Not All the Stars have Names

Constellations Great Bear and Crab - The Book of Fixed Stars by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) 964 AD

"Not all stars have names but two-thirds of those that do have names have Arabic names. There we go okay, there they go and you might say well how did this come to pass. What did that come from? what was going on. Because really shake up the middle east now and it is not where you do not say there are folks naming stars. You go back a thousand years this long 800 to 1100 in that period which is generally called the golden age of Islam, of Islamic science. True golden age. There was no greater golden age in the history of the world before or after when you look at some of the advances that came out of that period. In Bagdad, algebra was invented in that period. Algebra is itself an Arabic word. Algorithm is an Arabic word. Our numerals are Arabic numerals, ever wonder why? Just stop and think why they are called Arabic numerals. In that period mathematics took great leaps and bound. Agriculture, engineering, medicine, navigation. Navigation, star maps were made to assist navigation. Astrolabes were crafted. Then it all stopped. It ended. It ended.

Constellations Sagittarius and Taurus - The Book of Fixed Stars by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) 964 AD

Different phases of the moon illustrated by al-Biruni (973–1050 AD)

If you are historian typically you would focus on history as marked by changes of kings and leaders and wars. That’s the lens through which many historians look at the past and so if you ask people to sell the Mongols sacked Bagdad and so that’s why it all ended if that were the only force operating then later when the Islamic culture rose you would still see this tradition of scientific innovation. But it has not recovered; it has not come back at all compared to what was going on in that three hundred years and what you do is you read the writings of Al Ghazali, who is a Muslim cleric and he was to Islam what Saint Augustine was to Christianity. What he did was to teach you how to be a good Muslim, he taught you how to read the Koran and how to obey the commands that back then people were just interpreting it for themselves. He came along he was an academic scholar; he interpreted the Koran so this is how you must do it. First has social influence and then the political and cultural influence and basically, his interpretation took over. And it that interpretation it included the perspective that the manipulation of numbers is the work of the devil. This cuts the kneecaps out of any mathematical advances that would unfold. Math is the language of the universe. If you take that out of your personal equation, you no longer contribute to the advance of human understanding of that universe and that absence of Muslim presence in the frontier of science persists to this day. 

Take a look at the Nobel prize from 1900 to 2010. I can do this for the Jews for example. How many Jews in the world is like 15 million tops? 15 million out of 7 billion people. These are the numbers of Jews who have won the Nobel Prize in the sciences. 150 out of 609. 25% of the Nobel prizes. We have a Jewish person in the audience… congratulations…(laughter) ok fine ok. This is rightly something to be extraordinarily proud of. The traditions of Jews in the 20th century is one of education and scholarship. In earlier centuries, it was one of very strict sort of a … the study of the Torah did not involve the natural world. This was a later emergence of the Jewish culture to exhibit this. Let’s look at the numbers for Islam. So, these are Jews, they’re 15 million Jews, 25 percent of the Nobel Prizes. There is 1.3 billion Muslims in the world. These are the numbers. Two and a half. O.50%. Okay, I’ll give you 3, if you really want to include economics as a full number there. (laughter). Okay, if you got to give it a full number okay, okay. Now for me, by the way, you can analyze this in any number of ways. There are 50 times the number of Nobel Prizes, 180th the population is 4,000 times the impact. 

I lose sleep at night with the question, how many secrets of the universe lay undiscovered because 1.3 billion people, who in an ancestral time would have participated in this enterprise and are now not. That is what I think of as a scientist. Whole populations. By the way, there are other populations that never contributed. I’m not going to them and blame them and now I’m talking about a population that already did contribute. It’s in… It’s in the cultural heritage already. All we’re asking is to resurrect it. It has not happened."

(Excerpt from Neil deGrasse Tyson's lecture at the University of Washington, covering Astronomy, Sociology, and Scientific development on 5/12/2011)

YouTube link to the lecture

Image credit: https://wikivisually.com

Map of Al-Idrisi and the Wall of China

Muhammad al-Idrisi, the famous Arab geographer, served under King Roger II of Sicily in the middle of the 12th century. Roger was an enlightened king and learned scholars from diverse backgrounds and religions served in his court. Al-Idrisi was directed by the King to produce a definitive book on geography. In 1154 AD, after more than 15 years of research, he produced a book that became to be known as Tabula Rogeriana (Roger’s Book). The book contained dozens of elaborate maps and descriptions of various regions of the world. It remained the very best of geographical knowledge in the world for the next three centuries. 

A look at its world map offers a glimpse into the prevailing world view at that time. It contains three continents and very little room for the world oceans. Since ships at that time were not able to traverse high seas, the extent of oceans and presence of other land masses were not known. This perception of the earth persisted up till the age of discovery in the 15th century.   

Another interesting observation comes to light in its Arabic version. In its northeastern corner, one finds the land of ‘Yajuj and Majuj’ (يأجوج ومأجوج‎) or Gog and Magog - circled by a mountain or wall-like structure. It roughly corresponds to the wall of China in northern China or eastern Russia (although, the orientation is opposite to the real wall). I wonder whether it was the stories of a great wall in a faraway land to ward off barbarians that gave rise to these prophecies or was it the later interpretations by map makers to connect the wall to such divine predictions.

Image Credit: Wikipedia.org

The Tale of Walter Reinhardt and Begum Samru

Mid-18th century India was a chaotic place. The once-mighty Mughal empire had crumbled under its own weight soon after the death of Emperor Aurangzeb. Internal feuds led to the successive ascensions of four emperors in the single year of 1719. Nadir Shah's invasion of India in 1739 did the rest and shattered the remaining power and prestige of the empire. Provincial governors started declaring independence one after another. Marathas and East India Company saw the opportunity and started to expand. 

In this power vacuum, several small states were fighting for control. Consequently, the demand for professional soldiers and mercenaries was quite high. Walter Reinhardt Sombre of Luxembourg was one such adventurer and mercenary. He came to India in the early 1760s as a sailor in the French navy. He changed his allegiances several times and served under British and various local rulers. At one time, he served in the army of Mir Qasim of Bengal under his Armenian General Gregory (known as Gurjin Khan to the locals). Soon he formed his own mercenary army and employed Europeans and local Jats as soldiers. In 1767, he met a dancer girl named Farzana from Lucknow and married her. In the next ten years, he served several masters in northern India. He even served as the Mughal Governor of Agra for some time. In his final years, he was awarded the fiefdom of Sardhana by Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II for his services.

After his death in 1778, his widow; now known as Begum Samru took over the control of his mercenary army and estate. She converted to Roman Catholicism in 1781 and adopted the name Joanna Nobilis Sombre. She proved even more resourceful than her late husband. Begum Samru became immensely rich through campaigns with her soldiers of fortune. She used to ride on horseback and lead her forces into the battle. Her courage and military prowess gave rise to the superstitions that she possesses some magical powers. More than once, she saved the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II from invaders and rebels. Although by that time, the Mughal empire was also reduced to a very tiny state. She was awarded the title of Zeb-un-Nisa by Shah Alam II and he often referred her as 'My most beloved daughter'

In 1803, she surrendered to the East India Company after the fall of Aligarh but continued to rule her state until her death in 1836.  She was buried under a huge church 'the Basilica of Our Lady of Graces' which she had built in Sardhana.

Basilica of Our Lady of Graces, Sardhana  District Meerut, UP (Image Credit: Wikipedia)

The lives of Walter Reinhardt and Begum Samru seems like some pages straight out of a work of fiction. In fact, above are just the broad strokes of their life histories. Their actual story contains a lot more intrigue, betrayals, encounters, and action. They also interacted with other such adventurers of the era like George Thomas a.k.a. 'Jahazi Sahib' and Maratha General 'Jaghirdar Benoît de Boigne'. So why is there no reference to them in our popular culture? Such a rich story should have spawned numerous works of fiction. It seems like a perfect recipe for a modern soap opera if nothing else. But there is none, barring one or two little-known narratives. 

... perhaps because they belonged to a time and civilization that left no descendants.

First National Anthem of Pakistan

 Image Credit Raheel Shakeel

اے سرزمینِ پاک

ذرے تیرے ہیں آج ستاروں سے تابناک

روشن ہے کہکشاں سے کہیں آج تیری خاک

تندیِ حاسداں پہ ہے غالب تیرا سواک

دامن وہ سل گیا ہے جو تھا مدتوں سے چاک

اے سرزمینِ پاک

اب اپنے عزم کو ہے نیا راستہ پسند

اپنا وطن ہے آج زمانے میں سربلند

پہنچا سکے گا اسکو نہ کوئی بھی اب گزند

اپنا عَلم ہے چاند ستاروں سے بھی بلند

اب ہم کو دیکھتے ہیں عطارد ہو یا سماک

اے سرزمینِ پاک

اترا ہے امتحاں میں وطن آج کامیاب

اب حریت کی زلف نہیں محو پیچ و تاب

دولت ہے اپنے ملک کی بے حد و بے حساب

ہوں گے ہم اپنے ملک کی دولت سے فیضیاب

مغرب سے ہم کو خوف نہ مشرق سے ہم کو باک

اے سرزمینِ پاک

اپنے وطن کا آج بدلنے لگا نظام

اپنے وطن میں آج نہیں ہے کوئی غلام

اپنا وطن ہے راہ ترقی پہ تیزگام

آزاد، بامراد، جواں بخت شادکام

اب عطر بیز ہیں جو ہوائیں تھیں زہرناک

اے سرزمینِ پاک

ذرے تیرے ہیں آج ستاروں سے تابناک

روشن ہے کہکشاں سے کہیں آج تیری خاک

اے سرزمینِ پاک

(جگن ناتھ آزاد)

Image Credit tayyab3425

O, Land of the Pure!

The grains of your soil are glowing today

Brighter than the stars and the galaxy

Awestruck is the enemy by your willpower

Open wounds are sewn, we’ve found a cure

O, Land of the Pure!

New paths of progress, we resolve to tread

Proudly, our nation stands with a high head

Our flag is aflutter above the moon and the stars

As planets look up to us be it, Mercury or Mars

No harm will now come from anywhere, for sure

O, Land of the Pure!

The nation has tasted success at last

Now freedom struggle is a thing of the past

The wealth of our country knows no bounds

For us are its benefits and bounty all around

Of East and West, we have no fear

O, Land of the Pure!

Change has become the order of the day

No-one is a slave in the nation today

On the road to progress, we’re swiftly going along

Independent and fortunate, happy as a song

Gloomy winds are gone, sweet freedom’s in the air

O, Land of the Pure!

The grains of your soil are glowing today

Brighter than the stars and the Milky Way

O, Land of the Pure!

(Jagan Nath Azad)

Source: Jagan Nath Azad and Tarana-e-Pakistan at Wikipedia
First National Anthem of Pakistan on YouTube

Transhumans, Homo Digitas and Rise of the Hybrids

It was probably 6,000 years ago in the present day Iraq when humans first started to store knowledge outside their brains in any meaningful way. Sumerian cuneiform was written on wet clay tablets and then baked with fire. Before that all human wisdom, experiences, stories and myths were mainly transferred by the word of mouth, person to person. This new invention made it possible for us to speak beyond the bounds of time and space. Other writing systems of the day like Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Chinese Pictographs also used materials at hand. These were either etched on stone or written on animal hides and tree barks (papyrus, bamboo). Then in the 2^nd century A.D. paper was invented in China. Transmission of knowledge became much simpler with that as paper was quite easier to produce and transport. Next breakthrough came in 1440 AD Germany. The foundations of our modern era rest upon the mass production of books through Gutenberg’s printing press.

The creation of World Wide Web in 1990 is considered fourth such great leap forward in human history. Availability of knowledge at the touch of a button is hallmark of this era. This transformation is barely 25 years old and the next revolution is already on the horizon.  Some experts believe that the coming convergence of our mobile and social data with AI and big data technologies will evolve us into Homo digitas. Humans, who will heavily rely upon digital networks and augmented intelligence through wearable and implanted devices. Others envision a future in which human intellectual and physical capacities will be greatly enhanced using novel technologies. They prefer the term of Transhumans for that. After all, we are already using Cochlear implants to restore hearing to the deaf, retinal implants to restore sight, heart pacemakers; technology laced functional limbs and artificial joints. Gamers are using tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation) to score higher. Students are using memory enhancing drugs to concentrate better. Experiments to decode brainwaves into recognizable visual fields have already been done.

Fast forward to the future and neural interfaces, targeted gene editing and brain implants are not unthinkable. Most of us would feel anxiety and alarm towards such outlandish visions and would prefer to remain natural and unaltered. But the temptations of perfect memory recall, seamless access to the internet and instant mastery of skills would be too hard to ignore for some. Newer generations would be much more comfortable with tomorrow’s technologies. Most of our education is about memorizing basic facts. Actual learning and creativity comes much later. Imagine what can be achieved if we can skip that first part and jump straight into ingenuity and originality.

Artificial Intelligence programs are also becoming smarter with each passing year. Today’s personal digital assistants like Cortana, Siri and Echo are going to evolve into Iron man's JARVIS like partners. Ordinary human beings would be having hard time functioning in that kind of world. Perhaps future belongs to the super smart machines and hybrids human or post humans. Perhaps such developments would be deemed too dangerous for the fear of hostile AI and dystopian future. Complete ban on such technologies is also possible. We clearly don’t know about these things at this point in time. Future is in the flux and it will take a course that our collective wisdom would decide for us.

The Power of Imagination

lion-man, Ulmer Museum, Germany

We can imagine things that are not present in reality. We can also bring those images into existence through our actions. That is a pretty amazing capability if you think about that. It allows to go beyond the limitations of physical world. It opens ways to all sorts of inventions and ideas. It is what makes us truly human.

The above statute is probably the first example of this unique ability. It was found in a German cave in 1939. Its age has been established at around 40,000 years. Someone in the prehistoric times, spent countless hours to shape this piece of mammoth ivory, with simple stone tools and leather, into a thing that do not exist in nature: a lion-man. 

It may seem a trivial object to a modern eye but incredible when we are told that It took humans nearly 30,000 more years to settle down in some kind of small villages and start the domestication of crops. After that, a passage of 5,000 years was needed to see the rise of first kingdoms. All of our written history is limited to this period. Just 500 years ago, we truly started to understand the intricate workings of our world. Things accelerated after that. Once accumulation of knowledge, ideas and imagination reached a critical threshold, it started to multiply. More than ninety percent of our current knowledge was discovered and created in the past 100 years. It is really hard to imagine that what would be the state of affairs in a mere 100 years from now.

And it all started with such humble beginnings; a mental image of something that do not exist and a desire to bring it to the reality.

Image Credit: Wikipedia, Ulmer Museum, Germany

The Power of Stories

Very few people in Pakistan know that Polish citizens played a very important role in the early formation of Pakistan Air Force. After the WW II, when Poland became a communist country, many Polish Air Force officers working with the Royal Air Force began to move to United States, Australia, Norway and Canada. Around thirty Polish officers and technicians opted to move to Pakistan in 1948 on a three-year contract. They served as instructors and other technical staff. They were among the pioneers. A number of them stayed beyond their three-year contract.

Young training cadets of RPAF College Risalpur with instructor Pilot Flt Lt. M Gorzula

Air Commodore Wladyslaw Turowicz and his section at PAF Museum, Karachi

A fine Polish officer Wladyslaw Turowicz became a Pakistani citizen and rose to the rank of Air Commodore in 1960. In 1966, the Government of Pakistan transferred him to SUPARCO, as the administrator and chief scientist. As the administrator, he revitalized and initiated the space program. He was awarded Sitara-e-Pakistan, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, (Mil) among other honors for his services to the Pakistan’s space program. Zofia, Turowicz's wife, taught gliding to the cadets in Karachi and Rawalpindi between 1950 and 1954. Later, she joined Karachi University and taught applied mathematics and particle physics there. She was also awarded the Pride of Performance and Sitara-i-Imtiaz for her services. Turowicz's son is currently working at SUPARCO as an aerospace engineer and chief scientist.

We humans like to stereotype. Our perceptions about a group of people, communities and nations are based on our experiences with individuals and the stories that we hear about them. So what would a commoner have thought of Polish people if the above story was widely known in Pakistan. I think that the mental image would have changed from something distant, remote and unknown to friendly, intelligent and helpful people. Such mental images also affect all future interactions between communities and nations. After all, the Turkish image of Pakistani people is mainly based upon the Khilafat movement of 1920s. Same is true for a number of negative images and stereotypes. That is the power of stories.

What Happened?

" ... A similar attitude settled in the Ottoman Empire. Having conquered most of the world they knew, the Ottomans turned inward, into religious fundamentalism and centuries of stagnation. Mahathir Mohammad, the former prime minister of Malaysia, has said,

”The great Islamic civilization went into decline when Muslim scholars interpreted knowledge acquisition, as enjoined by the Qur’an, to mean only knowledge of religion, and that other knowledge was un-Islamic. As a result, Muslims gave up the study of science, mathematics, medicine, and other so-called worldly disciplines. Instead, they spent much time debating on Islamic teachings and interpretations, on Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic practices, which led to a breakup of the Ummah and the founding of numerous sects, cults, and schools.”

In Europe, however, a great awakening was beginning. Trade brought in fresh, revolutionary ideas, accelerated by Gutenberg’s press. The power of Church began to weaken after a millennium of domination. The universities slowly turned their attention away from interpreting obscure passages of the Bible to applying the physics of Newton and the chemistry of Dalton and others…

Soon, the rise of science and technology in Europe began to weaken the power of China and the Ottoman Empire. The Muslim civilization, which has prospered for centuries as a gateway for trade between the East and the West, faltered as European sailors forge trade route to the New World and the East – especially around Africa, bypassing the Middle East…

The answer to the question “What happened?” is clear. Science and technology happened. Science and technology are the engines of prosperity. Of course, one is free to ignore science and technology, but only at your peril. The world does not stand still because you are reading a religious text. If you do not master the latest in science and technology, then your competitors will.”

Future of Wealth (Physics of the Future by Dr. Michio Kaku)

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

William Henley is known to many people by means of this single poem. He wrote it in 1875, when his foot was amputated following a tuberculosis infection. This short poem has inspired a number of leaders over the years. It was Nelson Mandela’s favorite poem due to its strong message of defiance and determination. It is said that he often recited it to his fellow prisoners at Robben Island during his 18 years of imprisonment there. Among other things, this poem played a significant part in enabling him to go through the years and years of detention. It is amazing to think that how written word can influence people and shape history in decades and centuries to come, usually beyond the wildest imaginations of its original authors. Would the history of South Africa be any different, if this poem was not written more than a hundred years ago?

Image Credit: Alizee