The Adventures of Amir Hamza Special abridged edition

by Lakhnavi, Ghalib; Bilgrami, Abdullah; Farooqi, Musharraf Ali

• ISBN13: 9780812977448
• ISBN10: 0812977440
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-14
• Publisher: Modern Library

Summary

In the tradition of such beloved classics asThe Thousand and One Nights and the Persian Shahnameh, here is the first unabridged English translation of a major Indo-Persian epic,The Adventures of Amir Hamza(Dastan-e Amir Hamza)a panoramic tale of magic and passion, and a classic hero's odyssey that has captivated much of the world. This Islamic saga dates back hundreds of years, perhaps to as early as the seventh century, when oral narratives of the deeds of the prophet Muhammad's uncle Amir Hamza spread through Arabia, Persia, and the Indian subcontinent, expanding into a marvelous chronicle of warriors, kings, tricksters, fairies, courtesans, and magical creatures. The definitive one-volume Urdu text by Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami appeared toward the end of the nineteenth century, but English translations of this text have always been censored and abridgeduntil now. In Musharraf Ali Farooqi's faithful rendition,The Adventures of Amir Hamzais captured with all its colorful action, ribaldry, and fantastic elements intact. Here is the spellbinding story of Amir Hamza, the adventurer who loves Mehr-Nigar, the daughter of the Persian emperor, Naushervan. Traveling to exotic lands in the service of his emperor, Amir Hamza defeats many enemies, loves many women, and converts hundreds of infidels to the True Faith of Islam before finding his way back to his first love. Guided by a Merlin-like clairvoyant called Buzurjmehr, protected by legendary prophets, and accompanied by his loyal friend, the ingenious trickster Amar Ayyar, Amir Hamza rides his devoted winged demon-steed, Ashqar, into combat against a marvelous array of opponents, from the deadly demon, Sufaid Dev, to his own rebellious sons. Appreciated as the seminal Islamic epic or enjoyed as a sweeping tale as rich and inventive as Homer's epic sagas,The Adventures of Amir Hamzais an extraordinary creation and a true literary treasure. Praise forThe Adventures of Amir Hamza : "The Adventures of Amir Hamzais a wonder and a revelation a classic of epic literature in an interpretation so fluent that it is a pleasure to sit down and lose oneself in it. The story line itself is endlessly diverting and inventive, and the prose of the translation is beautifully rendered....For the modern American reader,The Adventures of Amir Hamza....with its mixed Hindu and Muslim idiom, its tales of love and seduction, its anti-clericalism....its stories of powerful and resourceful women, and its mocking of male misogyny, is a reminder of an Islamic world the West seems to have forgotten: one that is imaginative and heterodox." The New York Times Book Reviewand theInternational Herald Tribune,William Dalrymple "This sensitive new translation by Musharraf Ali Farooqi is filled with lyrical resonance....a marvelous dovetailing of fantasy, history and religion.... Lovers ofThe Book of the Thousand Nights and One Nightwill immediately notice many stylistic similarities....There's a familiar cast of supernatural characters, including angels, jinns, giants and dragons.....And there's a capacious quality, a generosity of imagination that seems to invoke the layers and centuries of storytelling....Readers who prefer their heroes to be unequivocally heroic and who are ready to enjoy special effects on the page will love losing themselves in this complex yet ancient world of the imagination." The Washington Post, Diana Abu-Jaber "I was also bowled over by a remarkable new translation ofThe Adventures of Amir Hamza(Random House Modern Library), theIliadandOdysseyof the medieval Persian world: a rollicking, magic-filled heroic saga, full of myth and imagination. It

Author Biography

Ghalib Lakhnavi was a writer and poet who worked in India in the nineteenth century. His only known work is the one-volume Dastan-e Amir Hamza (1855).

Abdullah Bilgrami taught Arabic in Kanpur, India. His only known work is his enlargement of Ghalib Lakhnavi’s Dastan-e Amir Hamza (1871).

Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author and translator. He has translated works by the contemporary Urdu poet Afzal Ahmed Syed and is currently working on the Urdu Project (www.urduproject.com), an online resource for the study of Urdu language and literature.

Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a prolific author and editor.


From the Hardcover edition.

Excerpts

Chapter 1

The florid news writers, the sweet-lipped historians, revivers of old tales and renewers of past legends, relate that there ruled at Ctesiphon1 in Persia (image of Heaven!) Emperor Qubad Kamran, who cherished his subjects and was a succor to the impecunious in their distress. He was unsurpassed in dispensing justice, and so rigorous in this exercise that the best justice appeared an injustice compared to his decree. Prosperity and affluence thrived in his dominions while wrong and inequity slumbered in death, and, rara avis–like, mendicants and the destitute were extinct in his lands. The wealthy were at a loss to find an object for their charity. The weak and the powerful were equals, and the hawk and the sparrow roosted in the same nest. The young and the old sought one another’s pleasure, neither ever deeming himself the sole benefactor. The portals of houses remained open day and night like the eyes of the vigil, for if someone stole even the color of henna from the palm,2 he was ground in the mill of justice. The thief therefore did not even dream of thieving, and if perchance a wayfarer should come upon someone’s property on the road, he took it upon himself to restore it to its owner. Compared with Qubad Kamran’s fearlessness, might, and valor, Rustam was the same as a hag most decrepit and cowardly. This imperious monarch had forty viziers,3 who were the epitomes of learning, wisdom, and prudence; and seven hundred wise men before whom even the likes of Plato and Aristotle were abecedarians.4 All these viziers were peerless in intellect and cognition, and so accomplished in physics, arithmetic, ramal, jafar,5 and astrology that they did not consider the likes of Galen and Euclid and Pythagoras fit company for themselves, let alone their equals. The emperor had seven hundred privy counselors, each more adept than ancient masters in arts and letters and in the decorum of assembly. And at the emperor’s command were four thousand champion warriors, to whom Sam and Nariman and Rustam and Zal would alike present the sword of humility in combat and accept from their hands the badge of slavery. Three hundred sovereigns who reigned over vast tracts paid tribute to Emperor Qubad Kamran, and bowed their heads in vassalage and obeisance before him. And one million mounted warriors, intrepid and fierce, and forty troops of slaves, clad in gold and finery, waited, deft and adroit, upon the emperor at his court—the envy of Heaven, the adornment of Paradise! In the same city there also resided a savant by the name of Khvaja6 Bakht Jamal, who traced his lineage to the prophet Danyal (God’s favors and mercies be upon his soul!). He was unrivaled in learning and the sciences of hikmat,7 ramal, astrology, and jafar, and was truly a successor beyond compare of the ancient philosophers. Malik8 Alqash, the emperor’s vizier who had often made use of the divinations of this sage, offered himself as a pupil to Khvaja Bakht Jamal, and became so attached and devoted to him that he would not hear of parting even for a moment from his master. Before long, Alqash, too, became adept at ramal. His fame spread far and wide, and he proved himself such a consummate practitioner of the art, that he was deservedly labeled Khvaja’s distinguished disciple, second only to his master. One day Alqash said to Khvaja Bakht Jamal, “The other night as idleness weighed on my heart, I decided to cast lots in your name. Reading the pattern, I discovered that your star is in the descendent, and some vicissitude of fortune will befall you. Your star shall remain in the same house for forty days. Thus it would not bode well for you to step out of the house during this period, or trust anyone. Even I must suffer under this burden of separation, and not see you!” Following Alqash’s advice, Bakht Jamal secluded himself from the world, declining to receive either visitors or friends. Of

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Excerpted from The Adventures of Amir Hamza by Ghalib Lakhnavi, Abdullah Bilgrami
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