Islamicate Civilisation
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How Islamicate culture will die?
Zach argues that Islamicate culture is squeezed in India for being Islamic and in Pakistan for not being Islamic enough, claiming that Islam is suffocating the Islamicate cultural complex there.…
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Pakistan, the lost country-
Zach argues that Pakistan’s national identity problems surface when it meets Arabs, Persians and Turks, and that it should embrace Hindu festivals and Sanskrit heritage. He calls Pakistan an insufficiently…
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Pakistanis must give up “tit for tat”
Zach argues that Pakistanis must drop ‘tit for tat’ over the Cambridge Majlis logo carrying Vande Mataram, a hymn to a mother goddess, and says Islamicate culture arrived with conquest.…
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How Indian are Pakistanis (vs. non-Indian)
The author argues that affluent, liberal Pakistanis understate Pakistan’s cultural ties to the wider Middle East and fixate on India instead, citing a 2012 Aspen Institute panel where Pakistan’s speaker…
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Brown Pundits – Episode 4, three Hindus talk about the Golden Age of Islam
Episode 4 of the BP Podcast, in which three Hindus discuss the Golden Age of Islam, with a note that ‘Hindu’ is used here in its older, geographical sense, and…
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Between the saffron and scimitar
Starting from how the Islamic golden age is used for modern agendas, the author turns to Islam and India, describing the comment-section clash between a commenter who defends Indo-Islamic civilisation…
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Why India looks West not East
Answering Razib’s question on why India does not look towards China, the author offers three reasons: Sindhi diaspora ties, lingering colonial institutions, and the claim that India’s high culture was…
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Various Thoughts on Iran & Islam
A string of thoughts on Iran and Islam: the author sees Dubai as a despotic trading hub for Asians, argues geography shapes Iranian ethno-linguistic fault lines, stresses Khorasan’s importance to…
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Perhaps India is not special in resisting Islamicization
Reading on imperial China, the author reconsiders why India, unlike Iran, resisted total Islamicisation, arguing that Han resilience makes India less exceptional, and that conversion of some elites and oppressed…
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Drinking (alcohol) During Ramadan
Omar Ali, citing Shahab Ahmed, notes that alcohol is prohibited in Islam yet part of Islamicate culture, then surveys how access ranges from strict bans in Saudi Arabia and Iran…
