Karbal Katha and Its Amazing Discovery

Dr.Mazhar Naqvi

Hazrat Zainab, the messenger of Karbala had predicted that no power on earth could erase the memory of Imam Husain’s martyrdom for the sake of humanity. And whenever the oppressive forces would try to suppress the Karbala revolution, the philosophy of Imam Husain would shake the conscience of the whole world more vigorously to frustrate the sinister designs of anti-Ahlebait elements.’ The disappearance and reappearance of Karbal Katha’, the first written prose of Urdu exemplifies how correct is the prophecy of Hazrat Zainab. Karbal Katha or Deb Majlis by Syed Fazl-Ali Fazli was first written in 1732, during the reign of Muhammad Shah and Ahmad Shah, and was revised in 1748. This manuscript, written in beautiful Nasta’liq, narrates the events of martyrdom of the family members of Imam Husain at Karbala. It is one of the earliest examples of Urdu prose and has great importance from the linguistic point of view.

It was an abridged adaptation from Persian ‘Rozat-ush-shuhada’ of Vaiz Kashfi ( Died in 1504).In fact, Rawzat al Shuhada was written within a few years of the Safavid dynasty’s coming to power. It quickly earned tremendous popularity among Iranian mourning rituals as Kashfi had used many quotations from Persian poetry. The book exerted so much influence on the development of majlis that it became a standard vehicle for conveying the tragic events of Karbala for two centuries.  Passages from it were recited, becoming known as rawza klnvani [recitation from the Rawza], and so common was the practice that the.majlis reciter was simply called a rawza khwan [reciter of the Rawza]. Even royal ladies of Mughal harem used to recite Kashfi’s work at red fort during Muharram.

An idea about why Fazl Ali authored Karbal Katha can be formed from his own words “This humble, inadequate servant as per request from the mentor used to recite the Rauzat-ush Shuhada, but the ladies and the women in the assembly could not understand the meaning. And the emotionally stirring and moving parts from that remarkable book could not bring tears to their eyes because of the difficulty of Persian vocabulary. It occurred to this humble one that if the above-mentioned book is translated in a colorful idiom with Hindi metaphors, it would be easily understood”. Karbal Katha also became popular among Azadars and holding Majlises without its recitation was considered beyond imagination. It gave fillip to Zakiri(Oration) and made it an integral part of a majlis. When Mughal power waned, the manuscript of Karbal Katha  was considered lost. It remained untraceable for over a century and when the entire world viewed it as lost forever Professor Mukhtar Uddin Ahmad of Aligarh Muslim University traced it in the Tubingen University Library in Germany. The discovery of manuscript proved once again that anything associated with Karbala can’t be erased whether it is terrorists attacks on Azadars or a piece of mourning literature.   

Professor Mukhtar was born on 14th November 1924 in Patna, Bihar in a religious family of Maulana Zafaruddn Qadri Rizvi . He completed his primary education from Jamia Islamia Shamsul-Huda, Patna. He successfully completed the course of Maulvi and Alimiat from Madarsa examination board and secured distinction in Fazilat examination. He completed his matriculation from University of Patna in 1943 and joined Aligarh Muslim University for higher education. He completed M.A. in Arabic in 1949 and joined Ph.D. under the guidance of Maulana Abdul Aziz Memon, a word renowned Arabic scholar, Professor and Chairman Department of Arabic, AMU Aligarh and disciple of Deputy Nazir Ahmad. He became renowned after Editing the famous Ghalib Number of Aligarh Magazine. After completing his Ph.D. he joined Department of Arabic as Lecturer in 1953. In the same year he received Rock Fuller Fellowship for research in Middle-East and England. He traveled to Germany, France, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq for educational purposes. He also stayed in Holland for couple of months and worked in Leiden University Library. He wrote the thesis under the guidance of Prof. Hamilton A.R. Gibb in Oxford University to receive his D.Phil.

However, his most remarkable contribution to Urdu was the discovery of the rare manuscript of 'Karbal Katha'. Professor not only undertook painstaking search but also ensured its subsequent publication in collaboration with his close friend, the late Malik Ram. The duo edited and also added an explanatory 40-page introduction about the origins and significance of this classic work. Before his departure for Oxford, he paid a courtesy visit to Qazi Abdul Wadood who urged him  to look for the manuscript of Fazli’s book by the name of Karbal Katha. Qazi told him that Dr. Sprenger, who was Principal of Delhi College, had taken back with him the manuscript of the rare book when he left Calcutta to return to Germany about a century ago. Dr. Alois Sprenger was born on 3 September 1813 in Nassereith, a small village near Innsbruck in the province of Tirol. Sprenger completed his early education in his own village. Then, he joined Innsbruck college at the age of 14.Later on, he joined Vienna University. Dr. Sprenger had  arrived in Calcutta in early 1843. Calcutta was then the centre of the British power and was surrounded by many cantonments. He met some men of authority who were quick to recognize the great scholar in him. They recommended the educational authorities to make proper use of his scholarship. Just then Felix Boutros, the French principal of Delhi College, proceeded to England on medical leave and Sprenger was appointed in his place. After a successful stint with Delhi College, he too returned to Germany in 1856 and  prepared a catalogue of the manuscripts and got it published in 1857.Moved by the words of Qazi upon coming to know about the importance of Karbal Katha in shaping the current form of Zakiri, Professor devoted his full energy to locate the lost manuscript .His efforts yielded him the desired result when he traced the manuscript in a library of a small German University town of Tubingen by sifting through thousands of manuscripts one by one. ( References available on request)