THE Arabic word muqaddama has many variant connotations in Urdu and one of them is ‘foreword’ or ‘preface’. It was exactly a century and a quarter ago that Muqaddama-i-shear-o-shaeri (1893) by Khwaja Altaf Hussain Hali (1837-1914) first appeared. But some of the debates that it kicked up are still going on, even 125 years later.
Penned after the hard work of about a decade and published as a foreword to his Urdu divan, Hali’s Muqaddama is considered Urdu’s first book ever written on modern critical theories and poetics. It delineates literary theory and also critically evaluates Urdu poetry, severely criticising some of its genres, especially ghazal and qaseeda (panegyric ode). Hali especially took to task some of the poets belonging to Lucknow School for their love-centric poetry devoid of any vision, moral values or “national feelings”. As a result, it was one of the books that had become very controversial in its own time since it infuriated many readers, critics and poets of the old school, holding orthodox views. And, at the same time, it is one of the books that have influenced Urdu literature most.
The debates Muqaddama triggered were all-important and quite a few books and articles were written as rejoinders, rebuttals and counterarguments. It is one of the most popular books of Urdu, too, and since the publication of its first edition many publishers have been publishing it separately (without Hali’s divan). Dr Waheed Qureshi put the figure of these editions between 60 and 70. Many of them are badly produced and full of calligraphic errors. A better edition, however, was the one edited by Waheed Qureshi, published in 1950s with a scholarly preface by him, reproduced a couple of years ago.
The reaction to Muqaddama from Lucknow was very harsh. Munshi Sajjad Hussain, the editor of humour magazine Oudh Punch published from Lucknow, was most vociferous. The magazine sort of launched a campaign to malign Hali and humorous couplets and parodies lampooning Hali kept appearing in the magazine for quite some time. Ahmed Ali Shauq Qidvai, the editor of Azad, was very vocal. Hasrat Mohani, too, disagreed with Hali. Those who supported Hali and his views on poetry and Urdu poetry indeed included the followers of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan who favoured modernism and modernistic views in literature as well. Soon the environment changed and slowly but surely the modern Urdu poetry took the path that Hali wanted it to take. Modern poets like Muhammad Hussain Azad, Ismail Meruthi and other contemporaries practised what Hali had preached. Later on, a great poet like Iqbal proved through his poetry what Hali meant by using the all powerful medium of poetry for reconstructing moral values and national identity.
Hali’s views have virtually transformed Urdu poetry and Urdu criticism. History of modern Urdu criticism now begins with Hali’s Muqaddama and old school’s traditional poetry serves as example of what poetry should not be or should not have been. But Hali was a Puritan having censorious moral beliefs, as put by Mumtaz Hussain, one of our most erudite critics, while Hasrat Mohani was among those who favoured the passion of love — not Platonic love, but one with physical attraction — that Hali shied away from and for which Hali criticised Lucknow poets. But reaction against Hali’s critical views resurfaced in the first quarter of the 20th century when, according to Shamim Hanafi, as a reaction against “too much rationalism” a kind of re-evaluation of western notions began. Masood Hasan Rizvi Adeeb had penned Hamari shaeri (1927), a book considered to be an implicit criticism on Hali’s critical views. But in fact Adeeb had tried to offer a balanced view of what poetry should be. He stressed eastern literary values as well as some of the western ideas and this was viewed by most as something partially complementing Hali and not totally criticising Hali’s views.
It was a common misconception that Hali had used western sources for writing Muqaddama, as he often quotes western poets and critics to tell what poetry is or what it should be, but Waheed Qureshi and Mumtaz Hussain have clarified that Hali did not know much English and he had relied mostly on Urdu translations or sought help from someone who knew English. But Hali misunderstood several western critical and literary concepts and drew incorrect conclusions. Also, Hali had benefited from eastern literary sources, especially Arabic works, say these critics (Hali knew Arabic quite well).
Hali’s Muqaddama is considered a part of Urdu’s literary canon and no critic can afford to ignore Hali while discussing critical theories or history of Urdu criticism. So despite having many critics and many weaknesses, in the final analysis Hali emerges as someone who successfully tried to mould our poetry and critical thinking.
Altaf Hussain Hail died on Dec 31, 1914, in Panipat.
Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2018
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