LAHORE: Magic can’t really encompass the meaning and phonic magnificence of the Persian word, Tilism, and it had wider meanings when it comes to Tilism-i-Hoshruba, described by its English translator Musharraf Ali Farooqi as the world’s first magical fantasy epic.

“In the tilism, the sorcerers exercised powers that defied the laws of God and the physical world. They created illusions, transferred spirits between bodies, transmuted matter, made talismans, and configured and exploited the Earth’s inherent physical forces to create extraordinary marvels. Once the tilism was created the sorcerers named it Hoshruba,” says the legend, translated by Farooqi.

Since magic can’t really be translated completely, Lubna Jahangir embarked on her own artistic journey to paint her own version Tilism-e-Hoshruba in her own colours and produced 84 paintings. When a poet writes a poem inspired by a piece of art, it’s called ekphrasis and when an artist makes a piece of art inspired by a piece of literature, its reverse ekphrasis and Lubna did the same in her current series of artworks. Sixty-six of the paintings inspired by the classic book are currently on display at the Ocean Art Gallery, Gulberg. All of the paintings are inspired by parts of the book or its characters.

The painter’s inspiration to paint Hoshruba started with a gift of the Urdu version of the book she got from a friend. After reading the book, she decided to do the painting as it took her back to the stories she had heard during her childhood from her mother and aunt.

“I have a lifelong romance with fantastical magical and mythical tales. As I started reading the book, I was transported to the fantastical world of Hoshruba, full of beautiful princesses, gallant princes, of sorcerers and sorceresses with mysterious magical powers accompanied by fantastical creatures. This alternate universe came alive in my imagination, with the growing urge to share it with people around me. I started grappling with the idea of painting a series of paintings inspired from the tale.”

Lubna says that as it’s impossible to paint every detail or character of the book, she has created the artworks based on fragments.

“All characters could not be painted so I used my imagination to paint what inspired me most. I did it in a passage of three years,” she says.

In the exhibition, you can meet Prince Asad, sent by Amir Hamza to conquer the Hoshruba, Amar Ayyar, the world famous trickster who accompanies him in his adventure, Afrasiab, the emperor of Hoshruba and Mahjabeen, the princess of the tilism and sorceress Princess Bahar of Spring Quarter, who enchants her opponents.

Lubna did not just paint the world of magic of the book, she also experimented with natural colours as in a couple of paintings, she used original natural colours extracted from cherries, tamarind and jambolan (jamun) in some paintings to bring out the true colours of nature.

“It was the first time I did it but I didn’t change my signature style of dots,” says Lubna, known for her gouache style.

When asked whether the depiction of the Tilism-e-Hoshruba as presented in the west influenced her as they western gaze looks at them from the prism of the exoticism, she had some logic in reply.

“What’s problem with exoticism? I wanted to paint beauty of some characters of the Tilism-e-Hoshruba even in nude as they are presented in this book but there are some limitations in this society that one has to conform to willy-nilly. I had to clad them in some clothes though it takes me some time to give in to censorship.”

Lubna has a point as the physical beauty of Princess Bahar has quite a vivid description in poetic style in the book, each body part from head to feet, which can’t be given here due to shortage of space but it’s more than worth reading to put one’s imagination on fire. If one has not got the book to read it, one can visit Tilism-e-Hoshruba to see the beauty in painting. Tomorrow (Monday) is the last day of the exhibition, being curated by Tanya Sani.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2024