, 2019
- History
CHRISTOPHER DE BELLAIGUE’S BOOK, THE ISLAMIC ENLIGHTENMENT,IS A CELEBRATION OF AN AGE OF REFORMERS IN ISTANBUL, CAIRO AND TEHRAN PROVIDES A POWERFUL CORRECTIVE TO LAZY, PREJUDICED THINKINGFifteen years ago, I sought out the oldest surviving folios of Plato’s philosophy. My hunt took me first to the Bodleian library in Oxford, and then past vats of indigo and pens of chickens in the souk ...
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CAPITALIZING ON CAPITALS: RATIONALE OF TRANSFERENCE OF THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT
- Ch. Mhammad Ashraf
- June, 2018
- History
Since the dawn of history, all countries with any
sort of governing order boasted of a capital. It was not only the seat of its
rulers--- royal or non-royal strongmen—but a mirror of its cultural aspirations
and a treasure house of its national heritage. In historical perspective, the
capitals of countries like Britain, Greece, Italy, France and Russia are so
ancient that their origins are blurred b...
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WITNESS NO. 275
- Ch. Mhammad Ashraf
- Feb, 2018
- History
And
it was on the 16th of December 1971, that time stood still, “the
heavens fell, and the earth’s foundations fled.”December is
the most pleasant part of year in the tropical landscape of Bengal. The days
are still warm but less humid; the nights are cool and balmy; the mornings are
glorious and the night descends quickly after sundown. The darkness is pitch
black and is broke...
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HOBSON JOBSON: THE ANGLO-INDIAN CLASSIC AND ITS MODERN VERSION
- Ch. Mhammad Ashraf
- Dec, 2017
- History
The
entries in the book range from mundane to magnificent; from simplistic to
scholarly; all with an awesome eruditeness and a deep understanding of the
culture, social behavior and history of the subcontinent.In
1886,Col. Henry Yule, an officer with the Government of India, with a good deal
of help from the amateur linguist and scholar (but in real life, a member of
the Indian Civ...
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EXISTENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF HUSAYN’S CHOICE
- DR. SHAHZAD QAISER
- Nov, 2017
- History
His
courage indicated concrete action and decision, reflecting commitment to God.
It also indicated the universal self-affirmation of his beingKarbala is the existential symbol of Islam. It
reflects the authentic choice of Husayn. It is an Either/Or. One is
reminded of Kierkegaard (1813-1855) who named one of his books on
existential metaphysics as Either/...
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DRIVEN BY EVOLUTION, GOD’S CREATION!
- Pervaiz Asghar
- Aug, 2017
- History
Almost 600 years before Darwin was born, Tusi had
laid out the broad contours of the evolution of species in his epic work
Akhlaq-i-NasriAlthough Darwin has managed to whip up a
frenzy for unleashing a 'dangerous idea' that supposedly undercuts religious
beliefs about creationism- that all species were concurrently created in their
present form by God a couple of thousand years ago-...
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T.E. LAWRENCE A PHENOMENAL FACE IN HISTORY
- ZAHID MAJEED SHEIKH
- May, 2017
- History
In the Old City of Jerusalem, a group of Arabs approached with their faces half
hidden, dusky and bearded. There was one among them dressed like the rest; his
face beaten by the weather; small in stature and clean-shaven; his features
more finely carved than others and his eyes were a startling blue. This is a
fascinating tale of the “blue-eyed Arab” whose heroics in the desert and daring
raids in the W...
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SYCOPHANCY IN PUBLIC SERVICE
- Ch. Mhammad Ashraf
- Apr, 2017
- History
The culture of sycophancy is not the sole
preserve of the people of the Indo-Pak sub-continent. A senior public figure
from the African country of Cameroon has this to say on the subject: "The
destructive machinations of the bureaucracy and sycophancy (are) at the heart
of the public service, and its detrimental effects on meritocracy and the
public good The literal ...
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VLAD THE IMPALER (1431-1476) THE REAL DRACULA
- Saleem Shahab
- Mar, 2017
- History
Facts
remain facts unchanging, unyielding before any attempt to distort them despite
the fact any such attempt is made by an ordinary folk or Hollywood filmmaker
like Michael De Luca who produced horror movie "Dracula untold" in
2014 in which the central character is "Vlad the impaler" portrayed
as a hero who, at first, for the safety of his son, refuses to obey the orders of
Turk Sultan Mehmed-II. Lat...
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Mahmood Khan Durrani, George Cross
- Saleem Shahab
- Feb, 2017
- History
Captain Durrani's award of the George Cross was
published in the London Gazette on 23 May 1946. The citation mentioned that
"His outstanding example of deliberate cold-blooded bravery is most fully
deserving of the highest award" It was on a beautiful
evening on March 15, 1941 when a battalion of the Indian state force, under
command of Colonel RC Fletcher, landed on a beach of the Pen...
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REVOLUTION IS A DANGEROUS WORD
- ZAHID MAJEED SHEIKH
- Jan, 2017
- History
Civil
resistance is a political action that relies on the use of nonviolent
resistance by civil groups to challenge a particular power, force, policy or
regime The world is changing and so with it the concept of
fundamental change in political power in a relatively short period of time. The
word revolution has its roots in Latin revolutio which means “turn-around.”
Revolutions have oc...
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