YANG di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V reunited with his former lecturer, Dr David Browning, yesterday after the inauguration of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) by Prince Charles, who is patron of the centre.
He greeted Dr Browning, who was his lecturer in Geography in The Muslim World, when he was a student there in the 1980s.
He went to Oakham School in Rutland and pursued further education in Diplomatic Studies at St Cross College, Oxford, before doing Islamic Studies at the centre until 1991.
He was heard telling his former lecturer that he had always asked after him.
“Yes, he turned down my lunch invitation, but I made sure that he is here today,” said Dr Farhan Nizami, director of OCIS, who also taught the king.
They spoke and reminisced about the old days.
Other royal dignitaries who graced the occasion included Prince Turki Al-Faisal Al-Saud, member of the Board of Trustees of OCIS, Prince Salman Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bahrain and Prince Abdul Mateen of Brunei Darussalam.
The Malaysian entourage included Datuk Ahmad Rasidi Hazidi, the Malaysian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Eire, and Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, member of the board of trustees of OCIS.
After the ceremony, Tun Ahmad Sarji said that in these very challenging times where there was a lot of misunderstandings, the role of the centre was important.
Prince Charles, in his speech, thanked Muslim countries and leaders for their generous contributions towards the building of the new centre.
Malaysia had contributed to the panelling of the Malaysian auditorium in the form of wood carvings by master carvers from Terengganu.