:hmmm: so Amir Hamza of Tilsm e Hoshruba was different person as opposite to common belief that he was uncle of the Prophet (SAW)
Literate, NOS, The News International
If you read the first volume of Tilism-e-Hoshruba carefully, a question arises regarding the exact meaning of the Word “Tilism.” Is the meaning of the word Tilism the land of non-state actors? Or should one stick with the old meaning, which describes Tilism as “land of jinn, fairies, demons and sorcerers”? When one reads Muhammad Husain Jah’s tale (written from 1883-93) thoroughly, it becomes difficult to stick with old impressions.
During the last four years, five books based on qissas have been published. Sang-e-Meel Lahore published a facsimile edition of 1924 Naval Kishore (7th edition) Tilism-e-Hoshruba in 2007. In 2007, Modern Library, New York published Adventures of Amir Hamza while in 2009, Random House India branch published the First volume of Tilism-e-Hoshruba in English. In the same year, Penguin India published a one volume, abridged translation of Tilism-e-Hoshruba by Shahnaz Aijazuddin under the sub title The Enchantment of the Senses. In 2010, again a Lahore based publisher Ferozesons published the immortal qissa of Heer by old Punjabi poet Damodar Das Arora, translated into English from Punjabi by Muzaffar Ghaffar. Book Home Lahore had already published Urdu translation of Heer Waris Shah by Akram Sheikh in the year 2006. A new version in easy Urdu of the same first volume is also in press.
While the exact reason behind this reincarnation of qissas is not known, it is a good sign to rethink about our oral past.
**The book under review is an English translation of the first volume of Tilism-e-Hoshruba by Karachi-based Musharraf Ali Farooqi. Musharraf has mainly used Muhammad Husain Jah’s work yet he has also checked other sources like the works of Mir Ahmad Ali, Amba Prasad Rasa, Ghulam Raza Raza, Muhammad Amir Khan and Sheikh Tassadduq Hussein. In his 18-page long introduction and three-page translator’s note, Farooqi tries to explain the history of the qissa. “By the time Tilism-e-Hoshruba appeared in print, everyone believed that it belonged to the cycle of tales of “The adventures of Amir Hamza”, which could be traced back in India to the court of Mughal Emperor Akbar”.
**
Who exactly was Amir Hamza? Many believe that Amir Hamza was the famous uncle of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) which is historically not true. In his preface of Adventures of Amir Hamza, Dr Hamid Dabashi, an Iranian Sociologist, tries to throw light on the mythical character of Amir Hamza. It may be an Islamic edition of a pre-Islamic story written in Naushervan Aadil’s times. In the beginning, Jah wrote some lines which may be helpful to fix the period of the tale. According to Jah, Hamza had conquered Tilism-e-Hazar Shakal and had just returned from a journey of Hind-Punjab when he started his conquest of Tilism-e-Hoshruba. Most probably the story-teller was referring to the early Muslim conquests around Gwadar much before Mohammad bin Qasim.
There is little debate regarding the characters and the time period yet everyone believed that the area where Hamza fought was between Iran (Faras) and central Asia. But Muhammad Husain Jah, tried to overlook such facts.
"A finely clad woman in her fifties was sitting on the throne, resting against the pillows with great pomp and majesty. The perfume box, betel box (pandan), dry fruit box and flowerpots were placed around her on the throne."(p.13). Using galori and pandan is not a rare example in Jah's translation; one may find hundreds of such symbols in the 1000 page Old Urdu edition of Jah, which do not really fit in a tale that is set in the Middle East or Arabia. In this work, Musharraf did not hesitate to translate such things into English. At the same time Musharraf Farooqi changed the name of the hero of this tale Omro Ayyar and replaces it with Amar Ayyar. Neither Musharraf nor Dabashi gave any reason in their long introductions in favour of their claims. Omro Bin Ummaya popularly known as Omro Ayyar is a legendry character. If anyone thinks it is not the correct name then he or she should establish that for the readers. Changing the name of a legend without an adequate explanation is in bad taste.
Omro Ayyar, besides being a legendry character, is also the chief of 184,000 Ayyars. If you read Jah's book, you will recognise that Lashkar-e-Hamza couldn't won the battles without those tricksters (Ayyars). We should not be misled with the Urdu meaning of Ayyar. Even in the famous Urdu dictionary Farhag-e-Asfyya, you can find other meaning of Ayyar as Qassoti. Basically it is an Arabic word. The story-teller used the character of Omro Bin Ummaya with such a smart talent that this qissa became equally popular among children and adults. According to the story-teller, an Ayyar is one who beforehand tells his Sardar regarding the dangers and successes ahead. According to various traditions, the Lashkar-e-Hamza is against magic, so Ayyars are there to combat jinn, fairies, demons and sorcerers.
Ayyars are not only a part of Hamza’s lashkar, they are also among the opponent’s camp. **It also means that Ayyars was an old institution. It is Ayyars who spread rumours in the camps of opponents and used numerous tricks so that Hamza can defeat sorcerers before they could use magic against them. There are five famous lady tricksters (Ayyarnian) in Afrasiyab’s Durbar who is King of the Kings and Emperor of Tilism-e-Hoshruba. **Sarsar swordfighter was the chief of lady tricksters. Just imagine yourself in the 7th century world where some powerful groups have occult powers of astral bodies, alchemy and magic and can combine them to create Tilism. Combating with such a situation through tricksters or Ayyar would be a relatively new technique which attracts people even centuries later.
Translating these qissas into English language is a fine attempt especially for those who are unaware of their oral past but are eager to read Harry potter series. Interestingly Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak is similar to Omro Ayyar’s Galeem, an unstitched cloth or Loai used to make the wearer invisible.
Musharraf has largely followed Jah throughout the book except perhaps the first chapter "The Beginning of the History" which is from another source. Unlike Jah's book, which starts abruptly, this inclusion is timely as it gives you a clearer picture regarding the tale itself. It is about the dream of emperor Naushervan of Persia and interpretation of the dream by his wise minister Buzurjmehr who was singularly adept in all occult arts. Interestingly, Sassanid Emperor Khusrau 1(531-79) also known as Naushervan, the Just (Aadil) and his minister Buzurjmehr are known figures in history. In good old era, traditionally, people compiled history in the form of qissas, both in prose and poems, commonly known as Shah Namas. Dabashi in his preface of "Adventures of Amir Hamza" also commented about this background of the tale.
I have myself seen numerous qissas in Punjabi till the 1980s at an old book shop situated on the corner of Kashmiri bazaar near Wazir Khan Mosque. They include qissas like Heer, Yousaf Zulekhaan, Shirin Farhad, Sucha Singh Soorma, Sassi Punnoo, Mirza Sahiban, Sohni Mahinwal, Purun Bhagat and Hamza nama. Qissa Puran Bhagat is 3500 years old.No doubt, oral knowledge has deeper roots, yet many of us have tries to gauge history of knowledge through written words only.
