[Reader-list] Firangis and Hebrew in the Dastan-e-Amir Hamza

[mahmood farooqui]

FIRANGIS AND ENGLISHMEN IN DASTAN-E-AMIR HAMZA


While Dastangos are not very scrupulous about a
realistic depiction of geographical origin yet the
very nature of the adventure, in which travels to
distant and far off lands are a sine qua non,
necessitates a depiction of linguistic and ethnic
diversity. Dastangos take us to distant and widespread
places, from Greece to China, Egypt and Byzantine to
Hindustan and Sri Lanka. 

Different people speak different dialects apart from
the benevolent fiery creatures like Djinns or Paris
who have their own language. Amir Hamza’s horse Ashqar
Devzad is the offspring of a djinn so he speaks to
Hamza in the language of djinns. 

Amar, Hamza’s chief Ayyar or trickster [whose
hardnosed and harsh methods remind one sometimes of
Chanakya’s realistic kootneeti] is well-versed with
many languages among which is also Hebrew. Barq
Firangi, another of the tricksters and Rustam Alamshah
(Hamza’s son) lead a firangi platoon and the language
of that platoon is English. There is also an entire
Tilism, run and controlled by the English, which is
called Tilism-e-Khema-e-Firang. The language spoken
there is English. Whoever enters that Tilism
automatically begins to speak English. Bala Bakhtar,
one of the volumes of the cycle composed by Sheikh
Tasadduq Husain describes-

“Every camp that the Prince entered he found himself
adorned by the dress of the same Vilayat and heard the
same speech flowing forth. A beautiful damsel,
firangin, came out of that camp and holding him by the
hand led him inside. On every kothi and bungalow there
were firangins, beautiful, fair, handsomely cast,
dressed in splendid finery, wearing English topis of
many kinds were seated chairs and enjoying the river
flow. One firangi Queen, troublemaker for the heart
the affliction without cure, saw the Prince
Nooruddahar and instantly upon seeing stood up from
her chair and holding him by the hand took him inside
the Bungalow and seated him on a jeweled chair. She
spoke to him in English. The Prince too replied in the
same tongue.” (Bala Bakhtar, Nawal Kishor, 1900,
pp624/5)

In the same volume, on p71 Amar speaks in the Hebrew
language to his fellow traveler Aadi Pahalwan, a
lumbering giant who eats too much and is wont to rest
too much too. 

“Amar thought that the Pahalwan Aadi has recognized
me, he may visit humiliation upon me. Therefore he
said to him in Hebrew, o you monstrous eater, I am
warning you hold your tongue and do not say anything
crude…understanding Amar’s import Aadi replied listen
do not talk too much.”

In another work in the same cycle, Aftab-e-Shujaat,
vol 3 by Sheikh Tasadduq Husain, we travel to the
Tilism-Chahl-Chiragh-e-Sulaimani. Among the stages on
this Tilism is also the country of Bartania/Britain
whose ruler used to be a Muslim but due to the
incitement of the King of the Tilism, Ashdar Parizad,
he has turned apostate and become a Kafir. 
Can a historical personality fit the bill of [being]
Ashdar Parizad?

Excerpt taken from S R FARUQI’s SAHERI, SHAHI, SAHEB
QIRANI, A study of Dastan-e-Amir Hamza. 



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