TRUE to its name, Aab-i-hayat is a book that lives on, even 134 years after it appeared. First published in 1880, this masterpiece by Urdu’s legendary prose writer Muhammad Hussain Azad is, in fact, a history of Urdu literature and a commentary on some aspects of the Urdu language. Some very amusing events frame the gaily-painted pictures of Urdu poets that Azad’s magic pen has created.
Its stylish prose notwithstanding, in some cases the authenticity of Aab-i-hayat becomes questionable as the modern researchers of Urdu believe that anecdotal evidence that Azad proffers sometimes needs to be cross-checked. In fact, Azad is responsible for promoting, if not initiating, some misconceptions about Urdu language and literature. One such myth is about the origin of Urdu.
Among the other misconceptions that became popular because of Azad’s captivating prose in Aab-i-hayat is the notion that Sheikh Muhammad Ibrahim Zauq composed poetry for Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and most of the verses attributed to the poet-king are in fact the creation of Zauq. Azad had great love and respect for Zauq since Zauq was his mentor. In Aab-i-hayat, Azad has tried to prove that composing the king’s verses consumed better of Zauq’s time and he could not write for himself what he wanted to. Azad also gave the impression that Zauq would replace his ‘takhallus’, or penname, in his own ghazals with Zafar’s and hand those ghazals over to the king. Azad edited Zauq’s divan and in its preface says: “There are four divans of the king [Bahadur Shah Zafar]. The first one of them has some ghazals that are corrected by Shah Naseer and some ghazals by Mir Kazim Hussain Beqarar. So, more than half the first divan and the remaining three divans ‘from head to toe’ are [composed] by ‘Hazrat Marhoom’ [Zauq]”.
Interestingly, Hafiz Mahmood Sherani proved that in addition to correcting Zauq’s verses, Azad himself composed at least 16 ghazals and included them in Zauq’s divan without mentioning it. On the other hand, scholars have proved that the poetry attributed to Bahadur Shah Zafar was composed by none other than himself and what Azad has done is nothing more than an attempt to glorify his mentor. Not only scholars from the last century, such as Shanul Haq Haqqee and Ziauddin Barni, and modern-day scholars such as Dr Abrar Abdus Salam, have proved that Zafar’s poetry is his own creation but a person like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, too, believed that Zafar composed his own poetry. Moulvi Abdul Haq has written in Chand ham asr: “Once the debate about Zafar and Zauq began and the notion that Zafar’s poetry was composed by Zauq was repeated. Syed Sahib got exasperated and said Zauq could not have written the king’s poetry, rather being associated with the Red Fort made him learn the language”.
Researchers and critics agree that Zafar was a poet of distinct qualities and the intrinsic and extraneous evidences prove that Zauq could not have said what Zafar’s poetry offers. Some of Urdu’s great scholars such as Qazi Abdul Wudood, Hafiz Mahmood Sherani and Shyam Lal Kalra Abid Peshawari have criticised Aab-i-hayat for its inaccuracies, including Azad’s statements about Zafar’s poetry.
Early this year, Bahawalpur’s Islamia University had organised an international Urdu conference. Prof Dr Qazi Ahmed Qazi, a scholar of Urdu from Egypt, was among the delegates. One of his remarks in his speech made me wonder. He said: “Urdu is the only language in the world whose poets include the fakirs as well as kings”. He was referring to Wajid Ali Shah, some other rulers and Bahadur Shah Zafar, of course.
The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862), was a poet in his own right. Zafar’s poetry reflects not only his innate gloom and despair that was a natural consequence of an apparent doom but it also depicts the cultural, historical and political aspects of society he was living in. Delhi, the great Mughal capital, had become a centre of cultural and literary activities and composing poetry was but natural for a person like Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was immersed in this cultural environ. Being the king was no hindrance in expressing the natural poetic and artistic talents.
Idiomatic expressions in Delhi’s chaste Urdu, the cultural nuances and an innate poetic sensitivity make Zafar a remarkable poet. Of late, his works as well as selections of his poetry have been out of print, though he is considered a major poet of the pre-1857 era. Oxford University Press Pakistan has recently published a selection of Bahadur Shah Zafar’s poetry in its ‘Urdu Varsa Series’. Compiled and introduced by Prof Dr Tanzeem-ul-Firdous, the selection reflects Zafar’s true colours as it includes different poetic genres such as Dohas, verses in Bhaka and ghazals. The series has been immensely popular and selections of over 50 poets have so far been made available to poetry buffs. More are on the way.
Another interesting aspect that merits mention here is that while Zauq was credited with writing Zafar’s poetry, a famous ghazal is wrongly attributed to Zafar, though he never composed it. It is the famous ghazal that begins with the line ‘na kisi ki aankh ka noor hoon, na kisi ke dil ka qarar hoon’. As the ghazal attributed to Zafar was included in the Indian movie ‘Lal qila’ and the actor playing the role of Zafar lip-synched it in the movie (Muhammad Rafi was the playback singer), it is still firmly believed that the ghazal is Zafar’s creation. The said ghazal is not to be found in any of Zafar’s divans. Secondly, Jan Nisar Akhter had written an article clarifying that the ghazal was composed by his father, Muztar Khairabadi, and was included in his divan. Younus Hasni had described these facts in his article published in January 1963 issue of Nigar, Karachi.
What one must appreciate about this selection by Dr Tanzeem-ul-Firdous is that she has been able to see through the popular myths and has not only mentioned the wrong attribution of Zafar’s poetry to Zauq in her intro but has also been careful not to include the above-mentioned ghazal.
Bahadur Shah Zafar died on Nov 7, 1862, in Rangoon.
Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2014