Birth— 1939 (Aligarh)
Education—Aligarh Muslim University, Lucknow University,
Death—2018 (Karachi)

Bibliography

PUBLICATIONS (Books & Monographs)

1. Ibn Taimiyya’s Struggle against Popular Religion. Paris and Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1976.
2. Ed. IQBAL, Poet and Philosopher between East and West. Madison, University of Wisconsin, Center for South Asian Studies, Publication No. 4, 1979.
3. Ed. Studies in the Urdu Ghazal and Prose Fiction. Madison, University of Wisconsin, Center for South Asian Studies, Publication No. 5, 1979.
4. Ed. THE WRITINGS OF INTIZAR HUSAIN, Journal of South Asian Literature (“Introduction,” transl. “The Stairway,” “Towards His Fire,” “A Stranded Railroad Car,” “The Shadow,” “The Lost Ones,” cotransl. with Caroline Beeson, “The Backroom,” with Leslie A. Flemming, “An Unwritten Epic”), XVIII:2 (Summer-Fall 1983).
5. Ed. (and tr. of three fiction works by Abdullah Hussein) Night and Other Stories. New Delhi and London: Orient Longman, 1984.
6. Ed. (and tr. of five fiction works by Abdullah Hussein; also “Preface”), Downfall by Degrees and Other Stories. Toronto: The Toronto South Asian Review Publications, 1987. Reprint: Stories of Exile and Aliention. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1997.
7. Ed. (and tr. of short fiction works by Intizar Husain; also “Preface”), An Unwritten Epic and Other Stories. Lahore, Sang-e-Meel Publications, 1987.
8. Zavaal (annotated Urdu tr. of Albert Camus’s La Chute/The Fall). Lahore: Qausain Press, 1987.
9. Awaargee (a book of miscellaneous writing—criticism, annotated translations, etc.,—in Urdu). Karachi: Aaj Publications, 1987.
10. Taareek Galee (selected Urdu short stories by Memon). Lahore: Sang-e Meel Publishers, 1989.
11. Ed. (and tr. of four short stories, co-tr. of one short story; also “Introduction”), The Tale of the Old Fisherman, Modern Urdu Short Stories. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1991. Reprint: Lahore: Vanguard Books, 1992. Reprint: Delhi: HarperCollins, 1999.
12. Ed. (and tr. of sixteen short stories; also “Introduction”), The Colour of Nothingness, Contemporary Urdu Short Stories. Delhi: Penguin Books, 1991. Reprint: Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1998.
13. Ed. (and tr. of ten short stories, co-tr. of six short stories), Domains of Fear and Desire, Urdu Stories. Toronto: TSAR Publications, 1992. Reprint: Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994.
14. Ed. (and tr. of sixteen short stories of Intizar Husain; also a 56-page Introduction), Intizar Husain: The Seventh Door and Other Stories. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1997.
15. Ed. and tr. An Epic Unwritten: The Penguin Book Partition Stories. Delhi: Penguin Books, 1998.
16. Ed. and tr. Naiyer Masud: The Essence of Camphor. Delhi: Katha, 1998.
17. Ed. Naiyer Masud: Essence of Camphor. New York: The New Press, 2000. (This is not a reprint of the Indian edition.) Finnish and French translations appeared in 2001 and 2002.
18. Gumshuda Khutoot (a book of translated Western fiction—in Urdu). Karachi: Aaj Publications, 2005.
19. Ed. The Harper Collins Book of Urdu Short Stories. New Delhi: HaperCollins, 2005.
20. Tr. Naiyer Masud: Snake Catcher. Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2006. Also: Penguin Books, 2006.
21. Ed. and tr. Do You Suppose it’s the East Wind? Stories from Pakistan. (Penguin, Spring 2009).
22. Orhan Pamuk, Safaid Qil’a (The White Castle). Karachi: Shahrazad, 2007 (192 pp.).
23. Sándor Márai, Angare (Embers). Karachi: Shahrazad, 2007 (225 pp.).
24. Milan Kundear, Pahchan (Identity). Karachi: Shahrazad, 2007 (138pp.).
25. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Apni Sogawar Beswa’on ki Yadein (Memories of My Melancholy Whores). Karachi: Shahrazad, 2006 (91 pp.).

The Following books, translations from Western Fiction into Urdu, will appear from Shahrazad (Karachi) in the next few years. Manuscripts have been completed and delivered.

26. Ishart-e Aawargi, Mutafarriq Tarajim (about 150 pages); includes two articles and notes by me, and translations of articles by Edward Said, Hanif Kureshie, Tahar Ben Jallon, Anton Shammas, Jorges Luis Borges, Mario Vargas Llosa, Julian Barnes, Antonio Gramsci, and Maria Rosa Menocal.
27. Carlos Fuentes, Constancia (about 100 pages).
28. Laila Lalami, Ummid aur digar Khatrnak Mashaghil (Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits) (about 250 pages).

Volumes in the Pakistan Writers Series, Oxford University Press

29. Ed. and tr. Abdullah Hussein: Stories of Exile and Alienation. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1998.
30. Ed. (and tr. of 6 short stories of Hasan Manzar; also Introduction), Hasan Manzar: A Requiem for the Earth” Selected Stories. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1998. As The End of Human History. New Delhi: Katha, 2002.
31. Ed. Khadija Mastur: Cool, Sweet Water: Selected Stories. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1999, and Delhi: Kali for Women, 1999.
32. Ed. Ahmad Nadeem Qasimi: The Old Banyan and Other Stories. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2000. As The Resthouse. New Delhi: Katha, 2003.
33. Ed. Sa‘adat Hasan Manto: For Freedom’s Sake: Selected Stories and Sketches. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2001. As Black Margins. New Delhi: Katha, 2003.
34. Ed. Zamiruddin Ahmad: The East Wind and Other Stories. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2002.
35. Ed. Asad Muhammad Khan: The Harvest of Anger and Other Stories. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Articles

1. “American Arabs: Their Intellectual Problems.” Indus Times, 9 December 1963.
2. “Intizar Husain aur Muhammad ‘Umar Maiman ke darmiyaan ek baat-cheet.” Shab Khun 8:96 (July-Sept. 1975), 3–35. (In Urdu.)
3. “Hafze ki baazyaaft, zavaal, aur shakhsiyat ki maut,” Savera (Lahore), Nos. 50–52 (May 1976), 43–68; also in Shab Khun 9:100 (Aug.-Sept. 1976), 3–15; also in Mi’yaar (March 1977), 159–79. (In Urdu.)
4. “‘The Lost Ones’ (A Requiem for the Self) by Intizar Husain.” Edebiyat, A Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures 3:2 (1978). (“Introduction,” pp. 139–44; translation, pp. 145–56.)
5. “Partition Literature: A Study of Intizar Husain,” Modern Asian Studies 13:1 (Feb. 1981), 73–91.
6. “Reclamation of Memory, Fall, and the Death of the Creative Self: Three Moments in the Fiction of Intizar Husain,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 13:1 (Feb. 1981), 73–91.
7. “Abu’l-Barakat Monir Lahuri.” In Ehsan Yarshater, ed. Encyclopaedia Iranica (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983), Vol. 1, Fascicle 3, 268–69.
8. “Pakistani Urdu Creative Writing on National Disintegration: The Case of Bangladesh,” Journal of Asian Studies XLIII:1 (November 1983), 105–27.
9. “Ghalib Our Contemporary,” Annual of Urdu Studies 3 (1983), 85–97. (Annotated translation of an Urdu article by Alam Khundmiri.)
10. “A Storm in a Teacup,” Annual of Urdu Studies 4 (1985), 101–06. (A review article.)
11. “Ibn-e Rushd ki sa’i wa talaash.” In Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, ed. Tuhfat as-Surur (Festschrift for Professor A.A. Surur) (Delhi: Jami’a Press, 1985), 188–223; also Mehrab 4 (1983), 165–98. (In Urdu.)
12. “The Future of the Ghazal: A Symposium,” Annual of Urdu Studies 4 (1985), 1–23. (Annotated translation of an Urdu symposium. Participants: Muhammad Ahsan Farooqi, N.M. Rashed, Wazeer Agha, and Salim Ahmad.)
13. “Abu ‘Abdallah-Hosayn b. Mohammad ‘Amid.” In Ehsan Yarshater, ed. Encyclopaedia Iranica (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985), Vol. 1, Fascicle 9, 937.
14. “‘Amid-al-Din Sanami.” In Ehsan Yarshater, ed. Encyclopaedia Iranica (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985), Vol. 1, Fascicle 9, 937–38.
15. “Abdullah Hussein—A Profile,” Toronto South Asian Review 4:1 (Summer 1985), 22–43.
16. Ne’mat Khan-e ‘Aali,” “Ibrahim Khan Khalil,” and “‘Ali Hazin” (accepted for publication in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Ehsan Yarshater, ed.)
17. “Shi’ite Consciousness in a Recent Urdu Novel: Intizar Husain’s Basti,” in Christopher Shackle, ed., Urdu and Muslim South Asia, Studies in Honour of Ralph Russell (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1989), pp. 139–50.
18. “Melodrama or …? A Note on Manto’s ‘In This Maelstrom’,” in Life and Works of Saadat Hasan Manto, ed. Alok Bhalla (Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1997), pp. 13–27.

Fiction Translations in Anthologies

1. Ikarmullah Chaudhry, “The Old Mansion,” in City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore, Bapsi Sidhwa, ed. (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2005), pp. 338–350; and Beloved City: Writings on Lahore (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 338–350.
2. Khalida Asghar, “The Wagon,” in Stories About Us, ed. by Geri Dasgupta and Jennifer Jiang-hai Mei (Canada: Nelson, 2005), pp. 176–188.
3. Rajinder Singh Bedi, “Lajwanti,” in Cultural Diversity, Linguistic Plurality, and Literary Traditions in India, ed. by Vibha S. Chauhan and Bodh Prakash (MacMillan India, Ltd., 2005), pp. 56–68.
4. Javed Shaheen, “If Truth Be Told,” in A Letter from India: Contemporary Short Stories from Pakistan, ed. by Moazzam Sheikh (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2004), pp. 23–37.
5. Khalida Asghar, “The Wagon,” in Modern Literatures of the Non-Western World: Where the Waters Are Born, ed. by Jayana Clerk and Ruth Siegel (Harper Collins, 1995), pp. 361–371.
6. Anwer Khan, “The Pose,” in Breaking Free: A Cross-Cultural Anthology, ed. by John Borovilos (Canada: Prentice Hall, 1995), pp. 205–209.
7. Naiyer Masud, “The Colour of Nothingness,” in Global Voices: Contemporary Literature from the Non-Western World, ed. by Arthur W. Biddle et al. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995), pp. 616–626.
8. Zamiruddin Ahmad, “Purvai—The Easterly Wind,” in Global Voices: Contemporary Literature from the Non-Western World, ed. by Arthur W. Biddle et al. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995), pp. 658–666.
9. Enver Sajjad, “The Bird,” in Global Voices: Contemporary Literature from the Non-Western World, ed. by Arthur W. Biddle et al. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995), pp. 666–672.
10. Khalida Asghar, “The Wagon,” in Global Voices: Contemporary Literature from the Non-Western World, ed. by Arthur W. Biddle et al. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995), pp. 672–681.
11. (The above 4 stories also appeared in Contemporary Literature of Asia, ed. by Arthur W. Biddle et al. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996), pp. 93–104; 176–185; 185–190; and 191–200.)
12. Intizar Husain, “An Unwritten Epic,” in The Penguin Book of Urdu Stories, ed. by M. Asaduddin (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2006).
13. Ashfaq Ahmad , “The Shepherd,” in The Penguin Book of Urdu Stories, ed. by M. Asaduddin (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2006).

Creative Writing (Fiction —in English)

4 short stories which appeared in The Illustrated Weekly of Pakistan (Karachi), Thought (Delhi), Indus Times (Hyderabad), The Pakistan Review (Lahore), and Indian Literature (Delhi).

Creative Writing (Fiction —in Urdu)

25 short stories in renowned literary Urdu journals of India and Pakistan. (Particulars available on request.)

“Colaz, Montaz, Asamblaz, Sabotaz” (an Urdu short story), in Aaj 3 (Spring 1990), pp. 33– 37.

Creative Writing (Poetry —in English)

11 poems that have appeared in major literary English journals in India and Pakistan

Miscellaneous (Articles, Feature Articles—in Urdu)

1. “Shimza,” Mah-e Nau (Oct. 1961), 106–08.

2. “Chasm bi-kusha andarin dair-e kuhan,” Mah-e Nau (February 1963), 53–55 and 59.

3. “Iblagh kise kahte hain,” Tahreek (April 1967), 28–31.

Translation (Criticism; Urdu into English)

1. Hasan, Muhammad, “Some Important Critics of Ghalib,” Mahfil ( V:4 (1968-69), 31-43.

2. Rizvi, S. Ehtisham Husain, “The Elements of Ghalib’s Thought,” Mahfil (Chicago University), V:4 (1968-69), 7-29. (With C.M. Naim.)

3. Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman, “Ghalib, The Difficult Poet,” in S. R. Faruqi, The Secret Mirror: Essays on Urdu Poetry

(Delhi: Academic Literature, 1981), 34-50.

Translation (Fiction; Urdu into English)

27 short storiess by contemporary Urdu writers of India and Pakistan.

Translation (Poetry; Urdu into English)

1. Farooqi, Saqi, “Poster,” Denver Quraterly 12:2 (Summer 1977), 241.

2. Farooqi, Ijaz, “Shahryar,” Denver Quraterly 12:2 (Summer 1977), 242.

3. Shahryar, “A Poem,” Denver Quraterly 12:2 ( Summer 1977), 242.

4–11. Shaharyar, “A Poem,” “Longing for Dreams,” “Call from Above,” “Think Back Again,” “Another Forecast,” “Escape,” “Warning,” “The Telling Question of the New Epoch,” Chandrabhaga (Summer 1985), 23–25.

Translation (Fiction; Arabic into Urdu)

1. Husain, Muhammad Hajj, “Bahroop,” Ja’iza (March 1961), 67–75. (A play.)

2. Ba‘labakki, Laila, “Chand ki taraf shafqat ka safeenah,” Shan Khun 3:35 (April 1969), 4–18. (A short story.)

Translation (Criticism; English into Urdu)

1. “Kafka,” Seep (1965), 311–333. (Devoted to a translation of the “Introduction” and first two chapters from Herbert Tauber’s Franz Kafka, An Interpretation of His Works (London: Secker and Warburg, 1948), ix–xv, 1–26; a passage from Fritz Matrini’s Deutsche Literatur Geschichte, pp. 262–64; a letter of Kafka to Milena; and some of Kafka’s parables.)

2. “Ema Bovari aur Flabiyar,” Mah-e Nau 40:2 (February 1987), 15–21. (Translation of a section of Mario Bergas Llosa: The Perpetual Orgy.)

3. “Milan Kundera se ek guftagu,” in Ajmal Kamal, ed. Aaj: Dusri Kitab (Karachi: Aaj Publications, 1986), 67–79. (An annotated translation of Philip Roth, “Afterword,” in Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.)

4. “Ek vairiashan ka ta’aruf,” in Ajmal Kamal, ed. Aaj: Dusri Kitab (Karachi: Aaj Publications, 1986), 80–94. (An annotated translation of Milan Kundera, “Introduction to a Variation,” The New York Time Book Review, 6 January 1985.)

5. “‘Arabi, ‘ibrani, aur qissa-go ki qamees” (translation of Anton Shammas’ article “Arabic, Hebrew, and the Shirt of the Storyteller”), in Aaj (Winter 1991), pp. 90–104.

Translation (Fiction, Letters)

1. Tolstoy, Leo, “Tin farishte,” Insha’ (Jan. 1960), 44–49.

2. Moravia, Alberto, “Do chor,” Pak Punch (1960), 54–57.

3. _____, “Mausam-e-garma ke lateefe,” Tahreek (Sept. 1961), 24–27 and 33.

4. _____, “Shahzadi,” Ash-Shuja’ (June 1961), 30–35.

5. _____, “Bholi bhali larki,” Adab-e Lateef (July 1961), 49–54.

6. Camus, Albert, Zavaal, Saughat (1963), 185–265.

7. Gramsci, Antonio, “Naamah-ha-e Zindan,” Mi’yar (March 1977), 346–72. (Translation of 7 of his prison letters.)

8. Kundera, Milan, “Gumshudad Khutoot” in Ajmal Kamal, ed. Aaj: Dusri Kitab (Karachi: Aaj Publications, 1986), 95–136. (Translation, with introduction, of “Lost Letters,” part 4 of Kundera’s novel The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.)

9. Kundera, Milan, “Graand Maarch,” in Ajmal Kamal, ed. Aaj: Dusri Kitab (Karachi: Aaj Publications, 1986), 137–169. (Translation, with introduction, of “Grand March,” part 6 of Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being.)

10. “‘Am-e zn-e jarkasi,” (Urdu translation of a chapter from Amin Maaluf’s novel Leo Africanus), in Aaj (Spring 1990), pp. 21–31.

11. “Aima Buvari ki ankhen” (Urdu translation of a chapter from Julian Barnes’ novel Falubert’s Parrot), in Aaj (Fall 1990), pp. 56–64.

12. “Hatta ki qabr ke munh par bhi” (Urdu translation of a chapter from Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s novel The Cancer Ward), in Daryaft 2:4 (June 1991), pp. 63–73.

13. “Ek Muhabbat ki kahani (1)” (Urdu translation of a portion from Chapter Six of Simone de Bouvoir’s novel The Mandarins), in (Summer/Fall 1992), pp. 132–95.

14. “Ek Muhabbat ki kahani (2)” (Urdu translation of a portion from Chapter Eight of Simone de Bouvoir’s novel The Mandarins), in Aaj (Summer/Fall 1993), pp. 123–79.

15. “Ek Muhabbat ki kahani (3)” (Urdu translation of a portion from Chapter Ten of Simone de Bouvoir’s novel The Mandarins), in Aaj (Summer 1994), pp. 213–57.

Book Reviews

1. Husain, Sadiq, Phoolon ke Mahal (Lahore: Idara-e-Farogh-e Urdu, 1963), reviewed in Outlook, 18 April 1964, 11.

2. Frye, Richard N. ed. The Historians of Nishapur (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966), reviewed in The Asian Student, 1 October 1966, 8.

3. Levy, Reuben, tr. The Epics of Kings: Shah-nama, the National Epic of Persia by Ferdowsi (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1967), reviewed in The Asian Student, 16 September 1967, 8.

4. Bottero, Jean et al., ed. The Near East: The Early Civilization, English tr. by R.F. Tannenbaum (New York: Delacorte Press, 1967), reviewed in The Asian Student, 20 April 1968, 8.

5. Russell, Ralph and Khurshidul Islam, Three Mughal Poets: Mir, Sauda, Mir Hasan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), reviewed in The Asian Student, 1 February 1969, 8.

6. Pellat, Charles, The Life and Works of Jahiz, English tr. by D.M. Hawke (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969), reviewed in The Asian Student, 3 October 1960, 8.

7. Russell, Ralph and Khurshidul Islam, Ghalib 1797-1869, Volume I; Life and Letters (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969), reviewed in The Asian Student, 24 October 1970, 8.

8. Kiernan, V.G., tr. Poems of Faiz (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1971), reviewed in The Asian Student, 27 November 1971, 8.

9. Malik, Hafeez, ed. Iqbal: Poet-Philosopher of Pakistan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), reviewed in The Journal of Asian Studies XXXI:4 (1972), 982-984; also in The Asian Student, 12 February 1972, 8.

10. Ahmad, Aijaz, ed. Ghazals of Ghalib (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972), reviewed in The Asian Student, 26 February 1972, 8.

11. Matthews, D.J. and C. Shackle, tr. An Anthology of Classical Urdu Love Lyrics (New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1972), reviewed in The Asian Student, 17 February 1973, 11.

12. Ali, Ahmed, The Golden Tradition: An Anthology of Urdu Poetry (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1973), reviewed in The Asian Student, 27 October 1973, 8.

13. Ahmad, Aziz, The Shore and the Wave, English tr. by Ralph Russell (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1972), reviewed in The Asian Student, 8 December 1973, 8.

14. Lings, Martin, What is Sufism? (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975), reviewed in The Asian Student, 9 October 1976, 11.

15. Crone, Patricia and Cook, Michael, Hagarism: The Making of Islamic World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977), reviewed in The Asian Student, 11 February 1978, 11.

16. Karimi-Hakkak, A., An Anthology of Modern Persian Poetry (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1978), reviewed in Middle East Studies Association Bulletin XIV:1 (July 1980), 40–41.

17. Troll, Christian W., Sayyid Ahmad Khan, A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1978), reviewed in International Journal of Middle East Studies 12:3 (1980), 421–22.

18. Flemming, Leslie A., Another Lonely Voice, The Urdu Short Stories of Saadat Hasan Manto (Berkeley: Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California [Monograph No. 18] 1979), reviewed in The Journal of Asian Studies XL:3 (May 1981), 627–29.

19. Mottahedeh, Roy P., Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1980), reviewed in The Muslim World Book Review 1:3 (Spring 1981), 30–32.

20. Lawrence, Bruce B., ed. The Rose and the Rock: Mystical and Rational Elements in the Intellectual History of South Asian Islam (Duke University Program in Comparative Studies on Southern Asia, 1979), reviewed in The Muslim World Book Review 1:4 (Summer 1981), 10–12.

21. Schimmel, Annemarie, As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), reviewed in The Muslim World Book Review 3:2 (Winter 1983), 56–58.

22. Kennedy, Hugh, The Early Abbasid Caliphate: A Political History (London: Croom Helm Ltd., 1981), reviewed in The Muslim World Book Review 3:3 (Summer 1983), 21–22.

23. Ibn Taymiya, Public Duties in Islam, The Institution of Hisba, English tr. by Muhtar Holland (Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 1982), reviewed in International Journal of Middle East Studies 17:1 (February 1985), 141–142.

24. Rahbar, Daud, tr., Urdu Letters of Mirza Asadu’llah Khan Ghalib (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1987), reviewed in The Muslim World LXXIX:2 (April 1989), 147.

25. Mahmud, Shabana, Urdu Language and Literature: A Bibliography of Sources in Euripean Languages. (London: Mansell Publishing Limited, 1992), reviewed in The Annual od Urdu Studies, No. 10 (1995), 255–61.

MISCELLANEOUS

1.Jalbani, Ghulam Husain, Shah Waliullah ku ta’lim (The Teachings of Shah Walilullah), Hyderabad: Shah Waliullah Academy, 1963. (I rewrote the text of the entire volume from an earlier, very poor rendering in Urdu of the original in Sindhi language; my work is acknowledged by the author in his “Preface” on p. 4.)

2.ISLAM IN SOUTH ASIA: A color videocassette, ninth in the series EXPLORING THE RELIGIONS OF SOUTH ASIA (Madison: Center for South Asian Studies and WHA-TV [Channel 21], July 1975); with Professor David Knipe.

Biography

Memoirs

Critique/Review of Works

Biography

Muhammad Umar Memon, a UW–Madison professor who was an internationally renowned scholar of the Urdu language and literature, died June 3. He was 79.

Memon’s lifelong work was to raise the awareness of Urdu in the West through his scholarship and teaching, and by editing an influential Urdu journal.

“Urdu is my mother tongue and the love of my life,” Memon said in a 2002 interview. Urdu is the official language of Pakistan and is used by roughly 100 million people, mainly in India and Pakistan.

Born to a prominent family in Aligarh, India, near Delhi, and educated at Pakistan’s Karachi University, Memon attended Harvard University on a Fulbright scholarship and received a Ph.D. from the University of California-Los Angeles in 1971.

He met his wife, Nakako, in the United States and came to UW–Madison in 1970 to take a joint appointment as assistant professor in the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies and the then-Department of Indian Studies. Throughout his 38 years at the university, he taught courses on Urdu language, literature, Islam, and Arabic Studies. In addition, he was an accomplished translator, poet and Urdu short story author.

Memon’s courses on Islam were “very popular with students and provided important insights into Islam and diverse cultural practices associated with Islamic communities throughout the world,” says anthropology professor Mark Kenoyer.

Following his retirement in 2008, Professor Memon continued writing, translating and publishing. “Professor Memon has left a rich legacy for Urdu literary studies, “says Kenoyer.

Emeritus professor Joe Elder worked alongside Professor Memon in the Department of South Asian Studies (then named Languages and Cultures of Asia) for decades. He observed that “throughout our years together, Professor Memon was profoundly committed to promoting Urdu Language and literature in many ways, but especially as editor of the Annual of Urdu Studies.”

The Annual began at the University of Chicago in 1980, and in 1993, Professor Memon assumed the editorship, and brought the publication to UW–Madison.

Memon in his Van Hise office in 2002. Memon reads from the book Divan-e Ghalib, a collection of 19th century Persian poet Mirza Ghalib’s poetry in Urdu.

“With outstanding scholarship and much hard work, Professor Memon drew the attention of the international Urdu-speaking world to the University of Wisconsin–Madison and its Urdu-related activities,” Elder says.

The Annual offered English translations of Urdu essays, fiction and poetry, as well as scholarship on Urdu originally produced in English language. For a time, Memon ran it out of a pair of cramped offices on the 12th floor of Van Hise Hall.

Farhat Haq, president of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, credits Memon with keeping the Annual of Urdu Studies alive. “The Annual survived despite many ups and downs because of Professor Memon’s refusal to let any hurdle stand in his way,” Haq says.

Jane Shum became fascinated by Urdu while taking Professor Memon’s introductory class on Islam.

“I went away from class so inspired to find out more about Urdu that I ended up regarding Professor Memon as my mentor and a life-long friend,” Shum says.

She worked alongside Memon for 14 years at the Annual of Urdu Studies and collaborated with him on translations of Urdu literature.

“His legacy will live on at the University of Wisconsin thanks to his thoughtful donation of several hundred Urdu-, Persian- and Arabic-language books and manuscripts from his personal library to the Memorial Library,” Shum says. ”Some of these were rare items he inherited from his father, Abdul-Aziz Memon, a highly regarded scholar of the Arabic language.”

Professor Memon is survived by his wife Nakako, their two sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren.

Memoirs

A Memon in the service of Urdu By Altaf Hussain Asad
The News on Sunday: What was your childhood like? Any memories?
Muhammad Umar Memon: Nothing much to tell. I was born in Aligarh, the last of my parent’s six children. By then all my siblings had left home except one sister who was eight years older. It was a pretty lonely childhood and quite uneventful. I did have some friends. Although I have now returned almost exclusively to reading and writing, I have been interested in a number of things at different times of my life, among them painting, woodworking, macramé, making carved candles, and gardening.

آخری ای میل ۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ نجیبہ عارف کے قلم سے عمر میمن مرحوم کا تذکرہ
میمن صاحب!
پچھلے کئی گھنٹے سے اپنا ای میل اکاؤنٹ کھول کر بیٹھی ہوں اور آپ کی پرانی ای میلز پڑھ رہی ہوں۔ بار بار جی چاہتا ہے کہ اس آخری ای میل کا جواب لکھ دوں جس کی صرف رسید ہی دے پائی تھی، جواب نہیں لکھ سکی تھی۔ وجہ کچھ خاص نہیں تھی، بس یوں ہی بے دلی سی تھی۔ خود سے، اردگرد سے، دنیا بھر سے، آپ سمیت سب سے۔حالانکہ آپ نے اس آخری ای میل میں روح کو اجال دینے والی، لطیف تر کر دینے والی، ترفع پر مامور بلکہ مجبور کر دینے والی موسیقی کے کلپ کا لنک بھیجا تھا اور مجھے ہدایت کی تھی کہ پانچ منٹ کے اس کلپ سے اپنی روح کو، اپنی زندگی کو، اپنے وجود کو غسل نور دے ڈالوں۔ لیکن میں یہ بھی نہ کر پائی۔ وہ کلپ میں نے سنا تو ضرور اور اس سے حسب توفیق مرعوب بھی ہوئی مگر میرے وجود میں ایسی کثافت، ایسا بھار، ایسا بوجھل پن تھا کہ نور میں نہانا بھی مجھے لت پت ہونے کے مترادف لگ رہا تھا۔ میں نے کوئی جواب نہ دیا۔

محمد عمر میمن …. اور ادیبوں کا شیش محل از محمد سلیم الرحمان

محمد عمر میمن مدت سے امریکہ میں مقیم ہیں۔ شاید ایک صدی ہونے کو آئی۔ لیکن ٹھیریے۔ بہت سنجیدہ آدمی ہیں۔ بگڑ نہ جائیں۔ کم از کم پچاس برس سے امریکہ میں ٹکے ہوے ہیں۔ اب تو پروفیسر امیریطس بھی ہو گئے۔ اردو سے انگریزی اور انگریزی سے اردو میں بہت تراجم کیے۔ اس لحاظ سے اس وقت اردو دنیا میں ان کا کوئی ثانی نہیں۔ انتظار حسین، عبداللہ حسین اور نیر مسعود، پر خاص طور پر مہربان رہے۔ پہلے دونوں سے شاکی بھی ہیں۔ سنا ہے کہتے ہیں: ”میں نے ان تینوں کو انگریزی خواں دنیا میں متعارف کرایا لیکن انھوں نے کبھی میرے حق میں کلمہ خیر نہیں کہا۔“ نیر مسعود اب کچھ کہنے سننے کے قابل نہیں رہے۔ گوشہ نشین بلکہ بستر نشین ہو چکے۔ باقی دو حضرات اللہ کو پیارے ہوے۔ میرا خیال نہیں کہ ان دونوں میں سے کسی نے کبھی، مصر ہو کر، محمد عمر میمن سے کہا ہو کہ ”للّٰہ ہمارے افسانوں کا انگریزی میں ترجمہ کر دیجیے تاکہ ہمیں زیادہ شہرت حاصل ہو۔“ میمن نے ان کے تراجم کیے تو اپنے شوق سے۔ پھر شکوہ کیسا؟ اردو میں جب افسانہ نگاروں کا ذکر آتا ہے تو عمر میمن کا نام کوئی نہیں لیتا۔ وجہ یہ کہ ان کے افسانوں کا واحد مجموعہ، مدتوں پہلے، چھپا تھا۔ افسانہ نگاری سے وہ تقریباً تائب ہو چکے ہیں۔ اردو ادب سے تعلق رکھنے والے اکثر حضرات زود فراموش واقع ہوے ہیں۔ کسی کو میمن کا خیال کیوں آئے گا۔

محمد عمر میمن (2018-1939) از محمد سلیم الرحمان

محمد عمر میمن مدت سے امریکہ میں مقیم ہیں۔ شاید ایک صدی ہونے کو آئی۔ لیکن ٹھیریے۔ بہت سنجیدہ آدمی ہیں۔ بگڑ نہ جائیں۔ کم از کم پچاس برس سے امریکہ میں ٹکے ہوے ہیں۔ اب تو پروفیسر امیریطس بھی ہو گئے۔ اردو سے انگریزی اور انگریزی سے اردو میں بہت تراجم کیے۔ اس لحاظ سے اس وقت اردو دنیا میں ان کا کوئی ثانی نہیں۔ انتظار حسین، عبداللہ حسین اور نیر مسعود، پر خاص طور پر مہربان رہے۔ پہلے دونوں سے شاکی بھی ہیں۔ سنا ہے کہتے ہیں: ”میں نے ان تینوں کو انگریزی خواں دنیا میں متعارف کرایا لیکن انھوں نے کبھی میرے حق میں کلمہ خیر نہیں کہا۔“ نیر مسعود اب کچھ کہنے سننے کے قابل نہیں رہے۔ گوشہ نشین بلکہ بستر نشین ہو چکے۔ باقی دو حضرات اللہ کو پیارے ہوے۔ میرا خیال نہیں کہ ان دونوں میں سے کسی نے کبھی، مصر ہو کر، محمد عمر میمن سے کہا ہو کہ ”للّٰہ ہمارے افسانوں کا انگریزی میں ترجمہ کر دیجیے تاکہ ہمیں زیادہ شہرت حاصل ہو۔“ میمن نے ان کے تراجم کیے تو اپنے شوق سے۔ پھر شکوہ کیسا؟ اردو میں جب افسانہ نگاروں کا ذکر آتا ہے تو عمر میمن کا نام کوئی نہیں لیتا۔ وجہ یہ کہ ان کے افسانوں کا واحد مجموعہ، مدتوں پہلے، چھپا تھا۔ افسانہ نگاری سے وہ تقریباً تائب ہو چکے ہیں۔ اردو ادب سے تعلق رکھنے والے اکثر حضرات زود فراموش واقع ہوے ہیں۔ کسی کو میمن کا خیال کیوں آئے گا۔

Interview with Muhammad Umar Memon By Anjum Dawood Alden
Learning a new language is not just a matter of learning the semantics and linguistic structure of a new dialect, but it is also a discovery of the culture that surrounds that language. In some cases, it can even be a rediscovery of a culture. I grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and went to a school that taught Urdu as a second language. Our daily classes were primarily conducted in English. Urdu was often taught to us in a completely different way than English. Teachers relied heavily on verbal drills, memorization and uninspiring reading opportunities. I never mastered my own mother tongue in Pakistan because I found it boring and tiresome to study.

Remembering an ‘outsider’. Obituary Muhammad Umar Memon by M. Salim-Ur-Rahman
Some people are born lucky. Everything they touch turns to gold. Some are not so lucky. They work steadily, in an earnest sort of way, plodding along, and what they finally achieve ought to earn them a round of plaudits. But they are often overlooked and sidelined. The adage that those who are slow and steady win the race no longer holds true in an age bemused by showmanship and posturing. Clever manipulation of the masses’ idiosyncrasies, naivete and obsession brings success.

Citizen of a language called Urdu by Moazzam Sheikh
Garcia Marquez said in his pages that even vegetarians have been known to die from time to time. The same is true of sweet people on earth. Professor Umar Memon is such a person one wishes to have lived a long life. Those who are familiar with his dedication to Urdu and the amount of work he produced translating across Urdu and English while using his knowledge of European and Asian languages, Arabic being the most intimate, certainly would have liked to see him live at least a decade more. A person’s mortality, however, wins in the end.

Critique/Review 

Urdu short story: the modernist phase (1950s and after)
Mohammad Umar Memon
The Progressives were more or less a spent force by the mid-1950s, or at least had lost their earlier chokehold on the writer’s imagination. Half of their ideological battle had been won: the British had departed and the country was free, even if the freedom had come in the wake of much carnage and dislocation. The other half, the dream of a just, equitable and secular society, however noble, properly belonged — as a generation of artistically better-informed writers was soon to find out — to the realm of political and social action. For this generation, brought up on Dostoyevsky and Joyce, existentialists Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, and such anti-novelists as Alain Robbe-Grillet and Michel Butor, sincerity and nobility and social usefulness had little place in a narrative art whose basic building block was ‘fabrication’.

Urdu Fiction from India: An Introduction by Mohammad Umar Memon
Notwithstanding President Barack Obama’s delightful disclosure that he likes Urdu poetry, few in the West know anything about this language and even less about its otherwise vibrant literature.
The partition of British India in 1947 took its tragic toll not only in human lives and displacement, but also in culture. Like everything else, the Urdu language, an unmistakable product of India, in which all Indians participated without regard to religion or creed (of the three most celebrated Urdu fiction writers of the twentieth century, one was a Hindu, the other a Sikh, and the third a Muslim), also split apart in the frenzy of linguistic nationalism, with distinct religious identities foisted upon it.

مصری کی ڈلی یا سفید چینی: ترجمہ نگاری اور اس کے آزار
محمد عمر میمن
د‎سمبر ۲۰۱۰ کے اوائل میں جب میں کراچی پہنچا تو “بین الا قوامی اردو کانفرنس” کو شروع ہوے ایک دن ہو چکا تھا. چوں کہ د وسرے دن کی پہلی بیٹھک اردو افسانہ سے متعلق تھی اور مجھے فکشن سے دلچسپی بھی ہے، میں اس کے حاضرین میں جا شامل ہوا……..