Mirza Qaleech Beg (4^th October, 1853-3^rd July, 1929)

Muhammad Habib Sanai

This year, on October 4th, Sindh is going to celebrate the 171st birth anniversary of Mirza Qaleech Beg, the doyen of Sindhi literature. Sindhi has the oldest tradition of writing poetry, and for more than five hundred years, it has been used for lyrical composition. From the sixteenth century, some religious scholars tried to compose books on religious matters by using rhymed prose, which later scholars called Sindhiyoon.

In the British era (1843-1947), after introducing the present Arabo-Persian or Naskh script in 1853, the government announced prizes, etc. for writing books in Sindhi, therefore, Sindhi prose received a great impetus. In the initial phase, Sindhi prose consisted mostly of school books, however, in the second phase, numerous writers appeared on the horizon of Sindhi literature, who enriched Sindhi prose by their translation, adaption, and writing of original works of fiction and non-fiction.

Amongst these earlier writers, the most prominent and iconoclast is Mirza Qaleech Beg, whose works number nearly 457. In the words of Professor Annemarie Schimmel, “we cannot but admire his tremendous undertaking to bring together the literary treasures from East and West in his mother tongue.”

As narrated by him in his autobiography Saao Pan an Karo Panoo (Green leaf and Black Paper), his father Fareedoon Beg was not Sindhi speaking by birth, but was born in Tiflis (Tbilisi) of Georgia. In a battle held during year 1797, along with other fellow Georgians, he lost his parents and was captured by Persian forces and brought in Persia, where he lived for few years first in Tabriz and then in Isfahan.

However, he was gifted to Talpur rulers of Sindh and came here at the age of ten. He was Christian but became Muslim in Sindh. There was already another fellow Georgian Khusro Beg, who had come here few years ago in 1805 and was adopted as a son by the then Talpur ruler Mir Karam Ali Khan. Later on Khusro Beg became father-in-law of Fareedoon Beg. According to Mirza Qaleech beg, both were literary persons and used to write poetry and prose in Persian, which was the literary and court language of Mirs.

When Talpur Mirs were dethroned in 1843 by the British, Mirza Qaleech’s maternal grandfather was also imprisoned. He was also to be taken to Calcutta along with other Mirs, but on Mirs’ request, he was made responsible for looking after the families of Mirs.

Soon they were displaced from Pakka Fort, therefore, they settled at Tando Saindad near Hyderabad. In the war and also during displacement, they lost their valuables, etc., and were facing several hardships. Suddenly their katcha (made with sun-baked bricks and mud) homes were engulfed by fire, which raged for three days. In this fire, their remaining valuables were burnt to ashes. After this mishap, they shifted to Tando Meer Mahmood, near Phuleli canal. But once again they had to relocate to Tando Thoro, which is still home town of Mirza family.  

Mirza was born in Tando Thoro on 4^th October, 1853. He and his elder brothers attended maktab of Akhund Shafi Muhammad for basic education. Later his brothers were admitted in English government school. After some time he started to attend Sindhi School in Hyderabad, which was three to four km away from their abode. He writes in his autobiography that early in the morning after having breakfast and a meal for lunch, they first went to the Autaaq (Meeting place for Males) of Akhund Wali Mohammad and studied there for a few hours, then around ten, they went to school. During lunch, sometimes, they purchased curries from nearby shops, Koftas from Rochee Koftaee, and Lentils from Chatoo. They used to return home in the evening.

During his School days, he also developed an interest in music and playing instruments such as Sarando and Sittar. He used to recite Marsia in Muharram Majlis.

Mirza Qaleech writes that instead of playing games, he was more inclined toward reading and writing. He started to compose poetry at the age of 7 or 8 years. Which he used to recite before his maternal grandfather.

While he was making preparations to appear in the Matriculation examination, he was made Persian Teacher in place of his brother who has joined new service in another city. He wanted to do Matriculation with major of Arabic, but at that time, the Government announced a prize of sixty rupees for those who will do matric with Sindhi. So he chose Sindhi and won the prize.

Before matriculation, his father died due to dysentery. For meeting the expenses incurred on his treatment, his family had to sell a golden watch owned by his father in Rs. 300.

In Bombay, he was admitted in Elphinstone College, where Prof Mirza Hairat, Mr. Wadia and Mr. Baba become his mentors. Mr. Wadia taught him English prosody, whereas Prof. Mirza Hairat not only taught him Persian prosody, Turkish Language, but guided him in realm of literature through daily discourses. He also learnt Sanskrit on his own.

During BA, his mother died, but he was not informed. He knew about her death only when he came on vacation at home. This incident devastated him. When he returned back to Bombay, he could not sustain interest in his studies. He failed in the examination of BA. This was shocking for his fellow students and teachers. This episode also increased his depression and trauma. Soon he become very ill and came back to Sindh as advised by Doctors.

After recuperating, he returned back to Bombay, but once again become unwell, therefore, he failed in second attempt for BA. He wrote about these destitutions in English poems, which are include his English poetry anthology entitled “Leisure hours”. This book has recently been republished by Mirza Qaleech Beg Chair of University of Sindh, Jamshoro.

After coming back from Bombay, he lived in Karachi for two years with his brother. At that time, his main passion was reading and writing mostly poetry in English and Persian. He used to borrow books from Frere Library and General Library near High School, Garhi Khata. Mr. Murray was librarian of Frere Library and Mr. Diyaram Gidumal was librarian of the General Library, who was later replaced by Mr. Motiram Shoqiram. Diyaram and Shoqiram were most influential writers and reformers of Sindh. His English poetry was published in the English newspaper “Sindh News” and in Persian in the newspaper entitled Mafrah Quloob. The Editor of English paper was Mr. Jeffrey, who was an expert in his field but was a habitual drunkard. Mirza Qaleech has written that he become his family friend. When Mr. Jeffrey got drunk, he discontinued working on paper, so on the insistence of his family members, he used to pen leading articles and also other write-ups for Sindh News. Mr. Jeffrey died during a drinking bout.

In Karachi he also developed friendships with Diyaram Gidumal and Hassan Ali Effendi. Diyaram was establishing a college, where he offered him the post of Persian Professor, but he refused because he was interested in joining the Revenue Service. He also helped Hasan Ali Effendi in establishing Sindh Madressa.

Soon he joined the Revenue Department as a trainee Head Munshi and was posted at Taluka Kakar, Mehar Division (which is now sub Division of Dadu District). After a few months, he was posted as Mukhtiarkar (Tehsilsadar) at Tharrhi Muhbat of Mehar Divison. After serving for 30 years, he retired as Deputy Collector at the age of 55.

Love for Writing

As he narrates in his autobiography, from reading books he developed a passion for writing books. He started writing books during School days. During the service, he used to write after finishing official work. He says that he used to write three books at a time, one in the early morning, one in the afternoon, and one at night. He got tired after two hours of writing. After retirement, he devoted most of his time to writing.   

This encyclopedic author wrote on almost every topic. According to Dr. Ghulam Ali Allana “he is the first Sindhi writer who introduced Novels, Dramas, and Essays in Sindhi Literature.”

He translated, and adapted hundreds of books of fiction and non-fiction from English, Persian, Urdu to Sindhi. Prominent among them are novels by Christopher von Schmidt (Basket of Flowers), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Benjamin Disraeli’s Henrietta Temple, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver and Daniel Dafoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Dramas of Shakespeare (Two gentlemen of Verona, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and As you Like it) and Lord Lytton’s Night and Morning, in Non-function, Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery, Roger Bacon’s essays, S. Smile’s Self Help, James Allen’s As a Man thinketh etc.

He also translated few Persian books such as Chachnama and Al-Ghazali’s Keemiyae Saadaat as Alchemy of Happiness in English.

His original works in Sindhi include numerous novels, dramas, educational books and books on history of Sindh and Sindhi Language, Dictionaries etc. His novel Zeenat is counted as first original Sindhi novel, which is also renowned for its advocacy for Muslim female education. It has been translated into English by Zunera Yousif.

In English he also wrote History of Sindh in two volumes, and two volumes of English poetry and also some other books.

With the support of his family members, Sindh University has established Mirza Qaleech Beg Chair, which has republished his numerous works in Sindhi and English.

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Library of Mirza Sahib

 

On 15 June, 1955, Pir Hussamuddin Rashidi along with Muhammad Ibrahim Joyo visited the house of Mirza Qaleech Beg at Tando Thoro, Hyderabad. Both were taken around Mirza Sahib's library. Rashidi sahib has written an article about this visit, which is included in his book Galhyoon Goth Wanan jooon (Tales of Hamlets). At that time, books and manuscripts were housed in 8 to nine cupboards. He regretted that a lot of precious material had been damaged. He thought that there should have been rare manuscripts and books about the history of Sindh etc., but either these have been damaged or stolen. Rashidi wrote that there were four photo albums, numerous files of newspaper cutting, articles, and other materials. There were 20 to 30 notebooks, which contained very precious information about Sindh and also the personal diaries of Mirza Qaleech, who started writing diaries in 1860. Rashidi opines that these diaries would be valuable sources for writing the history of that period.

Rashidi sahib informed that there were 150 unpublished books, some of which were published by the Sindhi Adabi Board later on. Rashidi sahib has briefly introduced some important unpublished books, such as a collection of English essays, a Collection of Persian, Arabic, and English poems and prose under the title of Abkarul Afkaar, a book of memoirs, Gurji Nama, etc.

Under the able stewardship of Dr. Nawab Kaka, Mirza Qaleech Beg chair of the University of Sindhi is publishing books of Mirza.