Solitude and Bolero
ON SOLITUDE AND THE MUSIC TO GO WITH IT – On an overcast day, which in political terms is so much brighter, I am playing a piece of music called…
The Guiding Star : My Uncle Jawwad
Qazipurian Family Memoirs Articles written in Urdu have been translated by Usama Khalidi Memories of Janab Moinuddin Hasan Jawwad, cherished for more than 60 years by his brothers, his late…
“Islamization of Knowledge” and how Muqtedar Khan demolished the idea.
An Intellectual History of Modern Muslim of Hyderabad When Jamaluddin Afghani was expelled by Egypt’s ruler in 1879, he headed for Hyderabad Deccan where he spent two years teaching and…
Turkey’s Secularism almost universally accepted.
I came to Turkey basically to experience this Muslim majority country’s practice of secularism, to see the compromises it has made with the Islamic law, or Shari’a, as it is…
“Turkollu” that’s history for you.
On the long taxi ride from the airport to our hotel in Marmaris, Turkey, it was easy to make friends with the cabbie when we declared our common Muslim faith.…
My American Avatar: Usama Khalidi
Thousands of young backpackers streamed through the Munich youth hostel during 1970-71when I worked there as one of a handful of staff checking in young people of variousnationalities, Americans mostly,…
An Encounter with History in Aurangabad
No one could possibly have imagined that the six and last Mughal emperor,Aurangzeb, would lie close to his enemy, Abul Hasan Tana Shah in theireternal sleep at Khuldabad, which lies…
Colliding Cultures
By Usama Khalidi | A childhood friend Hariz and I met in our hometown after several decades spent overseas in our respective lives, when he told me how he had…
The Ahsan Family
Ikram Ahsan in his teenage was known to be a prankster among his large number of friends in his Mallepally neighborhood of Hyderabad. One day, he led a team of…
Celebration means shared happiness, not speeches!
The 150th anniversary of the foundation of my high school, Madarsa-e Aliya, in Hyderabad, was celebrated with some fanfare, but it was mostly speeches by politicians or the old, disappearing…
