Monday, January 07, 2008
the land of the mughals
i missed my morning flight to new delhi today. probably by about 5 minutes but that few minutes make a whole world of difference. life is very funny in some ways. sometimes hours and days - or months even - can go by without any consequence or significance and suddenly a few minutes late and your world goes upside down.
but in this case i am lucky as MAS has another flight in the evening so things work out fine. but if this happens on other days when there's only one flight per day, i'll be screwed.
india is one of the most fascinating place on earth and delhi has it's share of history and fascination (and agra with the taj mahal is just a short train ride away) and for me as an extremist muslim at heart this place is almost like spain to the moors. well, almost. delhi was the seat of the great muhgal empire with a line of interesting mughal emperors as you can see if you happen to read books such as abraham eraly's emperors of the peacock throne and my muslim blood seeth and boiled when i think about the way the british decimated this great kingdom. i feel sadness as i also feel the pain of the muslims' loss of spain. reading about the demise of the spanish muslim kingdom and the plight of the moriscos in henry charles lea's the moriscos of spain make me very sad .
and now travelling to new delhi this time around i bring with me only two books . one is lonely planet's India (of course) and the other is william darylample's the last mughal about the demise of the mughal empire . this book will get me mad again i know ...but i'll try to sooth my feeling by revisiting all the key islamic architecture left behind and try to imagine the former islamic glory and achievements of these great people again ...and go and buy that folio of miniature erotic mughal paintings in that little shop in the covered arcade of the red fort that i saw the last time i was there several years ago...
but in this case i am lucky as MAS has another flight in the evening so things work out fine. but if this happens on other days when there's only one flight per day, i'll be screwed.
india is one of the most fascinating place on earth and delhi has it's share of history and fascination (and agra with the taj mahal is just a short train ride away) and for me as an extremist muslim at heart this place is almost like spain to the moors. well, almost. delhi was the seat of the great muhgal empire with a line of interesting mughal emperors as you can see if you happen to read books such as abraham eraly's emperors of the peacock throne and my muslim blood seeth and boiled when i think about the way the british decimated this great kingdom. i feel sadness as i also feel the pain of the muslims' loss of spain. reading about the demise of the spanish muslim kingdom and the plight of the moriscos in henry charles lea's the moriscos of spain make me very sad .
and now travelling to new delhi this time around i bring with me only two books . one is lonely planet's India (of course) and the other is william darylample's the last mughal about the demise of the mughal empire . this book will get me mad again i know ...but i'll try to sooth my feeling by revisiting all the key islamic architecture left behind and try to imagine the former islamic glory and achievements of these great people again ...and go and buy that folio of miniature erotic mughal paintings in that little shop in the covered arcade of the red fort that i saw the last time i was there several years ago...
