Ibn-e-Safi

Ibne Safi was born on July 26, 1928, in the village of Nara in Allahabad District, U.P., India. According to a research made by Zubair Irshad, Ibne Safi’s forefathers came from the village of Nara. Originally they were Hindus of Kaistth clan. Several generations back, their clan leader Raja Vasheshar Dayal Singh had embraced Islam and came to be known as Baba Abdun Nabi. His tomb still exists in what are now the ruins of the village Nara. Ibne Safi obtained his primary schooling in the village school at Nara. When he was only eight years old, he got an opportunity to read first volume of Talism-e-Hoshruba. Although he could not understand the language entirely, the story made a great impact on his creative mind. He then read all seven volumes several times.

Ibne Safi started writing at a young age. When he was in seventh grade, his first story appeared in the weekly Shahid, which was edited by Aadil Rasheed. Ibne Safi also started writing poetry when he was in eighth class. He was so impressed by the famous poet Jigar Murad Aabadi that his earlier poetry was on “khumriat” (poetry about the use and affects of alcohol).

According to one of his autobiographical essays, someone in a literary meeting claimed that Urdu literature had little scope for anything but sexual themes. To challenge this notion, Ibn-e-Safi began writing detective stories in January 1952 in the monthly Nikhat, naming the series Jasoosi Dunya. In the preface of Jasoosi Dunya's platinum jubilee number Zameen Kay Baadal, he mentioned those novels of Jasoosi Dunya whose main plot were taken from Western literature and which included Daler Mujrim, Pur-asraar Ajnabi,, Raqqasah ka Qatal, Heeray ki Kaan  and Khooni Pathar. Furthermore, he also mentioned some characters, which were borrowed from English fiction, such as Khaufnak Hangamah’s Professor Durrani and Paharron ki Malikah’s White Queen and Gorilla. He claimed that other than those novels and characters, his stories were his own creation, and even the mentioned novels had borrowed only ideas and were not translations.

Ibne Safi created the Imran Series in 1955 when he migrated to Karachi, where he lived until pancreatic cancer caused his death in 1980 on July 26, on his 52nd birthday.  Coincidently, his date of birth and date of death is same i.e. July 26. His characters were as well-known and popular among his readers as legendary fictional characters like Sherlock Homes. In 1960 - 1963 he suffered an episode of schizophrenia, but recovered, and returned with a best-selling Imran Series novel, Dairrh Matwaalay. Inauguration pictures of this novel can be seen in the pictorial section of a wonderful site www.ibnesafi.info which indeed is the one-and-only web site on Ibne Safi being remarkably maintained by Mr. Mohammad Hanif residing in Canada. Another web site www.wadi-e-urdu.com which has recently been launched contains material on Ibne Safi.
A few latest updates on Ibne Safi can be seen at www.wadi-e-urdu.com including coverage of an official program which was held in Karachi arts Council for the first time in 29 years at official level.       

The settings in Ibne Safi's novels are such that the reader is never told of the national origin of the heroes. Since Jasoosi Duniya was created before the partition of the subcontinent, the names of the characters and their locales suggest that the novel takes place in India. The advent of the Imran Series came post-partition, and the reader is set up to assume that the narrative is situated in Pakistan. Besides their native countries, the main characters of both Jasoosi Duniya and Imran Series have had adventures around the world – England,  Italy, Spain, Scotland, Pacific Islands, Zanzibar, South Africa, the United States of America, and various other places.

His son Dr. Ahmed Safi (who is the Managing Director of a Software House and himself is a literary person) told me that when his (Ahmed's) elder brother visited Italy, he was surprised to see Lake Como as it was so truly depicted by Ibne Safi in one of his best serial Adlava. Considering that Ibne Safi never left the Indian Subcontinent, the detailed descriptions he provides of the diverse localities are surprisingly accurate.

The question of Ibne Safi’s literary merit is still unsettled, According to Khurrum Ali Shafique (researcher, writer) " it seems as if the tables have already started tilting in his favor. One obvious reason is that those who used to read his novels, hiding themselves from their elders under bed-sheets, are now well into their forties and fifties. They are teachers, professors, writers and parents. But they are also old friends of Safi's like Dr Abul Khair Kashfi (died May 15, 2008), one of the few senior critics of that generation. The sum total of the positive bias of these people is that some of the prejudices against Safi have been lifted but an open acknowledgement of his literary greatness remains to be seen."
 
Mr Kahild Javed (Dehli-India)  gave the names of those great western writers who have created detective characters in their novels/works, this includes Edgar Elan Po (1809-1849), Zadig by Voltaire (1694-1778), Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), Human Comedy by Balzac 1799-1850), Adventures of Cabb Williams by William Garden , Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), Bleak House by Charles Dickens (1812-1870), A Gun for Sale by Graham Green etc. Many literary personnel generously admired Ibne Safi including Poet, Ajmad Islam Amjad, Columnist Hasan Nisar, Writer Bushra Rehman, Indian Poet/Writer Javed Akhtar (in an interview to Ms. Munni Kabir), Dr. Gopi Chand Narang etc. However, at a seminar in Mumbai in 2007, legendary Urdu writer Intizar Husain, who apparently tried to shock the audience with the comment that he ‘had neither read Ibne Safi nor felt he was important enough‘, invited flak for his comments. There was severe criticism of the comment on the stage itself. Several litterateurs reminded Intezar Hussain that though one may be entitled to his personal views, and his literary status apart, Ibne Safi can’t be simply dismissed as just another writer.