Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin

Four men shaped the end of British rule in India: Nehru, Gandhi, Mountbatten and Jinnah. We know a great deal about the first three, but Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, has mostly either been ignored or, as in the case of the hugely successful film, Gandhi portrayed as a cold megalomaniac, bent on the bloody partition of India. Akbar Ahmed’s major study tells a different story of heroism and tragedy and of backstage maneuvering among the governing elite of the Raj, and argues for Jinnah’s continuing relevance as contemporary Islam debates its future direction. The book is based on conversations and interviews with those who were close to Mr. Jinnah including his daughter Dina Wadia. It has already attracted widespread international attention and has been highly praised by Pakistanis like Sharifuddin Pirzada and criticized by British writers like Philip Ziegler, the biographer of Mountbatten. This book is, as a reviewer wrote, destined to become a classic.