In late nineteenth century Lucknow, two rival story-tellers, Syed Muhammad HusainnJah and Ahmed Husain Qamar, wrote a fantasy in the Urdu language whose equal had not beennheard before, and which has never been rivalled since. It was called Tilism-e Hoshruba. Thenwriters claimed that the tale had been passed down to them from story-tellers going back centuries:it was a part of the beloved oral epic, The Adventures of Amir Hamza which had come to thenIndian subcontinent via Persia and had gained in popularity during the reign of Akbar, the Mughalnemperor.nThe Tilism-e-Hoshruba is the subcontinent s first wholly indigenous Indo-Islamic fantasy epic.nIt tells the stories of Amir Hamza s military forces, his grandson and his loyal band of trickstersn(masters of wit and disguise) as they go to war with Afrasiyab, the sorcerer who rules the magicalnland of Hoshruba. Fantasy, the occult, adventure and romance play themselves out in a typicallynIndian setting as wizards, sorceresses, tricksters and royalty pitch themselves into the battle fornHoshruba. The characters of the epic are marvels of literary creation, and are much more colourfulnand dashing than those of the Amir Hamza cycle of tales.nThe Tilism-e Hoshruba runs to twenty four volumes and will be translated into English for the firstntime ever by Musharraf Ali Farooqi, the acclaimed translator of The Adventures of Amir Hamza.nRandom House India will publish all the volumes starting with Hoshruba:The Land and the Tilism,ni.e. Book 1 of the series.
Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author and translator. He has translated The Adventures of Amir Hamzanand the poetry of Afzal Ahmed Syed and is currently working on the Urdu Project (www.urduproject.ncom), an online resource for the study of Urdu language and literature. His novel The Story of anWidow will be published in India in 2009.
Binding |
Paperback |
Pages |
|
Language |
English |
ISBN |
1.40E+14 |
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