the beauty of Shakespeare

My compatriots are always going on and on about the beauty of Shakespeare, but how did this beauty get here?

We hadn't always known about Shakespeare. Before 1757, we had never even heard of him. Then after we were conquered, we learned English and began to study English literature, ignoring our very own Persian literature.

Thus, as a conquered people, we discovered the beauty of Shakespeare.

Now, after learning Persian, I see what we have lost: what is Shakespeare compared to Sheikh Sa'di?

But thousands of my compatriots each year will 'discover' Shakespeare and never think about our loss of freedom.

That is the tragedy of history.

The Muslim collaborators

"In the far east, a Buddhist civilization flourishing in Bengal was forced to abandon that faith by a Hindu dynasty which subsequently oppressed the native people."

"About 1200 these Turkish Moslems swept into Bengal (now Bangladesh) and were eagerly greeted by the people who were seeking a release from Hindu oppression."

- A Comprehensive Outline of World History By: Jack E. Maxfield

http://cnx.org/content/col10595/1.2/

We appear, through the curlicues of history, to have come full circle: once again we are oppressed by a Hindu dynasty, but this time through their local, "Muslim" collaborators.

the view through the aperture

When I began to con the history of western civilisation, I felt like "some watcher of the skies" gazing at a heavenly object through a telescope; then I found myself peeping at some ugly bacteria through a microscope; and, finally, - horror of horrors! – it dawned on me that all along I had been squinting through a proctoscope!