Wednesday, July 31, 2002


Among the converted peoples.... Check out Zachary Latif's blog today. He's got a lot of stuff-from Iran vs. Pakistan and their societies to bearish story-telling. His most provocative blog asserts the following:
I adhere to the idea that the Pakistan government should codify these tribal laws and integrate them into the legalistic structure. Village and tribal councils form the back of Pakistani society and trying to supplant is just plain nonsense. Rather we should legitimize this active grass root political structure since it is inherently accountable to the demands of the Pakistani rural populace.
I'll comment tomorrow perhaps, tonight I party (please don't tell the mullahs!). I will add though to Zach's blog on the misattribution of Iranian achievments to Arabs-much of the earlier Umayyad era (circia 650-750 C.E.) scholarship was the product of Christians of Syrian origin-who though they were Arabacizing, probably spoke Aramaic/Syriac or Greek as their native tongue, and so were not Arabs per se.