Dastan

Dastan (داستان dâstân, Persian for "story") is an ornate form of oral history from Central Asia, the most famous of which is Dede Korkut—which may have been created as early as the beginning of the 13th century.

A dastan is generally centered on one individual who protects his tribe or his people from an outside invader or enemy, although only occasionally can this figure be traced back to an historical person. This main character sets an example of how one should act, and the dastan becomes a teaching tool—for example the Sufi master Ahmet Yesevi said “Let the scholars hear my wisdom, treating my words like a dastan”. As well as this wisdom each dastan is rich with cultural history of interest to scholars.

During the Russian invasion and occupation of Central Asia, many new dastans were created to protest the Russian occupation. It is possible that they came into contact and influenced each other. According to Turkish historian Hasan Bülent Paksoy, the Bolsheviks tried to destroy these symbols of culture, e.g. by only publishing them in insufficiently large quantities and in a distorted form "in order to weaken the heroic impact".

Dastan (1950 film)

Dastan or Dastaan is a 1950 Bollywood drama film directed by Abdul Rashid Kardar. A box-office success, the film became the third highest earning film of 1950, earning an approximate gross of Rs. 1,15,00,000 and net gross of Rs. 65,00,000 . The film starred Raj Kapoor, Suraiya, Veena, Suresh, Al Nasir, Murad and Shakila.

The story, a tragic melodrama, was a narrative in flashback. It was inspired from the film Enchantment (1948) directed by Irving Reis. Cited as "one of the biggest commercial hits" by Patel, Suraiya's acting was stated to have "over-shadowed" that of Raj Kapoor.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Naushad and the lyricist was Shakeel Badayuni. The singers were Suraiya and Mohammed Rafi. Some of the notable numbers from this film included Suraiya's "Aa Ra Ri", "Yeh Mausam Aur Yeh Tanhai", "Ae Sham Tu Bata" and "Naam Tera Hai Zuban Par".

Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner, originally published by Brøderbund, then the Learning Company, and currently Ubisoft. The franchise is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous prince. The first game in the series was designed by Mechner after the success of his previous game with Brøderbund, Karateka. The title was successful enough to spawn two sequels: the series has been rebooted twice since its acquisition by Ubisoft, and has been successful enough to warrant a film adaptation, penned in part by Mechner and released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2010.

Even though Mechner has been involved with the series in varying capacities throughout its history, the games themselves have been developed and published by several different companies. The first two games in the series, Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, were published by Brøderbund. Prince of Persia 3D, the first to use 3D computer graphics, was developed by Red Orb Entertainment and published by The Learning Company on PC, and developed by Avalanche Software and published by Mattel Interactive on Sega Dreamcast. French-based video game company Ubisoft began developing and publishing the series in 2003 with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and so far have been the most prolific of any company in bringing out new games in the series.

Iqbal

Iqbal (Urdu: اقبال ‎) or Eqbal (Persian: اقبال‎‎) is the Persian word for "luck". It is a common Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and South Asian name.

Iqbal or Eqbal may refer to:

Geography

Iran

Pakistan

Various places named after the national poet Iqbal:

Media

People

Given name

Iqbal (film)

Iqbal (Hindi: इक़्बाल) is a 2005 Indian sports drama film written by Vipul K Rawal; directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, and was produced by Subhash Ghai, under "Mukta Searchlight Films". The story follows a cricket-obsessed boy from a remote Indian village as he aims to overcome his difficulties and become a cricketer and fulfil his dream of playing for the Indian national cricket team. The film received the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues.

Plot synopsis

Written by Vipul K Rawal, and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor Iqbal tells the story of Iqbal (Shreyas Talpade), a deaf and mute boy, who dreams of playing cricket for India. However, he is discouraged by his father who thinks that Iqbal's daydreams are a waste of time. Instead, he wants Iqbal to help him tend to the crops and become a farmer like him, which would be a stable profession.

Iqbal's sister, Khadija (Shweta Prasad), however, helps him try out for a nearby academy run by Guruji (Girish Karnad), an influential former India captain, who accepts him for his talent. However, when Iqbal competes with a rich boy, Kamal, who is also the star of the academy, he is thrown out by Guruji out of fear of Kamal's father, who bankrolls the academy. Iqbal seeks help from the local drunkard, Mohit (Naseeruddin Shah), who was once a great cricketer and persuades him to be his coach. They are able to train in a nearby field, using Iqbal's buffaloes (named after actual members of the Indian cricket team) as fielders.

Muhammad Iqbal

Sir Muhammad Iqbal (Urdu: محمد اقبال ‎) (November 9, 1877 – April 21, 1938), widely known as Allama Iqbal (علامہ اقبال), was a poet, philosopher, and politician, as well as an academic, barrister and scholar in British India who is widely regarded as having inspired the Pakistan Movement. He is considered one of the most important figures in Urdu literature, with literary work in both the Urdu and Persian languages.

Iqbal is admired as a prominent poet by Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and other international scholars of literature. Though Iqbal is best known as an eminent poet, he is also a highly acclaimed "Muslim philosophical thinker of modern times". His first poetry book, Asrar-e-Khudi, appeared in the Persian language in 1915, and other books of poetry include Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, Payam-i-Mashriq and Zabur-i-Ajam. Amongst these his best known Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim and a part of Armughan-e-Hijaz. Along with his Urdu and Persian poetry, his Urdu and English lectures and letters have been very influential in cultural, social, religious and political disputes.