Introduction: The Writer Who Lived by the Pen
A. Hameed is one of the few Urdu writers who genuinely lived by writing alone. He wrote for radio, for newspapers, for television and for children, and he kept writing for more than six decades — from a debut novel in 1950 until his death in Lahore in 2011. Readers who know him usually know him through one of two doors: the children’s fantasy serial Ambar Naag Maria, or the PTV children’s play Ainak Wala Jin that filled Pakistani living rooms in the mid-1990s.
This guide is honest about the shape of his work. Hameed did not write one kind of book. He wrote romantic short stories, adult novels, literary histories, travel writing, newspaper columns and a very long children’s adventure series. A guide that pretended all of that was a single shelf of novels would mislead the reader. This one separates the kinds, names the best-known titles in each, and says plainly where the record itself is untidy.
One confusion to clear up first: A. Hameed (Abdul Hameed, 1928–2011) is not Sumaira Hameed, the contemporary digest novelist whose books appear on today’s reading lists. They are different writers from different generations, and nothing in this guide refers to her work.
Life: From Amritsar to Radio Pakistan, Lahore
Abdul Hameed was born in Amritsar in 1928, to Kashmiri parents, and received his early education there. His father wanted him trained as a wrestler; the boy wanted books. In the last years of the Second World War he left Amritsar to join a brother-in-law working in radio in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), narrated radio plays at Radio Ceylon, and was sent on a journalistic assignment to Rangoon in Burma. Those wartime years in Sri Lanka and Burma later fed his short stories, notably Chaandani aur Jazeeray.
At Partition in August 1947 he migrated to Lahore. There he joined Radio Pakistan as an assistant script editor, and stayed with Radio Pakistan, Lahore, for the rest of his working life, writing radio plays and features alongside his books. He later spent two years with the Voice of America in Washington before returning to Lahore to work as a freelance writer. In his later years he wrote a popular Sunday column for the daily Nawa-i-Waqt — first Amritsar ki Yaadein (Memories of Amritsar), then Lahore ki Yaadein — looking back at the city of his childhood and the city of his adult life.
He died in Lahore on 29 April 2011. Two small uncertainties in the record are worth stating rather than smoothing over. Sources differ on the day of his birth — 25 August in Wikipedia’s infobox, 22 August in the Dawn obituary carried by the Pakistan Press Foundation — so this guide gives the year, 1928, and does not pin the day. Sources also differ on his age at death, giving 82, 83 and 85 in different places, so no age is stated here; the dates, 1928 to 29 April 2011, are the firm facts.
Hameed was associated with the Progressive Writers’ Movement, and his early writing belongs to that generation — the generation of Manto and Krishan Chander, both of whom influenced him. His fellow writer Intizar Husain, who began writing short stories in the same year, 1947, said romanticism was the integral part of Hameed’s writing and that he could never dissociate himself from the golden memories of Amritsar. That nostalgia — for a lost home city, remembered warmly rather than bitterly — runs through his work.
The Early Books: Manzil Manzil and the First Novels
Hameed established his literary identity with two early books. His debut novel was Derbay (1950), and his first collection of short stories was Manzil Manzil (1952). Rekhta’s profile frames Manzil Manzil slightly differently, as his first story, published in the journal Adab-e-Lateef before it became a collection; either way, the collection won popular acclaim and made him recognised as a romantic short-story writer.
His adult novels from the following years include Baarish mein Judai, Jungle Rotay Hain, Zard Gulaab and Barfbaari ki Raat. Rekhta lists a longer run of popular novels, among them Paazaib, Phir Bahar Aayi, Shahkaar, Titli, Behraam, Jahannum ke Pujaari, Dekho Shahr Lahore, Pehli Mohabbat ke Aansoo and Khufia Mission. The titles alone tell a reader what kind of writer he was in this phase: romantic, sometimes adventurous, rooted in middle-class life and in the streets of Lahore and Amritsar rather than in drawing rooms alone.
A note on numbers, because Hameed’s output is often quoted loosely. Wikipedia says he wrote “more than 200 novels and 100 books,” a phrasing that contradicts itself, while Rekhta says he was the author of over two hundred short stories, plays and novels combined, and the Dawn obituary says he penned “200 or so books.” This guide therefore says only that he wrote around two hundred books across all forms — short stories, novels, plays, travelogues and children’s books together — and does not present any figure as an exact count of novels.
Ambar Naag Maria: The Children’s Epic
Hameed’s most famous work, and the one that made him a household name for a generation of young readers, is the children’s fantasy series Ambar Naag Maria. It is a long adventure serial about three young heroes, published in many instalments over years. Wikipedia’s book list gives the series as 287 parts, divided into three sections: the first hundred parts titled Maut ka Taaqub (In Pursuit of Death), the next hundred Amber, Naag, Maria ki Wapsi (The Return), and the final parts Amber, Naag, Maria Katee Khala Mein (In Space). The Dawn obituary, more conservatively, calls it a fantasy series of 100 novels for children. The difference is a matter of counting instalments against volumes, and this guide does not force the two counts into one number: what is certain is that it was a very long, very popular children’s series, and that its opening section, Maut ka Taaqub, is the part readers remember best.
At theme level, the series is a quest adventure — three children facing dangers, villains and strange worlds — written in the straightforward, serial style that keeps a young reader turning to the next instalment. It is the natural starting point for anyone who wants to understand why Hameed mattered to ordinary readers, rather than only to literary critics. Readers coming to him through children’s books should also note his other children’s and adventure writing, including the Bharat ke Firaun series and titles such as Commando Attack and Action Dwarka, which belong to his adventure shelf rather than to his literary fiction.
Ainak Wala Jin: The Television Hit
In the mid-1990s, PTV Lahore producer Hafeez Tahir began broadcasting Ainak Wala Jin, a children’s television drama serial with a screenplay by Hameed. It became, in Wikipedia’s word, a blockbuster hit across Pakistan. Children waited impatiently for each instalment, in Rekhta’s phrase, and the serial was later staged in Lahore theatres and produced in book form for children.
The play matters to a reader’s guide for a simple reason: it is how most Pakistanis who grew up in the 1990s first met Hameed’s name, even if they never read his novels. It also shows the other half of his career — the broadcaster and scriptwriter who had been writing radio plays since 1947 and who understood, better than most literary writers, how a story works when it is spoken and watched rather than read. In 1996 he also wrote a PTV documentary telefilm, Operation Dwarka 1965.
The Literary Histories and Columns
Hameed’s most respected non-fiction is his literary history writing. Urdu She’r ki Dastan (The Story of Urdu Poetry) and Urdu Nasr ki Dastan (The Story of Urdu Prose, in fourteen parts) survey Urdu writing from early figures such as Banda Nawaz Gesu Daraz through to modern prose writers of the Deccan and Gujarat. His Mirza Ghalib Lahore Mein and Dastango Ashfaq Ahmad — studies of Ghalib and of his contemporary Ashfaq Ahmed — are listed among his most famous books. These are reference works rather than reading-for-pleasure books, but they explain why Hameed is remembered as a man of letters and not only as a popular storyteller.
His newspaper columns deserve a mention of their own. Amritsar ki Yaadein, published in book form by Maqbool Sons of Lahore and later translated into English by Khalid Hasan, is a memoir in instalments of the city he left in 1947. For a reader interested in Partition as lived memory rather than as history, it is a gentler companion to the Partition novels covered elsewhere on this site: Hameed writes about Amritsar the way a man writes about a home he can no longer visit, with affection rather than grievance.
In 1997 the Government of Pakistan awarded him the Pride of Performance, the state’s civil award for distinction in literature and the arts.
Reading Order: Where to Start
Start with Manzil Manzil if you want Hameed the short-story writer: it is the book that made his name, and its romantic nostalgia is the quality his contemporaries praised most. Then read Ambar Naag Maria — beginning with the Maut ka Taaqub section — if you want to understand his popular fame, or if you are choosing books for a young reader; the series is written for children and works best read in instalment order rather than dipped into at random.
After that, Ainak Wala Jin in its book form is a pleasant third step, and Amritsar ki Yaadein is the right choice for a reader who wants Hameed the memoirist. The adult novels such as Baarish mein Judai and Zard Gulaab come last in this order, not because they are weaker, but because they are harder to find in modern editions and are best approached once you know the writer’s voice. The literary histories — Urdu Nasr ki Dastan above all — are for the reader who wants to go deeper, not for a first meeting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is A. Hameed the same as Sumaira Hameed?
No. A. Hameed (Abdul Hameed, 1928–2011) was a mid-twentieth-century novelist, short-story writer and broadcaster. Sumaira Hameed is a contemporary digest novelist. They share a surname only.
What is A. Hameed’s most famous book?
For young readers, Ambar Naag Maria, the long children’s fantasy series whose opening section is Maut ka Taaqub. For adult readers, the early story collection Manzil Manzil is the book that established him. For television audiences, Ainak Wala Jin is the work they know best.
How many books did A. Hameed write?
Around two hundred books across all forms — novels, short stories, plays, travelogues and children’s books together. Sources quote the total differently, and no source gives a reliable exact count of novels alone, so this guide does not claim one.
When was A. Hameed born?
In 1928, in Amritsar. Sources differ on the day (22 or 25 August), so this guide states the year only.
Did A. Hameed win any award?
Yes. He received the Pride of Performance from the Government of Pakistan in 1997.
Where should a new reader start?
With Manzil Manzil for his short stories, or with Ambar Naag Maria (starting with Maut ka Taaqub) for his children’s writing. Both show the romantic, nostalgic voice that his contemporaries praised.
Conclusion
A. Hameed is not a one-book writer, and that is exactly why a guide to him has to be organised by kind rather than by a single list. Read Manzil Manzil for the young romantic of 1952, Ambar Naag Maria for the storyteller who kept a generation of children waiting for the next instalment, Ainak Wala Jin for the broadcaster, and Amritsar ki Yaadein for the older man looking back at a lost city. Together they make the portrait of a writer who, unusually, earned his living entirely by writing — and who kept, through six decades of it, the golden memory of Amritsar that Intizar Husain said he could never dissociate himself from.
For related reading on this site, see our guides to Urdu novels for teen and young readers, Urdu novels set in Lahore and how four novels treat Partition differently. For background on Hameed himself, see his Wikipedia profile and his Rekhta profile.