Forum Pakistan

Ahmed, Nazir, 'Deputy' (1836-1912) Writer. The pioneer of the *Urdu language novel, Nazir Ahmed was born into a landowner's family. He earned his college education in Delhi, and was influenced by the reformist views of Sir Syed Ahmad *Khan and the French enlightenment.

Nazir wrote some of the first Urdu novels: the didactic duo Mirat al-Urus (The Bride's Mirror, 1869) and Binat an-Nash (Ursa Major, 1872), about the necessity of female education and emancipation of women; Taubat an-Nasuh (Nasuh's Repentance, 1877), an apology for traditional family ethics; and Afsana-iMubtala (The Story of Mubtala, 1885), denouncing polygamy and male despotism in a Muslim family.

In the novel Ibn £11- Waqt (The Opportunist, 1884), Nazir Ahmed advocates mastering European culture but cautions against blind imitation of the British. His novels laid the basis of enlightenment in Urdu literature of the time.
In his later years, Nazir Ahmed was mainly engaged in translation and compiling commentaries on religious texts. He was awarded the title of Shams al-Ulema (The Sun of the Learned), the degree of Doctor of Law from Edinburgh University (1902), and Doctor of Oriental Studies from the Punjab University (1910).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A.S. Sukhochev, 'From the Dastan to the Novel', Moscow, 1971 (in Russian); K.K. Khuliar, 'Urdu Nawal ka Nigarkhana' (A Galiery of Urdu Novels), Delhi, 1973; E.A. Arshad, 'Nazir Ahmad ki Nawalnigari' (Nazir Ahmad's Novels), Patna, 1984.