Word: amir
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...known as the dastan, which includes popular stories generated, modified and passed down by village elders and royal poets alike. Dastan fables were subject to endless revision, shimmering and shifting depending on who was telling them and who was listening. When a few unnamed storytellers recited their dastan of Amir Hamza to an Indian publisher in 1883, the transcription yielded 46 volumes, each some 1,500 pages in length...
...Though their roots are in Persia and Arabia, the stories of Amir Hamza blossomed most fully on the Indian subcontinent - a crossroads of religions, languages and narrative styles. "When it entered India, the sky was clearly the limit," says Muhammad Memon, professor of literature and Islamic studies at the University of Wisconsin. The richness of India's modes of cultural expression - particularly its blending of Sufi Islam and the mythological repertoire of the older strains of Hinduism - prompted opulent embellishments of the epic, deepening its playful world of myriad magical creatures and warlords riding rhinoceroses...
...this aspect of Adventures, rather than any religious element, that has ensured its longevity. Though Amir Hamza is cast as a slayer of infidels and a servant of the "true faith," the work is far from being a collection of Islamic parables. Amir Hamza in fact campaigns in the service of an infidel - Naushervan, the fire-worshipping Persian Emperor. A Merlin-like sage, Buzurjmehr, sends Amir Hamza on quests and expeditions that are sometimes far from chivalrous. And while our hero's love for Naushervan's half-Chinese daughter, Mehr-Nigar, is enduring, the story is punctuated by his frequent...
...display in prominent museums in London and New York City, the pictures provide a glimpse into the life of the Prophet's daring uncle. Their elaborate detailing and subject matter also offer a visual clue as to why he isn't better remembered. Historically, says Memon, Amir Hamza's stories were narrated in episodes "as performance - it was not just a book you can pick up and read alone." Indeed, recitals often took place in front of paintings like those of the Hamzanama. But with the advent of modern printing presses, the complexity and poetical phrasing of the dastan...
...modern world." Non-Urdu-speaking readers can at last appreciate an epic "on par with anything in the Western canon." And, with luck, the classical pantheon populated by indomitable Achilles, cunning Odysseus and righteous King Arthur will now be joined by a new beloved hero: mercurial, mighty Amir Hamza, astride his winged-demon steed, soaring to the heavens...