“Begum” by Ibn-e Sa’id (1924 – 2005)
Translated by Shama Askari
M.H. Askari alias Ibn-e-Sa’id was a veteran journalist and a political analyst. He was born on 12 December 1924 in Ludhiana, in undivided India. His father Professor Mirza Mohammed Sa’id, was a distinguished scholar serving as the principal of Government College Ludhiana, at that time. M.H. Askari wrote under the pen-name Ibn-e-Sa’id from 1945-58. His work was published by leading literary magazines such as Saqi, Naya Daur, Mah-e Nau among others. He passed away in 2005 in Karachi.
Ibn-e-Sa’id’s work was largely forgotten. It was under the aegis of Dr Asif Farrukhi that I embarked on a journey rediscovering Askari’s writings, and discovered two manuscripts of his unpublished novellas as well as numerous short stories in several magazines. A compilation of his Urdu short stories titled Intiḳhāb Series, and his novellas Mehvar and Raushnioñ kā Sheher were published by Oxford University Press, Karachi, in 2017.
Works cited
Translated from “Begum” Māh-e-Nau, Karachi, December 1954 (pp.29-42)
Translated from “Intiḳhāb Ibn-e-Sa’id;” Urdu Afsāne, Tartīb aur Intiḳhāb: Asif Farrukhi, OUP, Karachi, 2018 (pp. ذ)
“Begum” by Ibn-e Sa’id (1924 – 2005) by Shama Askari is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
