The recent Adventures of Amir Hamza-Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction (2007) is the only complete and unabridged translation of the one-volume Urdu dastan text by Ghalib Lakhnavi and expanded by Abdullah Bilgirami. This version begins by recounting the events before Hamza’s birth and thus serves as a prequel to the stories of most of the dastan’s consequential characters.

Culturally and religiously marginalized for its allegedly low literary value and profanities, the text of the Dastan-Amir Hamza has not been studied with enduring seriousness until recently. The non-availability of translations has also kept it cordoned off from enquiry by a wider audience. Such has been the neglect around the genre of the ‘dastan’ that the word itself has yet to be adequately defined in keeping with its codes and poetics. Anglophone theorists like Francis Pritchett and Pasha Muhammad Khan translate the word and the genre as ‘romance’. While one sees the theoretical benefits to be garnered from this translation, it is nonetheless an Anglophone approximation that does not fully capture the complexities of an indigenous genre.

Unlike the written text, the visual representations based on the story have enjoyed international renown. The miniature painting folios of the Hamzanama from 1562-1577 were the magnum opus of Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar’s atelier. Of the original 1400 illustrations, only 126 have survived. These were acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and The Mak, Vienna, in the early twentieth century. The folios have since been printed in John Seyller and Wheeler M. Thackston’s The Adventures of Hamza: Painting and Storytelling in Mughal India (2002).

The first historical references to stories venerating Hamza date back to the time of the Prophet following Hamza’s martyrdom in the Battle of Uhud (625 C.E.): after commissioning the killing of Hamza, the enraged Hinda chews his heart and liver in retribution for the slaying of her father Utba in single combat in the Battle of Badr (624 C.E.). The one-volume Dastan-e Amir Hamza refers to this history as a matter of fact with the proviso that “the truth and fiction of this tale be attributed to the inventors of the legend” (Lakhnavi and Bilgirami 906). In the dastan, Hinda hamstrings Hamza’s horse, the three-eyed Ashqar Devzad (born of a dev), kills Hamza herself, and then cuts his body into seventy pieces before chewing up his heart and liver.

The 46-volume version of the story eschews any connection to the historical. This longer cycle – which was first written and developed solely in the Indian Subcontinent (1883-1917) – left the historical figure of Amir Hamza as merely a reference point, a figurehead for the storyteller’s vocation. In fact, in most volumes of the longer cycle of tales, Hamza, the original Sahibqiran (Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction), no longer makes a physical appearance.

Scholars of Dastan-e Amir Hamza have commonly asserted that there is no need to study the historical or religious linkage between Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib and the eponymous hero of the dastan. In their respective analyses of the Hamza story, S.R. Faruqi, M.A. Farooqi, D.M. Lang, G.M. Meredith-Owens, Zahra Faridany-Akhavan, William Hanaway, John Seyller, and Frances Pritchett conflate the Hamza of Dastan-e Amir Hamza with other historical personages like Hamza the Kharijite, especially with reference to the story’s earlier Persian context. Given, however, the clear historical identifiers present in the text as well as in the miniature paintings, the dastan’s use of historical fact as a basis for spinning stories is an area open to further investigation.

The stories from the oral narrative tradition follow a general division into four basic types as expounded by Ghalib Lakhnavi in his Preface to the 1855 edition of the one-volume Dastan-e Amir Hamza: razm (warfare), bazm (courtly assembly), tilism (magical enchantment), and ayyari (trickery). The Hamza of the dastan is a follower of the monotheistic “True Faith”, or Deen-e Ibrahimi (The Religion of Abraham), who serves the polytheist, fire-worshipping “Emperor of the Seven Climes”, Naushervan the Just, in Ctesiphon.[1] Hamza conquers vast expanses of land and quells rebellions across India and China not only through the agency of his prowess but also thanks to the divine gift bestowed upon him by Prophet Aadam so that his “arm will never be lowered by [any] adversary, nor will anyone ever prevail against [his] arm’s might” (Lakhnavi and Bilgirami 233). This sets the stage for an enduring conflict between the followers of the “True Faith” and the “fire-worshippers” in Naushervan’s court. The conflict is also fuelled by Hamza’s betrothal to Naushervan’s daughter, the much sought-after Princess Mehr-Nigar. While waiting for an auspicious alignment of the heavenly bodies for the nuptials, Hamza moves to the Land of Qaf –– a realm of jinns, peris, and devs –– to help Emperor Shahpal bring the mighty jinn back under his rule. The eighteen-day journey turns into an eighteen-year separation from Mehr-Nigar who is protected throughout these years by Hamza’s trusted aide, confidant, and milk-brother, Amar Ayyar, the master trickster. While in Qaf, Hamza marries Aasman Peri, who gives birth to a half human, half jinn daughter, Quraisha. Many battles and tilisms later, Hamza returns to earth aided by the mythical Simurgh and by the Prophets Khizr and Ilyas. The one-volume Dastan-e Amir Hamza ends with Amir Hamza’s martyrdom while fighting for the forces of the “True Faith” under Prophet Muhammad at Uhud.

Please see the Summary tab in the Resources section below for a more detailed plot summary.

[1] Seven Climes stands for the seven regions of the earth. Ctesiphon (Mada’in) is the collective name of the seven cities that flourished during Naushervan’s reign.

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