Literary Heritage Series for Young Readers: Ibn e Khaldun and his Muqaddimah

Description

Ibn e Khaldun and his Muqaddimah is the fifth offering in the Literary Heritage Series for Young Readers, following Our Shaikh Saadi, The Simurgh and the Birds, Our Bhittai, and Our Rumi. While the others are titles about world-famous poets, Abdul Rahman Ibn e Khaldun was a Muslim intellectual who should be a source of inspiration for our young generation.

A historiographer and historian, Ibn e Khaldun is known as the founding father of modern sociology, the science of demography, natural sciences, politics, economics, and development of civilizations. The Muqaddimah, meaning ‘An Introduction’, was written for a history book towards the end of his long and varied career. However, as it contained the very essence of his life’s experiences, observations, and analysis, it outshone the rest of his scholarly work. Today, Ibn e Khaldun is universally acknowledged and is important for our young generation as a link between the past and the present.

The purpose of Ibn e Khaldun and his Muqaddimah is mainly to introduce this remarkable and amazing Muslim intellectual to our young readers and help them know about his person, life, and works. Beautifully illustrated, this book will educate as well as fascinate its readers.

The selection and compilation of the text has been done by Fahmida Riaz, an eminent poet and writer. Great care has been taken in selecting suitable material to appeal to the youth.

Author Biography

Fahmida Riaz is an eminent poet and writer who have been recognized for her contribution to Pakistani literature. She is the author of the Literary Heritage Series, which introduces celebrated poets to young readers through a selection and translation of their famous verses. She was awarded the 6th UBL Literary Excellence Award in Children’s Literature for the Literary Heritage series’ title Our Bhitai and has won numerous national and international prizes.

Born in 1946 in Meerut, India, educated in Hyderabad and London, and living in Karachi, she has written poetry and short stories since the age of 15 and has been involved in social and political activities since her student days. She has seen publication of four volumes of her poetry, three novels, including Godavari, the English translation of which is also published by OUP Pakistan, and a collection of short stories, in addition to the Urdu translation of some verses from Shaikh Ayaz. She has also translated Rumi into Urdu.

Her first collection of verse, Patthar Ki Zaban was published in 1967. With the publication of her second collection, Badan Dareeda, she emerged as a full-fledged iconoclast. She has since published four more collections of her verse—Dhoop, Kya Tum Pura Chand Na Dekhogay, Hamrakab and Aadmi Ki Zindigi.

Fahmida Riaz is also the author of several short stories and novels in Urdu: Godavari, based on her Indian experience, and Zinda Bahar Lane based on Bangladesh. Fahmida Riaz’s first collection Badan Dareeda appeared when she was 22, and was responsible for creating a stir in literary circles. Fahmida Riaz is among the front rank of authors and poets in Urdu.

Besides being a poet, she is also an unrelenting social critic and has been active in several human rights movements. She was among the writers who campaigned against Gen. Ziaul Haq’s military rule and the execution of Z. A. Bhutto, and had to suffer the wrath of the authorities and a period of self-exile. Fahmida Riaz has spent years abroad: in London, working for the BBC; then in India as a political exile. She is also the author of several short stories and travelogues in Urdu, including Zinda Bahar Lane about Bangladesh. She has travelled widely and lectured at universities and cultural forums in England and the USA. Fahmida Riaz was given the Hemmet-Hellman award by Human Rights Watch, New York, in 1997 and the Kamal-i-Fun award in Pakistan in 2016.