The 20th Pakistan History Conference held in Karachi from April 13-15, 2005, became a mega event in the history of this country - a country where the subject of History doesn't figure in the curricula of schools. The event was jointly hosted by Pakistan Historical Society, Hamdard Foundation and Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi. The Conference was divided into 15 sessions in such a manner that a day each was given to Karachi University, Hamdard University and Jinnah Medical & Dental College, Karachi to hold the sessions. In all 55 papers were presented eight of them by overseas writers.
The inaugural session held at Karachi University was addressed by Dr. Ansar Zahid Khan, Secretary of Pakistan Historical Society and editor of the Journal of the Society - Historicus Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Qureshi, Vice Chancellor, Hamdard University, Prof. Dr. Peerzada Qasim Raza Siddqiui, Vice Chancellor, University of Karachi, Prof. Sharif-al-Mujahid, Ms. Sadia Rashid, President, Hamdard Foundation Pakistan, Dr. Hamida Khuhro, the Sindh Education Minister and Dr. Syed Jaffer Ahmed, Director of the Pakistan Study Centre, Karachi University.
The keynote address of Prof. Sharif-al-Mujahid was truly a keynote presentation. He called for writing objective history, not the history seen through the linkers of ideology. Ideology, he maintained, believed in promoting and sustaining a view favoured by a vested interest group and it undermined the truth per se. The thought that history, being written in Pakistan, was serving the interests of a particular viewpoint which could only be partially true. The quest for the whole truth was necessary in view of the damage caused by ideology. History and Ideology stood for conflicting purposes. They damage the psyche of the people they seek to enlighten. They, rather, turn them into a paranoid lot.
Ms. Sadia Rashid, whose Hamdard Foundation has been supporting Pakistan Historical Society since its inception, appealed for help from other quarters as well to serve the great cause of History. Dr. Hamida Khuhro lauded the efforts for holding the conference. She seemed to agree with Prof. Sharif-al-Mujahid's contention that there should be no sacred cows for our historians. Indian historians are not having any sacred cows among leaders of the Freedom Movement. They freely criticise the wrongs of the founding fathers.
The next session on Freedom Movement-I was chaired by Prof. Dr. N.A. Baloch and had Dr. Abdur Rahid Khan, Ahmed Salim and Anwar Shaheen as its speakers. The second session on Freedom Movement had, Dr. Muhammad Saleem Ahmed, Dr. Sher Muhammad Garewal and Dr. Syed Asif Ali as speakers. The session on Mughal period was presided over by Dr. Mubarak Ali and the speakers were Dr. Ataullah Bogdan Koponski, Faraz Anjum, Muhammad Ziauddin and Dr. Muhammad Raza Kazmi.
The session on Freedom Movement-III was chaired by Prof. Hasnain Kazmi and speakers were Dr. Shahid Hasan Rizvi and Dr. F.A. Shamsi. Some papers broke new ground. All of these sessions were held at Karachi University.
Next day the sessions were held at Hamdard University - some 45 Km away from the downtown. A session on the theme of Muslim Thought and Movement was, chaired by Dr. H. M. Jafri, eminent scholar of international standing. The participants were Dr. Arshad Islam of Malaysia, Dr. Muhammad Yunus Qadri, Dr. Nigar Sajjad Zaheer and Dr. Qasim Safi of Iran, Dr. Muhammad Ali Siddiqui summed up the salient points of each paper and offered his views about the papers presented in the session.
Dr. H.M. Jafri stole the show by delivering his presidential address. He said that purblind conformism, which the Ummah was wallowing in for centuries, had degenerated it and there was a need for an awakening to the new realities in order to adjust its perception accordingly.
The session on Historiography, chaired by Prof. Sharif-al-Mujahid, had among speakers Dr. Tahir Kamran, Muhammad Qasim Soomro, Dr. Abdul Wahab Sirri and Ms. Salma Latif. The session on Freedom Movement-IV, chaired by Dr. Muhammad Reza Kazmi, was addressed by Syed Umar Hayat, Dr. Inamual Haq Kausar, Dr. Hafiz-ru-Rahman Siddiqui, Dr. Syed Waseemuddin and Ms. Zeba Zafar Masud. The session on Cultures in Interaction-I was chaired by Dr. Abdur Rashid Khan, Dr. Kamil A.M.N. Mariker, Dr. Hyder Reza Zabeth, Dr. Shaista Tabassum and M. Hina Khan presented their papers. The next session on Cultures in Interaction was chaired by the Nigerian historian Dr. Musa Ali Ajetunmobi and Mohammad Ali Shaikh.
The session on Muslim Thought Movement-II had, for its speakers. Dr. Affan Selijuq and Dr. H.B. Khan. Presided over by Dr. Inamul Haq Kausar, this session discussed Maulana Rumi's growing popularity and Jamaluddin Afghani's role.
Afghan's role is being hobby debated these days in view of his silence on Czarists' conquest of Central Asia. His views against the British rule in India is also contradictory in view of his support for the British in Sudan. The beauty of the Conference was to cover philosophy literature, painting, governance and advances in almost all the fields of human activity. The session on Delhi Sultanate was presided over by Dr. Ansar Zahid Khan, Safeer Akhtar and Dr. Yakub Mughal presented their papers.
The third day's sessions of the Conference were held at Jinnah Medical & Dental College and its first session on the Theme of History of Medicine was chaired by Dr. Azhar Husain and Hakim Dr. Abdul Hannan. The speakers of the session were Dr. Altaf Ahmed Azmi, Waqar Fatima Siddiqui, Dr. Tariq Sohail, Chairman of S.M. Sohail Trust under which Jinnah Medical & Dental College is run, Dr. Azmi's paper was on the Development of Unani Medicine during early 16th century of the Mughal rule. Waqar Fatima Siddiqui's paper was on the contribution of Hakim Mohammed Said to Unani medicine and healthcare, Dr. Tariq Sohail and Dr. Sohail and Dr. Azmi's papers reflected their deep scholarship.
Another session, quite an interesting one, was on the theme 'Archaeology and Ancient History. Presided over by Dr. S.M. Ashfaq, the speakers of the session were Dr. Shaikh Khurshid Hasan, Badshah Sardar, Dr. Ghulam Muhammad Lakho and Dr. Fazlur Rahman. Another session on the same theme was presided over by Dr. Shaikh Khurshid Hasan in which Dr. S.M. Ashfaq, Mohammad Iqbal and Ms. Nargis Rashid were speakers Nargis Rashid's paper was quite interesting. She discussed the scope of new technology in the evaluation of cultural heritage.
Another session was on the theme of History of Arts. Presided over by Dr. Muhammad Ali Siddiqui, the speakers were Dr. Tania Beg, Durriya Kazi and Dr. Emran Hossain.
Now I came to the sessions on Contemporary Issues in Historical Perspective I & II presided over by Dr. Manzooruddin Ahmed, Prof. Sikandar Mahdi, Dr. Syed Minhaj-ul-Hasan and Asrar Ahmed Siddiqui, Samina Yasmeen, Dr. Imdad Hussain Sahito and Dr. Sultan-i-Rome presented their papers. These two sessions had quite a few important papers on diverse issues but were lumped together under the broad heading "Contemporary Issues".
One of the highlights of the Conference was that each session had a rapporteur and a discussant. Not many conferences could ever have an arrangement like this in this country. The credit goes to the organisers for getting the show on the road.
The concluding session was presided over by Dr. Peerzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui who thanked the delegates and participants for making the conference a great success. I believe Dr. S. Jaffer Ahmed of Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi, deserves congratulation for the immaculate arrangements made by him and his team. I Think Prof. Sharif-al-Mujahid was eminently right when he said that he had not attended a well arranged conference of this magnitude & impact, since the first Historical Conference held in 1957.
It has been impossible to discuss all papers because I couldn't attend all sessions. However, a voluminous book comprising all papers read in the Conference is in the pipeline. It could quench the history of discerning readers.
AN ART LOVER IN A NOVEL ROLE: Had Rasheeduddin Ghaznavi not been a passionate lover of Urdu poetry - and an ardent art lover, I would not have attached much importance to his unique work, the English and Urdu translation of the Holy Quran. Allama Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Mohammad Marmaduke Pickthall, Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi and Prof. Ahmed Ali also enjoyed a literary background and each one of them did their best to ensure his maximum devotion to the task. I won't like to discuss the merits and demerits of their efforts as it falls outside my purview. Our clergy doesn't like such efforts because they think that it causes a dent in their monopoly.
However, I am mustering some courage to point out the uniqueness of Rahseeduddin Ghazanvi's effort. Senator S. M. Zafar had presided over a function in Karachi to compliment the translator on his labour of love recently. Resheeduddin Ghaznavi, quite some time before, had also published the English and Urdu translation of the Holy Quran without the Arabic Text. Some clerics don't like the idea of translating the Holy Book without its Arabic text.
So the latest voluminous effort known as ALR Arabic text with Urdu translation comprising 774 pages, is the first attempt of its kind in the world. Each page has the Arabic text of the numbered lines alongside similarly numbered lines of the translation exactly against the space in front of it. The English translation of the Arabic text, in the order of numbered lines, is provided below, so that reader doesn't have any problem of knowing what a particular Ayat means in Urdu and English in a word for a word style. Further details are available at the website: www.mrgpublications.com.
The beauty of the effort is that the imitated readers won't have any difficulty of having a word to word identification of its meaning in Urdu and English. I have not come across a reader-friendly arrangements of this kind in any translation so far. It is also an invitation to follow the same pattern in case a similar format is desired to be followed by the translators.
The pattern to be followed is so simple - that is could give rise to the dissemination of the meaning of Quran - word by word.
The translation has tried to follow the original words in Urdu as far as possible so that the purity of Message is not allowed to be confused with differences in meanings. It is, perhaps, for this reason the ALR Arabic text with Urdu and English translations seeks to guard against any semantics or multiplicity of meaning distract readers' attention. Rasheeduddin Ghaznavi, a former Navy officer, belongs to a prominent religious family of Bhopal. His interests are quite cosmopolitan in music, literature and painting and he makes an interesting departure in this new role. He has put in 18 years of vigorous effort to acquire proficiency in Arabic.
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