There was a time when people
wrote a literary piece and then ascribed it to someone whom they held in
high esteem or out of love, admiration, reverence or some other strong
sentiment. There could be tens of hundreds of such Urdu writers who can
ascribe their writings to one who taught them to write that is
undoubdtfully none other than Asia's greatest mystery writer Ibne Safi.
Coincidentally Ibne Safi's date
of birth and date of death falls on July 26.Ibne Safi, was born in
Allahabad on July 26, 1928. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from
Agra University and started his first job at 'Nikhat Publications' as an
Editor in the poetry department, in 1948.
He began writing detective
stories in January 1952 in the monthly 'Nikhat', naming the series 'Jasoosi
Dunya' and the same year, he migrated to Pakistan. Ibne Safi created the
Imran Series in 1955 when he settled in Karachi, where he lived until
pancreatic cancer caused his death in 1980 on July 26, that was also his
52nd birthday. Coincidentally, his date of birth and date of death is
same - July 26.
Ibne Safi was the successful
pioneer of the mystery genre in Urdu literature. He was an immensely
well-read man. His thorough study of English, Urdu and Persian
literature enabled him to create his own unique style of captivating
story-telling. He blended mystery with quality humour, espionage, law
enforcement, credible science fiction, thrilling adventure and fabulous
drama. His creative mind imagined and foresaw scientific and
technological inventions like robot, laser beam, cloning etc. He then
convincingly merged these inventions into his plots with equal skill in
fiction-writing.
His understanding of the human
nature gave his characters a living, breathing existence of its own
kind. Some of his characters shyly displayed their weaknesses and
flaunted their strengths, whereas others worked hard to unsuccessfully
conceal them. That was the master craftsman, Ibne Safi.
His name is familiar to
generations of readers in Pakistan. So are the names of his characters,
Colonel Faridi, Captain Hameed and Ali Imran. As a boy, Ibne Safi grew
up reading Tilism-e-Hoshruba. As an adult, he created a magical universe
of his own.
A pioneer in the field of
detective fiction in Urdu, he wrote 245 books at an astonishing rate of
two books a month. His place in Urdu literature was recognised by Maulvi
Abdul Haq (Baba-e-Urdu), Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan (Nuclear
Scientist/Mohsin-e-Pakistan), Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission's
Chairman I.H Usmani, Pir Ali Muhammad Rashidi, Mir Ali Ahmed Talpur, Dr
Abulkhair Kashfi, Professor Majnoon Gorakhpuri, Professor Muhammad Hasan
Askari, Khawaja Nazim Uddin (Second Governor General of Pakistan),
Mushtaq Ahmed Qureshi (Former Finance/Joint Secretary APNS), Miraj
Rasool, Munir Hussain (Cricket Commentator), Raees Amrohvi, John Alia,
Shair Lakhnavi, Professor Sarshar Siddiqui, Obaid Ullah Baig (Kasooti
Fame), Writer/ Dramatist Kamal Ahmed Rizvi (Allan of Alif Noon), Daily
Hurriyat's Columnist Nassar Ullah Khan, Dr Aslam Farrukhi, Amjad Islam
Amjad, Qazi Akhtar Jonagari, Indian poet Zubair Rizvi, Indian
Poet/lyricist Javed Akhtar, the Sahitya Academy president Dr Gopi Chand
Narang etc.
He had tremendous flair and
sophistication, says Indian Poet/lyricist Javed Akhtar. "Ibne Safi's
novels created an imaginary city that could have been the San Francisco
of the 50s in India. His penchant for villains with striking names like
Gerald Shastri and Sang Hi taught me the importance of creating
larger-than life characters such as Gabbar and Mogambo as a
scriptwriter."
The Sahitya Academy president
Dr Gopi Chand Narang questioned why 'Jasoosi Adab' is not considered
literature and if it is not literature then why the word 'Adab'
(literature) is attached to it, during such seminars. He said that Ibne
Safi was published in Devanagari and Bengali as well, and rather than
ignoring his works, there is need to change our own attitude.
Ibne Safi was also a poet. He
used to write poems under the pen name of "Asrar Narvi". He wrote in
various genres of Urdu poetry, such as Hamd, Naat, Manqabat, Marsia,
Ghazal and Nazm. His collection of poetry, Mata-e Qalb-o-Nazar (Urdu:
The Assest of Heart & Sight), remains unpublished. It would be a
delightful news for his admirers and lovers that the collection of his
poetry is being published by his son Ahmad Safi.
Writer Syed N. Hussaini
commended about the Maestro, "One of Ibn-e-Safi's distinguished writing
qualities includes formation and development of characters. He has
established characters in such a fashion that they appear to be real and
materialised. Imran Series has a range of diverse, colourful, and
sentient characters. His lead characters, Colonel Ahmad Kamal Faridi and
Ali Imran, M.Sc, P.H.D., Oxon, were scholarly, celibate and sober.
Endowed with exceptional physical strength, quick reflexes and great
survival skills, they were master spies, brilliant detectives and
top-of-the-line law-enforcement officers. They were of immaculate
character, utterly incorruptible. Colonel Faridi and Ali Imran, both
were fabulously rich with inherited and earned wealth, as well. Ibne
Safi knew how to back up the credibility of his characters.
In the late 50's, starting with
"Dilchasp Hadsa," Ibne Safi launched an epic adventure to be completed
in three books ending with "Darh Matwalay." After writing two books of
this thrilling series, he had a nervous breakdown, an episode of
schizophrenia. He was out of his work for about three years but, when he
came back, he did so with a big hit masterpiece "Dairh Matwalay". It was
not only an immense success but a witness to the strength of Ibne Safi's
mind. With flawless continuity, "Dairh Matwalay" brought the three-book
adventure to its climatic conclusion with no literary signs of the fact
that the writer was absent from the scene for three years. A poster of
1963 of Daily Hurriyat announced the came back of Ibne Safi with the
words: "app ka mehboob musanif app kay liye deewangi kay sehra say wapas
aa gaya hai" (Your beloved writer has arrived back for you from the
desert of insanity)
Ibne Safi had a great ability
to read and analyse the values prevalent in society and momentum of
changes that would occur. In this context, foreword of novel 'Sitaron Ki
Cheekhain', (Jasoosi Dunya-92) (written in 1964) may be referred where,
in response to a letter, he stated that perda (veil) was supposed to be
the icon of dignity, however nowadays, it is antiquated and becomes a
symbol of less privileged. Ibne Safi forecasted that hardly after 10
years (ie in 1974), these types of social values will vanish. Needless
to say that his apprehensions were proved with the passage of time.
A few forewords of his novels
are remarkably interesting. In the foreword of 'Sehmi hoi Lerki'
(Jasoosi Dunya-96), a telephone operator from the city of Tando Adam,
Sindh declared the said novel a trash as he thought that the name of the
novel does not match with its plot. In response, Safi sahib showed his
wit while saying "Yar Tando Admi sahib, khud hi likh ker perh liya
karo".
Books written by Ibne Safi are
considered an intrinsic part of the rich Urdu literature. Ibne Safi
wrote impeccable, accurate, authentic, modern, industrial-age Urdu
proving that it can be done while following all the rules of the
language. He standardised Urdu to a level that excerpts from his works
could be considered as a template to teach Urdu prose-writing at the
universities.
How good was Ibne Safi for
intellectual stimulation? Every now and then, in his work, one finds
profound philosophical insights. Critics have noted that he had it in
him to write more exalted prose. But the imperative of earning his
livelihood restricted his range and confined him to a formula. Ibne Safi
was the most prolific Urdu novelist making history with 245 titles of
Jasoosi Dunya and Imran Series to his credit.
Ibne Safi fans would be
delighted to know that the English versions of two of his novels of
Imran Series have been published by Random House, New Dehli and will
soon be available in Pakistan. Random House has initially selected two
novels of Imran series ie House of Fear (Khofnak Imarat) and Shootout in
Rocks (Chatanoon Main Fire). In addition to that, about eight Hindi
Editions of Ibne Safi's Jasoosi Dunya have also been published by Harper
Collins, India.
It would certainly be a
befitting, though posthumous adoption and acknowledgement of the stature
of this prolific writer that the higher authorities of City District
Government of Karachi dedicate any one of the roads, bridge/flyover or
building of this city in the name of Ibne Safi. It is also suggested
that the higher-ups of Karachi University start conducting M.Phil and
PhD works on this great writer so as to unravel the hidden
characteristics of detective story writing, an art, which holds a
significant place in rest of the World's literature.
Apart from the official site
ibnesafi.info, a new non-commercial web site www.wadi-e-urdu.com has
been launched in 2009 which contains lots of rare material and
information pertaining to Ibne Safi.
Ibne Safi was a true genius,
gave new dimensions to art of writing suspense novels. I think the
farewell salute I could give to the maestro is this: "Life is only
action and reaction. The rationalisations are added later." (Edlava -
Imran Series-78).
