This pioneering work traces the emergence of the modern and contemporary art of Muslim South Asia in relation to transnational modernism and in light of the region's intellectual, cultural, and political developments. Art historian Iftikhar Dadi here explores the art and writings of major artists, men and women, ranging from the late colonial period to the era of independence and beyond. He looks at the stunningly diverse artistic production of key artists associated with Pakistan, including Abdur Rahman Chughtai, Zainul Abedin, Shakir Ali, Zubeida Agha, Sadequain, Rasheed Araeen, and Naiza Khan. Dadi shows how, beginning in the 1920s, these artists addressed the challenges of modernity by translating historical and contemporary intellectual conceptions into their work, reworking traditional approaches to the classical Islamic arts, and engaging the modernist approach towards subjective individuality in artistic expression. In the process, they dramatically reconfigured the visual arts of the region. By the 1930s, these artists had embarked on a sustained engagement with international modernism in a context of dizzying social and political change that included decolonization, the rise of mass media, and developments following the national independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. Bringing new insights to such concepts as nationalism, modernism, cosmopolitanism, and tradition, Dadi underscores the powerful impact of transnationalism during this period and highlights the artists' growing embrace of modernist and contemporary artistic practice in order to address the challenges of the present era.

Muslim Enlightened Thought in South Asia is an engaging history of the enlightened liberality of modern Muslim poets, philosophers, educationists, novelists, historians, artists and public intellectuals who drew on a long Muslim intellectual tradition beyond the “Western” liberalism of empire. Interpreting the pathbreaking contributions of an array of creative Muslim figures, the book challenges the view portraying them as exemplars of an insular and defensive “apologetic modernity”. It highlights a strand of Muslim thought and liberality of mind that has been ignored by scholars obsessed with dire and dour theologians. This book questions both the presumptions of historians of liberalism that exclude Muslims from the domain of modern liberal thought and the predilections of those scholars of Islam who lean solely on discovering theological rigidity among ulama. It analyzes the forces that have contributed to the narrowing of intellectual space since the late twentieth century and the resilience of expansive and enlightened ideas that have kept candles flickering in the enveloping darkness. Foregrounding the enlightened conceptions of Ghalib, Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Iqbal and Sadequain on faith, selfhood, history and time – and bringing other Muslim thinkers out of the shadows, the book offers a nuanced reformulation of the meaning of religion for our challenging times. It will be of interest to a wide readership interested in the history of Islam and South Asia.

This book is a detailed analysis of Sadequain's mural titled Treasures of Time, which pays tribute to mankind's intellectual advancement over time by depicting forty six eminent personalities in the history of mankind. At one end of the mural is a young worker of the Stone Age using a primitive tool with his bare hands. The imagery in the mural then moves to the right tracing the passage of time and captures the glorious days of the Greek civilization, followed by the European renaissance followed by the golden age of Arabs, then at the other end are shown 20th century luminaries, presenting a visual narration of history.

This collection of essays covers the classical heritage and Islamic culture, classical Arabic science and philosophy, and Muslim religious sciences, showing continuation of Greek and Persian thought as well as original Muslim contributions to the sciences, philosophy, religion, and culture of Islam.

This book by SADEQUAIN Foundation titled Lines and Drawings by SADEQUAIN is the first comprehensive collection of more than 300 drawings. It is a result of more than four years of research and discovery of his drawings spread from Japan, Singapore, Pakistan, India, Middle East, Europe, and North America In technical terms the drawings in this book display the unity of disciplines of drawing, calligraphy as well as the traditions of Urdu and Persian poetry which Sadequain shared to his core. Most importantly, the drawings in this book show how Sadequain's lines, whether complex or simple, performed magically with the complexity of a well-orchestrated symphony; they represent poetry of color, harmony of rhythm, and the power of a tempest. It is hoped that this book will be helpful in analyzing the imagery in Sadequain's drawings and establishing the links to appropriate historical and cultural context. Its empirical research and textual contents are balanced to address the sensitivities that attempt to compare and contrast arbitrary and loaded concepts.