Belles-Lettres

Abstract Hijab Imtiaz Ali Taj’s Adab-E-Zareen, translated by Akhtar as The Belles-Lettres of Hijab Imitaz is an innovative mystical poetic work replete with symbology, philosophy, and metaphor, is translated from the Urdu for the first time in book form by celebrated Pakistani English language poet and fiction writer Sascha A. Akhtar. Written in 1936 by this pioneering feminist writer, who was also the first Muslim female pilot of the Subcontinent, the work takes Urdu literature generally and Urdu feminist literature to new levels. With this book, Hijab Imtiaz Ali Taj’s work receives a richer perspective, placing her beyond the limits of ‘romanticism’, as in Belles-Lettres, she eschews traditional forms of storytelling of the time and embraces the fragment and poetic prose. Primary source material has also been translated and presented for the first time. The state of the Urdu language at the time of writing is also examined. Akhtar contextualizes the writing in Belles-Lettres within the realm of Sufi philosophy, early Western Modernism. The biographical part of the essay even provides early history of the city of Hyderabad, in order for the reader to fully contextualize the life and work of Hijab Imtiaz. The significance of this book is made clear from an informative foreword by distinguished translator and academic Haider Shahbaz. The volume allows new audiences and new generations to connect with a lost, fragmented literary past and use it for new scholarship. In this way, it makes a significant contribution to knowledge about the literature of Pakistan and India.