Showing 121–160 of 281 results

  • HOW WE MISSED THE STORY

    Focusing principally on events and policy missteps in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s, award-winning journalist Roy Gutman weaves a narrative that exposes how and why the U.S. government, the United Nations, and the Western media “missed the story” in the leadup to 9/11. He advances this narrative carefully and persuasively and approaches his subject with an objective, journalistic eye, drawing heavily on his own original research and extensive interviews with key players both in the United States and abroad. Arguing that the U.S. government made a strategic mistake by categorizing bin Laden’s murderous assaults prior to 9/11 as terrorism, he ultimately concludes that the core failure was in the field of U.S. foreign policy. Sure to attract a wide audience, this first-rate, deeply engaging volume makes a highly original contribution to our understanding of the events and mistakes that ultimately led to 9/11 and offers much-needed insight so that such a story is not missed again.

    $ 4.98
  • MUSHARAF’S PAKISTAN, BUSH’S AMERICA & THE MIDDLE EAST

    The five years between 2001 and 2006 were momentous years in the history of Pakistan, the United States and the Greater Middle East. This book chronicles some of the major events that took place during this period. This book is not just about the beginning of a century but about the beginning of history.

    Human conflict is the common thread running throughout the book. This conflict did not spring anew in the new century. The seeds had been sown in pdor conflicts. But the way iii which the conflict evolved was unique and disturbing.

    Pakistan, which had alternated between democracy and state racy for its half decade of existence, succumbed once again to the latter. But what loomed most menacingly over it were not the usual threats to civil liberties posed by militarism. It was the spectre of a “final conflict” with India brought on by misguided “jihadis” who had been reared by the military to fight external proxy wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir. In addition, there was the reality of ongoing domestic conflicts along the nation’s multiple fault lines.

    America, which adopted the mantle of global hyper power after the fall and splintering of its erstwhile nemesis, the Soviet Union, was hit by a band of jihadis early on the morning of September ii, 2001. In a fit of rage, it launched a war on Afghanistan for which there was much global sympathy. But the subsequent decision to launch a war on Iraq and remake the Greater Middle East In its image was misguided. The human and financial cost of the conflict was enormous but even that was overshadowed by the loss of its image on the global stage. Its actions represented a classic case of strategic overreach.

    $ 4.98
  • LAHORE LAHORE AYE

    A. Hameed has always had the remarkable gift of bringing the past to life. His reminiscences of Lahore as it was in the early years of independence and through the 1950s are to be treasured because such evocative writing is rare in our literature. He writes about the city and he writes about his friends and those he came across in a long career entirely devoted to writing. His memories of old Lahore are like periscopes through which we can relive those times and catch a glimpse of the men who made the city what it was. That Lahore has passed on, as have many of those in whose company the young A. Hameed walked its streets. But in a way they are not gone, because he brings them back to life and with it the city as it once was. The old restaurants of Lahore are gone. So is the old Radio Pakistan, which did what it could, within its modest means, to keep A. Hameed and his friends, in tea and cigarettes, something that was enough to keep them happy. A Hameed takes us to the Coffee House, where we see Maulana Charagh Hasan Hasrat surrounded by friends, waiting to be served. “Maulana, is that white-bearded waiter the one who took your order?” someone asks. “It was quite black when I placed the order,” replies Maulana. With A. Hameed we return to a Lahore whose roads knew no more than the occasional car. We are back there on a dear winter day, with white pigeons flying in droves in the blue sky, and the trees waving gently in the breeze. This book brings together columns that A. Hameed wrote for Daily Times, which Khalid Hasan translated into English. So welcome to old Lahore, its history, its food, its people, its musicians, its writers, its streets, its wrestling pits, its theatres, its most memorable characters, in short, the entire unique culture that makes Lahore, well, Lahore.

    $ 6.48
  • BUILDING A NEW AFGHANISTAN

    Given resumed Taliban power and attacks, Afghanistan must tackle a host of serious problems before it can emerge as a confident, independent nation. Security in this battered state continues to deteriorate; suicide bombings, convoy ambushes, and insurgent attacks are still all too common. Effective state building depends upon eliminating the national security crisis and enhancing the rule of law. This book offers a blueprint for moving the embattled nation toward greater democracy and prosperity. Robert Rotberg and his colleagues argue that the future success of state building in Afghanistan depends on reducing its dependence on the opium trade and enhancing its economic status. Many of Afghanistan’s security problems are related to poppy growing, opium and heroin production, and drug trafficking. Building a New Afghanistan suggests controversial new alternatives to immediate eradication, which is foolish and counter-productive. These options include monetary incentives for growing wheat, a viable local crop. Greater wheat production would feed hungry Afghans while reducing narco-trafficking and the terror that comes with it.

    Integrating land-locked Afghanistan into the Central Asia or greater Eurasia economy would open up trading partnerships with its northern and western neighbours as well as with Pakistan, India, and possibly China. Developing a sense of common purpose among citizens would benefit the economy and could help to unite the nation. Perhaps most important, bolstering better governance in Afghanistan is necessary in order to reduce chaos and corruption and enact nationwide reforms. Fresh and insightful, Building a New Afghanistan shows what the country’s leadership and the international community should do to resolve dangerous issues and bolster a still fragile state.

    $ 5.48
  • THE CARPET WARS

    A writer’s true-life odyssey through a crescent of Islamic nations and regions. Following the historical and cultural threads of the oriental carpets, we plunge into a world where even the simplest motif on a rug can be filled with religious, tribal and political significance…

    $ 5.98
  • GENDER AND PROPERTY LAW IN PAKISTAN

    Crucial to the social position of women in Pakistan is their access to and control of material resources. A key factor in this respect is the situation of legal pluralism in the country whereby state laws derived from Pakistan’s Islamic and colonial heritages are often contradicted by local customary laws and practices. This study is based on extensive fieldwork in four villages in different provinces of Pakistan, and takes both a socio-legal and an anthropological approach. Its focus is not confined to property alone but includes many other areas of life that have a bearing on women’s access to property and enables the reader to better envisage the environment. Arguing that official law-is largely ineffective in securing property rights for women, the study offers insights into the interaction of customary and state laws in Pakistan that will be of interest to scholars, lawyers and development specialists. This book also provides background to students and researchers engaged in studies on Pakistani immigrants in Europe.

    $ 5.98
  • INSIDE AL QAEDA

    A definitive work on Al Qaeda, this book is based on five years of research, including extensive interviews with Al Qaeda members: field research in Al Qaeda-supported conflict zones around the globe: and monitoring of Al Qaeda’s infiltration of diaspora and migrant communities in North America and Europe.

    This book sheds light on Al Qaeda’s financial infrastructure and how the organization trains combat soldiers and vanguard fighters for multiple guerrilla, terrorist and semi conventional campaigns in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, the Caucasus, and the Balkans. In addition, the author investigates the clandestine Al Qaeda operational network in the West.

    Gunaratna reveals how the charismatic fanatic Osama bin Laden provides much of the brainpower and most of the inspiration behind Al Qaeda

    – How Osama bin Laden had his mentor and Al Qaeda founder ‘Azzam’ assassinated in order to take over the organization and how other Al Qaeda officers who stood in his way were murdered

    – How Al Qaeda planned to destroy the British Parliament on September 11 and to spew nerve gas on the European Parliament

    – How the lran-Hezbollah-Al Qaeda link provided the knowledge required to conduct coordinated, simultaneous attacks on multiple targets, including failed plans to destroy Los Angeles International Airport, USS The Sullivans, the Radisson Hotel in Jordan, and eleven US commercial airliners over the Pacific Ocean

    – That one-fifth of international Islamic charities and NGOs are infiltrated by Al Qaeda

    – How the US response is effective militarily in the short term but insufficient to counter Al Qaeda’s ideology and strategy in the long term.

    Gunaratna shows that for Al Qaeda to be destroyed there needs to be a multipronged, multiagency, and multidimensional response by the international community.

    $ 4.98
  • REMEMBERING SOME GREAT MEN

    In this final volume of his selected shorter works Professor AM recalls some prominent personalities whom he has intimately known or studied in the course of his research. In the first group, he pays his double tribute to Prof. Sirajuddin and his wife Urmila, recounts Chaudhri Zalarulla Khan’s services to Muslim India and Pakistan, thanks his two British friends, the Barratts, and brings out the genius of Professor Abdus Salam. In the second group, he recounts the achievements of Lord Wavell, Napoleon, Sayyid Ameer Ali, Jinnah, the Aga Khan, Shah Waliullah and lqbal. A critical essay on Rudyard Kipling assesses his place in the British imperial literature of India. A long well-researched paper on Jamaluddin “Afghani” explodes the many myths still surrounding the man. A trenchant lecture on Choudhri Rahmat Ali reminds us how Pakistani intellectuals, men of letters and historians continue to either ignore him or blacken his character. Every reader will find in this pot-pourri something to interest, move, fascinate, remind or instruct him. Men make history, literature and culture, and thus draw the contours of an age. This book presents a stimulating and fascinating biographical peep-show of past events and human affairs.

    $ 4.98
  • PAKISTAN

    If democracy in Pakistan collapses repeatedly because of military takeovers, why have the army chiefs of Pakistan been in trouble since the death of General Zia? If the ISI is the most powerful institution in Pakistan, why are its chiefs removed unceremoniously from their jobs and sometimes put under trial? If Pakistan is a security state, who is in charge of deciding matters of security? If the government and the various permanent institutions of the state formulate policy, why are non-government jehadi organisations allowed to make their own decisions affecting the security of the state? Is the security of Pakistan linked to the interest of the state or to its emotion? Does the nuclear device give Pakistan its security through deterrence? Why is Pakistan’s bomb less safe for the world than India’s? Why is the Muslim scientist prone to being a fundamentalist? How does Islamic faith affect a state employee’s training of obedience to legal authority? If the economist all over the world is known as an opponent of war, why is the Pakistani economist ready to co-exist with Pakistani rulers’ warrior inclinations? How is the clergy’s vision of the state different from that of the non-clerical Pakistani, and how does he successfully dictate it to the state? Why is the average Pakistani continuously deluded about the United Nations and insists on invoking provisions that are non-existent? Can Pakistan live next to India without fighting unsuccessful wars with it and without capitulating? What will be Pakistan like in the next 25 years?

    Khaled Ahmed was in the Pakistan Foreign Service from 1969 to 1978. He left it to become a journalist of distinction in The Pakistan Times. Then he was the Joint Editor of The Nation. Later he became the Editor of The Frontier Post. Since 1993, he has been the Consulting Editor of The Friday Times. He is a founder-member of Track-two Neemrana Dialogue between India and Pakistan.

    $ 4.98
  • THE UNHOLY NEXUS

    Originally this book project was launched to provide an insight into the mysterious world of the radical Taliban militia. But following 9/11 and the arrival of the International coalition against terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the issue of Pakistan’s involvement with Afghanistan began to acquire significance, necessitating a slight shift of emphasis away from Kabul to Islamabad.

    Thus the book also tries to explain why Islamabad created “centres of resistance inside Afghanistan” through early proxies like Gulbadin Hikmatyar and Burhanuddin Rabbani and failed to make them stick; why it readily agreed to act as a conduit for the American-sponsored anti-Soviet-Russian jihad in the early 1980s; why differences between Afghanistan’s non-Pashtun communities and Pakistan degenerated into mutual hatred and distrust, particularly after Islamabad decided to back the Taliban regime to the hilt, in 1996.

    The book also attempts to highlight the impact on Pakistani Society of the nexus between Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and domestic religious outfits who drew the spiritual guidance from the Taliban and extended their tentacles into Kashmir with the aim of liberating it from India.

    $ 3.49
  • STUDIES IN CULTURE, ART AND LITERATURE

    This second volume of Professor K. K. Aziz’s selected writings and addresses opens with a moving piece on the meaning of prayer. Then follow 3 lectures on culture: the way of life in medieval Muslim Deccan, the predicament of the Pakistani intellectual, and the departed glory of the Government College of Lahore. The 4 lectures on Islamic art explore its spiritual symbolism, religious significance and historical relevance. The section on literature mainly deals with the nature of poetry, the glory of love, John Keats, Oscar Wilde, Plato’s theory of poetry, and Anglo-Indian fiction. These pieces were written between 1948 and 2000 and show how the author’s mind has developed and his knowledge widened across the years. The outstanding quality of this collection is its freshness, regardless of the time when a particular item was composed. Aziz wrote well while still a student, and his mastery of words has kept pace with his growing years. His third and final collection, on remembering some great men. will be published shortly.

    $ 6.48
  • STUDIES IN HISTORY AND POLITICS

    Vanguard Books has decided to bring out a selection of Professor K K Aziz’s scattered shorter writings in 3 volumes. This is the first to be published and consists of his lectures. Articles and papers on the themes of history and politics. Among the more significant of contents are pieces on Muslim India in British party politics. The All India Muslim Conference, the Indian Khilafat Movement, Mian Kafayet Ali’s (“A Punjabi’s”) scheme of 1939 which foreshadowed Pakistan with uncanny insight, Source Material on Pakistan’s History, Christianity and Imperialism, the Uses of History, and the State of Historical Scholarship in Pakistan. The volume concludes with some book reviews done for British academic journals. Aziz’s accomplishment lies the size of the canvas he paints and felicity with which he transmits his knowledge to the reader He writes without fear and is therefore worth reading. His second collection, the one on Culture, Art and Literature, will appear soon.

    $ 7.47
  • FUNDAMENTALISM REBORN?

    `A fantastic achievement, having successfully dealt with an extremely complicated issue. […] accessible both to a reader with some general interest in Afghanistan and is equally of immense aid for academic study.’ (British Society of Middle Eastern Studies) `A fascinating and thorough analysis of the very complex political/military situation that evolved in Afghanistan following the demise of the Soviet puppet regime in 1992…. an insightful study of the rise of a new form of puritanical Islamic fundamentalism that overran Kabul in September 1996 namely, the Taliban, and its impact on Afghan society…. Highly recommended.’ (Choice)

    This book traces the Taliban movement’s origins, its rise to power, and the tensions and contradictions which made it impossible to accommodate within the modern international system. It exposes some of the misunderstandings which led various powers, including the United States, to believe that the Taliban could bring peace to Afghanistan and permit its reconstruction after years of destructive conflict. More significantly, it also highlights steps that can be taken to assist the Afghan people to recover from the consequences of the fragmentation of their society, and its subordination to an anti-modernist force of a kind unprecedented in Afghanistan’s recent history.

    Fundamentalism Reborn? is a comprehensive and up-to-date account of their history, ascendancy, and decline of the most dramatic manifestation of Islamic fundamentalism since the Iranian revolution.

    $ 4.98
  • UNHOLY WARS

    To oppose the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the United States formed an extraordinary anti-communist alliance with militant Islamic forces; in South Asia.

    In this controversial and acclaimed book, John Cooley provides the first behind-the-scenes account of this alliance and of how the CIA planned and ran the ‘holy war’ in Afghanistan.

    $ 5.98
  • REAPING THE WHIRLWIND

    Reaping the Whirlwind provides the first comprehensive profile of the Taliban in the twenty-first century. Drawing on numerous interviews with key protagonists, conducted over a period of several years, Michael Griffin provides a fascinating eyewitness account of the Afghan conflict. He explains the origins and beliefs of the Taliban movement, its religious and political ethos, and the character of its particular brand of so-called Islamic fundamentalism.

    Crucially, he examines the controversial nature of the Taliban’s international links with the US, Saudi Arabia, and other vested interests. Griffin also explores the Taliban’s connections with Osama bin Laden, drug barons and drug dealers, and the CIA’s ambiguous relationship with what is often viewed as an international Islamist conspiracy. Situated between Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet states, Afghanistan has historically fulfilled the role of an artificial ‘buffer state.

    Resource rich and strategically important, it has been of particular interest since the end of the Cold War to Saudi Arabia, Russia, Pakistan and the United States, as well as to drug barons, arms dealers and oil corporations. Afghanistan’s unstable and problematic history has been further complicated in recent years by the emergence of the Taliban-perhaps the most conservative and least understood Islamic movement in the world.

    $ 5.98
  • AFGHANISTAN

    This book follows a generally linear historical form. It starts with an account of the country and its people, and then describes and analyses its history, with particular reference to its relations with neighbouring powers and its dominant internal theme, the ongoing struggle between its rulers and tribal society. Attention is paid to the growing dichotomy during the twentieth century between an increasingly sophisticated urban elite and the traditional countryside, and its culmination in the communist coup and Soviet invasion. This is followed by an analysis of the reasons for the Soviet withdrawal and the subsequent civil war.

    $ 6.48
  • KICKSTARTING PAKISTAN’S ECONOMY

    The author develops a broad strategy for the development of the private sector on the basis of an analytical review of the broad range of constraints and opportunities confronting the private sector in Pakistan.

    The analysis is set in the context of a profile of the private sector and a discussion of government policies during the 1990s that impacted its environment.

    The book describes private sector activities to highlight the diverse nature and size of activities requiring a variety of different supporting policies.

    To place economic performance in proper perspective, it describes the range of reforms undertaken by the government to support the private sector in the financial sector, fiscal area, export promotion, investment, privatization, and the foreign exchange regime.

    The reform process carries costs in the short-term apart from those associated with poor sequencing or deficient design. The author also analyses the macroeconomic constraints and discusses the lack of consistency in sectoral policies, deficiencies in incentive policies, the continuing problems in agriculture and the remaining agenda in the financial sector.

    $ 4.48
  • WATER, PIPES & PEOPLE IN PAKISTAN

    This book springs from an in-depth review of a multi-donor investment in an irrigation and drainage scheme. An economist, an anthropologist, a sociologist, a gender specialist and an irrigation specialist offer an integrated analysis of what the scheme has done, and more particularly, what it has failed to do.

    Here is a poignant and informed demonstration of how development investments in Pakistan have failed to address the endemic problem of disparities of power and privilege, and by this neglect have contributed to Pakistan’s present poverty crisis.

    $ 4.98
  • THE REPORT OF THE HAMOODUR RAHMAN COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO THE 1971 WAR

    The report of the Hamoodur Rehman Commission of Inquiry into the 1971 War As Declassified by the Government of Pakistan is more than just an investigation into what happened in 1971 in East Pakistan. It is in fact the views of three eminent Pakistani judges, Mr Justice Hamoodur Rehman, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan: Mr Justice Anwarul Haq, Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court; and Mr Justice Tufailali Abdur Rahman, Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, on the history of Pakistan from August 1947 to October 1958, when Pakistan was a floundering democracy. It details the subsequent periods of marital law under General Ayub Khan and General Yayha Khan. It gives an analysis of the intentions of General Yahya Khan and his cohorts, which may not be found elsewhere in the official history of Pakistan because the Report has remained secret till recently.

    The Report studies the international scene on the eve of the fall of Dhaka and, more importantly, goes into the strategic thinking of the Pakistan army. It calls into question the theory that ‘the defence of East Pakistan lies in West Pakistan’, and reveals that the GHQ had done nothing to underpin its own strategic thinking with preparedness. It examines the events in East Pakistan before the outbreak of disturbances there and minutely analyses the surrender of the Pakistan army in Dhaka.

    The Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report performs the task of a textbook on the history of Pakistan, based on the evidence placed before the Commission by those it summoned. It reveals more facts of history than any other textbook authorized by the Government of Pakistan. Those who think of it as a ‘judgment’ in the normal judicial sense will be surprised by the depth and sweep of the comment it makes on the state of Pakistan. It not only contains new insights that belie the orthodox view, it presents useful analyses of the personalities who ruled Pakistan and those who carried out their orders. No bookshelf on Pakistan is complete without a copy of the Report.

    $ 14.99
  • QUR’ANIC AND NON-QUR’ANIC ISLAM

    This is a study of twenty Islamic themes of contemporary importance. Each theme bears two versions: Qur’anic and non-Qur’anic. The latter is familiar because it has dominated Islamic perceptions, thought and practices for the past thirteen hundred years.

    It draws its sanction from a variety of sources such as pre-Islamic Arab customs and traditions, Sunnah — as it is codified in books of Ahadith, called ‘The Correct Six’, jurisprudence (fiqh), myth and whim. The source for the Qur’anic version is exclusively the Qur’an. In some ways, this is a unique book. Based on the Qur’an, its message is interpreted entirely from the Qur’anic text itself. Superimposition of non-Qur’anic views has been scrupulously avoided. Credentials of Sunnah as a source of Islam have been examined in some detail.

    The two versions of Islam use the same idiom but are markedly different and often contradictory, on fundamentals, in the general thrust, in spirit and substance. Qur’anic Islam seeks to establish an egalitarian, humane, just and equitable social order. It gives the individual full responsibility and scope to express himself constructively.

    $ 4.48
  • PAPIO

    The Punjabi phrase is ‘If a lost soul finds his way home come nightfall, we do not call him lost anymore’. That about sums up Basit Haqqani, and his book for me. As a bright young student, back in the early sixties, he wrote for, and edited the ‘Ravi’, literary magazine of Government College, Lahore. He debated, mucked about and acted in the GCDC plays in their heyday; he played a snot-nosed Barnaby in ‘The Matchmaker’ which had all the mother instincts drooling; and then a cheeky Puzer in ‘The Lawyer’. He was one of those bright young things for whom the world was their oyster.

    One thought he was well on the way when he joined the College to teach English. Those were heady days with Jojo and Basit and I, fresh-faced and still green behind the gills soaking in the very best of what old Lahore had to offer. The older generation of Profs Siraj and Rashid, Dr. lmdad and Safdar Mir Saab hovered in the background, and a whole generation of the Tariq Alis and Shahid Rehmans, the Samis and Shabbus, the lggies and Khalid Ahmeds and Nigar Ahmeds came and sowed their wild oats and went their way, only to see us through the rest of our, or their, lives.

    He sought greener pastures in the Foreign Service, and we occasionally caught up when he came visiting from his early postings in Bonn – having left his car parked in the middle of the Autobahn; it had CD number plates and the Hun Police could do nothing about it. Najam Sethi and Rashid had caught up with us. and our shenanigans of the time are for nostalgic evenings by the fireside, not for the inside flap of his novel.

    One has delved into it to confirm what one always thought. The thirty-five years spent in the capitals of nations, whatever use they might have been. were years in the wilderness. The old fire still smoulders. and we might have done well without the interregnum. But no matter. as I said, if a lost soul finds .

    $ 4.98
  • FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND JUDICIAL REVIEW IN PAKISTAN

    This book gives a detailed account of the jurisdiction of the High Courts and Supreme Court of Pakistan under Article 199 and Article 184(3) respectively of the Constitution of Pakistan. It also contains Interpretations and meanings assigned by the superior courts to different expressions employed in these articles of the constitution.

    The objective of the book is to enable concerned individuals to grasp the jurisdiction of the superior courts under these two articles and to know the intention of the framers of the constitution to have these two articles enshrined therein. The constitution provides a list of Fundamental Rights/Human Rights and a forum under Articles 184(3) and 199 for the enforcement and protection of these Fundamental Rights. An attempt has been made to expound these in this book. The author also discusses a majority of the important cases that attract Article 184(3) of the Constitution and analyses many significant cases decided under Article 199 by the four High Courts of Pakistan.

    $ 7.47
  • A DICTIONARY OF MUSLIM NAMES

    The resurgence and revitalisation of Muslim culture have created a growing interest in the study of Muslim names. Throughout the world Muslims share similar names, be they in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia or new migrants in the West. And it should not be forgotten that the first thing Allah taught Adam was names.

    The predominant language in Muslim names is Arabic, followed by Persian (Farsi), the two major languages which transmitted Muslim culture in its early stages and later expansion. An important source of Muslim names consists of the ninety-nine attributes of Allah mentioned in the Qur’an and the hadith. According to Islamic belief, the relationship between man and his Creator is that of servant and master, and therefore a Muslim feels gratified to be named as a servant of one of the attributes of Allah.

    The purpose of this dictionary is to give the meaning or bearing on the Islamic heritage of the words, Arabic or Persian, which form parts of Muslim names. By way of illustration, it gives references to Muslims who left their mark on history in different ages, in different fields, and in various parts of the world. Where appropriate, the Qur’an is cited.

    $ 4.98
  • SINDH & THE RACES THAT INHABIT THE VALLEY OF THE INDUS

    The object of the following pages must briefly be explained. During a residence of five years in Sindh, the author had frequent opportunity to remark, and cause to regret, the want of a single work treating upon the several subjects of the manners and customs, the domestic details, and the religious opinions of the people among, and with whom, he lived.

    The descriptions of Sindh and its inhabitants hitherto published were found of little use — they are either of too popular a nature, intended to introduce the country to the home reader, or written with the view of imparting a superficial knowledge of the language.

    Equally unserviceable are the many valuable works composed by residents in Hindustan and the Deccan, on account of the difference of dialects, habits and belief. This work is offered to the Sindhi student with little hesitation.

    It contains long descriptions of the studies, religion and ceremonies peculiar to the race inhabiting our newly conquered country, the first specimens of the language, and notices of the literature ever printed, and what is of more consequence, a detailed account of native habits and customs, manners and ceremonies.

    And it would be difficult to supply a better illustration of the popular axiom, “Knowledge is power,” than the conduct of Orientals towards those who understand them, compared with their contempt felt, if not expressed, for the ignorant. The learned Orientalist will find little in the following pages to merit or attract his attention. Much new matter has, it is presumed, been collected by the labour of years.

    $ 4.98
  • INDIA AND THE FRONTIER STATES OF AFGHANISTAN, NIPAL AND BURMA

    Essays of Lord Macaulay on Robert Clive and Warren Hastings are perhaps known to every English household; but they refer to more episodes in the history, and are wanting in that familiarity with native character and forms of thought which is essential to a right appreciation of the great collision between Europe and Asia that has been going on in India for the last two centuries.

    The truth is that the preparation of a history of India, political and religious, is a far more difficult and laborious task than is generally imagined.

    The author began work at Madras under every possible advantage. There were libraries containing almost unique collections of books pertaining to India. To these were added the government records at Madras, which were freely opened to the author by Sir Charles Trevelyan, who was at that time Governor.

    The writer has no desire to carry the reader into his workshop, or to dwell on the extent of his labors. It will suffice to say that having sounded the depths of his ignorance, he has since then lost no opportunity, official or literary, to perfect his knowledge of Indian history.

    His history of British India is now given for the first time in the present volumes. It is an entirely independent work, drawn direct from the fountain head, after a study of the records of the Government of India, official reports and parliamentary blue books, and annals, memoirs, travels, or correspondences, as have been found to yield historical materials.

    $ 6.48
  • THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR & ITS CAUSES

    THE events which the following work endeavours to bring before the reader in their connection did not fail, as they severally occurred, to strike the public mind with humiliation and grief, or with joy and exultation. They partially aroused England to a sense of the greatness of the trust conferred upon her by Divine Providence, and forcibly called her attention to the vast Empire won by the genius and courage of a few great men, repeatedly perilled by the weak and rash; and the preservation of which may at any hour depend on the individual to whom for the time its destinies have been entrusted.

    A consideration of events after the excitement of defeat or victory has been allayed, and when the retrospect can be calmly made, may want freshness of novelty in its incidents, but can scarcely fail to prove instructive.

    $ 4.98
  • THE FRIDAY TIMES PROFILES

    This collection of profiles by Rina Saeed Khan was for The Friday Times, Pakistan’s most popular political weekly. They were written over a six-year period from 1992-1998 and include artists like Zahoor-ul-Akhlaq, intellectuals like Seyyed Hossein Nasr, filmstars like Neeli and war heroes like MM Alam. Lawyers like Dr Parvez Hassan, economists like Moeen Qureshi, politicians like Dr Noorjehan Panezai and global leaders like James Wolfensohn are also featured. Lucid pithy and insightful, these profiles are a valuable and interesting addition to the biographical literature of Pakistan.

    $ 4.48
  • ZINDARI

    Captain D’Auvergne, the author of this delightful book of short stories, has spent the greater part of along and adventurous life among those tribes of the North where daring, courage and a brave spirit are the natural growth of the wind-swept hills, the life of which is so little known to the outside world.

    The stories told are based on fact.

    The author’s idea in putting these stories into book form is not with the idea of profit but to give entertainment to those who have the spirit of adventure and love of travel.

    $ 4.98