By Staff Reporter, *Writer Mumtaz Mufti’s 15th death anniversary today* - Samaa TV - PakistanWednesday, October 27, 2010
Today marks the 15th death anniversary of Mumtaz Mufti. He was a distinguished Urdu writer of Pakistan.
He transformed from Liberalism to Sufism and was a recipient of Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 1986. He died on October 27, 1995.
Mumtaz Mufti was born in Batala, Punjab (India), on September 11, 1905. He was the son of Mufti Muhammad Hussain and his first wife Sughra Khannum. He became a civil servant under British rule and started his career as a school teacher.
Soon after partition, he migrated to Pakistan with his family.
Mumtaz Mufti started writing Urdu short stories while working as a school teacher before partition. In the beginning of his literary career, he was considered a non-conformist writer with liberal views who appeared to be influenced by Freud.
His transformation from Liberalism to Sufism was due to his inspiration from Qudratullah Shahab.
All the same, he did manage to retain his individual accent and wrote on subjects which were frowned upon by conservative elements in society.
The two phases of his life are witnessed by his autobiographies, 'Ali Pur Ka Aeeli' and 'Alakh Nagri'. According to forewords mentioned in his later autobiography, Ali Pur Ka Aeeli is an account of a lover who challenged the social taboos of his times, and Alakh Nagri is an account of an acolyte who was greatly influenced by the mysticism of Qudratullah Shahab.
At age 90, Mufti died in October 1995. The Government of Pakistan bestowed upon him a prestigious award, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, in 1986 and he also received the Munshi Premchand Award from India in 1989.
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1 comment:
I'd like to read some of his works. I have read a bit of Qudratullah Shahab's autobiography (the ShahabNama), but I wasn't aware of his mystic leanings which inspired other writers.
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