Download Your Copy The Faithful Scribe: A Story Of Islam, Pakistan, Family, And War Assembled By Shahan Mufti Distributed In Paper Edition

interweaving of family history and national history is beautifully done, but there are slow spots,

I've passed this along to all of my LDers for this month's promotion of Middle East democracy topic, The connection between the religion Islam and democracy in Pakistan explained with a family history of writer Shahan mufti, The influence of culture in the newly created democratic nation drives the religion under different languages and ethnicities, The influence of the west is also explained how this interesting cocktail works for the people of Pakistan,
An environment and setting with so many influences is a challenge to live and fulfill all aspects and priorities of life, It all takes us to think about what the future is and where we stand,
A good work by Mufti and history telling is no double excellent, Explaining religion, culture, influences, threats, and controversies together is a challenge and Mufti took it and fulfilled, Great perspective of one Pakistani family to help shed light on one aspect of the chaotic and diverse web that is Pakistan, This book tell us two stories, one of Pakistan and other of Writer's Family in a historical perspective, This book is meant for US Audience so Writer had same kaleidoscope in mind when telling about Pakistan, An endearing story from the start from his parents marriage, the turmoil of moving away from the home country, and all the emotions that come along with political upheaval, family life and discovery.
Though at times I found the narrative became a bit of a light history text, I realized all this was needed to set the backdrop of Shahan's and his family's story that was the foundation of this book.
I was able to relate to it to an extent, both with being a student away from the home country, as well as the negative views being a Muslim in today's world, though in the case of his parents, it was a different time, yet with the same fears.


This book brought the past and present events together all the way up to Malala being shot and looked to the future as well, with some hope.
I recommend this to all those from South Asia and I think as for those far removed from the conflict in Pakistan, by space, by faith or other things this will be an eyeopening story told by a modern, contemporary voice.
The journey the author takes on is enjoyable from beginning to end, History of Pakistan and a family in readable form, Never felt like a slog, Definitely makes sense of the news and important for that reason, "Nations, like people, use stories to construct a particular place for themselves in this world, "

"So in the end, nations belong only to those few who can muster the most compelling story and then tell it tenaciously.
"I was fascinated by the book from the first page, The book takes us through the history of Pakistan through the family tree of Shahan Mufti, It takes us through the initial days of the birth of Pakistan to the political upheaval and socio economic conditions that prevailed in the country.
As a neighbouring country which has it very roots in Pakistan too , i was intrigued to read all that, It also talks about the influences of other countries and how it shaped up Pakistan to what it is,
The only thing that surprised me was that Shahan didn't talk about Indian and Pakistan relations, He totally skipped Kargil , kashmir issue and the other details about what we share with our neighbouring country, I was tad bit disappointed with total abandonment of the relationship of Pakistan and India, Also after Bhuttos' death he doesn't talk about the political situation of his country,
Other than that book is well researched and written, Demystifies modern Pakistan and its recent history, Told by an American journalist from a Pakistani family, The Faithful Scribe is a story of Islam, Pakistan, family and war, the cultural and religious roots of modern Pakistan,

Shahan Mufti gives a complete history of the complicated country of Pakistan, He delves into how continued political and historical strife continues to plague the mesh of Islam and the West, Mufti notes the first Islamic Democracy has been subjected by periods of military rule, political instability and ongoing conflicts with neighboring India, Pakistan continues to deal with issues such as terrorism, poverty, illiteracy and corruption, Mufti is hopeful of Pakistan's future,

Mufti traces his geology and how his family fits into Islam and Pakistan, He discovers his family dates back a thousand years to the inner circle of the prophet Muhammed, He shares how his own family has been impacted by Pakistan's past, present and remain hopful for a positive future for this beloved country.


Mufti does a wonderful job incorporating his personal family history with the history of Pakistan, Great for history buffs and/or those interested in Middle East/South Asian history/issues, Mufti's family tree discovery inspires the reader to trace their ancestral origins

ARC copy of this book provided by Other Press Publishing
The author presents the history of Pakistan as it parallels the history of his family.
The title and opening paragraphs imply that there will be a full sweep, but most if it relates to Pakistan establishedas a nation.
There is some content on the British colonial era, a bit on the partition and less on earlier times,

Rather than a chronology, the author presents content both personal and national as he learns about it, He starts by describing his earliest consciousness of history through his awareness of his parents' views on things, It follows with the events that parallel his own life, sometimes going backwards to a past event just learned or explained for instance the description of the building of Islamabad comes as he visits it, not as it is build.
The book ends with a visit to a rural family homestead where Mufti writes about past and present agricultural policies,

There are interesting glimpses of the different administrations, the change from colonialism to partition, to the independence of Bangladesh and more, Most of what was presented was interesting, but each episode was breezy and not fully connected to the others,

The author sees Pakistan as a unique experiment, It is a new country, the only democracy with Islam at its center, and the only Islamic country with a nuclear weapon, The book is relatively free of interpretation, It could be that the author's being "American andPakistan" has him walking a fine line,

The book was a fast read and provoked my interest in some of the issues presented,
A very good book, . . I stumbled across this while sifting through books in a free little library near my house, Im not a history nut, Im not as up to date on politics as I feel I should be, and I am pretty ignorant when it comes to world politics and international relations.
Having not known anything about Pakistan other than the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban shooting Malala, and a vague understanding of the apartheid, I felt ill prepared diving into this book.


If this sounds like you at all, then I highly recommend giving this book a shot, Mufti explores Pakistans history from beginning to present and, goes into the relationship Islam has with its people, However, this book doesnt at all read like a textbook, rather it explains the ideas and emotions that shaped the country: not the events.
The story of his family is woven into the history of Pakistan, as well as its relationship with the West, It is a unique perspective from both a Pakistani and an American point of view,

Most unique however, is the personal and familial connections Mufti is able to make with Pakistans major historical events and the founding of Islam.
After discovering a copy of his family tree that dates back fourteen hundred years,

Mufti uses this to explore the ideas of what family and religion mean to himself.
The book kept me glued to the pages, which was pretty commendable as the gist of the story was known to me and to every Pakistani.
The Pakistani family as an institution has grown from strength to strength as the government writ has weakened, I guess the when any government grows weaker, other players will fill the vacuum created, The feudals together with the British laid the foundation of the state of Pakistan in, hoping to keep the arrangement ticking with the new government of Pakistan.
But the plight of the ordinary working class and the improvised was not addressed in this feudal based model which naturally failed to deliver.
This major faultline is now abundantly clear with the rise of the new Islamic militias fighting the feudalgovernment nexus across the country, These militias are challenging the prevalent order and want to establish a system of adal Islamic socialist system, The only issue is that even their vision of adal has no recent precedence and heavily relies on blind adherence to at least thousand year old era of mythical Islamic system which is impossible to realise in my opinion.
Which is precisely why I have little faith in the emerging political movements like Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf PTI to deliver, because I have yet to see any proper guidelines to how such a system can actually work apart from the mere sloganeering efforts of their cherished and glamorous leader Imran Khan.
In the absence of a set plan, enforcing writ by fear becomes the only method remaining for any new Islamic power emerging in the political vacuum.
This fear is a tactical solution rather than a strategic longer term solution of empowering the lower classes,

Currently, I don't see any political movement in Pakistan which can effectively address the plight and frustrations of the growing poor, .