HYDERABAD, May 25: German Consul-General Hans Joachim Kiderlen has said that historical and cultural relations between Germany and Sindh will be revived through academic linkages between the University of Sindh and the universities of Germany.

Mr Kiderlen said at a seminar on “Cultural Relations between Germany and Sindh: Past and Present” organised by the Institute of Sindhology of the University of Sindh in collaboration with German Consulate, Karachi, on Saturday, that more seminars and conferences on the theme would be organised to promote relations.

He recalled the services rendered by German scholars, Dr Ernest Trumpp, Dr Annemarie Schimmel and Elsa Kazi for the promotion of relations between Germany and Sindh and vowed to strengthen them through academic programmes between Sindh University and the universities of Germany.

He said that efforts would be made for establishing cultural centre or chair at the University of Sindh and thanked Sindhi scholars for acknowledging the services of their German counterparts who had rendered services for the development of Sindhi language and literature and contributed to work on Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai.

He pledged to provide help to the Centre of Pure and Applied Geology, Anthropology and Archaeology departments and announced that Shah Jo Risalo compiled by Dr Trumpp would be reprinted.

Sindh University Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mazharul Haq Siddiqui endorsed Mr. Kiderlen’s point of view and said that cultural relations had regional connotations. Time and relations were linked with history while time and space were linked with geography, he added.

He welcomed the idea about establishment of cultural centre or chair at the university and academic linkages with German universities.

Noted scholar Dr G.A Allana said that Dr. Trumpp was the first German scholar who laid the foundation stone for cultural relations between Sindh and Germany in the 19th century.

The most remarkable contribution made by Dr. Trumpp for the promotion and development of Sindhi language and literature, included a Sindhi reading book in Devnagri and Arabic scripts published in 1858, four years after his arrival in Karachi.

He said that compilation of Shah Jo Risalo in 1859 and grammar of Sindhi language were his great achievements. The relations were cemented by prominent artist, literary critic and poet, mother Elsa Kazi, wife of great scholar Allama I.I. Kazi, the founder of Sindh University, he said.

Renowned German scholar Dr Annemarie Schimmel, an authority on mysticism, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and Sachal Sarmast took the cultural relations to new heights, he said.

Dr Habibullah Siddiqui said that German orientalists had been visiting Sindh to teach, preach and contribute towards the development of Sindhi language, culture and Sufism.

He said that in modern times a Sindhi sage and scholar Allama I.I. Kazi married a German intellectual Elsa Gertrude Loesch and together they illumined the intellectual and educational life of the people of Sindh.

Noted scholar Dr. Abdul Jabbar Junejo said in his paper on Mother Elsa Kazi that Mother Elsa Kazi, a historian, poet, fiction writer and painter, was greatly inspired by Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai.

The director of the Institute of Sindhology, Shoukat Hussain Shoro, said that the cultural relations between Germany and Sindh dated back to thousands of years, when Aryans started migrating from Germany and landed in Sindh.

They set up settlements on the banks of the Indus River and then expanded all over North India. Prof Aijaz Qureshi, Prof Mukhtiar Qazi and Dr Hidayat Akhund were among the scholars who also spoke at the seminar.