Dubai session on female saints from Peshawar to Bukhara
Farzana Mansoor
ABU DHABI (UAE): The Embassy of Pakistan, Abu Dhabi hosted a session of Professor Dr. Waleed Ziad, Associate Professor in History, Georgetown University (Qatar Campus), titled Lives of the Female Scholars/Saints of the Afghan Empire from Peshawar to Bukhara on 03 October 2024. The session was attended by several ambassador, diplomats, professionals and prominent members of Pakistani community.
Warmly welcoming Dr. Waleed Ziad, Ambassador Faisal Niaz Tirmizi commended the scholarly contributions and efforts of Dr. Ziad for his research work on the great Muslim female scholars of the sub-continent and Central Asia. He praised the devotion, passion, and dedication of Dr. Ziad involving extensive travel to hard areas across various countries. Tirmizi highlighted that in view to bring people from diverse nationalities together, the embassies must play the role of sharing knowledge, art, music and culture.
Professor Dr. Waleed Ziad extended gratitude to hundreds of individuals from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, across Central Asia and Turkey who supported him greatly in the research for his upcoming book “Sufi Masters of the Afghan Empire: Bibi Sahiba and Her Sacred Networks”. In the introduction to his book, he shared lines from a diploma issued by Khwajah Saif-i-Ullah, the premier scholar and Sufi of Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Sindh to his number one student Bibi Sahiba Kalan.
The diploma recognised her as the greatest saint and remarkable figure of her age. It made her the first female inheritor of the most important Sufi network based in North-western Pakistan and Afghanistan with its branches spreading all the way to Western China. The extensive research work took Professor Waleed ten years and travel of more than 140, 000 KM within three countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
In his lecture, Prof. Waleed Ziad highlighted female saints of the Central Asia region during the Afghan Empire. He mentioned about his book “The Extraordinary, Enchanted Lives of the Female Scholar-Saints of the Afghan Empire” in which he has paid rich tribute to these mystic female scholars.
Dr. Ziad portrayed their sanctity, spiritual life, and services for guiding thousands of their disciples. He paid homage to these saints who dedicated their lives for Islam. He added that life of these saints is a beacon for the generation of contemporary era.
In the concluding remarks, Tirmizi said that the story of Bibi Sahiba is exceptionally extraordinary who had huge influence across Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. “It was indeed an immense pleasure to have had the opportunity to enlighten ourselves about this great lady through the fantastic work by Professor Dr. Waleed Ziad.
