Sunday, December 22, 2024



By  Mowahid Shah

December 02 , 2005

Macedonia to Multan


The old is fascinated by the new. The new is fascinated by the old. In Pakistan, there is considerable zest for acquiring new things and in discarding old ones. Sometimes it is done in the name of development. In the process, history and heritage occasionally suffer as well as knowledge of the past. A case in point is Multan.
Along with Damascus, Multan is one of the world’s continuously inhabited living cities. It is commonly known as the city of heat, dust, graveyards and mendicants. It is also a key cradle of Sufism. Most prominently it is associated with the great Sufi saints Baha-ud-Din Zakaria (1182-1262), Shams Tabrez (1165-1276) and Rukn-i-Alam (1251-1334). Baba Farid Shakar Ganj of Pakpattan (1173-1265) was born in the Multan area.
Multan has its own unique, charm, culture and crafts. The city has a nice craft bazaar set up by Mr. Qazi formerly of NCA where most of the Multan handcrafts and artifacts are on display, along with artists at work on different crafts, under one roof. The city, however, needs a government-supported and entrepreneur-funded Multan Craft Institute suggested by this scribe. An English daily newspaper would be an additional boost to the city.
Muhammad Bin Qasim took Multan in 712. This much is reasonably known about Multan. What is not well known about Multan is its rich history. It is here where the East met the West nearly 2500 years ago through Alexander the Great who came from Macedonia – also pronounced by the Greeks as Makedonia – receiving an arrow wound at Multan during the battle here from which he never entirely recovered.
Alexander traveled from Macedonia and changed history 2500 years ago. 2500 years later when Pakistanis went to Macedonia in search of livelihood they were rounded up, falsely accused of terrorism, and gunned down by the authorities there. Subsequent investigations implicated high Macedonia officials in that atrocity. Human rights activist Ansar Burney helped highlight it.
Relatively speaking, Australia, New Zealand and the US have little history. Yet, they attract considerable domestic tourists. Americans love visiting Washington during the summer to partake of its sights associated with US Presidents and American history. New Zealanders travel to the Bay of Islands in the North Island and Queenstown in the South Island. Australians go to Sydney’s Botany Bay and to Ayres Rock in the Australian Outback. Such journeys tend to strengthen national pride. All of the foregoing have histories barely 300 years old. Still, tourism there is a major revenue-producing industry.
Sent by the Chief Minister, Punjab, to represent the Punjab Government during the England v. Pakistan cricket test match at Multan, it was difficult to visualize why some erroneously view Multan as a cultural backwater. It is not.
Multan Cricket Stadium was considered by the British media and the Vice Chairman of the England Cricket Board (ECB), Michael Soper and his effervescent wife, Julie, as one of the finest stadiums in the world and the best ground in the region alongside Mohali, Chandigarh. The city also has an excellent restaurant called Zanzibar where the British media contingent used to feast during the evenings. Multan is also renowned for its homemade Baba Ice Cream and its barbequed chops. Multan demonstrated its capacity to host a mega- event. Soper – a close friend of former British PM, John Major – was so impressed with Multan’s history, the courtesy of its inhabitants, and its art, especially its blue pottery, that he told me a part of his heart would always remain in Pakistan.
When the England team was in Multan, the real winner was the city of Multan, which captivated its English visitors with hospitality and decency. In fact, one section of the local crowd waved a huge Union Jack banner. The crowd was well-disciplined and calmly queued to get inside.
It is important that students be made aware of their own heritage and heroes so as to instill self-esteem and self-confidence. Pakistanis, young and old, need encouragement to travel all over Pakistan. It will be a journey of discovery and rediscovery about their own history and, most importantly, their own selves. It shall connect them closer to their nation and closer to all people of Pakistan.

PREVIOUSLY


Clash or Coexistence?

The Radical Behind Reconstruction

POWs & Victors’ Justice

Islam on Campus

Community of Civilizations

Rule of Law or Rule of Men?

Unpredictable Times

The Quiet One

Turkish Model & Principled Resignations

Live and Let Live

Leadership & de Gaulle

Dark Side of Power

2002: The Year of Escalation

Whither US?

Politics, God, Cricket & Sex

The Company of Friends

Missing in Action : The Kofi Case

Accountability & Anger

Casualties of War

A Simple Living

The Nexus & Muslim Nationhood

The Kith and Kin Culture

It Is Spreading

Road to Nowhere

Misrepresenting Muslims

The value of curiosity

Revenge & Riches

The Media on Iraq

The Perils of Sycophancy

Legends of Punjab

Mind & Muscle

Islam & the West: Conflict or Co-Existence?

The Challenge of Disinformation

Britain on the Backfoot

Paisa, Power and Privilege

The Path to Peace

On Intervention

Countering Pressures on Pakistan

A World at War?

Raising the Game

The Argument of Force

Affluence withtout Influence

The Shawdow of Vietnam

Heroes of '54

The Imperative of Human Decency

Hollywood and Hate

Living in Lahore

Fatal Decisions

Singer or the Song

Arrogance

The Power of Moral Legitimacy

The Trouble with Kerry

Green Curtain

A Nation Divided

Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
© 2004 pakistanlink.com . All Rights Reserved.