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He wrote famous tales with historical content. One of them is فردوس بریں (Firdos -e- BariN) which is named after a section of paradise according to Islamic Doctrine.
'''فردوس بریں''' This Historical content tells us when a new sect was tried to invent and was named فرقہ باطنیہ (Sect of Spirituality) and their leaders conspired to rule out Islam and they established highly secret society and they created artificial Paradise. They would make people stunned by their network of spies. They would sneak up a person's personal life and would pretend to tell the hidden (غیب) then that person would become their devotee and would do anything they would demand. History shows they captured a lot of people and made them to kill many renowned people and Scholars (علماء). According to history Halaku Khan (ہلاکو خان) son of Ganges Khan or Changez Khan in Urdu چنگیز خان found these people and he disposed of them all.
Maulana Abdul Halim Sharar (1860-1926) came from an aristocratic Lucknowi family known for academic excellence and close association with the court. He spent his growing up years in the court of the exiled king at Metiyaburz in Calcutta. Sharar (meaning Spark – his pen-name) went on to become a prolific Urdu prose writer who wrote more than 100 books but was most well known for his historical novels. Sharar was one of the pioneers of modern Urdu prose written in simple but elegant style in place of Persianised flowery rhythmic style. Along with Nazir Ahmad and Rattan Nath Sharshar, Sharar is credited with the introduction of modern western-style novel in Urdu literature. Among his translation works, one can mention Bankim Chandra’s Durgeshnandini (translated from English).
Sharar worked in Lucknow and Hyderabad and even visited Europe. He wrote in various papers but from 1887 till the end of his life his name was synonymous with Dil Gudaz, the literary journal he founded and edited. It was on the pages of Dil Gudaz he serialized his history of Lucknow.
Sharar was also a historian who wrote on various chapters of history of Arabia, Islam and Sind. But his history of Lucknow was more of a chronicle. And it is an amazing social document.
Fakhir Hussain (one of Sharar’s translators) said in his note to the OUP Paperback edition, “Sharar witnessed and recorded the twilight of his culture before its journey into the night. His scholarship and insight provided additional credence to his study.”
Written from 1913 to around 1920, these articles were titled by Sharar “Hindustan Mein Mashriqi Tamaddun Ka Akhri Namuna” – the Last Example of Oriental Culture in India. Sharar did write about political history, he gave a brief history of the house of Sadaat and the rise of Awadh, the splendour of Faizabad and the shifting of capital to Lucknow. He also described the life in exile at Metiyaburz in Calcutta. But the most breath taking was the enormous social canvas Sharar drew with such competence. Here he authoritatively described not only well known art and crafts, stories of famous courtesans and different aspects of Urdu literature but also touched upon subtle forms of Lucknowi etiquette and mysteries of Yunani medicine. He passionately wrote about food – different delicacies, confectionaries, systems of water-cooling to preparation and serving of betel-leaf. He described different forms of headgears and palanquins, hair fashions and quail-fighting, peculiar ways of telling time and from wedding procession to funeral services – all with graphic details and great passion laced with justifiable pride. Comparisons were frequently made – both with foreign (Arabic and Persian) and Indian precedents and at times Lucknow’s humbleness was conceded but that pride is unmistakable. But above all what makes the entire description really informative and charming is Sharar’s way of looking at things coupled with his in-depth research (using traditional oral and written sources).
Lucknow is fortunate to have had a master chronicler like Sharar. As the refined legacies of Nawabi Lucknow’s cultural sophistication were buried in the sands of time amid pressing realities of our modern world, Maulan Abdul Halim Sharar, in his classic study of his beloved city preserved that fading picture for posterity.
Sharar’s Lucknow is the inevitable entry point for any study of Nawabi Lucknow. But otherwise also, the city is fortunate have attracted not only laid-back connoisseurs of its many-splendoured culture but also a bunch of serious and sensitive historians and they have competently covered many facets of Nawabi Lucknow in fascinating details, some illustrative examples -
'''Anar Kali انار کلی''' was his fantasy which he writes that he created this character to show or to imagine how it would look like in Akbar the Great's time. He admits this to be fantasy on the very first page. The Text Book Board of Punjab Pakistan published the book for 12th grade students and they give this to be on very first lines.
| NAME = Sharar, Abdul Halim
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Son of
| DATE OF BIRTH = 1869
| PLACE OF BIRTH = Lucknow/Chinhat
| DATE OF DEATH = 19262001
| PLACE OF DEATH =LucknowWorld trade center
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharar, Abdul Halim}}
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