Aslam Farrukhi () (23 October 1923 – 15 June 2016) was an

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, scholar, and radio scriptwriter from Pakistan. He is also known for writing children's books. He remained associated as a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

and chairman with the Department of Urdu,

University of Karachi The University of Karachi (; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (which is ...

, for many years.

Early life

Aslam Farrukhi was born on 23 October 1923 into a literary family of

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. His ancestors had come to Lucknow from the nearby town

Farrukhabad Farrukhabad is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Farrukhabad tehsil. This city is on the banks of river Ganges is from the national capital Delhi and from the state capital Lucknow. His ...

, hence the family name being used here is Farrukhi. After the

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

in 1947, he migrated with his family to

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

, Pakistan in September 1947. He completed his education from the then Federal Urdu College, now known as Federal Urdu University and the

. His

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree thesis was on the 19th century writer Muhammad Husain Azad which won the Adamjee Literary Award in 1965.

Career

He started out his career at

Radio Pakistan The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (); also known as ''Radio Pakistan'', serves as the national public broadcaster for radio in Pakistan. Although some local stations predate its founding, it is the oldest existing broadcasting network in P ...

as a scriptwriter for radio plays. Later Aslam Farrukhi taught at Sindh Muslim College, now known as Sindh Madressatul Islam University and at

Karachi University The University of Karachi (; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (which is ...

, where he also served as registrar. His son is scholar Asif Farrukhi who also was a co-founder of

Karachi Literature Festival Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) is an annual international literary festival held in Karachi, Pakistan. It is the first festival of its kind in Pakistan. It is one of the world's youngest and fastest growing literary festivals. Till 2019, ten ...

. He was associated as

and retired as chairman with the Department of Urdu,

, for many years, and with

for more than six years. He was among the country's few writers of children's literature.

Awards and recognition

Pride of Performance The Pride of Performance (), officially known as the Presidential Pride of Performance, is an award bestowed by the Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Pakistan to recognize people with "notable achievements in the field of art, science, literature, sp ...

Award by the

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

in 2009.Karachiites observe Pakistan Day in festive mood amid peace (scroll down to read award info for Aslam Farrukhi)
Dawn (newspaper), Published 24 March 2009, Retrieved 4 June 2020 * Adamjee Literary Award in 1965

Death

Aslam Farrukhi died on 15 June 2016, in Gulshan e Iqbal, Karachi and was buried in Karachi University Graveyard on 16 June 2016, after Zohar Prayer. Among the survivors are his wife and two sons.

Bibliography

* ''Muhammad Hussain Azad: Hayat-o-Tasaneef'' - Life and Writings of the 19th century author Muhammad Husain Azad * ''Guldasta-e-Ahbab'' * ''Aangann main Sitaray'' * ''Farid-o-Fard-i-Fareed'' - a book on the life of 13th century

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

Baba

Fariduddin Ganjshakar Farīduddīn Masūd Ganjshakar ( – 16 Oct 1265), commonly known as Bābā Farīd or Sheikh Farīd (also in Anglicised spelling Fareed, Fareed ud-Deen, Masood, etc.), was a 13th-century Punjabi Muslim mystic, poet and preacher. Revered by ...

* ''Dabistan-e-Nizam'' (Publisher:Pakistan Writers Cooperative Society) * ''Bachon Ke Sultanjee'' - a book on the works of 13th century

Khwaja

Nizamuddin Auliya Khawaja Syed Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya (sometimes spelled Awliya; 1238 – 3 April 1325), also known as Hazrat Nizamuddin (), Sultan-ul-Mashaikh () and Mahbub-e-Ilahi (), was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar, Sufi saint of the Chishti Order, a ...

who were also lovingly nicknamed 'Sultanjee' * ''Bachon ke Ranga Rung Amir Khusraw'' * ''Urdu Ki Pehli Kitab'' for children * ''Mausam-i-Bahar Jaisay Log'' * ''Saat Asman'' * ''Lal, Sabz Kabootar'' * ''Raunaq-i-Bazm-i-Jahan''

References

External links

Aslam Farrukhi honoured - Daily Dawn

Aslam Farrukhi Rare Picture

Urdu Bandhan {{DEFAULTSORT:Farrukhi, Aslam 1923 births 2016 deaths Writers from Lucknow Muhajir people Urdu-language poets from Pakistan Pakistani children's writers Pakistani literary critics Linguists from Pakistan Linguists of Urdu Pakistani scholars Pakistani educators Recipients of the Pride of Performance Academic staff of the University of Karachi Writers from Karachi Urdu-language children's writers 20th-century Pakistani poets Academics from Karachi Urdu-language writers from Pakistan