Ali Akbar Natiq | |
---|---|
Native name | Punjabi: علی اکبر ناطق |
Born | Punjab, Pakistan | December 22, 1974
Pen name | Natiq |
Occupation | Writer, poet |
Language | Punjabi, Urdu |
Nationality | Pakistani |
Education | M.A |
Alma mater | Bahauddin Zakariya University |
Notable works |
|
Ali Akbar Natiq (born 22 December 1974) is a Pakistani poet, novelist and short-story writer. Acclaimed as one of the brightest stars in Pakistan's literary firmament, Natiq has published many books.
Ali Akbar Natiq was born at village 32/2L, in Okara District, Punjab, Pakistan. [1] His ancestors migrated from Faizabad, near Lucknow, to Firozpur district in Punjab at the turn of the 20th century, and then during the partition of India in 1947, they immigrated to Pakistan, coming from Firozpur via Sulemanki Headworks, and settled in Okara. [2] [3]
Natiq studied up to matric in a high school in his village and passed FA exam from Government College, Okara. After that, due to poor economic conditions, he started working and got his BA and MA degrees privately from Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan.
Natiq started working as a mason and skilled at building domes, minarets and mosques. Meanwhile, his studies of Urdu literature and history also continued. He also read the Arabic books which his father had brought from Iraq and Kuwait where he went on work. [4] Whenever he got free time from work, he was busy studying. In 1998, he also stayed in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East for some time as a laborer. He learned a lot in this journey.
His first collection of poetry "Beyaqeen Bastiyon Mein" appeared in 2010, followed by a book of short stories "Qaim Deen" published by Oxford University Press in 2012. All two books have received UBL and Oxford Awards. Penguin Random House India published the English version of the aforementioned collection of the short stories titled "What Will You Give For This Beauty?". [5] His story "Mason's Hand" has been featured in international literary magazine Granta in its special issue on Pakistan in 2011. [6] [7] In 2013, he published another book of poems "Yaqoot Ke Warq", from which selected poems were translated into German. [8] His first novel "Naulakhi Kothi" was launched at 6th Karachi Literature Festival. [9] The novel is being translated into English and is expected to be published by Penguin India and America. In 2015, after being inspired by Natiq's book Qaim Deen, Indian actor and theatre director Danish Husain adapted four of his short stories in his play "Ek Punjab Ye Bhi" which opened during the Prithvi Theatre Festival at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai. [10] [11] Natiq next published second book of short stories named "Shah Muhammad Ka Tanga" in Urdu. This book has been translated into Hindi and English in same name from Delhi by Jagarnath Publishing, India. Beside poetry and fiction, Natiq also wrote a book with a critical account on poetry of famous poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal and a book aiming at discussing the critical aspects of the art of versification.
He was former professor of Urdu at Uswa College, Islamabad and a former assistant professor at University of Lahore, Department School of Creative Art. On 16 July 2018, the American daily newspaper The New York Times published his article on the topic of democracy in Pakistan. He originally wrote the article in Urdu language, which was translated by Basharat Peer in English. [12] His second novel "Kamari Wala" was published in 2020.
The Hamzanama or Dastan-e-Amir Hamza narrates the legendary exploits of an Arab warrior named Hamza, usually mistaken for Hamza ibn Abdul-Muttalib, an uncle of Muhammad. Most of the stories are extremely fanciful, "a continuous series of romantic interludes, threatening events, narrow escapes, and violent acts". The Hamzanama chronicles the fantastic adventures of Hamza as he and his band of heroes fight the enemies.
Faiz Ahmad Faiz was a Pakistani poet and author of Punjabi and Urdu literature. Faiz was one of the most celebrated, popular, and influential Urdu writers of his time, and his works and ideas remain widely influential today in Pakistan and beyond. Outside of literature, he has been described as "a man of wide experience", having worked as a teacher, military officer, journalist, trade unionist, and broadcaster.
Altaf Hussain Hali, also known as Maulana Khawaja Hali, was an Urdu poet and writer.
Urdu literature comprises the literary works, written in the Urdu language. While, It tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ghazal and nazm, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including that of the short story, or afsana. Urdu literature is popular mostly in Pakistan, where Urdu is the national language, and in India, where it is an Eighth Schedule language.
Shaikh Ayaz SI born Mubarak Ali Shaikh was Sindhi language poet, prose writer and former Vice Chancellor of University of Sindh. He is counted as one of the prominent and great Sindhi poet of Pakistan in general and Sindh in particular. The author of more than 50 books on poetry, biographies, plays and short stories in both Sindhi and Urdu languages. His translations of Shah Jo Risalo, which was written by the 18th-century Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, from Sindhi to Urdu language established him as an authority in his domain.
Ahmed Ali was a Pakistani novelist, poet, critic, translator, diplomat and scholar. A pioneer of the modern Urdu short story, his works include the short story collections: Angarey (Embers), 1932; Hamari Gali, 1940; Qaid Khana, 1942; and Maut Se Pehle, 1945. His other writings include Twilight in Delhi (1940), his first novel in the English language.
Intizar Hussain or Intezar Hussain was a Pakistani writer of Urdu novels, short stories, poetry and nonfiction. He is widely recognised as a leading literary figure of Pakistan.
Ibn-e-Safi was the pen name of Asrar Ahmad, a fiction writer, novelist and poet of Urdu from Pakistan. The word Ibn-e-Safi is a Persian expression which literally means Son of Safi, where the word Safi means chaste or righteous. He first wrote from the British India of the 1940s, and later Pakistan after the independence of British India in 1947.
Abdul Hameed was an Urdu fiction writer from Pakistan. He was also known for writing a popular children's TV play Ainak Wala Jin (1993) for Pakistan Television Corporation which was broadcast on PTV during the mid-1990s. In 1997, he was awarded Pride of Performance by the Government of Pakistan.
The publishing industry in Pakistan is hampered both by a low literacy rate (65%).
Sindhi literature is the collection of oral and written literature in the Sindhi language in prose and poetry. The Sindhi language of the province of Sindh in Pakistan is considered one of the oldest languages of ancient India, and influenced the language of Indus Valley inhabitants. Sindhi literature has developed over a thousand years.
Musharraf Ali Farooqi is a Pakistani-Canadian author, translator, and storyteller. Farooqi was among the five writers shortlisted for Asia's most prestigious literary prize in 2012. In addition to his fiction and translation projects, he is working on establishing an Urdu language publishing program specializing in children's literature and classics. He founded the publishing house KITAB (2012), launched the online index Urdu Thesaurus (2016), and designed the interactive storytelling and reading initiative STORYKIT Program (2016). These three projects have been integrated in an activity-based learning program for children.
Umrao Jaan Ada is an Urdu novel by Mirza Hadi Ruswa (1857–1931), first published in 1899. It is considered the first Urdu novel by many and tells the story of a tawaif and poet by the same name from 19th century Lucknow, as recounted by her to the author.
Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer, (29 August 1803 – 6 March 1875) was an Urdu poet who excelled and perfected the art of Marsiya writing. He is considered the leading exponent of Marsiya Nigari or marsiya writing along with Mir Anees.
Nasim Amrohvi or Syed Qaim Raza Taqvi (Urdu: نسیم امروہوی, romanized: Allamah Nasīm Amrohvī; was a Pakistani Urdu poet, philosopher, and lexicographer who was born as Syed Qaim Raza Taqvi on 24 August 1908 in Amroha, British India.
Imdad Hussaini was a Pakistani Sindhi poet and an Urdu language writer.
Muhammad Afzal Ahsan Randhawa was a Pakistani Punjabi language writer, poet, translator, playwright and a politician. He authored several short stories and novels in the Punjabi language including Sooraj Grehan and Doaba.
Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj was a dramatist who wrote in the Urdu language. He is best known for his 1922 play Anarkali, based on the life of Anarkali, that was staged hundreds of times and was adapted for feature films in India and Pakistan, including the Indian film Mughal-e-Azam (1960).
Sukrita Paul Kumar is an Indian poet, critic, and academician. She has been the chief editor of Cultural Diversity, Linguistic Plurality and Literary Traditions of India - a textbook prescribed by the University of Delhi for course use in its Honours B.A. programme.
Dr Akhtar Husain also known as Dr Akhtar Husain Raipuri was a Pakistani scholar, journalist and lexicographer. He is also the author of the book The Dust of the Road: A Translation of Gard-e-Raah that was translated into English many years after his death.