Fascinating History. Interesting Medieval Incidents from Indian and Middle Eastern past.

Following the horrific murder of Floyd George at the hands of police in Minneapolis US, a mini revolution is taking place across the globe. Every past military and civil hero is being re-evaluated in light of their role or support for slavery and racial injustice. Statues of Thomas Jefferson, one of the leading fathers of US independence and democracy, and Mahatma Gandhi, the prophet of non-violence and peaceful resistance, are being vandalized and toppled for their racial past. Story books, national medals, and even religious concepts are being badlisted (an alternate, politically correct word being offered here for ‘blacklisted’). In Rawalpindi-Islamabad, on the western side of GT Road, as it crosses the Margalla Pass close to Taxila, there stands a 40-feet tall obelisk, called Nicholson's memorial. It was erected in 1868 to honour Brigadier General John Nicholson of the British East India Company, one of the most demonical beasts produced by the English race. While the British ...

Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, US has many acclaimed laurels to its credit. This Ivy League university is amongst the three oldest institutions of higher learning in US and one of the only nine colleges chartered before the American revolution. It awarded the first PhD degree on American soil in 1861. It is a reputed to be a liberal educational institution, located in one of the original thirteen colonies that gave the US its national status and its constitution. Yale has continuously been rated as the 3rd ranking university in US for the last 15 years, trailing behind Princeton and Harvard only. Its library is the third largest university library in the US holding 15 million volumes. Its endowment is valued at $27.2 billion, the second largest of U.S. educational institutions. 60 Noble laureates, 5 Fields medallists for excellence in mathematics and 3 Turing awardees for distinction in computer sciences have been associated with it. Its alumni include 5 US presidents, 19 ...

On the eve of 71st anniversary of our independence, let's pay homage to a forgotten hero of First war of Independence in 1857. This leader of that great crisis is Azimullah Khan Yusufzai. He is also sometimes called 'Krantidoot' - Hindi for 'ambassador of revolution'. Great struggles elevate ordinary souls to heroic deeds. The War of Independence of 1857 was a clash of epic proportions. First the sepoys and then other Indians in the northern belt, from Bengal in the east through Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh to Punjab, rose up in revolt against British occupation. The revolt did not occur throughout the sub-continent and remained restricted in varying degree to certain areas and sections of society. Some influential local rulers were prudent or constrained to side with the British. These included such honourable names as Hayat of Wah, Nizam of Hyderabad, Abbasi of Bahawalpur, Nawab of Bhopal, Maharaja of Patiala and the Rajputs of Rajputana states. Of the three ...

Two-hundred years long anti-colonial struggle produced many brave noble souls. They stood against the foreign occupiers at the peril of losing their wealth, comfort and even life. It is our obligation to recall the sacrifices and tribulations of those who willingly suffered in this long endeavour for freedom. They include names of some very noble ladies too. One of these honourable freedom fighters is Begum Hazrat Mahal of Oudh, who stood up against the British during the 1st War of Independence in1857-58, commanded her troops in battles, refused to surrender and, spurring offers of clemency, eluded capture by the pursuing British forces to escape to Nepal, and lived a life of hardship in exile in Kathmandu. She now lies buried there in a non-descript grave . Hazrat Mahal was the one of major leaders who didn't surrender to the British, and she maintained her opposition through twenty years of exile in Nepal until her death in 1879. Before narrating the story of Hazrat Mahal, a b...

Many empires at their zenith have ravaged other nations in anger, revenge or pride but there is only one instance in history where a great power crippled another great nation through forcible sale of drugs. In the heydays of their global empire, Britain enforced systematic export of opium on the people of China employing her dominating navy, extensive administrative skills and immense imperial reach. When the Chinese promulgated laws and took punitive actions to restrict this trade, Britain conducted two wars against them, called Opium Wars, forcing them to legalize import of the drug. I will narrate here specifics of this trade that caused tragic consequences to people who were forced to accept its import. The profits from the trade enriched the government of UK, colonial officials, shareholders of British East India Company (BEIC) and Indian traders who facilitated the growth, transportation and sale of the drug. In the 18th century, the BEIC traded British woolens and Indian c...

In March of this year, when the Women’s March and Convid-19 are making the headlines and some quarters have tangled both these matters with Islam, I am reminded of a woman in the early history of Islam who is closely related to both these issues. Khawla bint Azwar came to public attention when Muslim armies were engaged with the conquest of Syria soon after death of the Prophet. Her name is as pertinent in the Arab world today as it has been in the preceding fourteen centuries. In Saudi Arabia, many streets and schools are named after her as are numerous schools and institutions across the Arab world. It also continues to be a popular name for Arab Muslim girls. USAtoday reported in July 2005 that an Iraqi all women military unit had been named after her. Khwala bint Azwar Military School is a military training facility for women in Abu Dhabi established in the previous decade. Jordan issued a stamp in 1981 in her honour as part of the "Arab Women in History”. She is also mentio...

The US has lived a lie for over two hundred and fifty years. Now it is unraveling. US democracy is reverentially known as Jeffersonian democracy. The hallowed ‘Declaration of Independence’, ratified by the US Congress on 4th of July 1776, was principally authored by Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president of the US. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …….,’ he declared on behalf of the US colonies; words that warm the heart of millions in the western world but they shield an underlying ugly fact; that the author of these deified words was a slave owner. Not only Jefferson, fully twelve of the first eighteen US presidents owned slaves, including the first, George Washington, who led the rebel army against the British colonizers, and the 18th, Ulysses Grant, who led the Unionist army against the secessionist states. Their words and deeds appear hollow in view of their conduct in their private life. The democracy they championed was flawed at inception. ...

With a population of 25 million, 5% of the population, Muslims form a large religious group in the European Union countries. According to Pew research, this figure is expected to grow, under different levels of immigration, to anywhere between 35 to 75 million representing 7.5 to 14% of the population in the next thirty years, while the white population is projected to decline. The growth of Muslims is unevenly distributed in the continent. The central Europe is projected to have 15% and the East Europeans less than 1% of their population professing Muslim faith. The corresponding numbers in the US are about 3.5 million representing about 1% of the population. The presence of a sizeable Muslim minority in western nations has had, unfortunately, an adverse effect on social harmony. While national leaders and thinkers are addressing this issue under their individual inclinations and biases, there are some scholars who are genuinely concerned on the deteriorating race relation and are ac...

As the world settles in to deal with the outbreak and spread of the corona virus, the future seems uncertain and unpredictable. Leading biologists, epidemiologist and statisticians of the world are in furtive search of a model that explains the behavior of Covid-19. The number of daily infections and deaths defy comprehension. If each count of death represents a life-story, then there are now nearly 30 thousand tragic stories. The print, social and electronic media is full of coverage of its deadly course, and eyes skip every other news to latch on to every tidbit about virus. This author too took up the laptop to write on an event of 813 AD but found it hard to concentrate on anything else than this raging affliction. There are vague estimates on the time that it would take for the virus to play out its course. While it is certain that all earlier virus epidemics and pandemics have ultimately outlived their dangerous course and that a combination of human biology and medical experti...

In his novel titled ‘Love in Time of Cholera’, published in 1985 and set for a probable timeframe of 1870 to 1930, Gabriel Garcia Marquez described in his skilful way, a sublime relationship that transcends being labelled as sensual or platonic. As cholera ravages the countryside of their native Venezuela and dead bodies float in the muddy waters around their ship, Florentino Ariza and his now widowed old flame Fermina Daza, both septuagenarians, ply ‘for ever’ up and down the River Magdalena. A great pestilence has descended upon the world. A miniscule virus, with a diameter of 120 nanometres (10-9) or a mere 10 thousandth of a millimetre, that is incapable of replicating itself without appropriating the cellular machinery of its unsuspecting host, has overwhelmed the medical facilities of the best equipped nations, shattered the prowess of economic giants, halted air, land and sea operations the world over, forced the closure of holiest places of all three Abrahamic religions and h...

In this time of 21st century when a direct flight from Melbourne to Islamabad or one from Lahore to Los Angeles, cruising at a 1,000 km/hr takes just about 14 hours, it is hard to imagine what travel was like before the early 19th century pre-railways era when the only means of commuting over land was a cart or a wagon driven by beasts of burden plying at a leisurely speed of 2 to 3 km/hr on uncertain and unpaved roads. This article will study the means of travel in the pre-railways era and evaluate the social conditions in the absence of a safe and reliable travel conditions. Before introduction of railway in 1830, animals -mainly horse, bullock and camel- provided the driving power for wheeled vehicles. Two-wheeled bullock/ox carts were the preferred beasts of burden in the sub-continent because of their better availability and tolerance for hot humid weather. In Europe, the four-wheeled horse driven wagons were more popular because of equine-friendly environment. Animal driven t...