'' MEER ANEES " : BOOK'S AUTHOR & REVIEW HONOURS

NON-FICTION : A CONCISE ENCYCLOPAEDIC STUDY OF MEER ANEES. BY Taha Turabi.

This great master's work does not merely explore the 19th century poet's Urdu verses ; it re-imagines his stature by placing him among the world's epic masters.

Taha Turabi brings to this undertaking both pedigree and passion. He is heir to an extraordinary lineage. His father, Allama Rashid Turabi, was a revered scholar and orator across the Indo-Pak Subcontinent.

At just about 250 pages, the book seeks to position Meer Anees among the world's literary giants. Turabi situates his output within the epic tradition that includes Homer's, IIiad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, Spencer's The Faerie Queene, Milton's Paradise Lost, and even Shakespeare's history plays -works often seen as Bard's attempt at epic form.

Other connections with the Persian master Hafiz Shirazi and Ferdowsi and the Bengali polymath  Rabindranath Tagore are also briefly mentioned.

While many have written about Anees's poetic brilliance, Turabi's distinctive achievement is his comparative lens.

He examines Anees not only as the supreme chronicler of the events of Karbala but as a craftsman whose imagination and artistry stand beside those of the great epic poets of the world.

In this broader frame, the grandeur of Anees' language and the universality of his theme - valour, loss, faith and redemption - emerge with renewed force.

The World Students Society thanks Abbas Husain.