October 11, 2003

The Sindh government seems to be reinventing the wheel in Karachi. Glancing through abandoned dusty files lying in a God-forsaken government office, a bureaucrat must have chanced upon a proposal, floated about a couple of years ago, concerning the establishment of an art precinct in the heart of Karachi. The proposal envisaged the integration of certain cultural buildings — the Arts Council, the Hindu Gymkhana, the Muslim Gymkhana, the Aiwan-i-Riffat, the National Museum of Pakistan, etc. — into an art enclave. A long time has passed since the foundation stone of Attiya Fayzee’s Aiwan-i-Riffat was laid and many youths should be excused for wondering: Attiya, who?

This well-known aesthete not only held sway over the hearts of her admirers — luminaries like Allama Iqbal and Shibli Nomani topped the list — but also caused a couple of storms in the artistic teacup of Pakistan. For instance, she wrote a letter to the Civil and Military Gazette, a defunct newspaper for which Rudyard Kipling worked as a reporter, in 1949, calling Zubeida Agha’s’ art an “addled type of art, which she maintains she has learnt from an Italian.”

The Turkish-born Attiya Begum must have broken many an intellectual heart when she tied the knot with Fayzee Rahamin. In his book, Painting in Pakistan, Ijazul Hassan writes about Fayzee Rahamin’s rise to prominence. “Fayzee Rahamin was born in Poona in 1886. After completing his schooling he availed an opportunity to travel to England where he joined the Royal Academy London, winning a scholarship at the entrance examination. At the Academy, Rahamin attracted the attention of J.S. Sargent, then at the height of his fame, who invited him to join his studio. Four years later, he completed the course, having in the meantime built up a reputation as a portrait painter.”

Attiya, a Sulaimani Bohra, had Fayzee abjure his Jewish faith before marrying him. Noted art critic and scholar Dr Akbar Naqvi writes: “Rahamin was an Indian Jew who converted to Islam when the redoubtable Attiya Begum, friend of the poet Iqbal and of Shibli Nomani, married him and helped his career. When Rahamin came to Pakistan his work was largely done, and he painted only a few portraits, one of which was of Ghulam Mohammad. He lived until 1964, but it is the museum, Aiwan-i-Riffat, which his wife established in his memory, in which his name survives.” (Image and Identity: fifty years of painting and sculpture in Pakistan)

Interestingly, Hayat-i-Shibli, the most consulted biography of Allama Shibli Nomani penned by Syed Sulaiman Nadwi, contains no open reference to Shibli’s fondness — or love — for Attiya Fayzee. Syed Sulaiman Nadwi, a devoted student of Allama Shibli’s, respected his mentor too much to touch on the subject. It is in Shibli ki hayat-i-ma’ashiqa by Dr Waheed Qureishi that the nosey author dug up the minute details of the affair. Dr Qureishi quotes all the couplets, mostly in Persian, and the letters in which Allama Shibli speaks, albeit obliquely, about Attiya. A sorrowful Shibli composed the following oft-quoted couplet on Attiya’s marriage to Fayzee Rahamin.  
 

As for Allama Iqbal’s deep attachment to Attiya Fayzee, all one needs to do is read an account of his meeting with her given by Ziauddin Barni in his book, Azmat-i-Rafta. Allama Iqbal had been invited by Attiya at her Bombay residence, which was called Aiwan-i-Riffat, where, after enjoying a dance performance, Allama Iqbal composed the following couplet.

 

According to a plan made by the defunct Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, the Fayzee Rahamin Art Gallery in Aiwan-i-Riffat will feature personal effects of Attiya Begum and Fayzee Rahamin, including letters by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Maulana Shibli Nomani (the two-volume Makateeb-i-Shibli brought out by Darul Musanifeen contains no letter by Attiya), Jigar Muradabadi, Sarojni Naidu, Maulana Shaukat Ali, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar and George Bernard Shaw.

In addition, coins from various countries, medals, including the ones conferred upon Attiya Begum and her sister Nazli Raffiya by the Sultan of Turkey in 1908, specimens of calligraphy, handwritten copies of the Quran from Turkmenistan and Egypt, gold jewellery, pearls and gems and royal attire will also be put on display.

But noble intentions alone do not establish museums. For the past seven years, the government has allowed millions of rupees allocated for the construction of Aiwan-i-Riffat in annual budgets to lapse. In June this year, the city government earmarked Rs10 million for the project. When the monsoon rains lashed the city in July and left the roads in tatters in its wake, the city government decided to spend 20 per cent of the allocated amount on the construction of roads and highways. There is no telling when another unforeseen exigency might eat more into the sum.