Connecting Hearts Connecting Generations

About the Book

"Connecting Hearts Connecting Generations" contains press interviews of Muhammad Osimi from 1990 to his last interview in 1996. Muhammad Osimi was a great Tajik Scholar, philosopher, scientist, historian, intellectual and humanist, President of Tajik Academy of Sciences and the founder of "Payvand"("Unity") - a society and foundation for cultural relationships with compatriots and co-linguists around the world. Professor Osimi was the President of UNESCO's International Association for the Study of Cultures of Central Asia (1977- 1996). He headed the project of preparing and publishing the six-volume edition The History of Civilizations of Central Asia. He was also one of the co-editors of the 7-volume History of Humanity. Through the layers of the text "Connecting Hearts Connecting Generations", readers will discover why his messages are symbolic of cultural and spiritual evolution of the Tajik nation. Professor Kashinath Pandita, the steadfast Indian scholar, friend of Tajiks and a dear friend of Osimi and his family, volunteered to translate it into English to pay homage to his late friend. This volume also contains an article written by him in which he shares with us his deep memories of Osimi.

About the Author

Muhammad Osimi, a distinguished academician had already gained a rich experience of running such a prestigious organization. He had held the important positions of Chancellor of Polytechnic University (now re-named Osimi Tajik Technical University), Minister for Education (Teaching and Training), Secretary of Central Committee of Communist Party and Deputy Chief of the Council of Ministers of Tajikistan. His long stint as President of the Academy of Sciences, Tajikistan had earned him a fund of administrative skills, which stood him in good stead in running the affairs of Payvand. Even before the establishment of this organization, he had been fully conscious of the need for establishing a creative relationship between the Tajik scholars, writers, thinkers and cultural personalities and their counterparts in foreign countries, he, in fact, considered it his biggest and the most important duty. The aims and aspirations of the Payvand organization demanded that Osimi give a wider and more vibrant dimension to his managerial potential. Osimi was cultured and knowledgeable and gifted with the higher quality of virtue. He could cultivate close friendship with people bestowed with excellence and cultural richness. Osimi had developed close collaborative relations with his compatriots and co-linguists. He ardently desired that Farsi speaking peoples develop close mutual contacts so that exchange of their scholarly works would become a reality. He traveled to many parts of the world for participating in conferences and seminars. In the process he added new names to his long list of friends and well-wishers. Keeping in mind his mission and his versatility, the election of Osimi to the office of the President of Payvand was actually an apt and befitting act to confer an icon on the organization, the icon of friendship and connectivity. This was why within a short period of time under his chairmanship, the Payvand graduated to an institution of profound influence and credibility. Soon it attracted renowned personalities of erudition, culture and of Farsi scholarship to its assemblies.