STUDENTS of research often complain about the lack of biographical dictionaries in Urdu. As a result, they say, when they want to ensure the correct date of birth and/or death of a writer, absence of any reliable biographical work takes much of their time and effort, and they have to dig up heaps of books just to mention a year in their research.

But it would be naive to assume that we do not have any such material in Urdu that may guide us on the towering figures of our literature, history and culture. Aside from tazkiras, or brief biographical sketches, that serve as the earliest record of notable poets of Urdu and Persian, Syed Sulaiman Nadvi regularly published obituaries in his magazine Ma’arif.

Some of the works that are useful in finding the dates of birth and/or death of authors of Urdu are:

Qaamoosul Mashaaheer

Compiled by Nizami Badayuni and published in two volumes in 1924 and 1927, the book gives brief biographical sketches of about 4,000 famous personalities from the subcontinent and Islamic countries. Though the compiler claimed to have consulted a large number of works on history, it was largely based on An Oriental Biographical Dictionary, a famous work by Thomas William Beale. Beale died in Agra in 1875 and his work was first published posthumously in 1881 by Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Syed Ahmedullah Qadri criticised Nizami’s work in a booklet in two parts and pointed out glaring errors in it. What shocked the literary circles, however, was a version of the same work published from Lahore in 1999 under a new title Mashaaheer-i-Mashriq. Edited and updated by Afzal Haq Qarshi, it contained most of the errors of the first edition. A much better edition was published by Patna’s Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library in 2004 that revised the work with the help of errata published in the first edition. It also included the second part of Ahmedullah Qadri’s critical booklet.

Tazkira-i-Mashaaheer-i-Kakori

Recording the lives of famous figures hailing from Kakori, a town near Lucknow, the book gives biographical briefs on nearly 500 persons. Compiled by Muhammad Ali Hyder Kakorvi and first published in 1927, a new edition, a facsimile, was published by Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library in 1999.

Hamare Ahl-i-Qalam

Published from Lahore in 1988 and compiled by Zahid Husain Anjum, it names about 1500 writers, their dates and books written by them.

Tazkira-i-Maah-o-Saal

Compiled by Malik Ram and published in 1991 from Delhi, the book lists about 3,000 authors of Urdu with dates of birth and/or death as well as their works and the sources of info. But a large number of errors have crept in. Some scholars, notably Gian Chand, have pointed out these errors.

Ahl-i-Qalam Directory

Though criticised for some errors and lapses, Pakistan Academy of Letters’ directory of writers, first published in 1979, was a right step. The second edition, published in 1994, too was criticised for errors but at least it was a serious effort. The 2010 edition includes only the living authors and lists about 3,500 of them.

Works by Muneer Sletch

Dr Muhammad Muneer Sletch has done a remarkable work by collecting the obituaries of Pakistani authors in his several works. His Vafiyaat-i-Naamvaraan-i-Pakistan (Urdu Science Board, 2006) records the obituaries of some 8,000 famous Pakistanis. Since then Sletch has published several other volumes recording obituaries.

Some other works

Other works that record the bio data of writers of Urdu include: Sukhan Varaan-i-Kakori (by Nisar Ahmed Alavi, Karachi, 1978), Bachchon Ki Kitaabon Ke Musannifeen (NBCP, Lahore, 1989), Khuftagaan-i-Karachi (by Prof M. Aslam, Lahore, 1991), Khuftagaan-i-Khak-i-Lahore (by Prof M. Aslam, Lahore, 1993), Hindustan Ke Urdu Musannifeen Aur Shu’ara (by G.C.Narang and Abdul Lateef Aazmi, Delhi, 1996), Vafiyaat-i-Mashaaheer-i-Urdu (by Bashaarat Ali Khan Farogh, Rampur, 2000), Lahore Mein Madfoon Mashaaheer (by M.R. Shahid, Lahore, 2003), Bisveen Sadi Ke Urdu Musannifeen (by Sanjeeda Khatoon, Delhi, 2008), Directory: Pakistani Mutarjimeen (Islamabad, 2009), Karachi: Dabistaanon Ka Dabistaan (by Ahmed Husain Siddiqi, four volumes), Vafiyaat-i-Ma’arif (by Suahil Shafeeq, Karachi, 2013), Khuftagaan-i-Khak-i-Gujranwala (by Aslam Awan, Gujranwala, 2021) and some more which could not be mentioned here for want of space.

What we need is a national biography on the lines of Dictionary of National Biography. Popularly known as DNB and published in over 60 volumes, Dictionary of National Biography is an authentic reference work that has recorded the lives of over 50,000 notables from Britain. First published in 1885, it was handed over to Oxford University Press in 2004 and is now named ODNB. One feels we must have some works at the scale of, at least, Oxford Companion to English Literature (1932) or Oxford Companion to American Literature (1941), the one-volume compendiums, if not DNB. If preparing even a compact volume is cumbersome, at least a comprehensive list of authors of Urdu and other Pakistani languages with their dates of birth/death must be prepared.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2024