Sunday 22 / December / 2024
Muscat: Literati and Urdu lovers in Muscat have paid rich tributes to eminent Urdu literary figure Malikzada Manzoor Ahmad, who passed away in Lucknow in India on April 22.
He was known to his admirers as the “king of mushaira anchoring” (Mushaire ki Nezamat ka Badshah).
He had visited Oman twice in recent years on the invitation of the Urdu Wing of the Indian Social Club, and was quite popular in the local Urdu literary circle.
“It is a great loss to Urdu literature and mushaira lovers all over the world. The first mushaira that I attended in my home town of Darbhanga as a young boy of 10 was anchored by this great personality. Appreciation from him was a great motivating factor that encouraged me to write Urdu poetry,” Mohammad Tufail Ahmad, an active member of the Muscat Poetry Society, who works as a project manager with Royal Court Affairs, said.
“The demise of Malikzada Manzoor has ended a golden era,which was ruled by legendary Urdu poets and writers such as Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Kunwar Mahindra Singh and Kaifi Azmi among others. His death is a great loss to Urdu literature. I will express my sentiments by saying....Chal diye tum bhi likhkar payare se ashaar...Gunjenge ye tarane har simt baar baar...,” Mustafa Darwesh, a local poet who works as AGM, International Group of Companies, said.
“Malikzada was a true asset to Urdu literature. As a scholar, novelist, teacher and poet, his contribution has added honour to Urdu literature and language,” Gauhar Naqvi, planner at the Ghubrah Power & Desalination Company, said.
Personal loss
Mohammad Osama Rawat, general manager of Oriental Pharmacy, said, “The death of Dr Malikzada is personal loss to me. Some of his early literary works were compiled at my home in the company of my father, who was his childhood friend. Apart from his love for Urdu literature, I admired his honesty, simplicity, human values and love for the underprivileged in our society.”
Malikzada, who died at 94, was a poet, critic, and composer, in addition to being an anchor,and educationist.
He anchored his first All India DCM Mushaira organised at Red Fort in Delhi when he was still pursuing his bachelor’s degree. His books include College Girl, 1954 (Novel), Urdu ka Mas’laa, and 1957 (Monograph), in addition to Shahr-e-Sukhan, 1961 (Poetry), Abul Kalam Azad: Fikr-o-Fan, and 1964.
His other works are Abul Kalam Azad Al-Hilal ke Aaine Mein, Ghubaar-e-Khaatir ka Tanqeedi Mut’aalaa, Shahr-e-Sitam (Poetry), and Raqs-e-Sharar, apart from 2004 (autobiography), and Intikhaab Ghazaliyaat Nazeer Akbarabadi.
Some scholars have also been awarded doctorates on their research on the works of Dr Malikzada.
He recited poems at mushairas (Urdu poetry sessions) and kavi-sammelans (Hindi poetry sessions) in countries including the United States of America, Canada, the UAE, and Bahrain, in addition to Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Iran.He also recited poems in Nepal and Pakistan.
He was also the editor of Imkan, a monthly Urdu literary journal from Lucknow, and was the presidentof the All India Urdu Rabita Committee.
