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 THINKING

Fifteen 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 ...

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...

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...

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...

His courage indicated concrete action and decision, reflecting commitment to God. It also indicated the universal self-affirmation of his being

Karbala 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/...

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-Nasri

Although 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-...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...