IT seems rather difficult to delineate the past glory of Lucknow, the city in North India that was once capital of the State of Oudh, or Awadh. But three words can perhaps sum up the dazzling cultural, literary and architectural grandeur of the city under the Nawabs a couple centuries ago: elegance, sophistication and extravagance.

Whether it was language or cuisine, etiquettes or poetry, or even debauchery, people of Lucknow prided themselves on the most refined and delicate of tastes. Under Wajid Ali Shah (1822-1887), the last ruler of Awadh, a poet and patron of art and literature, Lucknow became a great centre of cultural and literary refinement. This grand cultural scene has been portrayed both in historical annals and literary pieces. One of the writers of Urdu who had first-hand information as well as access to eyewitness accounts as given by older generations was Abdul Haleem Sharar. And he took full advantage of this exposure.

Equally colourful, intriguing and versatile is the life lived by Abdul Haleem Sharar, a novelist, poet, editor, historian, biographer, translator, dramatist and essayist who quaffed deep from the fountains of Shia, Sunni, Ahle Hadith and Wahhabi schools of thought. According to Abdul Haleem Sharar himself, he was born in Lucknow on January 10, 1860, though some critics and some websites mention different dates. His father, Tafazzul Hussain, was employed by the government of Wajid Ali Shah.

When Wajid Ali Shah was exiled to Metiabruz, or Matia Burj, Tafazzul Hussain accompanied him. Young Sharar was in Lucknow with his mother. Concerned for his son’s education, in 1867 Tafazzul Hussain asked young Abdul Haleem to come to Matia Burj, a few miles from Kolkata where Wajid Ali Shah was given houses. Sharar was seven at that time. In Matia Burj, Ali Hyder Nazm Tabatabai taught Sharar Persian and English. Mullah Mohammad Baqar, a scholar and royal tutor, taught him Persian, Arabic and classical literary and religious works.

Wajid Ali Shah tried to make Matia Burj a mini-Lucknow, so many virtues and vices of Lucknow had been reincarnated in Matia Burj, including poetical gatherings, religious congregations, opium-eating sessions accompanied with dastaan goi (storytelling), prostitution and extravagant partying. In 1875, Sharar landed a job at Matia Burj. Soon he befriended princes as some of them were his father’s students and began “a life of debauchery”, as narrated by Sharar himself, though otherwise he was a very pious person in his youth too.

Hanging out with princes and enjoying quail fights, which was a very popular sport in those days, Sharar was living a luxurious life. At Matia Burj, he was in-charge of record keeping, including the love letters written in ornamental Persian and Urdu to Wajid Ali Shah by his wives and courtesans. This, along with eloquent dastaans, must have shaped Sharar’s mind, giving him a knack for imaginative, historical tales and a keen sense of eloquence.

But his father could not take it any longer and asked him to go back to Lucknow. Here Sharar began his education again, studying hadith. Here he got a part-time job as an assistant to a religious scholar who used to indulge in munazira (religious debates). Then Sharar went to Delhi and learnt hadith from renowned Ahle Hadith scholars. He translated Mohammad Bin Abdul Wahhab’s famous Arabic work Kitab-ut-tauheed into Urdu, to prove that Shah Ismail’s book Taqviyet-ul-iman was not its translation, as alleged by some. In Delhi, he restricted himself to religious studies and refrained from literary gatherings. As put by himself, he was too “immersed in discussing the disputes between Hanafis and Ahle Hadith”. This religiosity was to reflect in his novels.

In 1883, Sharar came back to Lucknow and met Munshi Naval Kishor, the renowned publisher, who hired Sharar to write articles for Avadh akhbar. Thus began a new phase of life for Sharar which ultimately made him an established writer. Sharar wrote for some other publications and did a brief stint with Hazaar Dastaan, a magazine from Hyderabad (Deccan). In 1885, Sharar’s first novel Dil chasp appeared and its success resulted in two more novels in a short span of time. In 1887, Sharar launched his own magazine Dil gudaaz. Soon he was one of the most popular novelists and editors. In 1893, he accompanied Nawab Waliuddin Khan to London, where he stayed for about three years, learnt French and improved his English.

A prolific writer as he was, Sharar wrote over 50 books and about 30 of them are historical novels. He was first to have written historical novels in Urdu. Some of his historical novels were in a way rejoinders to Walter Scott’s historical novels, which Sharar felt were full of religious bigotry against Islam. Though he wrote novels with a didactic point of view, Sharar’s novels present one-sided views and self-righteous characters.

One of the remarkable books by Sharar is Mashriqi tamaddun ka aakhri namoona, also known as Guzashta Lukhnau, which records Lucknow’s life and culture, capturing the essence of what Lucknow was.

Abdul Haleem Sharar died in Lucknow on Dec 1, 1926.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2018

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