Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Astarabadi, was a Persian historian, who later settled in India and served the Deccan sultans as their court historian. ![]() Whatever is available in the books of historiography is summarised in the lines that follow. Not much is known about the personal history of our protagonist. The autonomy of the orientalist discourse stands challenged by this “path-breaking” assertion.īefore proceeding any further, it would be worthwhile to provide some perspective on Qasim Firishta and his book. The British administrative-historian who later wrote extensively on India had been instructed through the historical lens, provided by the protagonist of this write-up. Orientalism is “a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.” Moreover, it is a way of coming to terms with the Orient (the East) that is based on the Orient’s special place in the European Western culture and experience. Orientalism is a much talked about term, brought to pre-eminence by literary theorist, Edward Said, in his seminal work Orientalism. It offered a lot to contemplate, as well as converse about, to the academics who had congregated on the occasion. This – the construction of the orientalist knowledge about India premised on a book of history written by an Indo-Persian historian, Muhammad Qasim Firishta – is, indeed, a path-breaking assertion. The point that Dr Asif quite persuasively underscores in the book is the seminality of Tarikh-i-Firishta in the construction of the image and impression about the orient among the Western literati. Much of the debate at the launch of the book centred on the under-emphasised importance of Tarikh-i-Firishta. Folio books (Lahore) have brought out a beautifully produced volume that was launched at Idara-i-Taleef-o-Tarjama at the University of the Punjab.Īll credit for the launch of the book goes to Prof Zahid Munir Amir, currently the director of the institute. He is an associate professor of history at the Columbia University, New York. He local edition of Dr Manan Ahmed Asif’s book, The Loss of Hindustan: The Invention of India is out. When not travelling, he works part-time as a translator and interprete r in five languages. Now retired from public service with the federal government, he travels as often as possible. įather o f two and grandfather to four, Azmi now lives with his beloved wife of over four decades in Australia. He has also written hundreds of newspaper columns on current affairs, social issues, and topics of general interest. His latest book, “A World Unveiled: Joys & Jitters of Many Journeys”, has been published by Folio Books, Lahore (Pakistan). Azmi is the author of three books and over twenty articles in resear ch journals. He has taught at universities in Pakistan, US and Morocco, participated in seminars, read papers and given talks in many countries.ĭr. in modern history from Miami University, Ohio. He went to universities in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Russia and the United States (in that order), getting his Ph.D. Razi Azmi was born in 1950 in what is now Bangladesh of parents who had recently migrated from their ancestral home in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, India. From rural Bangladesh to the charged immigration desk of Australia’s busiest airport, Azmi’s gift for anecdote s brings to life his many encounters with students, colleagues, and strangers, both friendly and deceitful, and raises important questions about human nature, personal identity, and patriotic delusion. While his freethinking ways land him into a KGB honey trap in Soviet Russia, his precocity averts a CIA attempt to recruit him as an “asset” in Morocco. The author’s youthful immersion into revolutionary activity ends in personal tragedy and his wanderlust takes him to places others avoid. When people ask Razi Azmi “Where are you from?” he takes a deep breath, wondering whether to reply with one word or ask, “How much do you want to know?” From his childhood encounters with “son of the soil” syndrome and the creation of new nations and states under his feet, the story of Azmi’s eventful, peripatetic life will transport the reader over seven decades across many cultures and countries spanning five continents. ![]() People’s life experiences may be as wide-ranging as their physical appearances.
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