Culture & Heritage

The professor was a leading figure in CIMA’s pantheon of personalities  Prof. Furkhan convinced members that their future lay in coming together to work for their profession   By 1965 much change had occurred in the socio political environment of Sri Lanka. Policies that were pro-western had quite violently been overtaken by socialist thought. Nationalization of many private sector enterprises, …

Senior business leader and one of the pioneers of tourism and top professional Prof. M.T.A. Furkhan passed away last week.  Prof. Furkhan was one of prime movers in establishing in 1965, the basic roots of the management accountancy profession in Sri Lanka. In 1970, he was appointed as President of the Association of Cost and Works Accountants; and in 1972, …

Historical records on the clocks of Makkah (Mecca) are scarce. This paper brings together various scattered information from descriptions found in primary sources and from sketches found in old pilgrimage certificates, guides, and prayer books and from tiles.  Also, from paintings and photographs made by Muslim and non-Muslim visitors. The author identifies a domed room that housed timing devices, referred …

When one talks of the history of Sri Lanka in the decades before independence, the issues which come to mind immediately are the Sinhala-Buddhist nationalistic awakening;controversies over Indian migrant labour; and the Tamils’ struggle for equality with the majority Sinhalese. The Muslims’ struggle to organise themselves and fight for their rights is not recognised.  But the fact is in the …

Ibn Sina would influence philosophers and scientists for centuries after his lifetime (Wikimedia)   Known as Avicenna in the West, the Persian polymath had a huge impact on the study of disease, astronomy and logic Born in 980 CE to a Persian family near the city of Bukhara in modern day Uzbekistan, Abu Ali al-Hussain ibn Abdullah al-Balkhi would go …