Ibn-e-Safi
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| Pseudonym(s): | Ibn-e-Safi, Tughral Furghan, Asrar Narvi |
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| Born: | 26 July 1928 Nara, district of Allahabad, U.P. (now Uttar Pradesh), India |
| Died: | 26 July 1980 Karachi, Pakistan |
| Occupation(s): | Novelist |
| Writing period: | 1940 to 1980 |
| Genre(s): | Mystery, Crime, Spy, Adventure |
| Influenced: | Mazhar Kaleem |
Ibn-e-Safi (also spelled as Ibne Safi) (Urdu: ابنِ صفی) was the pen name of Asrar Ahmad (Urdu: اسرار احمد), a best-selling and prolific fiction writer, novelist and poet of Urdu. The word Ibn-e-Safi is a Persian expression which literally means Son of Safi, where the word Safi means chaste or righteous. He wrote from the 1940s in India, and later Pakistan after the partition of British India in 1947.
His main works were the 124-book series Jasoosi Dunya (The Spy World) and the 120-book Imran Series, with a small canon of satirical works and poetry. His novels were characterized by a blend of mystery, adventure, suspense, violence, romance and comedy, achieving massive popularity across a broad readership in South Asia.
"I don't know Urdu but have knowledge of detective novels of the Subcontinent. There is only one original writer - Ibn-e-Safi." - Agatha Christie
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[edit] Biography
Ibn-e-Safi was born in district of Allahabad, India, and received a Bachelor of Arts from Agra University.
His early works in the 1940s included short stories, humor and satire. He began writing novels in the early 1950s while working as a secondary school teacher and continuing part-time studies. After completing the latter, having attracted official attention as being subversive in the independence and post-independence period, he migrated to Karachi, Pakistan in August 1952.
In 1960 - 1963 he suffered an episode of schizophrenia, but recovered, and returned with a best-selling Imran Series novel, Dairrh Matwaalay (One and a half Drunks).
In the 1970s, he informally advised the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan on methods of detection.
He died of pancreatic cancer on July 26, 1980 in Karachi, which was coincidently his 52nd birthday.
[edit] Works
Ibn-e-Safi started writing poetry in his childhood and soon earned critial acclaim. After completing his Bachelor of Arts, he began writing satirical essays with the pen name of Tughral Farghan in the monthly Nikhat. Some of his short stories were published under the pen name of Asrar Narvi.
According to one of his autobiographical essays, someone in a literary meeting claimed that Urdu literature had little scope for anything but sexual themes. To challenge this notion, Ibn-e-Safi began writing detective stories in January 1952 in the monthly Nikhat, naming the series Jasoosi Dunya. In the preface of Jasoosi Dunya's platinum jubilee number (Zameen Kay Baadal - Clouds of Earth), he mentioned those novels of Jasoosi Dunya whose main plot were taken from Western literature and which included Daler Mujrim (The Fearless Criminal), Pur-asraar Ajnabi (The Mysterious Stranger), Raqqasah ka Qatl (Murder of the Dancer), Heeray ki Kaan (The Diamond Mine) and Khooni Pathar (The Bloody Stone). Furthermore, he also mentioned some characters, which were borrowed from English fiction, such as Khaufnak Hangamah’s (The Terrifying Chaos) Professor Durrani and Paharron ki Malikah’s (The Queen of Mountains) White Queen and Gorilla. He claimed that other than those novels and characters, his stories were his own creation, and even the mentioned novels had borrowed only ideas and were not translations.
In 1956, Ibn-e-Safi started Imran Series, which gained as much fame and success as Jasoosi Dunya. In the aforementioned essay, he claimed that all characters and stories of Imran Series were original and unborrowed.
[edit] Quotes from Ibn-e-Safi's books
In Urdu script: آدمی سنجیدہ ہو کر کیا کرے جب کہ وہ جانتا ہے کہ ایک دن اسے اپنی سنجیدگی سمیت دفن ہوجانا پڑے گا۔
Translation: Why should man ever become serious when he knows full well that one day he will be buried along with his seriousness? (Black Picture)
In Urdu script: صرف عمل اور ردعمل کا نام زندگی ہے. منطقی جواز تو بعد میں تلاش کیا جاتا ہے۔
Translation: Life is only action and reaction. The rationalizations are added later. (AdLava)
In Urdu script: حماقت پر افسوس کرنا سب سے بڑی حماقت ہے۔
Translation: Regretting stupidity is the biggest stupidity of them all.
[edit] External links
- New Ibne Safi Website
- Read Ibn-e-Safi's two Novels Khofnak Imarat & Daler Mujrim at Kitaab Ghar
- The mysterious Mr Safi Mahmood Farooqui, Mid Day column, December 10, 2004
