2009 Reading #17: The Adventures of Amir Hamza
Books 1-10.
11. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares.
12. Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins by Roy Wilkins and Tom Mathews.
13. Women, Culture & Politics by Angela Y. Davis.
14. Everyone in Silico by Jim Munroe.
15. Daughters of the North (AKA The Carhullan Army) by Sarah Hall.
16. Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story.
17. The Adventures of Amir Hamza, Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction, by Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi. Probably fifteen years I was talking to a friend I worked with at the Memorial Union in Madison, a student from Pakistan, Amir Khan Kashani. I don't remember exactly how it happened--it may be that this was during my Comparative Lit days, when I first became crazy for World Literature--but I asked him about Pakistani literature, and he told me about something called Dastan-e Amir Hamza, which sounded amazing. Unfortunately, at that time there were no English translations of it; I know because I looked, and kept looking. Then last year, Modern Library published Farooqi's translation of an earlier Urdu edition.
The dastan is a sort of Central Asian folk epic, centered on the life of a single character. In this case Amir Hamza ("the Lord of the Chivalrous, the crown bestower to kings who wear his badge of slavery, the slayer of beastly fire-breathing dragons, the captor of ferocious lions, the Destroyer of Tilisms, the Slayer of the Devs of Qaf and Zulmat, the world-renowned champion warrior, the Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction of His Times, the Quake of Qaf, the Latter-day Suleiman, Abul-Ala, Amir Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib, the Lord of Arabia"*) is a warrior of Islam, an uncle to the prophet Muhammad, who appears briefly at the end of the work. Most of the rest of the 906 pages (which covers only a fraction of the oral tradition) details the background to Hamza's birth, his auspicious beginnings, his quick maturation and gathering of companions, and his life of battle against the infidels--in this case, mostly Zoroastrians, mostly referred to as "fire worshippers." That is, aside from the eighteen years he spends on Mount Qaf battling rebellious Devs. While his massive army of friends and champions defends his betrothed from those who would kidnap her as she waits impatiently for her wedding. Of course, along the way Hamza is forced to marry a few Devs, among them the supremely jealous Aasman Peri, who works hard to prevent him from returning to . . .
Yeah, there's a lot going on. The structure, like most oral tales, is repetitive at times: the antics of the trickster Amar Ayyar, Hamza's closest ally and the star of the show for long stretches, are hilarious and filthy but fall into familiar patterns after a while. The structure of the battles, which are often largely decided in single combat, also becomes familiar--gigantic (like, between 15 and 190 yards tall) opponents battle various of Hamza's champions to a draw, then are defeated by the man himself and either convert to the True Faith or are slaughtered. The duplicity of the Emperor of Persia is consistent and predictable. But it's important to remember that these stories weren't created to be read all at once but to be heard, in fragments, at court or at feast times, when one could ask the storyteller to tell that bit about how Amar Ayyar cut the rations and the gluttonous giant Aadi Madi-Karib briefly betrayed the cause of Hamza. That's probably the one I'd be asking for. So, Amir (who was named for Hamza), wherever you are, thanks for the recommendation.**
* AND IN THIS CORNER . . .
** Considering that my friends and I dragged Amir to see "Cabin Boy," which he hated, I guess I got the better part of that cultural exchange.
11. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares.
12. Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins by Roy Wilkins and Tom Mathews.
13. Women, Culture & Politics by Angela Y. Davis.
14. Everyone in Silico by Jim Munroe.
15. Daughters of the North (AKA The Carhullan Army) by Sarah Hall.
16. Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story.
17. The Adventures of Amir Hamza, Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction, by Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi. Probably fifteen years I was talking to a friend I worked with at the Memorial Union in Madison, a student from Pakistan, Amir Khan Kashani. I don't remember exactly how it happened--it may be that this was during my Comparative Lit days, when I first became crazy for World Literature--but I asked him about Pakistani literature, and he told me about something called Dastan-e Amir Hamza, which sounded amazing. Unfortunately, at that time there were no English translations of it; I know because I looked, and kept looking. Then last year, Modern Library published Farooqi's translation of an earlier Urdu edition.
The dastan is a sort of Central Asian folk epic, centered on the life of a single character. In this case Amir Hamza ("the Lord of the Chivalrous, the crown bestower to kings who wear his badge of slavery, the slayer of beastly fire-breathing dragons, the captor of ferocious lions, the Destroyer of Tilisms, the Slayer of the Devs of Qaf and Zulmat, the world-renowned champion warrior, the Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction of His Times, the Quake of Qaf, the Latter-day Suleiman, Abul-Ala, Amir Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib, the Lord of Arabia"*) is a warrior of Islam, an uncle to the prophet Muhammad, who appears briefly at the end of the work. Most of the rest of the 906 pages (which covers only a fraction of the oral tradition) details the background to Hamza's birth, his auspicious beginnings, his quick maturation and gathering of companions, and his life of battle against the infidels--in this case, mostly Zoroastrians, mostly referred to as "fire worshippers." That is, aside from the eighteen years he spends on Mount Qaf battling rebellious Devs. While his massive army of friends and champions defends his betrothed from those who would kidnap her as she waits impatiently for her wedding. Of course, along the way Hamza is forced to marry a few Devs, among them the supremely jealous Aasman Peri, who works hard to prevent him from returning to . . .
Yeah, there's a lot going on. The structure, like most oral tales, is repetitive at times: the antics of the trickster Amar Ayyar, Hamza's closest ally and the star of the show for long stretches, are hilarious and filthy but fall into familiar patterns after a while. The structure of the battles, which are often largely decided in single combat, also becomes familiar--gigantic (like, between 15 and 190 yards tall) opponents battle various of Hamza's champions to a draw, then are defeated by the man himself and either convert to the True Faith or are slaughtered. The duplicity of the Emperor of Persia is consistent and predictable. But it's important to remember that these stories weren't created to be read all at once but to be heard, in fragments, at court or at feast times, when one could ask the storyteller to tell that bit about how Amar Ayyar cut the rations and the gluttonous giant Aadi Madi-Karib briefly betrayed the cause of Hamza. That's probably the one I'd be asking for. So, Amir (who was named for Hamza), wherever you are, thanks for the recommendation.**
* AND IN THIS CORNER . . .
** Considering that my friends and I dragged Amir to see "Cabin Boy," which he hated, I guess I got the better part of that cultural exchange.