Einstein, an eminent Physicist, said the only source of knowledge is experience. And it is also an Arabic proverb: Voyage is an inception of information.
History books feed abstract data; Who would recast it into coherent knowledge with peripatetic dispatch? Indeed, it is traveling. The reason is that traveling allows you to observe your bookish details on the natural horizon. The elegant sum of knowledge gained from experience and Journey can excel you in the precise historical understanding of the past.
Second, Journey provokes you to debate wandering information among traveling counterparts. Instinct curiosity pushes you to scan your surroundings. Ultimately, you chitchat with colleagues about what you glimpse. This dialogue helps you to expand your thinking horizon. Once, Prof. Dr. Shahzeb Khan demonstrated a similar idea: Book reading is crucial for University students, but debate culture is far more climactic.
A few daytimes ago, I visited Old Lahore along with the members of the CHEP Scientific Society and the Honorable Professors. I admire the endeavors of Dr. Madiha Nazish, a senior research fellow at the Center, in opting for the visited venue.
In light of the above-defined paradigm, I want to convey my fetched analysis at old Lahore in four modules.
Firstly, the Mughal empires should have made serious efforts to educate the inhabitants. The historical sites we discovered were Shahi Hamam or Royal Bath, also known as Wazir khan Hamam, constructed during the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan in 1635 C.E. It functioned as a waqf, or endowment, for the supervision of the Wazir Khan Mosque. Plenty of finance flooded for public entertainment for no gain. In 2016, The estimated cost of the repair was about Rs39.5 million. Norwegian Embassy sponsored the site rehabilitation project. The narrator told us that no mass schooling project began on these spots. However, when the British controlled India after 1857, they took the initiative of pre-schooling for pupils. But it is one flank of the coin, the narrator voiced.
British project of teaching in India was for something other than mass education. White colonizers demanded cheap labor, which could aid their obvious purpose of corrupting the existing system. They implemented a brain drain strategy on local employees in terms of education.
They readied the local force to support their orders. According to Indian Education Act 1835, Among Macaulay’s proposals were the quick stopping of the printing by the East India Company of Arabic and Sanskrit books and that the enterprise should not resume supporting traditional education outside “the Sanskrit College at Benares and the Mahometan College at Delhi” (which he believed adequate to maintain formal learning).
Colonizers killed the ancient Indian wisdom of medicine, also known as ilm e tib. The narrator told us that the British raised the western modes of cure to influence the current system. They spread medical dispensaries in these historical sites to eradicate the Muslim practice of tib, which originated from the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (Be Peace Upon Him).
True, It is a philosophy of colonization that always push inferior the local system and consider the outer system superior. Indeed, an approach to racism!
Mosques should have functioned as institutions of religious education and learning places of other contemporary knowledge in the Mughal Dynasty. Second, the site we trolled was Mosque Wazir Khan. During the supremacy of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, the mosque was designated as a part of a costume of buildings that included the nearby Shahi Hammam baths. Construction of the Wazir Khan Mosque commenced in 1634 C.E. and was terminated in 1641. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage pending List. I questioned the Imam Mosque. He told me that there was no coalition of the Madrassah with the mosque and no religious education arrangement.
No academic activity was going on! Imam Mosque added, Look! Those small cube chambers in front of you. He took us to tiny ancient living homes built for the passengers inside the courtyard.
However, Islamic civilization’s Golden era of sciences shows the opposing outlook. That reign in which science blossomed in Muslim Land began in the 8th century and remained active till the 14th century. This period usually arrives during the term of the Abbasid Caliph, Harun Al Rashid (786 to 809), with the opening of the House of Wisdom (Darul Hikam) in Baghdad. At this observatory, prominent intellectuals from various territories reached and decoded the scientific knowledge of the Greeks into Arabic and Aramaic. In addition, those Medieval lands gave genesis to great scientists. M Sharif, a social scientist, wrote in his book, In Iraq, five thousand individuals visited mosques to study current knowledge of that time. Curious readers can watch a fantastic documentary on “Islam and Science by Jim Al Khalili on Youtube in this reference.
Why did science dwindle in the Muslim world? Indeed! It is a complicated inquiry. Diverse factors contributed to the downslope of glory. So, I will address it in another column.
To conclude, members should have come out from the fever of capturing selfies with monuments all the time to observe profoundly. Some buddies were obsessed with saving all the moments via camera. I know moments are treasured; they should not lose. But those colleagues needed to work on the historical facts in return for capturing shots. This proposal would transform our trips into worthwhile study outings.
Altogether, the study tour proved excellent. It enlightened me with cultivated bookish knowledge of history and voyages. Hence, I wrote a column based solely on self-observations.
