Sorcerer’s Zone

The tale,Farooqi says,actually began much before Jah and Qamar. He points to a group of raconteurs,especially one Mir Ahmed Ali,who got bored with the Amir Hamza tales that emerged out of Akbar’s court and decided to create a kingdom of their own,an occult realm where Lucknow’s costumes and courtesies thrived. The tales,which belong to the oral tradition of dastan,captivated the city. Crowds gathered around Ali and his disciples everyday at designated spots in the bazaars — and came back for more the next day,some for “the scantily clad sorceress Sandal”,others for “the moon of the constellation of excellence” Prince Badiuz Zaman. The prince of the neighbouring Rampur finally made Ali his court storyteller and he had to leave Lucknow,but the city did not let go of his fantasy which he called Tilism-e-Hoshruba. In the 1880s,Munshi Naval Kishore of the famous Naval Kishore Press decided to publish the tales and got Jah to write them down. After four volumes,Qamar took over. He wrote the last three volumes.

Farooqi,40,has brought out the first volume of his English translation,Hoshruba: The Land and the Tilism (Random House India),and is planning 23 more. The Urdu Project,meanwhile,is preparing a standard Urdu version of Hoshruba,edited by Ajmal Kamal. “The first volume should be out by the end of this year,and we will also make the text available electronically,” says Farooqi. He says he mulled over the formation of a collective while facing difficulties translating his earlier book The Adventures of Amir Hamza. “I faced two problems: I did not have a standard,modern text to translate from,and did not have easy access to user-friendly classical dictionaries. Add to that the problem of introducing translated literature to western readers. The Urdu Project is looking at overcoming these problems,” says Farooqi. Next,the Urdu Project is bringing out the translation of Indian writer Syed Muhammad Ashraf’s novella Numberdar ka Neela (English title: The Beast).