HYDERABAD: Sindh University (SU) will convene a conference to pay tribute to renowned intellectual Mohammed Ibrahim Joyo on May 27. It is being held under a series of programmes chalked out by Sindhi academics and writers to celebrate the scholar’s 100th birthday.

An announcement to this effect was made by SU vice chancellor Prof Dr Abida Taherani during her meeting with her predecessor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui on Friday. Prof Taherani told him that the SU would get Joyo’s two books published from the Institute of Sindhology and the Pakistan Study Centre. She recalled that Joyo supervised translation of scores of world classics and patronised several individuals who later shot to fame in the literary world.

Joyo was born in 1915 in a village in Jamshoro district and wrote 52 books, including translations of Rousseau, Plutarch, Voltaire, T.S. Elliot, Shelley, Rabindranath Tagore, Stefan Zweig and Francis Bacon. He edited over 50 books of Shaikh Ayaz and G.M. Syed and other veteran political and literary figures. He founded the Sindhi Writers Cooperation Fraternity in 1973, Sindh Friends Circle in 1978, Servants of Sindhi Society in 1980, Sindh Education Trust in 1995 and Shaikh Ayaz Foundation in 1998. He also co-founded several organisations and institutions such as the Sindhi Language Authority.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play