Ibn-e-Safi

Who was Ibn-e-Safi?

Ibne Safi was born on July 26, 1928, in the village of Nara in Allahabad District, U.P., India. According to a research made by Zubair Irshad, Ibne Safi’s forefathers came from the village of Nara. Originally they were Hindus of Kaistth clan. Several generations back, their clan leader Raja Vasheshar Dayal Singh had embraced Islam and came to be known as Baba Abdun Nabi. His tomb still exists in what are now the ruins of the village Nara. Ibne Safi obtained his primary schooling in the village school at Nara. When he was only eight years old, he got an opportunity to read first volume of Talism-e-Hoshruba. Although he could not understand the language entirely, the story made a great impact on his creative mind. He then read all seven volumes several times. Ibne Safi started writing at a young age. When he was in seventh grade, his first story appeared in the weekly Shahid, which was edited by Aadil Rasheed. Ibne Safi also started writing poetry when he was in eighth class. He was so impressed by the famous poet Jigar Murad Aabadi that his earlier poetry was on “khumriat” (poetry about the use and affects of alcohol). 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, he mentioned those novels of Jasoosi Dunya whose main plot were taken from Western literature and which included Daler Mujrim, Pur-asraar Ajnabi,, Raqqasah ka Qatal, Heeray ki Kaan and Khooni Pathar. Furthermore, he also mentioned some characters, which were borrowed from English fiction, such as Khaufnak Hangamah’s Professor Durrani and Paharron ki Malikah’s 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.Ibne Safi created the Imran Series in 1955 when he migrated to Karachi, where he lived until pancreatic cancer caused his death in 1980 on July 26, on his 52nd birthday. Coincidently, his date of birth and date of death is same i.e. July 26. His characters were as well-known and popular among his readers as legendary fictional characters like Sherlock Homes. In 1960 - 1963 he suffered an episode of schizophrenia, but recovered, and returned with a best-selling Imran Series novel, Dairrh Matwaalay. Inauguration pictures of this novel can be seen in the pictorial section of a wonderful site www.ibnesafi.info which indeed is the one-and-only web site on Ibne Safi being remarkably maintained by Mr. Mohammad Hanif residing in Canada. Another web site www.wadi-e-urdu.com which has recently been launched contains material on Ibne Safi.A few latest updates on Ibne Safi can be seen at www.wadi-e-urdu.com including coverage of an official program which was held in Karachi arts Council for the first time in 29 years at official level. The settings in Ibne Safi's novels are such that the reader is never told of the national origin of the heroes. Since Jasoosi Duniya was created before the partition of the subcontinent, the names of the characters and their locales suggest that the novel takes place in India. The advent of the Imran Series came post-partition, and the reader is set up to assume that the narrative is situated in Pakistan. Besides their native countries, the main characters of both Jasoosi Duniya and Imran Series have had adventures around the world – England, Italy, Spain, Scotland, Pacific Islands, Zanzibar, South Africa, the United States of America, and various other places. His son Dr. Ahmed Safi (who is the Managing Director of a Software House and himself is a literary person) told me that when his (Ahmed's) elder brother visited Italy, he was surprised to see Lake Como as it...

Famous Quotes:

• Why should man ever become serious when he knows full well that one day he will be buried along with his seriousness?
• Nuclear and Hydrogen Bomb experiments were beyond their comprehension. They could not figure out why a person is incarcerated in a mental asylum when he turns mad and why when a nation turns mad, we start calling it a Power
• صرف عمل اور ردعمل کا نام زندگی ہے. منطقی جواز تو بعد میں تلاش کیا جاتا ہے۔
• I know that crimes committed by governments are not called crimes but diplomacy. A crime is only that which is committed in an individual capacity
• حماقت پر افسوس کرنا سب سے بڑی حماقت ہے۔
• "Their style of government is called Democracy. The purpose of which is that the meat is claimed by a few men and the bones are tossed over to the people. They resolve all their issues with power but call it mutual cooperation. Their rulers call themselves Peoples' representatives. People do elect them for governance but it is the power of their wealth that gets them to the seat of government."
• Why is it that an ordinary clerk has to pass the examination for clerkship, a police constable has to go through training as a recruit before he could be commissioned and on the other hand vegetable-selling middlemen, good-for-nothing fuedals and imbecile merchants go sit in the Assemblies directly and start legisltating and some even become members of the cabinet
• Earlier, Man ruled woman by force. Now he rules her by making a fool out of her, that is, by making her superior. There is double benefit in ruling by making her superior. She is made doubly responsible. He makes woman superior to himself and brings her out of her home... provides an opportunity to work side by side with him.
• Man after the second half of the twentieth century is frustrated. You know that the foundation of all subversiveness is laid on frustration and this frustration keeps finding ways to subversive activities. And you also know that an uncert...ain present has made man pessimistic about future... therefore he runs after anything that glitters, be it fire