Category Archives: Books (incl.Biographies – w.e.f.01 jan 2018 )

‘Seethakathi’ who put Kilakarai at the centre of south Indian trade

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Kilakarai (Ramanathapuram District) , TAMIL NADU :

Legends abound in Tamil folklore about the ‘merchant prince’ Shaikh Abdul Qadir, popularly known as Seethakathi. He was one of the earliest regional traders to do business with the Dutch and the British in the 17th Century. A generous patron of the arts, he supported poets Umaru Pulavar, Padikasu Thambiran, Kandasamy Pulavar, and others.

Cultural confluence: The prayer hall of the Grand Jumma Masjid, which is central to the landscape of Kilakarai. It was built in the 17th Century in the Dravidian style of architecture.  | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

In Tamil, Seethakathi is a byword for philanthropy. The adage ‘Seththum kodai kodutthan Seethakathi’ (Even in death, Seethakathi donated generously) is often used to refer to a person’s exemplary munificence. But who was Seethakathi, or rather, Shaikh Abdul Qadir, who also sported the title, Vijaya Raghunatha Periyathambi Marakkayar, endowed by Kilavan Sethupathi?

Legends abound in Tamil folkloric narratives about this ‘merchant prince’ of the coastal town of Kilakarai, in the present day Ramanathapuram district, whose name is variously spelled as ‘Seydakadi’ or ‘Sidakkali’. Actual evidence of his enterprise and influence, however, has survived only in a handful of records and inscriptions of the late 17th Century.

In memoriam

Kilakarai continues to commemorate its famous son. The main thoroughfare here is called ‘Vallal Seethakathi Salai’, and a grand memorial arch in his name on the outskirts welcomes visitors. An annual ‘Seethakathi Vizha’ is organised with panegyric poems and speeches in his honour.

Central to Kilakarai’s landscape, though, is the Grand Jumma Masjid, built in the Dravidian style of architecture, where Seethakathi is interred.

The mosque, said to have been commissioned by Seethakathi or built during his lifetime in the 17th Century over two decades, also houses the graves of his elder brother ‘Pattathu Maraikkar’ Mohamed Abdul Qadir, and the domed mausoleum of the saint-scholar Shaikh Sadaqatullah (known locally as Sadaqatullah Appa), to whom Seethakathi was close, both as disciple and friend. Seethakathi also commissioned the grave of his younger brother Sheikh Ibrahim Marakkayar in Vethalai.

“This mosque has 110 pillars made with stone quarried from the seashore in Valinokkam village. Its style is typical of southern Indian buildings of its time, and is of great interest to researchers because of its unique structure. All the pillars are embellished with floral patterns, and some of them are naturally embedded with seashells,” A.M.M. Kader Bux Hussain Siddiqi Makhdoomi, the town Qazi and ‘Mutawalli’ (administrator) of the Grand Jumma Mosque, told The Hindu.

Blending with locals

According to research by S.M. Hussain Nainar (1899-1963), who was a professor of Arabic, Urdu and Persian at the University of Madras and Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, Arabs and Persians had been trading with the Indian peninsula even before the advent of Islam. Over time, the Arab traders settled along the coast of southern India, and with the coming of Islam, became assimilated with the local population. Most Tamil-speaking Muslims in these regions have Arab ancestry.

Islam’s influence in the Deccan has been noted from the end of the 13th Century, but it peaked only after the mid-17th Century, in the reign of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (1658-1707).

Born to Malla Sahib Periya Thambi Marakkayar and Syed Ahmed Nachiyar, as the second of three sons, Seethakathi hailed from Selvarkulam. The Marakkayars (an abbreviated form of Marakala Rayar) were one of the five early Tamil Muslim communities (the others being Sonakar, Labbai, Turki and Rowther) mentioned in historical texts.

The Marakkayar community was known for its maritime trade, and Seethakathi made his fortune in dealing with pepper, rice, pearls and handloom textiles, among other commodities.

Seethakathi was a close friend of Vijaya Raghunatha Thevar, or Kilavan Sethupathi, a loyal vassal of Chokkanatha Nayak, who helped Thirumalai Nayak in his war against the Mysore army.

Sethupathi cut off ties with Madurai in 1792 and built the Ramalinga Vilasam palace to fortify his position in the region. The palace, set in the middle of a moated campus, has a stone tablet that bears Seethakathi’s name.

The title, ‘Vijaya Raghunatha Periya Thambi’, denoted the affection and trust that Seethakathi enjoyed of his royal friend.

Mughal ‘khalifa’ in Bengal

It is also said Shaikh Sadaqatullah’s mention of Seethakathi’s generosity and character to Emperor Aurangzeb resulted in the ‘merchant prince’ being sent to Bengal as the Mughal ‘khalifa’ (regent). However, Seethakathi decided to resign after a while, as the new environment did not suit him.

Seethakathi’s acumen helped him become one of the earliest regional traders to do business with the Dutch and the British in the 17th Century. He is known to have maintained ventures from the Coromandel Coast to Sri Lanka (Ceylon). The British made contact with Seethakathi in the mid-17th Century.

Nainar’s 1953 book Seethakathi Vallal refers to the correspondence, in 1686-1690, between Seethakathi and the British East India Company’s agents William Gyfford and Elihu Yale negotiating trade in pepper and rice. The Dutch, too, interacted with Seethakathi, first as business rivals, and then as collaborators.

Patron of arts

Seethakathi was a generous patron of the arts, with poets like Umaru Pulavar, Padikasu Thambiran and Kandasamy Pulavar among the many supported by him.

Umaru Pulavar wrote the Seera Puranam, a 5,000-stanza verse biography of Prophet Muhammad in Tamil. Nainar’s book also contains two extant literary works about him: Seethakathi Nondi Nadagam (a Tamil mono-drama) and Thirumana Vaazhthu (felicitation written for Seethakathi’s wedding).

“Over time, many myths have become attached to Seethakathi. As archival documents show, he was a successful businessman and ‘rental farmer’ for the powers of the day. More systematic research of old records would help to highlight the role of Tamil Muslims like Seethakathi in Indian history,” said J. Raja Mohamed, historian and former curator of Pudukottai Government Museum.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> India> Tamil Nadu> In Focus / by Nahla Nainar / October 27th, 2023

3 events in 1979 changed Islamic world, led to extremism, says author Iqbal Hasnain

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UTTAR PRADESH / NEW DELHI :

Padma Shri awardee Iqbal Syed Hasnain’s ‘Fault Lines in the Faith: How Events of 1979 Shaped the Islamic World’ was the topic of an animated discussion at Delhi’s IIC earlier this month.

The ‘Fault Lines in the Faith’ book discussion at IIC | Photo: Heena Fatima | thePrint

New Delhi: 

A series of three momentous events irrevocably changed the social, religious, and political fabric of the Islamic world. And they all took place in 1979. This is the central argument of Padma Shri awardee Iqbal Syed Hasnain’s book Fault Lines in the Faith, which became the topic of a lively discussion among academics and history buffs at Delhi’s India International Centre on an early February evening.

Presiding over the panel discussion in IIC’s conference room, Hasnain, who is also an eminent glaciologist, elaborated on the three “fault lines” that sent shockwaves far beyond their immediate contexts.

First, the Islamic Revolution in Iran cleaved the Muslim world along sectarian lines with the establishment of the first Shia state. Second, the siege of Mecca ignited the conservative Sahwa (Islamic awakening) movement in Saudi Arabia, blending Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist ideologies. And third, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led to the birth of violent extremist groups like al-Qaeda and its offshoots.

“All these three pivotal points led to the surge of fundamentalist or Islamist jihad,” said Hasnain. He added that what began as a “normal struggle between invading forces and local communities” warped from nationalism to a violent ideological shift with devastating repercussions.

Iqbal S Hasnain | Photo: Twitter/@Rupa_Books

Hasnain further elaborated on the global impact of these events by sharing personal anecdotes from his time studying in the UK. He said he encountered strong anti-Western sentiment among students from Middle Eastern countries during his glaciology programme at the University of Manchester in the 1990s. 

During Friday prayers in a large hall, he said, student speakers often delivered khutbahs (sermons) against Western culture and American exploitation of their regions, with some even advocating for jihad. As American involvement in the Middle East increased, especially with the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s, this hostility intensified.

pix: amazon.in

During the book discussion, audience members raised questions about Hasnain’s narrative. One participant, Sumanjeet Choudhary, a retired corporate executive, inquired why there wasn’t more opposition to jihadist activities despite Islam’s rich history and the presence of prominent leaders.

Hasnain countered this view with the example of Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, who has urged Moroccans worldwide to embrace tolerance and reject Islamist extremism.

“King Mohammed VI came out and he stopped the funding [of madrasas] from Saudi Arabia. He changed the whole narrative in the madrasas,” Hasnain said. He acknowledged, however, that while there is an ongoing debate within Muslim communities and their leadership about how to address extremism, it is “not very visible”.

Ripple effects

Hasnain’s book traces the rise of anti-pluralism, misogyny, and severe intolerance within the Arab world. The 1979 Shia Islamic Revolution in Iran, he said, shook the Sunni Arab world. In response, Saudi Arabia, fearing a Shiite revival, actively promoted puritanical Wahhabi Salafism, a strand of Islam that’s deeply hostile not only to Shias but also to Sunni Sufis. He, however, implicates the West as well. In February 1989, after nearly a decade of occupation, the Soviet army left Afghanistan, leaving behind a fractured nation, where tribal warlords and mujahideen groups engaged in an intense tussle for power. The US, having lost interest, “abandoned” the region, he added, leaving a vacuum for the likes of Osama bin Laden to fill.

Ultimately, Hasnain argues that the events of 1979 triggered a chain reaction, including 9/11, the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the rise of al-Qaeda and ISIS. In 2021, in what seems like an eerie echo of the past, the US withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, leaving it with no democratic foundation and back in the grip of the Taliban.

When a participant asked about the impact of the 1979 events on India, Hasnain answered that the after-effects “were not limited to West Asia”, with radicalisation spreading to all corners of the world. “In India, to some extent, it was [mitigated] because India practiced a more moderate form of Islam , Hanafi Sufi Islam, which emphasised trade,” he added.

However, as more Indians went to work in Saudi Arabia, they were influenced by Salafi ideology, Hasnain said. For instance, those who’d grown up celebrating Eid-e-Milad (Prophet Muhammad’s birthday) stopped doing so after stints in Saudi Arabia, where Wahhabis do not observe such festivities.

One of the panel’s members was former Indian ambassador to Qatar KP Fabian. Chiming in, he said that it was important tomonitor developments in Muslim-majority countries, given India’s sizeable Muslim population. There may be political borders but “ideas come without a visa”, he pointed out, and vigilance is essential. He also claimed that Arab countries are keeping an eye on India’s Muslims. “They are watching us,” Fabian said. “They are also discreet.”

(Edited by Asavari Singh)

source: http://www.theprint.in / The Print / Home> Features> Around Town / by Heena Fatima / pix of book edited – source amazon.in / February 29th, 2024

Dehlvi’s book ‘Ishq Sufiyana’ released at WBF in Delhi

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NEW DELHI :

On the concluding day of the World Book Fair 2025, held in at Bharat Mandapam / Pragati Maidan New Delhi from February 1 to February 9, the book “Ishq Sufiyana: untold stories of divine love” by young writer and intellectual Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi was officially launched.

Ishq Sufiyana: Untold Stories of Divine Love / by Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi / image:  blueroseone.com

The book launch ceremony took place at Stall No. 12 in Hall No. 6, with several distinguished personalities in attendance.

Notable figures present at the event included Kamlesh Sharma, former Secretary General of the Commonwealth and former Indian Ambassador to the United Nations (New York and Geneva), Padma Shri Professor Iqbal Hasnain, former Vice-Chancellor of Calicut University, Professor Madhu Khanna, former Director of the Department of Comparative Religions and Spirituality, Jamia Millia Islamia, Dr. Shahid Rasool, Dean of Academics at the Central University of Kashmir, Dr. Anita Benjamin, Founding Director of the Rashtriya Christian Mahasangh, Farooq Wani, Chief Editor of the daily Brighter Kashmir, Syed Abid Gowhar, renowned broadcaster and journalist from Jammu & Kashmir, Tasleema Akhtar, human rights activist, Tahmeena Rizvi, researcher, Dr. Rachika Arora, Syed Affan Yasawi, among others.

During this vibrant event, all the distinguished guests shared their thoughts about the book and its author. Ishq Sufiyana is a unique blend of reality and imagination. It creatively presents the real-life stories of thirty renowned Sufi saints of India.


The book among other Sufi intellects also highlights four revered saints and spiritual figures from the Kashmir Valley, Mir Syed Ali Hamdani (RA), Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Noorani (Nund Rishi) (RA), Sheikh Hamza Makhdum (RA) and Lal Ded (Lalla Arifa)


Additionally, Ishq Sufiyana includes a collection of narratives based on Sufism, ethics, and spirituality, many of which have been previously published in various newspapers and journals. The book aims to inspire seekers of all religions and spiritual traditions to dive into the ocean of divine love. The values and teachings of the personalities featured in the book remain relevant today, helping individuals grasp the depths of divine love that transcend worldly boundaries.


Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi is a well-known Sufi scholar, researcher, critic, speaker, and author based in Delhi. He is fluent in Urdu, Arabic, and Persian and is a trained scholar in Indo-Islamic traditions. He has received in-depth education and training in various spiritual orders, particularly the Naqshbandi, Qadiri, and Chishti Sufi traditions.


He has also undergone spiritual training and initiation under Turkish-origin Naqshbandi Sufi Sheikh Ashraf Effendi (Founder of Sufi Land, Germany). Pir Zia Inayat Khan (Global Head of the Inayati Chishti Sufi Order), American Sufi guide Pir Shabda Khan (Director, Sufism International, USA). He has studied under several esteemed Sufi scholars and spiritual elders in India. Recently, he was invited as a scholar-in-residence at the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship (Philadelphia) and the Awliya Council of North America (New York, USA).

He has also served as an advisor on Islamic affairs for the National Security Council Secretariat, New Delhi.

Moreover, he has participated as a permanent representative of UN-affiliated NGOs at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

The author is also an independent writer, poet, translator, and commentator.

source: http://www.brighterkashmir.com / Brighter Kashmir / Home> Breaking News / by Abid Gowhar / image of publication edited by blueroseone.com / February 12th, 2025

A manuscript that the Madras government published on the skills of Shahjahan’s cooks

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TAMIL NADU :

Nuskha-e-Shahjahani, published by the government under its Oriental Series in 1956, hopes to make readers “eat with their eyes” as there are no photographs in the book to illustrate the dishes. It contains recipes for ‘pulao’, roast meats, pottage and omelettes, puff pastry savouries, sweetmeats, and yogurts.

The unnamed author describes 56 ways of preparing ‘pulao’ in Nuskha-e-Shahjahani.  | Photo Credit: Ruth Dhanaraj

Any mention of the Mughal empire would not be complete without a reference to its rich cuisines. It is interesting to note that as early as 1956, the Government of Madras had brought out a Persian compilation of recipes from the royal kitchen of Mughal Emperor Shahjahan.

Nuskha-e-Shahjahani, published by the government under its Oriental Series, is a cookbook that hopes to make readers “eat with their eyes”, though there are no photographs to illustrate the dishes. The compendium relies on word power to conjure up images of what may have transpired as expert cooks went about creating repasts fit for a king.

Nuskha-e-Shahjahani is based on two source materials. The first is a single Persian paper manuscript described under No. D.596, containing 186 pages with 11 to 14 lines on a page, dated 1263 A. H., from the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library in Madras. The other is from the India Office Library in London, which is incomplete, with nine sections that are written in the Shikista (a ‘broken’ version of the nasta’liq calligraphic script), and titled Nan-O-Namak (Bread and Salt).

Its 10 sections contain detailed recipes for ‘pulao’ (rice and meat dishes), roast meats, pottage and omelettes, puff pastry savouries, sweetmeats, and yogurts. Colouring of food and oil, with natural methods, besides the preparations of jams and condiments from fresh fruit, all find a mention in Nuskha-e-Shahjahani.

The unnamed author is a man familiar with culinary arts. He describes 56 ways of preparing ‘pulao’ and 36 recipes for ‘Qaliah’, a flavourful thin curry.

Love of display

In his introduction to the 1956 volume, editor Syed Muhammad Fazlullah writes, “Shahjahan is considered to be a lover of display in all matters compared to the other Mughal emperors. His reign was a period of peace and plenty… His table was very extensive and displayed a variety of rich dishes. The high degree of excellence of the royal kitchen can be imagined from the study of Nuskha-e-Shahjahani.”

The Mughals were known to pay considerable attention to their food and its presentation. Emperor Akbar, for instance, appointed experienced men to look after the cooking, and also devised rules for the conduct of the royal kitchen, which was administered by the Prime Minister. The officer-in-charge was called ‘Mir Bakaul’, who would oversee the work of subordinate expert cooks appointed from different countries. A separate budget was maintained for the kitchens.

Written down by scribes

“After translating a collection of ‘pulao’ recipes in 2007 from Nuskha-e-Shahjahani, I realised that there may be other manuscripts related to recipes from the Mughal era,” Gurgaon-based food historian and author Salma Yusuf Husain told The Hindu. The Persian language scholar’s English translation of Nuskha-e-Shahjahani was published in 2019 as The Mughal Feast: Recipes from the Kitchen of Emperor Shah Jahan.

Ms. Husain’s search led her to noted libraries and museums in India and abroad. “Most of the recipes were written down by the official scribe known as ‘Munshi’. Besides Nuskha-e-Shahjahani, Ain-al-Akbari, Alwan-e-Nemat and Nimatnama-i-Nasiruddin-Shahi are among the handful of food-related manuscripts from this era,” she said.

The Nawabs of Awadh followed the Mughals by opting for elaborate menus. Editor Fazlullah mentions that the food expenditure in the kitchen of Nawab Shujauddaulah came up to ₹7 lakh per year, apart from the salaries of the cooks and other staff. It is said that Nawab Salarjung’s cook earned ₹1,200 per month.

But what passes for Mughal food is just an Indianised version of the original, said Ms. Husain. “The Mughals used only three to four spices, such as cumin, coriander, and saffron, besides a variety of dry fruits in their dishes, so their dishes would have been bland. The Portuguese brought chillies to the Indian platter during the latter half of Shahjahan’s reign. Mughal food in India today tastes more of spicy gravies cooked in oil rather than the base ingredient,” she said.

Though the taste profile may have changed, some techniques have lingered. The Mughals had a penchant for slow cooking and grilling, allowing ingredients to stew in their own juices.

“‘Zer biryan’ was a technique where wooden sticks would be laid out on the base of the pan, and marinated meat would be placed on top. The pot would be heated slowly and the meat would cook without coming into contact with the vessel. When half-done, par-boiled rice would be spread over the meat, and the vessel would be sealed and cooked on dum (heat compress),” said Ms. Husain. Contrary to perception, vegetarian recipes were plentiful. Dishes like ‘navratan pulao’ and ‘pulao-e-anardana’ (made with pomegranate seeds) and gravies with chickpeas were commonly prepared.

Government initiative

Nuskha-e-Shahjahani was among the many rare manuscripts to be taken up for publication by the Government of Madras from early 1948. Lists were made from the collections of Sarasvati Mahal Library in Thanjavur and the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library in Madras and publication was overseen by expert committees drawn from the academia of the time.

The Madras Government Oriental Series published rare manuscripts in Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Persian, and Arabic from the Madras institution, while those in Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Sanskrit were selected from the Sarasvati Mahal Library. In a world where food is integral to televised entertainment, with nearly everyone a ‘master chef’, thanks to social media, Nuskha-e-Shahjahani harks back to a time when cooking was as much an art as a science.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> India> Tamil Nadu / by Nahla Nainar / January 24th, 2024

A pioneering effort to translate the holy book of Islam into Tamil in full

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Attur (Salem) / Karaikal / Chennai , TAMIL NADU :

On February 19, 1926, A.K. Abdul Hameed Baqavi started off on a journey that would take him over two decades to complete. His translation of The Quran, which is written in classical Arabic and organised in 114 chapters, took time. But the elegant style of the work, published in 1949, has made it one of the most enduring versions.

Painstaking work: The Tamil translation of The Quran by Islamic scholar and freedom fighter A.K. Abdul Hameed. | Photo Credit: M. MOORTHY

On February 19, 1926, Tamil Islamic scholar and freedom fighter A.K. Abdul Hameed Baqavi (1876-1955) embarked on a literary journey that would take him over two decades to complete. His chosen subject: translation of the meaning of The Quran from Arabic into Tamil.

Abdul Hameed was not the first; nor was he the last to attempt the Tamil translation. But his effort, published as Tarjumat-ul-Quran bi Altaf-ilbayan (Translation of the Quran with a Glorious Exposition) in 1949, was the first complete translation of the Islamic holy book into Tamil. The Quran, written in classical Arabic, is believed by Muslims to have been revealed by God to Prophet Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel over 23 years. It is organised in 114 chapters, known as surah.

Despite the presence of a sizeable Muslim population in southern India, The Quran was translated into Tamil quite late, at least a thousand years after Islam came to the region, mostly due to opposition from the ulema or scholars of the day on account of fears that a Tamil version might be wrongly considered a substitute for the original. Ironically, it is the ulema who later entered the field of translation.

Hybrid language

The earliest translations were done in the 17th Century, in Arabu-Tamil, a hybrid language that used a modified Arabic alphabet to express ideas in Tamil. Scholars began attempting fragmentary Tamil translations (of selected sentences or verses) in the 19th Century. Abdul Hameed Baqavi’s effort was noteworthy because it made Quranic study more accessible to both lay and scholarly readers. That is probably why it has been reprinted innumerable times, despite the presence of at least 17 complete Tamil translations done by other scholars after its publication.

‘Baqavi’ is the title given to students of Madrasa Al-Baqiyat-us-Salihat, a well-regarded Islamic college in Vellore established in 1857.

Abdul Hameed was born at Attur, Salem, and showed an early interest in writing on religious subjects.

The founders of Jamal Mohamed College in Tiruchi played a key role in getting Abdul Hameed’s translation project off the ground, funding the publication of the first volume, a copy of which is available at the college’s Centre for Islamic Tamil Cultural Research. “I began the translation project on February 19, 1926, after the Friday (Juma) prayers at the bungalow of Janab Khan Sahib and N.M. Khaja Mian Rowther in Tiruchi. It has been three years since I started it,” he writes in the foreword to the first volume of the translation, published in 1929. “If the first section can take me three years, readers may have to wait longer (at least 89 years) for each of the remaining 29 sections to be completed,” he adds. Imported printing equipment was commissioned by college founder M.J. Jamal Mohamed. The press, Islamiya Nool Prasura Sangam, at Palakkarai published the first volume, priced at ₹2.

Decades of work

It is a mystery as to why the translation that began in Tiruchi with much fanfare petered out after 1929. A. Nihamathullah, retired professor of English at Sadakatullah Appa College in Tirunelveli, who has done a comparative study of 12 Tamil Quran translations (including the Abdul Hameed version) for his doctorate, said a lack of documents in the public domain had added to the blind spot.

“In 1938, scholar Abdul Qadar Hazrat introduced Abdul Hameed Baqavi to Nawab Naseer Yaar Jung Bahadur, the father-in-law of the Nizam of Hyderabad. On the recommendation of the Nawab, the translation of The Quran resumed, with financial backing from the Nizam,” Mr. Nihamathullah told The Hindu. An office was set up for the project in Karaikal and the work was eventually completed in 1942. In order to get the Ulema’s approval, Baqavi approached his Vellore alma mater to constitute a panel of theologians to check the manuscript.

In the later stages, he was helped by his son, Indian Union Muslim League leader and Tamil writer A. K. A. Abdul Samad (1926-1999). However, it took five more years for Abdul Hameed to secure funding for printing. A contribution of ₹50,000 by Ceylon-based businessman Nagore Meera Mohamed Haniffa helped to publish the two-volume translation in 1949. As the project expanded, the printing unit was shifted from Karaikal to Chennai.

A winning combination

German scholar Torsten Tschacher, a Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and Tamil lecturer at the University of Heidelberg, said in an email interview that the popularity of Abdul Hameed Baqavi’s translation owes much to its presentation.

“It did not have any readings of The Quran that would have made the translation appear sectarian. The fact that [Abdul Hameed] Baqavi avoided giving too much of commentary, along with the translation, may have helped in this regard,” he said. “While the style may appear somewhat clumsy and old-fashioned, I think he hit the right spot between the exact translation and the quality of language. It was also important because it made The Quran finally accessible to non-Muslims who had not been able to read the earlier translations that used the Arabic script and a lot of Arabic vocabulary,” Mr. Tschacher added.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> India> Tamil Nadu / by Nahla Nainar / January 03rd, 2025

Memory as rebellion

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Chennai, TAMIL NADU / Madison (WI) , U.S. A. :

In ‘The Lucky Ones’, Zara Chowdhary, who survived the 2002 Gujarat riots, recasts her memories into a bold assertion of identity beyond trauma.

the 2002 riots. | Photo Credit: JANAK PATEL

Most of us suck at telling the truth. We would rather dress up facts into stories, tie them up with a neat disclaimer: this is a work of fiction. A memoirist is a person so caught in the nuclear fallout of overpowering, unspeakable facts that she must set aside the pretense of fiction and simply assert, this happened. Saying “I lived through this” becomes a way to unpin the self from the yoke of a toxic and restrictive past. Calling things by their name frees the soul.

But writing a memoir is a tricky terrain to navigate. Why should the world be concerned with what happened to someone? How is anyone to know if the person is telling the truth? They may simply be begging for cheap pity by recounting some traumatic truth. Even when a memoir is truthful, trauma tends to constitute a totalising identity, says the literary critic Parul Sehgal of The New Yorker, by making a singular event the whole story, the definitive story. From this point of view, the very claim of truth a trauma narrative makes is suspect.

Most of us suck at telling the truth. We would rather dress up facts into stories, tie them up with a neat disclaimer: this is a work of fiction. A memoirist is a person so caught in the nuclear fallout of overpowering, unspeakable facts that she must set aside the pretense of fiction and simply assert, this happened. Saying “I lived through this” becomes a way to unpin the self from the yoke of a toxic and restrictive past. Calling things by their name frees the soul.

But writing a memoir is a tricky terrain to navigate. Why should the world be concerned with what happened to someone? How is anyone to know if the person is telling the truth? They may simply be begging for cheap pity by recounting some traumatic truth. Even when a memoir is truthful, trauma tends to constitute a totalising identity, says the literary critic Parul Sehgal of The New Yorker, by making a singular event the whole story, the definitive story. From this point of view, the very claim of truth a trauma narrative makes is suspect.

The Lucky Ones: A Memoir / By Zara Chowdhary
Context / Pages: 342 / Price: Rs.699 

Zara Chowdhary’s memoir of coming of age in 2002 Ahmedabad incinerates all such reservations in the first few pages. The title sets the tone by making the point that it was her family’s great fortune to have survived “those days” physically unscathed. The narrative begins with the terrible feeling of being a marked people, of living holed up in a flat “waiting for the mob to find us” in a city where laws and rules have ceased to exist, closeted with a dysfunctional family. Around them, headlines spew hate, rumours fly, and black smoke fills up the sky and the television screen. The narrative moves inward and holds to light multiple threads of identity that bind her people in one family, her family to the city and its society, and the citizens to a nation. This brings a deep awareness of how violence within the family or outside unravels the most essential, joyful aspects of any identity whether one is a victim or the perpetrator.

The facts around which the narrative unfolds have been so extensively documented, written about, probed by courts, parliaments, tribunals, and fact-finding missions that they constitute the nation’s subterranean truth. The author intersperses reportage with lived experience, weaves Gujarat’s history with her own family’s past, to provide context to her endeavour of processing the anger at what she experienced and helplessness with her father’s denial and minimising of it, which was the only way he knew to cope.

Curfewed terror

Early on, Zara came to the realisation that no strongman could save them.

“…The madness in our home, like in the rest of this country lay in our search for a strongman. In our home no man is strong enough. Dada is haunted by how he failed. Papa withers under the burden of his own mistakes. The women become dictators….”

In the city that is the only home she knows, Zara is preparing for her board exams in the cramped and dark family home while “history is happening on the streets”. For the next three months as the city burns, the eighth-floor family home, C-8 Jasmine, in a 40-year-old building in a Muslim area, will be their prison. Zara approaches the task of reliving those days by opening the door on the othering and suffocation experienced within the four walls of her own home. Her Gujarati-speaking Dadi considers her south Indian mother an outsider. Proud of her anglicised antecedents, her college-educated Dadi—who came of age in the pre-Independence years when her elite family were people of consequence in the city—holds sway over the household. She grew up playing badminton and dancing at the club and even now wears chiffons and pearls.

Disgruntled with the gradual lowering of their status and circumstances, Dadi kept her Punjabi Muslim “peasant” husband on a tight leash until he passed away and hates her dusky south Indian daughter-in-law. Both her granddaughters are terrified of her. Zara’s father, a pampered, educated-in-the-US son, is now a mid-level employee in the electricity board who faces daily humiliation in the office because he is a Muslim. Unable to either assert himself or to take the microaggressions in his stride, he copes by drinking heavily and bullying his wife, often encouraged in this by his mother. In view of the deteriorating situation, her father’s younger sister phupo, an imperious college professor and a divorcee who lives on “the other (Hindu) side of the city”, also moves into their flat with her daughter, who is a superior and disdainful apa to Zara and Misba.

Struggling to make sense of her family is a part of her struggle to process the curfewed terror of those three months. Why was her father so easily bullied by the world? Why was he so willing to undermine his wife all the time? Why did her intelligent, honey-eyed mother submit so willingly? Zara’s prose carries the weight of every question and reveals that belonging and unbelonging are not givens but manufactured prejudices “that offer security but in return [for] your unquestioning loyalty”. Whether in families or in nations.

Everyone in her family has a past made of things that make them less hateful. Dadi—who loves to spread disinformation about her daughter-in-law, which Zara’s father is only too ready to believe—is at her best when dancing the garba. The only time she is proud of her twinkle-toed granddaughters is when they are doing the bhangra or the garba. Just as flying kites during Uttarayan is her father’s secret superpower.

Denial, diminishment, erasure

To understand why her family is the way they are, Zara gently probes the past of each family member—which is also her past. Thus, she can look at what they do without losing the gifts that her diverse heritage brings. Examining the fault lines within her own house enables her to ask the question of home and belongingness at multiple levels. This question that simmers inside chants and slogans hurled from across the dry riverbed also lurks in the animosities in her own house. The denial, diminishment, erasure practised within the family as on the streets is a game of numbers and power. The excavation of family politics lends great moral clarity to Zara’s examination of other alienations inflicted upon them, and gratitude for the things that sustain them. What sustains the girls is their mother’s love, the hope inspired by the kindnesses of their Hindu friends, and above all their ability to dance to Bollywood numbers even in terrible times, because what is the alternative?

When the curfew is partially let up, it is time for Zara to write the now meaningless examinations in centres located (deliberately) in Hindu localities. Some even inside temples. Her rattled family steps out for the first time, and more than the exams her focus is on trying to look like a non-Muslim. She thanks her mother’s wisdom in giving her a neutral sounding name. Once the exams end, her rich Hindu classmates, who never once called up to check on her all through the terrible months of March and April, blithely propose an outing. Zara declines, citing the situation. Her friend counters by scoffing: “What rubbish yaar, there’s been no curfew for months.”

This heart-wrenching moment stays with the reader. In this moment, the young Zara registers the difference between herself and “them”—whose cushy lives never stopped in the tracks because of unremitting violence. Who never experienced the terror that reduced her family, her building, her Muslim neighbourhood to a bundle of nerves.

“Our loss doesn’t exist. Our pain isn’t real, it never happened. Their malls still brim, their restaurants fill with chatter… while we live hunkered in our own homes…. We live in two different Ahmedabads, two different Gujarats, two different Indias.”

All these experiences sharpen her ability “to distinguish between the oppressed and the oppressor” and bring in her “a refusal to live life as either”. This clarity enables her to wrest back the agency denied to her by her city. Her need to be not defined by trauma shines throughout the book. She has taken her lessons but also come to the realisation that her faith and belongingness as an Indian Muslim are not what others get to define. Her unique identity comes to her through the Punjabi, Gujarati, south Indian Islamic strands of her family, and no one else’s definitions can wrest this away from her. A text of such radical empathy can emerge only when the author has unflinchingly held the sharp blade of memory, of times unspeakable and times happy, in her bare hands and stayed with them until out of the silence emerges her truth, her belongingness story, her way out of the dungeon of erasure.

Varsha Tiwary is a Delhi-based writer and translator. She recently published 1990, Aramganj, a translation of the bestselling Hindi novel Rambhakt Rangbaz.

source: http://www.frontline.thehindu.com / Frontline / Home> Books> Book Review / by Varsha Tiwary / January 14th, 2025

New ground-breaking Book on Gynaecological and Obstetric Care co-authored by Dr Fahmeeda Zeenat of AMU & Hakim Mohd Afsahul Kalam, Research Scientist at RRIUM

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Aligarh, UTTAR PRADESH :

Aligarh :

The Department of Niswan wa Qabalat, Faculty of Unani Medicine at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), has announced the release of a new book, Mualajat Amrad-i-Niswan-o-Qabalat, authored by Dr. Fahmeeda Zeenat, and Hakim Mohd Afsahul Kalam, Research Scientist at RRIUM, Kashmir.

The book presents comprehensive treatment regimens for various gynaecological disorders and obstetric complications, offering a unique integration of Unani medical principles with modern healthcare approaches. It is poised to be an essential reference for medical practitioners and students specializing in women’s health.

The launch coincided with the National Workshop on Managing Menopause, organized by the Department of Niswan wa Qabalat on February 24.

The event was presided over by Professor Asfar Ali Khan, with Dr. Kausar Usman, a distinguished physician from KGMU, Lucknow, as the Chief Guest. His keynote address provided an in-depth analysis of contemporary challenges in menopause management, blending clinical expertise with evidence-based insights.

Dr. Zeenat’s work represents a significant advancement in the field of Unani medicine, exhibiting AMU’s commitment to research and innovation in healthcare.

source: http://www.amu.ac.in / Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) / Home> News / by Public Relations Office, AMU (headline edited) / February 25th, 2025

Dr Vakeel Ahmed Khan honored with ‘Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Outstanding Educator Award 2025’

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Aligarh, UTTAR PRADESH :

Aligarh :

Dr. Vakeel Ahmad Khan, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Aligarh Muslim University, has been awarded “Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Outstanding Educator Award 2025” under the International EARG Awards 2025 in recognition of his contributions to teaching and research.

The Entrepreneurs, Academicians, and Researchers Guild (EARG) organized this award, with the 2025 edition hosted by the MathTech Thinking Foundation, an international association of STEM professionals based in Fazilka, Punjab, in collaboration with the Sharda University, Greater Noida.

Dr. Khan has authored two textbooks, Basics of Functional Analysis and Basics of Differential Equations, and published 188 research papers in reputed international journals.

He is also associated with Mathematical Reviews USA as a reviewer.

source: http://www.amu.ac.in / Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) / Home> News / by Public Relations Office, AMU / March 03rd, 2025

Darul Musannefin – Azamgarh’s Pride

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Azamgarh, UTTAR PRADESH :

Darul Musannefin, an institute established to propagate the rich cultural heritage of Urdu, Arabic and Persian texts through the institute’s publications and magazine, was established in 1914 by Maulana Shibli Nomani

Darul Musannefin, an institute established to propagate the rich cultural heritage of Urdu, Arabic and Persian texts through the institute’s publications and magazine, was established in 1914 by Maulana Shibli Nomani.

However, over the years like many other institutes associated with the Muslim community in India, this institute has fallen on bad days courtesy the apathy of the governments and the community’s disinterest with anything associated with its cultural and academic heritage.

When we talk about the rich heritage of Urdu books, then every Urdu lover bemoans that the government is not doing enough for saving and promoting the Urdu language – a language which binds at least 70% of Indians, socially and literally.

Yet, few of us ponders that what the Urdu lovers themselves are doing for saving and promoting the language. Their concern becomes abundantly clear by the everyday decreasing sales of Urdu books and newspapers. Further, what they are doing to save institutions which have been the flagbearers in propagating and saving the language by publishing books on different topics in Urdu. The answer is pretty obvious: nothing concrete except bemoaning and using hollow words.

One such institution is Darul Musannefin or Shibli Academy, just like the Rampur raza library of Rampur or the Khuda Baksh Library of Patna, in addition to a vast repertoire of books in private collections of individuals and organisations throughout India.

Darul Musannefin or Shibli Academy is a research academy based in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh. Its aim was to add authentic historical literature in Urdu so that people could have easy access to history. It was started as Darul Musannefin but later it was named after its founder Shibli Nomani.

Maulana Shibli Nomani, a Sunni Muslim scholar established it in Azamgarh in February 1914; after failing to establish the Academy in Lucknow, it was established in Azamgarh at Nomani’s mango orchard. It started working on 21 November 1914, 3 days after Maulana Nomani’s death under the guidance of Maulana Hamiduddin Farahi. Other founders included Maulana Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, Maulana Abdus Salam Nadvi and Maulana Masood Ali Nadvi.

Established just three days after Shibli’s death in 1914, the Academy is a leading institution of Oriental, Islamic and Mediaeval Indian Studies, and Azamgarh’s pride. It occupies nine acres donated by Shibli and his relatives. The centrepiece is a beautiful whitewashed building housing a massive library of over 1.5 lakh books and around 700 manuscripts, some of them rare, and an office.

Staff residences, the mosque and a conference hall stand apart.

Shibli Academy: A Treasure Trove

The Academy’s library is a treasure trove. Its spacious central hall is furnished with sofas and chairs, which have been graced by personalities ranging from Mahatma Gandhi, to Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandi or in other words virtually every Indian Prime Minister and President, except the present dispensation, and scores of other Indian and foreign dignitaries. “Here have sat dozens of famous dignitaries,” Academy’s senior fellow Mohammed Umair Siddique Nadvi, told me on my recent visit to the acclaimed institute.

Mohammed Umair showed me rare books and manuscripts, including Persian translations of Ramayan and Mahabharata, and Sirr-e-Akbar, Persian translation of the Upanishads by Mughal prince Dara Shikoh, a great scholar. The excellent condition in which most of these rare books have been preserved over the years shows the dedication of the institution’s staff despite meagre resources. The gold embossed titles and pages decorated with gold border still retain their sheen.

[Akbar Nama (L) and Monsiual Arwah]

Another gem is Monisul Arwah, a book on Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti by Dara’s sister Jahanara. “This is our most prized possession which Maulana Shibli found at an old bookshop in Lucknow and bought for Rs 100 in 1906. It was very dear to him and travelled to an international exhibition of rare manuscripts in Paris,” says Nadvi.

There’s a section where testimonies of some famous visitors, including Mahatma Gandhi, Madan Mohan Malaviya and Maulana Azad, are kept. Motilal Nehru and Jawaharlal Nehru, stayed at the Academy several times during their visits to Azamgarh. When Gandhi first visited it in the 1920s, the Academy’s founding secretary, Maulana Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, showed him the library by lantern light since electricity supply was erratic.

Another famous visitor was Bi Amma, mother of Muhammad Ali Jauhar and Shaukat Ali, freedom fighters and Khilafat Movement leaders better known as the Ali brothers. But while the Academy is Azamgarh’s pride, it faces a severe financial crunch. It has only one librarian, 48-year-old Saleem Javed, son of the Academy’s former director Maulana Ziauddin Islahi, to look after the vast collection.

“I do whatever I can, but it is not possible for one person to look after so many books. I opened my eyes on this campus and have been working here for around 25 years, and will continue to do so.” says Javed, apparently resigned to his and the institute’s fate.

The funding crunch prevents the management from hiring more staff and expediting translation and digitisation of titles from Arabic, Persian and Urdu into other Indian languages and English.

Future of Darul Musannefin

The Academy’s primary purpose is to protect and propagate the scientific, authentic history and rational interpretations of Islam. It also upholds Hindu-Muslim harmony, or the much talked about Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb, and sheds light on the life and times of Maulana Shibli, yet so far no one has come forward to help the institute and its committed staff to restore the institute to its former glory. Before Independence, it received grants from Nizam of Hyderabad, Nawab of Bhopal, and others. But now that those streams have dried up, many say the cash-starved institution should look beyond its four walls.

Maulana Shibli had donated his own land with a mango orchard and persuaded close relatives to donate parcels of their land for Darul Musannefin, the library, printing press and publication of Maarif, the monthly journal founded in July 1916.

Since Urdu is shrinking, the library’s patrons have dwindled over the years.Today, it would help if more people started subscribing to Maarif for Rs 10,000 as a life member or even if subscribing to the same for Rs 400 or Rs 1800 towards annual or five years subscription, as a corpus of Rs 10 crore can bail out the institution and help implement its future development plans. In this regard any of the big business houses can also help, as part of their CSR responsibility.

(The writer, Asad Mirza, is a New Delhi-based senior commentator on national, international, defence and strategic affairs, environmental issues, an interfaith practitioner, and a media consultant.)

source: http://www.ummid.com / Ummid.com / Home> Special Report / by Asad Mirza / February 25th, 2025

It’s an honour for Kannada, says writer Banu Mushtaq

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Hassan, KARNATAKA :

Heart Lamp is one among the 13 books chosen by the 2025 International Booker Prize judging panel, headed by Max Porter.

Banu Mushtaq. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu

“It is an honour for Kannada that a work written in our language is getting this recognition,” said Hassan-based Kannada writer, advocate and activist Banu Mushtaq, whose collection of stories Heart Lamp, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, has found a place in the long list for the International Booker Prize 2025.

Heart Lamp is one among the 13 books chosen by the 2025 judging panel, headed by Max Porter. The judges made their selection from 154 books submitted by publishers. The shortlist of books will be announced on April 8 and the winner will be announced on May 20.

Heart Lamp, is a collection of 11 short stories written by Banu Mushtaq between 1990 and 2023. “So far I have brought out six collections of short stories in Kannada. Among them, 11 were chosen for the collection Heart Lamp,” said Ms. Mushtaq.

What judges said

The judge panel, in its comment on the collection, stated, “Written in a style at once witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating, it’s in her characters – the sparky children, the audacious grandmothers, the buffoonish maulvis and thug brothers, the off-hapless husbands, and the mothers above all, surviving their feelings at great cost – that Musthaq emerges as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature, building disconcerting emotional heights out of a rich spoken style.”

Earlier, an English translation of a collection of her short stories Haseena and Other Stories won English PEN translation award for the year 2024. That was also translated by Deepa Bhasthi.

Early years

Ms. Mushtaq began writing in the progressive literary movement in Karnataka in the 1970s and 1980s, which gave voice to several people from dalit and minority communities, including strong women’s voices in Ms. Mushtaq.

Some of her early writings were published in Lankesh Patrike, for whom she also worked as a correspondent for some years. The writer remains a committed voice in the progressive circles, and remained critical of forces that divide people among lines of caste, class, gender and religion.

Among her important works are Hejje Moodida Haadi, Benki-Male, Edeya Hanate, Badavara Magalu Hennalla (short stories), Kubra (novel) Odde Kannina Baagina (poetry), Ibbaniya Kaavu (essays) and Kautumbika Daurjanya Kayide (on Domestic Violence Act). Haseena has also been made into a film, directed by Girish Kasaravalli.

The late Kannada writer and Jnanpith awardee U.R. Ananthamurthy was also nominated for Man Booker International Prize in 2013, but did not win it.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> Author / by The Hindu Bureau / February 26th, 2025