Ertugrul: learning from past.

Byline: Saadia Rehman - Islamabad

THIS refers to the article 'Dissecting Ertugrul mania' (June 6) by Pervez Hoodbhoy, who has criticised what he believes is the fabrication of history.

There is a remote possibility of most of the events shown in the drama to have actually taken place as such in real history. For the sake of shaping up this play, the makers of this drama had to fabricate the facts which is a requirement in the presence of the minimum availability of these. Although it is important to register this point while watching the drama, it must be realised that the episode of Ertugrul's life as a whole would not have been very different from what has been shown here. We know with certainty that Ertugrul was successful in paving the path for laying down the foundation of the Ottoman Empire despite facing huge challenges from the Mongols, on the one side, and the Crusaders, on the other.

Achieving all this would not have been possible without going through a similar chain of events in his life as shown in the play. So let us take it as such and appreciate the overall approach and actions which contributed to creating the shape of the Muslim world that we see today. The real purpose of watching this drama needs to be focused on this learning outcome instead of questioning each incident as being real.

Another critique by the writer is the repetitive murder of humans. While talking about this, he forgets that in those days the geographical borders were fluid and these were largely determined by the strength of sword.

If leaders like Ertugrul had not showed their strength in the way...