Intikhab: Ibn-e-Saeed

This book is a selection from Ibn e Saeed’s work covering the entire span of his creative output. With the recent posthumous publication of two undiscovered writings (Mehwar and Roshniyoun Ka Shehar), Ibn e Saeed is emerging as a writer to be reckoned with in the realm of Urdu literature. A well-known journalist, he also published more than 40 short stories through a long career but for somehow did not put together any collection of his work. A literary friend of Qurratulain Hyder, he shied away from any publicity. This has resulted in almost total neglect of this unusual writer. Because of his service with the British Indian Army, he was one of the first foreigners to travel to Hiroshima soon after the devastating impact of the World War and to witness the surrender of the Japanese forces in Singapore, experiences which provided material for his fiction. The editor of this selection, Asif Farrukhi, has researched Saeed’s life and works to contribute a major essay on this remarkable but neglected writer.