A statue of Tamerlane in front of the Hotel Uzbekistan in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent
Inarguably, one of the finest (read: exhaustive) books published in Pakistan in the outgoing year is Professor Iftikhar H. Malik’s The Silk Road and Beyond: Narratives of a Muslim Historian. It is supposed to be a collection of travelogues, but the volume rises above that. Written in first person singular (sometimes it becomes plural), it gives the historical background of the places the author takes us to and introduces us to real life characters of different hues and shades.
Malik’s travels begin with a narration and description of Tamman, the hometown of Air Marshal Nur Khan, in Punjab. Joining him on the visit are his wife and their son, under the leadership of the author’s elder sister Bilqis Begum, to offer condolences to the family of the man whose services to the country’s air force and national airline, as also different sports, have remained unparalleled. The author also refer