Novel
ناول
О нём: Novel
Роман
Первые две главы бесплатноAyama: The Widows
ایامیٰ
Назир Ахмад · о: Novel
Deputy Nazir Ahmad's Ayama ("The Widows", 1891) is the classic Urdu novel on the remarriage of widows. Azadi Begam, a girl of a good Delhi family raised between a sceptical father and a devout mother, marries the young scholar Maulvi Mustajab, weans him from the narrow life of a mosque maulvi, and is left a young, childless widow when he dies in the service of Bhopal. Held back by custom from marrying again, she lives through mourning, sermons on patience, loneliness, thoughts of suicide and the schemes of go-betweens, and in her last illness examines her life in a long dialogue with herself. On her deathbed she calls the men of her family and neighbourhood together and, from behind the curtain, makes them her bequest: a speech on the sufferings of widows and on the Qur'anic command to see them married. A key text for the Urdu novel, Muslim social reform, women's lives and the widow-remarriage debate in nineteenth-century India. Complete Urdu text from the 1891 first edition, with the author's footnotes, a facing English translation, an introduction and a glossary. Cite as: Nazir Ahmad, Ayama, tr. urduintranslation.com (2026). The first chapter is free to read.
21 главаEnglishскоро другие языки
Роман
Первые две главы бесплатноBanat-un-Nash: The Daughters of the Bier
بنات النعش
Назир Ахмад · о: Novel
Deputy Nazir Ahmad's Banat-un-Nash (c. 1872), the second part of his Mirat-ul-Uroos (1869), is one of the first Urdu books written to give girls a modern education. Asghari, the capable heroine of the earlier book, now keeps a school for girls in her Delhi home, and into it comes Husn Ara, the spoilt and bad-tempered daughter of a rich household. Through talk, example and patience rather than punishment, Asghari and her sister-in-law Mahmuda cure her of pride, laziness and superstition, while the girls learn arithmetic, gravity, the shape of the earth, the geography of Arabia, astronomy and the cause of eclipses, and hear the tale of the cruel nobleman Masih-ul-Mulk, a long story of women's superstitions, and the life of an English family. It ends with Husn Ara's moving farewell to the school before her marriage. A key text for the Urdu novel, women's education and reform in nineteenth-century India, and the daily life and speech of Delhi households after 1857. Complete Urdu text from a 1950 Delhi reprint, with the author's footnotes, a facing English translation, an introduction and a glossary. Cite as: Nazir Ahmad, Banat-un-Nash, tr. urduintranslation.com (2026). The first chapter is free to read.
22 главыEnglishскоро другие языки