The Sharjah Pavilion, the guest of honor of the 27th session of the New Delhi Book Fair, hosted yesterday a discussion session on the presence of Indian heritage and history in manuscripts, books and ancient Arabic poetry.
The session was moderated by the Emirati poet Sheikha Al-Mutairi, researcher and historian Dr. Hamad Bin Saray, who presented to the audience a large number of sources and historical documents in which the mention of India was mentioned, with indications about the relationship between the Arabs in India for more than 1500 years .
"The Indian presence in the written Arab heritage includes aspects of economic, political, social and artistic life, as well as myths and folk tales that continue in the Gulf and Arab memory to this day," said Ben Saray.
One of the most important ancient Arabic books dealing with life in ancient India is the book "Takht" on Indian methods of calculation and practice of mathematics, "News of India" and "Workers of India", along with the book "The Hole of India".
Bin Saray pointed out that India mentioned in the Arabic Islamic books, which guided the relationship of Muslims in India during the Umayyad and Abbasid eras, and the wars, disputes, trade, etc. Among the most famous books published during that period were the History of Nations and Kings of Al-Tabri, Masoudi, and others.
As for the presence of India in the ancient Arabic poetry, Ben Saray said: «Some poets described their trips to India accurately describe, which made us recognize through them the habits of peoples and the nature of the travel and circumstances in that period, such as the poet Bashir Abu Qazem Asadi, Towards India ».
"When we remind India of the break, we mean the name of the country, the proportion of which is Indian. The Hindus are the men of India, and the names of the sword, Hindawi and Muhannad are also attributed to India," he said.
India in Arab sources
Ben Sarai has classified the contents of the Arab sources around India into major titles: Wonderland and Occult in India, customs and traditions, religions, ports, roads and navigation, Islamic conquests and the spread of Islam, trees and animals, environment, nature, terrain and soil, social life and relations between different classes and classes, And its relationship with Muslims, as well as medicine, wisdom and medicine.