Anthologists and editors rarely receive the recognition they deserve in the literary world, considering how significant a role they play in refining readers’ tastes and introducing them to important works in different genres.

An editor performs the role of a teacher, whose work helps readers discover little-known but notable works, without which one’s literary education might remain incomplete. In the Urdu language, the anthologist serves an even more important function, because our literature is still not fully documented, and going through old catalogues, perusing old periodicals and visiting libraries not only demands encyclopaedic knowledge and detective work, but also the stamina to fight the many frustrations one encounters during the search.

I recently wrote about Professor Abdur Rasheed’s Baqiyaat-i-Ghulam Abbas [The Uncollected Works of Ghulam Abbas (1909-1982)], a compilation of the never-before collected short stories, essays and translations of Urdu’s foremost short story writer, published during the author’s lifetime in literary magazines and periodicals.

The subject of this column is another such laudable work, published in five volumes as Hairat Kada [House of Wonders]. A collection of marvellous accounts of supernatural phenomena, the unknown, the unfathomable and the occult, painstakingly compiled by Rashid Ashraf from miscellaneous autobiographies, memoirs, biographical sketches, books, magazines and popular digests.

Some years ago, when Hairat Kada’s first volume was published, I used it as a reference for one of my columns on occult phenomena. The incident in question took place in Jalalpur Jattan, and was witnessed by the poet Hafeez Jallandhari as an adolescent. Jallandhari was an eyewitness to a Sufi summoning over a large tribe of dogs during a drought, and making them beg for rain. No sooner did their cries end than rain clouds shot through the sky from the West and heavy rain started falling. What Jallandhari saw remained impressed on his mind to the end of his days.

I remember thinking how wonderful it would be to have another volume of these captivating stories of the marvellous and the wondrous. Recently, while looking at the catalog of Atlantis Publications, Rashid Ashraf’s publisher, I was thrilled to discover that, in the intervening period, he had compiled another four volumes on the subject. An engineer by profession, Ashraf is an indefatiguable editor, with 34 volumes on various subjects to his credit, including literary history, biography, cinema, and hunting.

Among the many fascinating new discoveries in the Hairat Kada volumes was the first person account of one Rafiq Ahmed Saqi, titled Darazi-i-umr Ka Nuskha [The Prescription for Longevity] set in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur region. It is unclear whether the story was written by Saqi and quoted by the Pashto poet Abdullah Jan Aseer (1910-1978), or if Aseer transcribed it for Saqi. A summary of the story follows:

Saqi was once searching for a part for an imported appliance and could not find a way to order it from overseas. A friend told him about a malang baba [hermit] who lived in the Bajaur hills, and could miraculously summon things from anywhere in the world. Curious to learn the truth of the matter, Saqi set out for Bajaur with the friend to meet the malang baba.

Saqi was taken to see the malang baba sometime after their arrival, and he found himself in the presence of an old man of luminous aspect with a flowing beard. He was dressed in a long green robe with a kerchief tied around his head. The room was sparsely furnished, with a few mats, clay pots and a small wooden chest.

During the course of their meeting, after miraculously presenting the appliance part Saqi had been searching for, they were served food and delicacies, and also out-of-season fruit, which materialised through a window without human agency.

Saqi had a private audience with the malang baba later, and learned that he was 900 years old. He had been a part of Mahmud of Ghazni’s troops who had attacked the Somnath temple in 1026, and had also served Emperor Babar some centuries later.

He told Saqi that his time was now at an end, and Saqi was destined to inherit his mantle, along with his miraculous powers and the recipe for longevity, which was in a book of occult that foretold future events and contained all the wisdom of the world. The malang had prepared the pill of longevity for Saqi, which had to be taken every hundred years.

However, to claim his position as malang baba’s heir, Saqi also had to make a vow to live a celibate existence and, if he were married, leave his wife and children.

After conveying his last wishes, the malang baba passed away. As per his last wishes, the chest containing the pill and the book of occult was inherited by Saqi. He never took the pill nor opened the book, as he loved his family too much, and could not bear to be separated from them.

Darazi-i-umr Ka Nuskha is just one of the many captivating accounts from the Hairat Kada, whose volumes are an important resource for all who are interested in the anatomy of folklore, jinn and imaginative literature. They are also a wonderful resource for writers and researchers who wish to read about occult phenomena as it is recorded in folk literature, autobiographies, memoirs and popular literature.

A brief breakdown of the Hairat Kada collection, gleaned from miscellaneous autobiographies, memoirs, biographical sketches, books and periodicals follows: Vol 1 (41 stories), Vol 2 (53 stories), Vol 3 (41 stories), Vol 4 (36 stories), and Vol 5 (41 stories).

Regardless of whether or not you believe in the supernatural and the occult, these stories will remain with you for a long time.

The columnist is a novelist, author and translator.

He can be reached via his website: micromaf.com

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, December 14th, 2025