Naseen Hijazi 1

NASEEM HIJAZI

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Submitted By:

Unaiza Azhar (M19 - 17)

Malaika Shahid (M19 - 27)

Waqar Saleem (M19 - 32)

Usman Ali (M19 - 44)

Ahmad Araaf Hassan (M19 - 45)

Submitted to: Saima Qadoos 1

Tale of content

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………3

Early life and Career………………………………………………………………………4

Naseem Hijazi services to Jurnalism ………………………………………………………..4

Naseem Hijazi; the master of historic fiction…………………………………………….5

Novels…………………………………………………………………………………….7

Awards and recognition………………………………………………………………….8

Death …………………………………………………………………………………….8

Closing remarks. …………………………………………………………………………8

References………………………………………………………………………………...9

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Abstract

In this report we are going to talk about one of the notable writers of twentieth century

who had a great impact on his readers. Naseem Hijazi was one of the top ranked novelist and

master of historic fiction. He served as a journalist in different newspapers and magazines and

performed his divine duties with full swing. He faced hardships during his journalism career and

fought hard to prove himself to be a freedom fighter. In this report, we will discuss about his

personal life, his major writings and services to journalism. . Taking the hand of Hijazi’s

marvelous imagination, his readers would explore the fascinating worlds now lost in the sands of

time. There’s no denying that Naseem Hijazi was a master of his craft. His extraordinary powers

of storytelling and characterization distinguish him among a long list of writers who used history

as a background for their novels.

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Early Life and Career:

Naseem Hijazi or Sharif Hussain was born (19 May 1914) in an Arain family in the

village of Sujaanpur near the town of Dhariwal, in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab, before

the independence of Pakistan; his family settled in Lahore in 1947. Naseem Hijazi chose Islamic

history as his inspiration for writing his novels.

Among the notable writers of his time, Ibn-e-Safi, Saadat Hasan Manto and Shafiq-ur-

Rehman were his popular contemporaries.

Naseem Hijazi services to Jurnalism:

Naseem Hijazi had great capability to put his thoughts in black and white. He was a great

writer which helped him serve in media industry as a writer and editor. His stories were also used

in different dramas and films. He worked as editor in daily newspaper “Tanzeem” and “Tameer”.

He issued another paper with the help of his colleague Ch. Anayat with the name of “Kohistan”

and it was one of the most popular at the time. As a journalist he wrote many novels which were

at their peak of fame. In his writings he discussed the peak and diminishing periods of Islamic

history. He also discussed the renowned personalities like Muhammad Bin Qasim. He launched

lolly wood film in which shift of Muslims from India to Pakistan has been elaborated. He was

died in 1996 in Rawalpindi and buried in Islamabad. He was a man of character and an

intelligent person. All the details about his life are given below in Urdu and you can read it.

Naseem Hijazi had to face hardships during his services to media industry. The small

news item on November 7, 1963 says the West Pakistan’s government banned the publication

of Daily Kohistan for reporting a students’ demonstration. Apart from slapping two months ban,

the Managing Editor, Sheikh Hamid Mahmud, and the Chief Editor, Nasim Hijazi, were arrested.

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The arrests, according to the news, were made under Section 16 of the West Pakistan

Maintenance of Public Order, which came to be more known as MPO.

Nasim started his journalistic career from Daily Hayat, and then joined Daily Zamana – both

publications coming out from Karachi. Afterwards he joined Weekly Tanzeem, which was

published from Quetta, and also became involved with Pakistan movement.

After partition, Nasim came to Rawalpindi to join Tameer, which he soon left to team up with

Chaudhry Enayatullah to bring out their own newspaper – Kohistan – in 1953. Started from

Rawalpindi, Kohistan soon became a popular newspaper, especially after it started its Lahore

edition.

The thesis says, Kohistan was purchased by the Convention Muslim League (one of the many

established by military rulers) but “at the end of Ayub Khan’s rule, this paper became the sole

paper of Jamaat-e-Islami."

Nasim again joined the paper but the defeat of Jamaat in the 1970 General Elections led

to Kohistan’s permanent close down

Naseem Hijazi; the master of historic fiction:

Naseem Hijazi is rightfully considered the greatest novelist in the genre of historic novel.

He grew up in a conservative environment where reading or writing novels was considered

something below good morals. His earlier drafts were torn away by his father. Sharif Hussain

chose Islamic history as inspiration for his fiction and took the pen name Naseem Hijazi which

indicated his emotional affiliation with Hijaz, the holy land of Mecca and Medina. His first novel

Daastan-e-Mujahid came out in 1944. In years to come he would write one great historic novel

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after the other and earn great fame. A number of movies and plays in Pakistan were also based

on Naseem Hijazi’s novels.

Hijazi’s major area of endeavor was Islamic history. His novels told the fascinating tales

of Islamic warriors with great character and dedication to their cause scaling the length and

breadth of earth, crushing great empires under their horse’s hooves and raising the flag of Islam

in the lands of unbelieversHowever, there has been serious criticism on Naseem Hijazi’s novels

regarding distortion of historical facts and a potentially problematic ideology working behind his

stories.

Naseem Hijazi’s fiction presents a highly exaggerated brighter side of Islam and ignores

the dark pages of Muslim history. Truth can never remain hidden for too long. When it

triumphs, some people find themselves at the wrong side of history. The truth is that a people’s

culture and civilization is evolved over the course of centuries. Idealism or unrealistic ambition

of a group of likeminded people cannot change it in a few years. Unfortunately, soon after

Pakistan was created, propagation of a distorted form of Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan was started

to create a particular mindset of the common people. It is only natural that Pakistan would

always have stronger cultural and historical ties with Indian Subcontinent, Greater Persia and

Turkestan than it will ever have with the Arab nations. The official ideology was however in

favor of making up ties with Arab nation even if they didn’t exist and deny any cultural or

linguistic similarities with India, no matter how strong they were. Naseem Hijazi’s literature is a

manifestation of this school of thought. Time and Pakistan’s present circumstances have proved

how absolutely wrong such notions were.

Being a diehard fan of Naseem Hijazi’s novels in my school life, (I remember I was

reading Shaheen the day before my final biology exam) I did not fully realize the problem with

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his idealism until one day in a fully packed session on a related issue at Al-Hamra Cultural

Centre, a young man stood up and said “Naseem Hijazi’s novels have a great potential of making

narrow minded extremists out of its readers.” There was definitely some truth in it.

Novels:

Naseem Hijazi used historic settings as background and based most of his work on the

Islamic history and shows both the rise and fall of the Islamic Empire. His novels Muhammad

Bin Qasim, Aakhri Ma'raka, Qaisar-o Kisra and Qafla-i Hijaz describe the era of Islam's rise to

political, militaristic, economic, and educational power, while Yusuf Bin Tashfain, Shaheen,

Kaleesa Aur Aag, and Andheri Raat Ke Musafir describe the period of Spanish Reconquista.

In Akhri Chataan, he describes the Central Asian conquests of Genghis Khan and his

destruction of the Khwarizm Sultanate. The novel shows the brutal conquests of the Mongols,

the military genius of Genghis Khan, the undying willpower of Sultan Jalal ud-Din Khwarizm

Shah, and the unworthy condition of the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad.

He wrote two sequential novels on British conquest of India, and described the

shortcomings of many nations within India after the collapse of Mughal Empire. The novel

Mu'azzam Ali starts a little before the Battle of Plassey. The lead character, Muazzam Ali, joins

the fight against the British with the army of Siraj-ud-Daula. The story moves forward as the

character moves from one place in India to another in search of the lost glory and freedom. He

takes part in the third battle of Panipat and finally settles in Srirangapattana, which was growing

in power under the towering personality of Haider Ali. The book ends almost around the death of

Ali. The second book on the battles in the same area, Aur Talwar Toot Gayee (And the Sword is

Broken) is more about Haider's son Sultan Tipu, where the same character is finding his dreams

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being fulfilled in Tipu's valiant endeavors against the British East India Company. The book

culminates in Sultan Tipu's sad and untimely martyrdom.

He also wrote a novel Khaak aur Khoon on the violence that resulted in tremendous

bloodshed in 1947, caused by the religious tensions being flared up among Muslims, Sikhs and

Hindus alike, at the time of the partition of British India and the Independence of Pakistan.

Naseem Hijazi, with his novels, has influenced many readers inside and outside Pakistan.

Although some historians accuse him of distortion of historical facts in his novels.

Awards and Recognition:

Pride of Performance Award by the President of Pakistan in 1992.

Death:

Naseem Hijazi died on 2 March 1996 at age 81 at Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Closing remarks:

Since the early period of Urdu literature, writers have used historic settings as

background for their novels. Naseem Hijazi is rightfully considered the greatest novelist in the

genre of historic novel. Naseem Hijazi was a master of bringing a historical setting to life and

make it seem like a mirror image of reality. He was a truly gifted storyteller. Alongside to being

an astonishing writer, his services to media industry should not be forgotten and remembered in

best possible way. We pay homage to him for his services to journalism and his efforts to

promote freedom of press, liberalism, freedom of speech and equality.

References

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Shahid Irfan (1 February 2017). "Naseem Hijazi: Historic and Islamic Novel Writer".

theurduwriters.com website. Retrieved 11 April 2019.

Naseem Hijazi: the master of historic fiction". The Nation (newspaper). 13 June 2016.

Retrieved 11 April 2019.