ColumbusCoffman: expand section also and added references for consistency

2026-03-07T21:50:42Z

expand section also and added references for consistency

>Charan Gill: /* Biography */

2021-04-11T01:50:59Z

Biography

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{{short description|Pakistani novelist and poet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Use Pakistani English|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ahmed Ali
| birth_date = 1 July 1910
| birth_place = Delhi, British India<ref name=britannica/>
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1994|1|14|1910|7|1}}
| death_place = [[Karachi]], Pakistan<ref name=britannica/>
| occupation = Writer
| known for = one of the founders of [[Progressive Writers' Movement|All-India Progressive Writers Movement]]<ref name=paknetmag/>
}}
'''Ahmed Ali ''' (1 July 1910 in Delhi – 14 January 1994 in [[Karachi]]) ({{lang-ur| احمد علی }}) was a [[Pakistani]] novelist, poet, critic, translator, diplomat and [[scholarly method|scholar]]. A pioneer of the modem Urdu short story, his works include the short story collections: ''[[Angarey]]'' (Embers), 1932; ''Hamari Gali'' (Our Lane), 1940; ''Qaid Khana'' (The Prison-house), 1942; and ''Maut Se Pehle'' (Before Death), 1945.<ref name=paknetmag/> His other writings include ''[[Twilight in Delhi]]'' (1940), his first novel in the English language.<ref name=britannica>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ahmed-Ali#ref845471 Profile of Ahmed Ali (writer) on Encyclopædia Britannica] Retrieved 31 August 2019</ref>

==Biography==
Born in Delhi, [[British India]], Ahmed Ali was educated at [[Aligarh Muslim University]] and [[Lucknow University]]; in the latter "having achieved the highest marks in English in the history of the university."<ref>Dr. T. Jeevan Kumar, "Ahmed Ali: A Progressive Writer" in ''The English Literature Journal'', Vol. 1, No. 2 (2014):57</ref> From 1932 to 1946, he taught at the leading Indian universities including [[Allahabad University]] and his alma mater in [[Lucknow]]. He also joined the Bengal Senior Educational Service as professor and head of the English Department at [[Presidency College, Calcutta]] (1944–47) and was the [[BBC]]'s Representative and Director in India during [[World War II]], from 1942 to 1945.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=WjPofDcwmtsC&pg=PT274&lpg=PT274&dq=new+writing+orwell&source=bl&ots=9wKlyc7jR3&sig=mNTQQTNZmoIVoaXKKUra3g1nrJs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tCi4Uo-vOpSZ0QXY9YAI&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAzgK#v=snippet&q=ahmed&f=false ''Orwell and Politics''. Penguin UK, 2001 on Google Books] Retrieved 23 April 2018</ref> Following that, he was the [[British Council]] Visiting Professor to [[Nanjing University]], as appointed by the British government of India. In 1948, when he tried to return home after the [[Partition of India|Partition]], [[K. P. S. Menon]] (then India's ambassador to China) would not allow it because Ali had not indicated his preferences as a government employee; that is, whether to remain in India or transfer to Pakistan. As a result, he was forced to go to Pakistan.<ref name=twilight/>

In 1948, he moved to [[Karachi]].<ref>{{cite book|title=City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi|author=William Dalrymple|isbn=000215725X|publisher=HarperCollins|year=1993|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SBxuAAAAMAAJ}}{{page needed|date=June 2012}}</ref> Later, he was appointed Director of Foreign Publicity for the Pakistani Government. At the behest of Prime Minister [[Liaquat Ali Khan]], he joined the [[Pakistan Foreign Service]] in 1950. According to custom, files were drawn to determine the country of assignment. Ali's tile was blank, so he chose China and became Pakistan's first envoy to the new [[History of the People's Republic of China|People's Republic]]. He established formal diplomatic relations that same year.<ref name=paknetmag/> He also helped to establish an embassy in Morocco.

==Literary career==
Ahmed Ali started his literary career at a young age and became a co-founder of the [[Progressive Writers' Movement|All-India Progressive Writers' Movement]] along with the writer [[Sajjad Zaheer]] who had become well known by the publication of ''Angaaray'' (Embers) in 1932. It was a collection of short stories in the Urdu language and was a bitter critique of middle-class Muslim values in British India.<ref name=britannica/><ref>{{cite web|title=Angaaray by Sajjad Zaheer|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20934507-angaray?ac=1&from_search=true |website=goodreads.com website|access-date=31 August 2019}}</ref> In addition to Ali, it included stories by three of his friends; Mahmud al-Zafar, [[Sajjad Zaheer]] and [[Rashid Jahan]]. This book was later banned by the British Government of India in March 1933.<ref name=twilight>Introduction by the author, Ahmed Ali, ''Twilight in Delhi'', Rupa Publishing Co., Delhi, 1993</ref> Shortly afterward, Ali and Zafar announced the formation of a "League of Progressive Authors", which was later to expand and become the All-India [[Progressive Writers' Association]].<ref>The Leader of Allahabad, 5 April 1933</ref> Ali presented his paper "Art Ka Taraqqi-Pasand Nazariya" (A Progressive View of Art) in its inaugural conference in 1936.

Ali achieved international fame with his first novel written in English ''[[Twilight in Delhi]]'', which was published by the [[Hogarth Press]] in London in 1940.<ref>''Twilight in Delhi'', The Hogarth Press, 1940; Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1966; OUP, Karachi, 1984; Sterling Paperbacks, Delhi, 1973; New Directions, New York, 1994; [[Rupa Publications]], Delhi, 2007; Urdu translation, Akrash Press, Karachi, 1963, Jamia Millia, Delhi, 1969; (French) French translation, Editions Gallimard, Paris, 1989; Spanish translation, Ediciones Martinez Roca, 1991.</ref> This novel, as its title implies, describes the decline of the Muslim aristocracy with the advance of the British colonialism in the early 20th century.<ref name=britannica/>

''Al-Quran, A Contemporary Translation'' ([[Princeton University Press]], [[Oxford University Press]] & Akrash Publishing) is his most notable contribution in the field of translation. According to the book's description it is "approved by eminent Islamic scholars", and "it has come to be recognized as one of the best existing translations of the holy Quran."<ref name=paknetmag/> Other languages he translated from, apart from Arabic and [[Urdu]], included [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] and Chinese.<ref>[[Alamgir Hashmi]], "Ahmed Ali and the Transition to a Postcolonial Mode in the Pakistani Novel in English" in ''Journal of South Asian Literature'', Vol. 33/34, No. 1/2 (1998/1999), p. 256</ref>

==Awards and recognition==
* Elected a Founding Fellow of the [[Pakistan Academy of Letters]] in 1979.<ref name=paknetmag/>
* [[Sitara-i-Imtiaz]] (Star of Excellence) Award in 1980 by the [[President of Pakistan]]<ref name=paknetmag/>
* Conferred an honourary doctorate degree in 1993 by the University of Karachi.
* On 14 January 2005, [[Pakistan Post]] issued a commemorative postage stamp in his honor in its 'Men of Letters' series.<ref name=paknetmag>[https://paknetmag.blogspot.com/search?q=Ahmed+Ali+ Profile of Professor Ahmed Ali on paknetmag.com website]. Retrieved 31 August 2019</ref>

==Works==
{{div col}}

===Novels===
*''[[Twilight in Delhi]]'' (1940)
*''Ocean of Night'' (1964)
*''Rats and Diplomats'' (1986)

===Plays===
*''The Land of Twilight'' (1931)
*''Break the Chains'' (1932)

===Short stories===
*"When the Funeral Was Crossing the Bridge," in ''Lucknow University Journal'', 1929.
*"Mahavaton Ki Ek Rât," in ''Humayûn'' (Lahore), January 1931.
*''[[Angarey]]'' (1932). With [[Rashid Jahan]], Mahmuduzzafar and [[Sajjad Zaheer]].
*''Sholey'' (1934)
*"Our Lane," in ''New Writing'' (London), 1936.
*''Hamari Gali'' (1940)
*"Morning in Delhi," in ''New Writing'' (London), 1940.
*''Qaid-khana'' (1942)
*''Maut se Pahle'' (1945)
*"Before Death," in ''New Directions'' 15 (New York), 1956.
*''Prima della Morte'' (1966). Bilingual Italian-Urdu version of ''Maut se Pahle''.
*''The Prison-House'' (1985)

===Poetry===
*''Purple Gold Mountain'' (1960)
*''First Voices'' (1965)
*''Selected Poems'' (1988)

===Literary criticism===
*"Poetry: A Problem,” in ''Allahabad University Studies'', vol. XI, no. II, 1934.
*''Art ka Taraqqî-Pasand Nazariya'' (1936)
*“[[Maxim Gorky]] as a Short-Story Writer," in ''Lucknow University Journal'', 1938.
*''Mr. [[T.S. Eliot|Eliot]]’s Penny-World of Dreams'' (1941)
*''Failure of an Intellect'' (1968)
*"Illusion and Reality, the Art and Philosophy of [[Raja Rao]]," in ''Journal of Commonwealth Literature'', July 1968.
*''The Problem of Style and Technique in Ghalib'' (1969)
*''Ghalib: Two Essays'' (1969). With Alessandro Bausani.
*''The Golden Tradition: An Anthology of Urdu Poetry'' (1973)

===Translation===
*''The Flaming Earth'' (1949). An anthology of selected [[Indonesian literature|Indonesian poems]].
*''The Falcon and the Hunted Bird'' (1950)
*''The Bulbul and the Rose: An Anthology of Urdu Poetry'' (1960)
*''Ghalib: Selected Poems'' (1969)
*''al-Qur’ân: A Contemporary Translation'' (1984)
*''The Call of the Trumpet'' (unpublished). An anthology of [[modern Chinese poetry]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://tanzil.net/#trans/en.ahmedali/1 Online Quran] includes the [[Qur'an]] translation by Ahmed Ali.
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=La5vf709vCgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=ahmed+ali&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwipjaCZyq3kAhVHnq0KHfu6DkkQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=ahmed%20ali&f=false Twilight in Delhi – a novel by Ahmed Ali on GoogleBooks website]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Ahmed}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:Pakistani writers]]
[[Category:Pakistani novelists]]
[[Category:Pakistani scholars]]
[[Category:Pakistani educators]]
[[Category:English-language writers from Pakistan]]
[[Category:University of Allahabad faculty]]
[[Category:Translators of the Quran into English]]
[[Category:Writers from Delhi]]
[[Category:University of Lucknow alumni]]
[[Category:Aligarh Muslim University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta faculty]]
[[Category:Islamic fiction writers]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of Pakistan to China]]
[[Category:Muhajir people]]
[[Category:Writers from Karachi]]
[[Category:Recipients of Sitara-i-Imtiaz]]
[[Category:20th-century translators]]

Ahmed Ali (writer) - Revision history

ColumbusCoffman: expand section also and added references for consistency

>Charan Gill: /* Biography */