Khwaja Abdur Rauf Ishrat Lakhnavi (1868-1940) was a poet, prose writer, prosodist, lexicographer and philologist. Another domain of his was literary historiography and criticism.

Born into a well-off family of Lucknow, Lakhnavi, while he had no formal schooling, mastered Persian and Arabic and profoundly studied classical Urdu and Persian literature.

Some of his works, such as Usool-i-Urdu, Zaban Dani and Islah-i-Zaban-i-Urdu, deal with the grammar and correct usage of language. In four slim parts he wrote a series on Urdu prosody. His Aab-i-Baqa is a tazkira, a genre that records the biographical sketches of poets and offers samples of their poetic works with a brief critical analysis. Aab-i-Baqa offers a quick look into the life and works of some 40 poets from Lucknow and Delhi.

Lughaat-i-Urdu is his Urdu to Urdu dictionary. Lakhnavi also wrote extensively on Urdu orthography, Hindi-Urdu controversy and issues related to Urdu and its promotion. But the history and culture of Oudh (also: Avadh) is the topic that lured him particularly and he wrote on it with a lot of flare and affection.

Lakhnavi’s innumerable articles describing the historical and cultural aspects of life in Oudh are full of authentic information as Lucknow was his ancestral hometown and he was an eyewitness to some of the historical events taking place during his lifetime.

They vividly describe what had made life in Oudh an envy of many. These articles were buried in old literary journals from where they have been traced, collected and compiled in a volume, Lucknow: Tareekh, Adab aur Muaashrat, by Dr Mahjabeen Zaidi, the former head of Urdu department, University of Karachi.

Together they make a montage that has glimpses of life in Oudh in the nineteenth and early twentieth century: coronations, women of the royal family, poets, writers, courtiers, eccentrics, chivalrous men, literary debates, Hindi-Urdu controversy, old Lucknow’s historical buildings, kite-flying, cockfights, Holi, Eid and what not.

In the foreword to the book Zaidi writes, “there was a time when some writers had made the history and culture of Oudh the topic of their special interest and continually wrote about it in periodicals. Among them, Khwaja Abdur Rauf Ishrat Lakhnavi stands head and shoulder above the rest.” She then discusses his life and works.

According to her, Lakhnavi was born on June 27, 1868, while both Malik Ram (Tazkara-i-Mah-o-Saal) and Basharat Ali Khan Faraugh (Vafiyaat-i-Mashahir-i-Urdu) have mentioned June 29. Similarly, his death anniversary, according to Faraugh, falls on June 9th, while Zaidi claims it is June 8. Since she has not given any references, one cannot say what her source is and how authentic it is. Also missing are the explanatory notes that would have helped as many of the words used by Lakhnavi are rarely used now and some articles require background information to place them in their right context. | Also, some of the articles reproduced are incomplete as they were published in two or three installments but Zaidi has not mentioned the missing portions. She would have helped the students a great deal if she had mentioned the places of publication of the magazines she has taken the articles from (such as Nairang-i-Khayal, Tamaddun, Zamana, Adeeb, Nigar, Alamgeer, Suhail, Mubassir, and so on) because there were quite a few names that were shared by two magazines.

For instance, magazines called Zamana was brought out from Agra in 1881 and then from Kanpur in 1903; Adeeb was published from Lucknow in 1887, from Agra in 1899 and then from Allahabad in 1910.

At the end of one article it says “Nairang-i-Khayal, Eid number” but without the year of publication. Another says “April 1934” but the name of the magazine is missing. These lapses are of course the result of careless proof-reading but they undermine the hard work of the compiler.

Dr Zaidi has carried out a commendable job and one hopes that she brings out another volume containing more of Lakhnavi’s articles as there are still a lot of them not included in the present book.

Lucknow: Tareekh, Adab aur Muaashrat (HISTORY/CULTURE) Compiled by Dr Mahjabeen Zaidi Qirtas Publishers, Karachi ISBN 978-969-8448-98-1 408pp. Rs400