Adventures of Amir Hamza : Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction

In the tradition of such beloved classics asThe Thousand and One Nights and the Persian Shahnameh, here is the first unabridged English translation of a major Indo-Persian epic,The Adventures of Amir Hamza(Dastan-e Amir Hamza)a panoramic tale of magic and passion, and a classic hero's odyssey that has captivated much of the world. This Islamic saga dates back hundreds of years, perhaps to as early as the seventh century, when oral narratives of the deeds of the prophet Muhammad's uncle Amir Hamza spread through Arabia, Persia, and the Indian subcontinent, expanding into a marvelous chronicle of warriors, kings, tricksters, fairies, courtesans, and magical creatures. The definitive one-volume Urdu text by Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami appeared toward the end of the nineteenth century, but English translations of this text have always been censored and abridgeduntil now. In Musharraf Ali Farooqi's faithful rendition,The Adventures of Amir Hamzais captured with all its colorful action, ribaldry, and fantastic elements intact. Here is the spellbinding story of Amir Hamza, the adventurer who loves Mehr-Nigar, the daughter of the Persian emperor, Naushervan. Traveling to exotic lands in the service of his emperor, Amir Hamza defeats many enemies, loves many women, and converts hundreds of infidels to the True Faith of Islam before finding his way back to his first love. Guided by a Merlin-like clairvoyant called Buzurjmehr, protected by legendary prophets, and accompanied by his loyal friend, the ingenious trickster Amar Ayyar, Amir Hamza rides his devoted winged demon-steed, Ashqar, into combat against a marvelous array of opponents, from the deadly demon, Sufaid Dev, to his own rebellious sons. Appreciated as the seminal Islamic epic or enjoyed as a sweeping tale as rich and inventive as Homer's epic sagas,The Adventures of Amir Hamzais an extraordinary creation and a true literary treasure. Praise forThe Adventures of Amir Hamza : "The Adventures of Amir Hamzais a wonder and a revelation a classic of epic literature in an interpretation so fluent that it is a pleasure to sit down and lose oneself in it. The story line itself is endlessly diverting and inventive, and the prose of the translation is beautifully rendered....For the modern American reader,The Adventures of Amir Hamza....with its mixed Hindu and Muslim idiom, its tales of love and seduction, its anti-clericalism....its stories of powerful and resourceful women, and its mocking of male misogyny, is a reminder of an Islamic world the West seems to have forgotten: one that is imaginative and heterodox." The New York Times Book Reviewand theInternational Herald Tribune,William Dalrymple "This sensitive new translation by Musharraf Ali Farooqi is filled with lyrical resonance....a marvelous dovetailing of fantasy, history and religion.... Lovers ofThe Book of the Thousand Nights and One Nightwill immediately notice many stylistic similarities....There's a familiar cast of supernatural characters, including angels, jinns, giants and dragons.....And there's a capacious quality, a generosity of imagination that seems to invoke the layers and centuries of storytelling....Readers who prefer their heroes to be unequivocally heroic and who are ready to enjoy special effects on the page will love losing themselves in this complex yet ancient world of the imagination." The Washington Post, Diana Abu-Jaber "I was also bowled over by a remarkable new translation ofThe Adventures of Amir Hamza(Random House Modern Library), theIliadandOdysseyof the medieval Persian world: a rollicking, magic-filled heroic saga, full of myth and imagination. It

Ghalib Lakhnavi was a writer and poet who worked in India in the nineteenth century. His only known work is the one-volume Dastan-e Amir Hamza (1855).

Abdullah Bilgrami taught Arabic in Kanpur, India. His only known work is his enlargement of Ghalib Lakhnavi’s Dastan-e Amir Hamza (1871).

Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author and translator. He has translated works by the contemporary Urdu poet Afzal Ahmed Syed and is currently working on the Urdu Project (www.urduproject.com), an online resource for the study of Urdu language and literature.

Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a prolific author and editor.