Wednesday, September 20, 2023

2023: Zia - Zindiq

 Zia-ul Haq

Zia-ul Haq (Mohammad Zia-ul Haq) (Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq) (b. August 12, 1924, Jullundur, Punjab [now in India] - d. August 17, 1988, near Bahāwalpur, Pakistan).  Military leader who became president of Pakistan in 1978.  Zia-ul Haq was born in the present Punjab Province of India.  He received his army commission from the military academy, Dehra Dun, in 1945.  During World War II, he saw action in Southeast Asia.  In 1947, he joined the Pakistan Army and received additional military training in the United States. Between 1969 and 1971, on loan to Jordan, Zia directed action against Palestinian guerrillas and was decorated by King Hussain.  Prime Minister Bhutto made him a full general and chief of staff of the Pakistan Army in 1976.  In 1977, during the agitation of opposition parties against Bhutto’s handling of national elections, Zia proclaimed martial law, removed Bhutto from office, and promised to hold fresh elections.  These elections were later cancelled and Zia declared the “islamization of Pakistan” as his first priority.  In 1978, Zia became president of Pakistan but continued to govern under martial law.  Without a popular mandate to rule, he has relied heavily on the external support of his regime by the United States and its Arab allies.  In August 1983, the Movement for Restoration of Democracy, an alliance of banned political parties, launched a mass resistance to Zia’s regime that was crushed by military action.

Zia was commissioned in 1945 from the Royal Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun and served with the British armored forces in Southeast Asia at the end of World War II. After 19 years spent in various staff and command appointments he was made an instructor at the Command and Staff College in Quetta. He successively commanded a regiment, brigade, division, and a corps during the period 1966–72. A major general from 1972, he was president of the military courts that tried several Army and Air Force officers alleged to have plotted against the government of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972. Bhutto promoted him to lieutenant general in 1975 and made him Army chief of staff in 1976.

Zia seized power from Bhutto in a bloodless coup on July 5, 1977, and became chief martial-law administrator while retaining his position as Army chief of staff. He assumed the presidency after Fazal Elahi Chaudhry resigned. Zia tightened his hold on the government after having the charismatic and still-popular Bhutto executed on charges of attempted murder in 1979. Zia suspended political parties in that year, banned labor strikes, imposed strict censorship on the press, and declared martial law in the country (nominally lifted in 1985). He responded to the Soviet Union’s invasion of neighboring Afghanistan in 1979 by embarking on a United States-financed military buildup. He also tried to broaden his base of support and worked for the Islamization of Pakistan’s political and cultural life. He died in an airplane crash.

Zia-ul-Haq died in a plane crash on August 17, 1988. After witnessing a United States M1 Abrams tank demonstration in Bahawalpur, Zia had left the small town in the Punjab province by C-130 Hercules aircraft. Shortly after a smooth take-off, the control tower lost contact with the aircraft. Witnesses who saw the plane in the air afterward claim it was flying erratically, then nosedived and exploded on impact. In addition to Zia, 31 others died in the plane crash, including Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Akhtar Abdur Rehman; a close associate of General Zia, Brigadier General Siddique Salik; the American Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphael; and General Herbert M. Wassom, the head of the United States Military aid mission to Pakistan. Ghulam Ishaq Khan, the Senate Chairman announced Zia's death on radio and TV. The manner of his death gave rise to many conspiracy theories. There was speculation that the United States, India, the Soviet Union (in retaliation for United States-Pakistani supported attacks in Afghanistan) or an alliance of them and internal groups were behind the attack.

A board of inquiry was set up to investigate the crash. It concluded the most probable cause of the crash was a criminal act of sabotage perpetrated on the aircraft. It is also suggested that poisonous gases were released which incapacitated the passengers and crew, which would explain why no Mayday signal was given.

Zia's funeral was held on August 19, 1988, in Islamabad. Zia's body was buried in a small tomb outside the Faisal Mosque.

Mohammad Zia-ul Haq see Zia-ul Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq see Zia-ul Haq

Zikrawayh ibn Mihrawayh
Zikrawayh ibn Mihrawayh (d. 907).  Carmathian missionary.  Having disposed of ‘Abdan, Zikrawayh conquered Kufa in 906 but had to return to the district of al-Qadisiyya. In the same year he fell upon the great pilgrim caravan returning from Mecca. In the next year, he was defeated by an ‘Abbasid commander.

Zindiq
Zindiq (Zendiq) (Zendik).  A Muslim heretic.  Zindiq also refers to Manichaean or supporter of any other pre-Islamic Persian religion.

Zindīq is taken from Persian word Zendik which means free interpreter, free thinker, atheist or heretic. The word Zindiq is applied by Muslims to individuals whom are considered to hold views or follow practices that are contrary to central Islamic dogmas. Starting in medieval times, Muslims began to refer to Manichaeans, apostates, pagans, heretics, and those who antagonized Islam as Zindiqs, the charge being punishable by death. As of the late 8th century the Abbasid caliphs began to hunt down and exterminate freethinkers in large numbers, putting to death anyone on mere suspicion of being a Zindiq. In modern times, it is occasionally used to denote members of religions, sects or cults that originated in a Muslim society but are considered heretical or independent faiths by mainstream Muslims.

The word Zendiq is now known to have derived from Middle Persian Pahlavi word of zandik or zendik, consisting of zand plus îk (attribution suffix in Pahlavi language) referring to those who resorted to interpretation in their understanding of Zoroastrian faith.  Zand is derived from Avestan zanda found in two instances in Avesta whose root is unknown today. However, it has seemingly implied sinners such as bandits, thieves, enchanters, renegades and liars. A different, common view on the etymology of the term is that it alluded to "free interpretation" or "commentary" on the sacred texts, with the same root that occurs in the word Zand, referring to the commentary on the Avesta. The first recorded use of the word zandik is probably on the inscription in Naqsh-e Rajab attributed to Kartir, high-priest and advisor of Sassanid emperors Hormizd I, Bahram I and Bahram II, in which it explicitly denotes Manichaeans as "the ones with corrupted faith".

Some of the famous and alleged Zendiqs in Islamic history are:

    * Abu Nawas
    * Rhazes
    * Mansour Al-Hallaj
    * Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa
    * Abu Shakir
    * Abu Tammar Muttabib
    * Abu Isa al-Warraq
    * Ibn al-Rawandi
    * Abul Ala'a al-Ma'ari
    * Yazdan ibn Badhan
    * Bashar ibn Burd
    * Yazdanbakht
    * Abdulkarim ibn abi Al-Ouja'
    * Ali ibn Ubaydah Rihani
    * Aban Abdulhamid Lahiqi

Zendiq see Zindiq
Zendik see Zindiq
Zandik see Zindiq
Atheist see Zindiq
Free Thinker see Zindiq
Heretic see Zindiq

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