Before the Novel Became Familiar: Who Was Sharar?
Abdul Halim Sharar (1860–1926) wrote at a time when the Urdu novel itself was still new. Born in Lucknow in 1860 and dying there in 1926, aged 66, he belonged to the first generation of Urdu writers who tried to tell long, plotted stories in the manner of the Western novel — while keeping the colour and sweep of the older dastaan tradition. He is best known today for his historical novels: stories set in the Islamic past, built around courage, loyalty, betrayal and faith.
Sharar was far more than a novelist. Across a writing life that ran from about 1885 to 1926 he produced 102 books in all — novels, plays, essays, histories and correspondence. That number covers every form he worked in, not novels alone, and it is worth keeping in mind: his novels are the best-known part of a much larger body of work.
A Lucknow Life, Then Exile’s Court
Sharar’s father, Hakim Tafazzul Husain, was a scholar of Islamic religion and Persian literature, and Sharar was educated at home in Arabic and Persian rather than in a school. In 1869, when he was nine, he joined his father at Matiya Burj in Calcutta, where his father served at the court of Wajid Ali Shah, the exiled King of Awadh. Sharar stayed there until 1879, and during those years he began writing as the Matiya Burj correspondent for the Urdu newspaper Avadh Akhbar.
He began studying the Greek system of medicine — the Unani tradition — but did not finish it. Writing won. He later founded the magazine Dil Gudaz, first from Lucknow and then from Hyderabad, where he was in the service of the Nizam. That background — a Lucknow childhood, a decade in an exiled king’s court, and a working life in journalism and magazines — helps explain his fiction: he wrote about courts, sects and fallen cities with an insider’s sense of how power actually works.
The Novels: History as Story
Sharar’s historical novels take real periods of the Islamic past and build plotted stories inside them. Read in the order below, they show a writer learning how to make history move like fiction.
Firdaus-e-Bareen (1899) is the novel to start with, and the one that made his name. It tells of the sect led by Hasan bin Sabah, its secret society, and the artificial Paradise it used to bind followers to itself — a paradise that was a tool of control, not a reward. A young couple, Hussain and Zamurrud, are drawn into that world, and the story follows how devotion can be manipulated: the novel’s real subject is blind obedience, and what it costs. The sect’s stronghold, the fort of Alamut, is finally destroyed by Mongol forces. English readers can find the book as Paradise of the Assassins, translated by Tariq Mahmud and published in 2005.
Zawal-e-Baghdad (1912) takes the fall of Baghdad as its subject — the other end of the same story of empire and collapse that runs through Sharar’s work. Where Firdaus-e-Bareen watches a sect rise through secrecy, this novel watches a great city fall.
Husn ka Daku (1913–1914) — “The Bandit of Beauty” — and Darbar-e-Harampur (1914) move from the grand sweep of sects and sieges to courts and their intrigues, the world Sharar had observed at first hand in his youth. Fateh Maftuh (1916) closes this run of historical novels.
His earliest novels came a decade before Firdaus-e-Bareen: Malikul Aziz Varjina (1889), Hasan Angelina (1889) and Mansur Mohana (1890). They show a young writer finding his range; the historical novels of 1899 onwards are where his reputation rests.
Beyond the Novels: The Lucknow Book
One Sharar book is not a novel at all, and it is almost as famous as the fiction. Guzishta Lucknow — “Lucknow of the Past” — is a narrative history of the city and its culture, still regarded as one of the best accounts of how Lucknow became Lucknow. Readers who love the city in his novels will find its real streets, manners and memories here. Treat it as a companion to the novels, not as one of them.
Where to Start: A Simple Reading Order
- Start with Firdaus-e-Bareen (1899) — his most famous novel, and the easiest to find in English as Paradise of the Assassins.
- Then read Zawal-e-Baghdad (1912) — for the fall of a city to set against the rise of a sect.
- Next, try Husn ka Daku (1913–1914) — for Sharar’s court world at its most plotted.
- Then explore the early novels — Malikul Aziz Varjina or Mansur Mohana — to see where he began.
- Finally, read Guzishta Lucknow — to meet the real city behind the fiction.
One caution will save you confusion: spellings vary across sources — Firdaus-e-Bareen also appears as Firdous or Firdos, and Malikul Aziz Varjina with several transliterations — so search under more than one spelling if a bookseller draws a blank.
For other classic-era writers covered in the same honest-label style, see our guides to Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi’s books, Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi’s books and Rajinder Singh Bedi’s books. For background on the novel itself, see Sharar’s Wikipedia profile and the complete review of Paradise of the Assassins.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Abdul Halim Sharar only a novelist?
No. He was also a poet, essayist, historian and playwright, and his 102 books cover all those forms. His historical novels are simply the best-known part of his work.
Which Sharar novel should I read first?
Start with Firdaus-e-Bareen (1899). It is his most famous novel and the easiest to find in English, as Paradise of the Assassins.
Is Firdaus-e-Bareen available in English?
Yes, as Paradise of the Assassins, translated by Tariq Mahmud and published in 2005.
What is Guzishta Lucknow?
It is Sharar’s narrative history of Lucknow and its culture — not a novel. It is a companion to his fiction, especially for readers who love the city itself.
Why do readers meet Sharar less often than later classic writers?
His novels belong to the earliest phase of Urdu novel-writing, before the form became familiar, and fewer of them circulate in modern editions and translations than the work of later writers. That is a matter of availability, not of quality: Firdaus-e-Bareen has been in print, in one language or another, since 1899.