The One Thousand and Second Night: An Anthology of Classic Urdu Short Stories

This short anthology contains a selection of short stories originally written in Urdu in the Indo-Pak sub-continent, translated into English by Khalid Sayyed. These stories are taken from some of the best-known names of Urdu literature, including Munshi Prem Chand, S'aadat Hasan Manto, Krishen Chandra, Ghulam Abbas, Rajindra Singh Bedi, Asmat Chughtai, Intezaar Hussain, Qurrat al Ain Haider and Ahmed Nadeem Qasemi. Each writer is unique in his or her style, but all of them are bound by a common history, since they were all born in British India in the early part of the 20th century, and witnessed the events of the 1947 Partition that saw the creation of two independent states, India and Pakistan.

For many of these writers, the events and politics surrounding Partition provided the impetus for stories that condemned political corruption and exploitation. Others have written tales about ordinary men and women and the challenges they faced in traditional rural life. At any rate, every story in this collection appeals universally to the heart and our sense of wonder and awe about human nature.

Each story is also annotated in order to explain cultural concepts or Urdu words that are not directly translated in the text. This allows for the retention of some Urdu terms in order to be faithful to the cultural setting of the stories, without alienating readers who are not familiar with such terms.

The title of this collection is inspired by the renowned A Thousand and One Arabian Nights since, like the tales in this collection, it also contains a wide variety of stories tied together in one place.

Translated and annotated by Khalid Sayyed. With sketches by Afsana Z Sayyed.