COMPARATIVE literature is taught as a discipline at some American universities. But the experts in the discipline often question the application of Western literary theories to Eastern literary texts.

As put by Longxi Zhang in an article titled ‘The Challenge of East-West Comparative Studies’ (https://www.cpp.edu.), the cultural relativism insists that comparative literary studies pose a challenge because cross-cultural nuances at times may turn out to be “incommensurable” and “untranslatable”.

One of the reasons that make texts ‘incommensurable’ is the yardstick with which Eastern texts are measured in the West. Literary Theory is the systematic study of literature and the rules governing literary analysis. But Western Literary Theory, emanating basically from Western philosophies and cultural roots, may at times fail to see and appreciate what the Easterners feel.

What Altaf Hussain Hali tried was to measure the Eastern literature with Western yardsticks and analyse our literary works by the principles of Western Literary Theory. Hali was steeped in the Eastern tradition and wrote poetry in Arabic and Persian as well as Urdu, but it was, perhaps, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s notions that influenced Hali and he said:

Hali ab aao pairavi-i-maghribi karen

Bas iqtida-i-Mushafi-o-Meer kar chuke

(Hali! now let us follow the West, we are done with following the Eastern poets like Mushafi and Meer Taqi Meer)

Hali was criticised for his Muqaddama-i-Shear-o-Shaeri as it criticised Urdu poetry’s traditional ways. But some of Hali’s contemporaries who were in the know about Western literary works were convinced that Western Literary Theory could not fully expound and explicate Eastern literature, especially the masterpieces of Persian Arabic and Urdu literature.

One such critic was Nazm Tabatabai. He not only knew English but had also read English literary works in original, something that Hali lacked. While Tabatabai himself criticised certain aspects of ghazal poetry, just as did Hali, Tabatabai was of the view that certain allusion and metaphors cannot be truly translated into other languages and if translated at all, they simply lose their meaning, vigour and effect.

Syed Hyder Ali Nazm Tabatabai was a poet, critic, translator, pedagogue and scholar of Persian, Arabic and Urdu. He had mastered the art of prosody, rhetoric and technical aspects related to language and poetry. He is also regarded as one of the best expounders of Ghalib’s thought and his art. Tabatabai was one of the critics who believed that the social and political background of a literary tradition cannot be ignored and literary pieces should not be too much laden with metaphors and ornamental expression, but their technical, linguistic and rhetorical aspects must be taken into account. It is the historical background, cultural nuances and cultural practices that make a literature unique and they cannot be judged through the standards of other cultures or alien literary values.

As per Prof Abdul Qadir Sarvari’s research, Syed Ali Hyder Nazm Tabatabai was born in Lucknow on Safar 16, 1270 Hijri, which corresponds to Nov 18, 1853. This puts an end to the speculation about Tabatabai’s date of birth, which is often incorrectly quoted as 1854. Tabatabai received his early education at a traditional maktab, or school, in Lucknow.

In 1868, Tabatabai arrived at Mityaburj (also spelled Metiabruz), Calcutta. Mityaburj was the locality where Wajid Ali Shah, the last ruler of Awadh (or Oudh), lived after being sent into exile when Oudh was annexed by the British in 1856.

Here Tabatabai completed Dars-i-Nizami, learning logic and philosophy as well as Arabic and Persian. He knew Hindi and Hindi prosody, too. In addition, he learnt English which later on helped him understand the Western literary styles and he translated into Urdu several English literary works, including Thomas Gray’s poem ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ under the title ‘Gor-i-Ghareebaan’. It was perhaps the influence of Western literature that Tabatabai wrote blank verse in Urdu, one of the earliest such attempts shared by Abdul Haleem Sharar and Ismail Meruthi.

In 1880, Tabatabai was appointed ataaleeq, or instructor, to Wajid Ali Shah’s son. In 1883, a school was established to educate the princes of Oudh and Mysore and Tabatabai was appointed to teach Arabic. Wajid Ali Shah died in 1887 and Nazm Tabatabai lost his job. So he moved to Hyderabad (Deccan), as did many others who had migrated from Lucknow after Wajid Ali Shah’s exile — making Mityaburj a mini Lucknow.

In Hyderabad, he was appointed to teach Arabic to the princes of state of Deccan and when Kutub Khana-i-Aasifya was established in 1890, he was made the in-charge at that library. In 1891, he was made a professor at Nizam College and in 1918 was appointed at Dar-ut-Tarjuma, or Translation Bureau.

Some of Tabatabai’s books are Sharh-i-Imra-ul-Qais, Sab’a Sayyara, Talkhees-i-Arooz-o-Qavaafi, Sharh-i-Divan-i-Ghalib, Divan-i-Tabatabai, Islahaat-i-Ghalib, Marasi-i-Anees and Tareekh-i-Tabari.

Nazm Tabatabai died on May 23, 1933, in Hyderabad (Deccan).

drraufparekh@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2021