# Naseem Hijazi

Sharif Hussain (Urdu: شریف حسین), who used the pseudonym Nasīm Hijāzī (Urdu: نسیم حجازی, commonly transliterated as Naseem Hijazi or Nasim Hijazi) (19 May 1914 – 2 March 1996), was an Urdu novelist.

## Life and career

Hussain was born in an Arain family in the village of Sujaanpur, near the town of Dhariwal, in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab, in pre-partition India. He migrated to Pakistan after partition in 1947. He chose Islamic history as the inspiration for his novels.
Among the notable writers of his time, Ibn-e-Safi, Saadat Hasan Manto, and Shafiq-ur-Rehman were his popular contemporaries. He lived most of his life in Pakistan and died on 2 March 1996.
Naseem Hijazi died on 2 March 1996 at the age of 81 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

## Writing

Naseem Hijazi used historic settings as the background for his novels and based most of his work on Islamic history, demonstrating both the rise and fall of the Islamic Empire. His novels Muhammad Bin Qasim, Aakhri Ma'raka, Qaisar-o Kisra, and Qafla-i Hijaz describe the era of Islam's rise to political, militaristic, economic, and educational power, while Yusuf Bin Tashfain, Shaheen, Kaleesa Aur Aag, and Andheri Raat Ke Musafir describe the period of the Spanish Reconquista.
In Akhri Chataan, he depicts the Central Asian conquests of Genghis Khan and his destruction of the Khwarizm Sultanate.
Hijazi wrote two sequential novels on the British Raj, and described the shortcomings of many nations within India after the collapse of the Mughal Empire. The novel Mu'azzam Ali starts a little before the Battle of Plassey. The lead character, Muazzam Ali, joins the fight against the British with the army of Siraj-ud-Daula. The story progresses as the character moves from one place in India to another in search of lost glory and freedom. He takes part in the third battle of Panipat and finally settles in Srirangapattana, which is growing in power under the towering personality of Haider Ali. The book ends around the death of Ali. The second book on the battles in the same area, Aur Talwar Toot Gayee (And the Sword Broke), is about Haider's son Sultan Tipu, where the same character is finding his dreams being fulfilled in Tipu's valiant endeavours against the British East India Company. The book culminates in Sultan Tipu's sad and untimely martyrdom.
Hijazi also wrote the novel Khaak aur Khoon, which details the violence caused by religious tensions between Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus at the time of the partition of British India and the Independence of Pakistan in 1947.
Although some historians have accused him of distorting historical facts in his novels, he has influenced many readers inside and outside Pakistan.

## Publications

| Title (Roman) | Title (English) | Title (Urdu) | Genre | Historical Period/Events | Number of Editions |
| Khaak aur Khoon | Dirt and Blood | خاک اور خون | Novel | British Indian Empire, Partition of India in 1947, Creation of Pakistan | 5 |
| Yousuf bin Tashfin | Yousuf Son of Tashfin | یوسف بن تاشفین | Novel | Al-Andalus, First Taifas period, Almoravid Empire, Spanish Reconquista | 7 |
| Akhari Chattan | The Last Rock | آخری چٹان | Novel | Siege of Jerusalem (1187) – Saladin captures Jerusalem from the Crusaders, Mongol invasion of Khwarezmia and Eastern Iran, Fall of Baghdad (End of Abbasid Caliphate) | 7 |
| Aakhari Maarka | The Last Battle | آخری معرکہ | Novel | Invasions of India by Mahmud of Ghazni, | 3 |
| Andheri Raat Ke Musafir | Travelers of the Dark Night | اندھیری رات کے مسافر | Novel | Spanish Reconquista, Fall of Granada published in 1988 | 7 |
| Kaleesa Aur Aag | Church and Fire | کلیسا اور آگ | Novel | Spanish Reconquista, Spanish Inquisition, expulsion of the Moriscos – (continued from the end of Andheri Raat Ke Musafir), published in 1996 | 5 |
| Muazzam Ali | Muazzam Ali | معظم علی | Novel | British Indian Empire, Battle of Plassey, Third Battle of Panipat, Anglo-Mysore Wars (Hyder Ali's Era), published in 1982 | 6 |
| Aur Talwar Toot Gai | And the Sword Broke | اور تلوار ٹوٹ گئی | Novel | Anglo-Mysore Wars (Tipu Sultan's Era – continued from the end of 'Muazzam Ali'), published in 1964 | 4 |
| Daastaan-e-Mujahid (1944) | A Soldier's Tale | داستان مجاہد | Novel | Arab Umayyad Caliphate – Muslim Conquest of Al-Andalus, Sindh, Central Asia, and Maghreb, published in 1964 | 5 |
| Insaan Aur Devta | Man and God | انسان اور دیوتا | Novel | Ancient India – brutality of upper castes towards lower castes in the Hindu religion | 3 |
| Muhammad Bin Qasim | Muhammad Bin Qasim | محمد بن قاسم | Novel | Muslim Conquest of Sindh, published in 1950 | 6 |
| Pakistan Se Diyare Haram Tak | From Pakistan to Sacred Land | پاکستان سے دیار حرم تک | Travelogue | | |
| Pardesi Darakht | The Foreign Tree | پردیسی درخت | Novel | British Indian Empire, a few years before the partition of British India | 2 |
| Gumshuda Qaafley | The Lost Caravans | گمشدہ قافلے | Novel | British Indian Empire, Partition of India, Creation of Pakistan – (continued from the end of Pardesi Darakht) | |
| Pouras Ke Hathi | Poras's Elephants | پورس کے ہاتھی | Drama | Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 | |
| Qafla-e-Hijaz | The Caravan of Hijaz | قافلئہ حجاز | Novel | Rashidun Caliphate, Muslim conquest of Persia | 2 |
| Qaisar-o-Kisra | Caesar and Cyrus | قیصر و کسر'ی | Novel | Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, Rise of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula, published in 1988 | 4 |
| Saqafat Ki Talaash | In Search of Culture | ثقافت کی تلاش | Drama, humor | | 3 |
| Shaheen | The Falcon | شاہین | Novel | Spanish Reconquista, Fall of Granada (English translation of Shaheen), published in 1987 | 8 |
| Sau Saal Baad | 100 Years Later | سو سال بعد | Novel, humor | | 3 |
| Sufaid Jazeera | The White Island | سفید جزیرہ | Novel, humor | | 3 |

## Selected adaptations

* Shaheen

## Awards and recognition

* Pride of Performance Award by the President of Pakistan in 1992.