In its turn this image of indolence has lent credence to western propaganda that Islam initially espoused by the Arabs was spread by the power of the sword across the Middle East, North Africa unto the heart of Europe on the one side and on the other to Iran, Afghanistan, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. Nothing could be farther than the truth. Arabian civilisation and Islam spread so widely in so short a time because Arabs of those times were in fact a superior face and pioneers in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, engineering, navigation, geography, medicine, architecture, literature and philosophy (the word is derived from the Arabic ‘falsafa’). Christians and Europeans imbibed much learning from them in the long confrontations with the Arabs. And went ahead. The Arabs rested on their laurels and were left behind.
This revelation came to me through an article sent to me by a “friend” Ashutosh Tuli who I have never met. It is based on the review of a book ‘The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilisation’ by Jonathan Lyons.
Early Arabs took a lot from ancient Greek texts. As early as 762 AD they set up a library in Baghdad with a team of translators called ‘Bait-al-Hikmat’: the House of Wisdom. Arabs replaced Greek as the universal long image of “scientific inquiry,” concludes Lyons.
Making fun of death
Death is no laughing matter; so how can anyone make fun of it? However, Simon Critchlay, currently head of the department of philosophy of a college in New York, has done precisely that. He has gone through the lives of 190 philosophers who had expressed themselves on the subject: how they lived and died. His compilation ‘Book of dead philosopher’ has been recently published in America.
It appears there is very little that is laughable or funny about philosophers breathing their last. There was Socrates who was sentenced to death but allowed to take his own life. Surrounded by his admirers he gave them his final discourse, drank a goblet of hemlock and died. It could not possibly have been funny. Then there was Heraclitius who had himself smeared with cow-dung as a preventive against disease. It suffocated him to death.
The one which does bring a smile on one’s lips is the way Avicenna, medieval Islamic philosopher died. He believed that having lots of sex kept a man’s mind off dying. So he had lots of it. He was of the opinion that one should have clean bowels before having sex. So he had lots of enemas; once he had eight enemas in one day. It is not recorded how many times he had sex that day.
Sigmund Freud smoked 20 cigars everyday. When asked to explain, he replied: “A cigar is sometime just a cigar.” He died of mouth cancer.
Indian philosophers and poets took a gloomy view of death. Mirza Ghalib who was obsessed with it and could not get it out of his mind. He wrote: “There is a day fixed for death.” (Maut kaa ek din Muayyan hai). “Then why does it give me sleepless nights”(Phir neend raat bhar kyon nahin aati?)
Allama Iqbal was more philosophical about the phenomenon and believed that a man had to have faith to be able to take death in his stride. Two lines written in Persian sum up his view:
Nishaane-mard-e-momin ba too goyam
Choon marg aayed, tabasum bar lab-e-ost
(You ask me about the sign of a man of faith?
When death comes to him
He has a smile on his lips.)
Shoe throwers’ legacy
Jarnail Singh did something unpardonable for a journalist. He also chose the wrong man as his target: Chidambaram, one of the ablest and most cool-headed ministers in the government. He had nothing to do with the selection of Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar as Congress party candidates in the forthcoming elections. Although Jarnail missed his target, he hit the nail on the head. The CBI may have given Tytler a clean chit, the Sikhs had not done so. This was evident in the wide-spread demonstrations in Delhi, Punjab and elsewhere.
Then there is a lighter side of the episode — the adoration Sikhs continue to have for soldiering. The name Jarnail is derived from General. Likewise his brother Karnail’s name is derived from Colonel. There are others: Subedar Singh, Laftan (Lieutenant) Singh, Major Singh and Kaptan (captain) Singh. They have yet to find suitable Punjabi versions for ranks in the Navy and the Air Force.