ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 239
days before my birthday, when I threw a petulant fit, she spoke in all
seriousness of Muhammad bin Qasim's accomplishments and how he
had conquered India by the age of seventeen, highlighting my ignomin-
ious whining about buying jeans. I doubt she remembers it, but that
conversation started generating questions for me about history, memory,
and nationalisms. Those questions led me to study under Matthew
Gordon in 1995. I cannot say, even in retrospect, that I had much hope
of finishing a B.A., let alone a Ph.D. or even this book. But I still had a
desire and a drive, and they too were given to me by my mother. My
2008 dissertation, "The Many Lives of Muhammad bin Qasim," was
my answer for her, and I hope she takes this book as an extended
discursion on the subject of history and provenance of accomplished
seventeen-year-olds. My father, Sultan Ahmed Asif, was a Gastarbeiter
(guest worker) in Doha, Qatar, for more than thirty years. He spent
almost twenty of those years away from his family. He passed away in
2012, and I am sorry that I cannot see him hold this book in his hands.
His sons, scattered in the world, reflect their parents' ethos and love.
My brothers and our families are always together in group chats filled
with pictures and sounds of familial love. Finally, all possible words
of thanks are inadequate for my Maha and my Kavi. May they flower
and make beautiful their own new words and worlds.