Mumtaz Mufti

Mumtaz Mufti SI (Urdu: ممتاز مفتی) (September 11, 1905 – October 27, 1995), was a distinguished writer from Pakistan.

Early life

Mumtaz Mufti was born in Batala, Punjab, (now in India). He was a son of Mufti Muhammad Hussain and his first wife Sughra Khannum. He became a civil servant under British rule and started career as a school teacher. Soon after partition, he migrated to Pakistan with his family.

Significance

Mumtaz Mufti started writing Urdu short stories while working as a school teacher before partition. In the beginning of his literary career, he was considered a non-conformist writer having liberal views, who appeared influenced by Freud. His transformation from Liberalism to Sufism was due to his inspiration from Qudrat Ullah Shahab. All the same, he did manage to retain his individual accent and wrote on subjects which were frowned upon by the conservative elements in society.

The two phases of his life are witnessed by his autobiographies, Ali Pur Ka Aeeli and Alakh Nagri. According to forewords mentioned in his later autobiography, Ali Pur Ka Aeeli is an account of a lover who challenged the social taboos of his times, and Alakh Nagri is an account of an acolyte who greatly influenced by the mysticism of Qudrat Ullah Shahab.

Talaash (which means 'A Search')was the last book written by Mumtaz Mufti. It can be treated as a summary of his previous writings, in the sense that, in this book Mufti has presented all the findings of his life. It...
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