Much has been written on the culture and history of Lucknow. But 'Guzashta Lucknow' is a much-loved book on the topic, as it gives an eyewitness account of Lucknow's cultural phenomenon and relics.
In fact, its correct title is 'Hindustan mein mashriqi tamaddun ka aakhri namoona' (the last model of eastern culture in India) and 'Guzashta Lucknow' (bygone Lucknow) is the sub-title that caught readers' fancy and became more popular than the main title.
Written by Abdul Haleem Sharar (1860-1926), a prolific writer of Urdu, 'Guzashta Lucknow' captures the cultural scene of Lucknow in such a vivid style that the entire city comes alive with all its grandeur and cultural activities. With his highly imaginative style and elegant prose, Sharar has made the book a kaleidoscope of 19th-century Lucknow, as Rasheed Hasan Khan, one of the most respected researchers of our time, wrote “this book mingles history, novel, short-story and essay in such a way that these elements cannot be seen separately. A picture drawn in the book makes many pictures and many scenes come alive”.
This important book on Lucknow's cultural exuberance has seen many reprints over the years. Apart from a reprint published from Karachi in the 1950s and two from Lucknow in the 1960s, Rasheed Hasan Khan edited 'Guzashta Lucknow' which was published from Delhi twice. The important aspect of this Delhi edition by Rasheed Sahib was that it included some portions of the book that had been excluded from the previous editions for fear of a backlash from religious zealots. The left-out portions dealt with a variety of 'marsia' which is rarely seen in printed form. An English translation of the book by the title 'Lucknow the last phase of an oriental culture' was rendered jointly by E.S. Harcourt and Fakhir Hussain, which appeared from London in 1976.
A few years back another edition of the book, edited by the veteran research scholar Ikram Chughtai, appeared from Lahore courtesy Sang-e-Meel Publications. But Mazhar Mahmood Sheerani, another veteran research scholar and academic, has some reservations about the latest edition. In an article of his published in the January-March 2009 issue of 'Tehqiq', the quarterly research journal of the Faculty of Oriental Learning, University of Punjab, Lahore, Sheerani Sahib has raised some serious objections to the work done by Chughtai Sahib. Sheerani Sahib is of the view that the new edition is no better than the old ones, as it repeats the typographical errors that had crept into the previous ones. He has come down too hard at times on Chughtai Sahib especially when examining some words and their explanations given in the footnotes. Both Sheerani and Chughtai are scholars of repute and command respect from all but one feels that Sheerani has done some hair-splitting and has been hypercritical of even minute errors.
However, one must admit that the critical review by Mazhar Mahmood Sheerani speaks volumes of his command over the Urdu language and his knack for such research works. Though occasionally he sounds too sarcastic, the review can serve as a model for the students of research and textual criticism. It proves that he is the true academic heir of his grandfather, the respected Hafiz Mahmood Sheerani, who was perhaps the greatest of all Urdu researchers.
The quarterly journal carries some other valuable research articles including two in Persian and one in Arabic.
But one is astonished at the lapse by the quarterly as far as its name is concerned. As we know, the quarterly, previously edited by Dr Waheed Qureshi, was named 'Mujalla-e-Tehqiq' and not 'Tehqiq' as the latest issue shows. Though the quarterly has been hibernating for quite some time, it does not mean that with its re-appearance it should be rechristened, especially when we already have another journal being published from Sindh University with the same title, i.e. 'Tehqiq'.
I believe the persons managing the affairs at Punjab University's Faculty of Oriental Learning and the editor of its quarterly research journal must know their quarterly's correct name. They must neither be oblivious of the fact that the department of Urdu at Jamshoro's Sindh University has been publishing a research journal with the title 'Tehqiq' since the late 1980s and its latest issue (16th) has appeared only a month or two ago. Every scholar in the country knows that the journal pioneered by Dr Waheed Qureshi some 30 years ago is named 'Mujalla-e-Tehqiq' but the learned editor does not seem to agree, notwithstanding its previous 72 issues that carried its correct name on the masthead. It has left many wondering as to which is which. To put it mildly, it is an un-academic and casual attitude. One wishes that the editor had carried out a little research on his research journal before publishing it.
Edited by Prof Dr Syed Javed Iqbal, Sindh University's research journal 'Tehqiq' has set a very high standard for both Urdu research and research journals. That is the reason why it has been approved by the Higher Education Commission as a 'Y' category research journal, a distinction shared by few others. Its latest issue carries some invaluable research articles by well-known scholars such as Dr Rafiuddin Hashmi, Dr Mukhtaruddin Ahmed, Dr Moinuddin Aqeel, Dr Rubina Tareen, Dr Arif Naushahi, Dr Syed Javed Iqbal, Dr Atash Durrani and others. Except for an article or two, the current issue conforms to the standards set by 'Tehqiq' itself. Dr Abdul Muqeet Shakir Aleemi's article 'Urdu shaeri mein Quran aur Hadith ke muhavre' skilfully records the Urdu idioms that have their origin in the Quran and Hadith. The important aspect of this article is that it does not enlist idioms already recorded by Dr Ghulam Mustafa Khan and Dr Muneer Ahmed Khan in their works and gives different idioms along with their Arabic equivalents. Sindh University's Faculty of Arts should be justifiably feeling proud of the publication.
drraufparekh@yahoo.com