Mir Bahadur Ali

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Mir Bahadur Ali is a fictional character in Jorge Luis Borges's short story The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim (in Spanish El acercamiento a Almotásim). According to Borges, Bahadur Ali was an Indian lawyer and author , best known for the books he wrote while living in Bombay, specifically a novel entitled The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim (the same title as the short story in which Bahadur's name appears). Borges writes that though it was very popular when it was published in 1932, Bahadur's The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim had only one printing of 4,000 copies. With the book's success, Bahadur rewrote the novel, titling it The Conversation with the Man Called Al-Mu'tasim: A Game of Shifting Mirrors.

According to Borges's short story, the latter version, published in 1934, is by far the better known, having been reprinted several times and translated into English, French, and German. It has, however, often been criticized for being poorly written and transparently allegorical. Borges's short story takes the form of a review of the imaginary work, and provides a great deal of minute detail about the novel, leading some readers to believe that the work is real.

The original Borges story appears in his anthology Ficciones.

[edit] Approach

The imaginary work The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim that Borges "reviews" is essentially a detective story about a law student in Bombay. After unexpectedly committing a murder, he becomes an outcast among the lower classes of India. Through his dealings with people he infers the existence of a perfect man, whom he calls Al-Mu'tasim. He believes Al-Mu'tasim has affected others in particular ways through interaction, as though some perfection was "rubbed off" onto them. The student becomes obsessed with finding and meeting Al-Mu'tasim.

[edit] Related work

Borges also says that the American composer Philip Glass is rumored to possess an original copy of The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim, and, in fact, to be so impressed with Bahadur's work that he has considered producing an opera based upon it. Since no such book actually exists, this is obviously false, but is typical of the rich detail which Borges puts into his fiction.The French Canadian philosopher Philippe Corriveau is also rumored to have used the book in order to obtain the mysterious knowing expressed in his famous opus Temps et Éternité.