THE biggest problem that new researchers face is finding sources on the topic of their research. Some start with going to primary sources and then secondary ones. But this is a cumbersome and time-consuming process and unreliable too. Despite going through mountains of books and articles, new researchers are not sure if they have combed every possible venue where the source material is expected to be found.

The solution to this problem is a work that lists all the sources on a specific topic in the form of citations. Such works are usually called enumerative bibliographies. Researchers and students are, of course, aware of a bibliography that is appended at the end of their research papers or dissertations, citing all the sources used in that particular research work. But an enumerative bibliography is one that lists all the primary and secondary sources on a specific topic or a discipline.

Such bibliographic works are a boon for researchers as they save them a lot of time and energy. What perturbs one, however, is that there are not as many enumerative bibliographic works in Urdu as one would have wished for. The National Language Promotion Department (NLPD) at Islamabad, formerly the National Language Authority (NLA), and some other organisations had begun publishing bibliographies in Urdu on different topics, especially related to Urdu literature. Somehow the work was hampered and publication of bibliographies came to almost a standstill, but now the NLPD has published three bibliographies that list sources on three giants of Urdu literature, namely, Mirza Ghalib, Shibli No’mani and Qazi Abdul Wadood.

Dr Suhail Abbas Khan, the compiler of these bibliographies, has explained what a bibliography may or should contain. He says if someone intends to compile an enumerative bibliography of, say, Mir Taqi Mir, they should include the information on the books written by Mir, including prose and poetry in Urdu and Persian; books written on Mir; articles/essays on Mir published in magazines as well as the ones included in anthologies; special issues of magazines on Mir, dissertations in universities written on Mir for award of a degree and any other pieces of information on Mir, most probably scattered in books. The bibliography should cite a book’s complete bibliographic info, such as author, publisher, place and date of publication, pages, the contents and a brief critical evaluation.

Suhail Abbas, a researcher himself, says a bibliography is such a useful tool that it can help carry out new research and even enhance the standard of research. The three bibliographies compiled by him and published by NLPD are:

Shuruh-i-Ghalib: kitabiyaat

This is a bibliography of commentaries on Mirza Ghalib’s Urdu poetry. Ghalib is the poet whose Urdu poetry has inspired the most commentaries in Urdu. Suhail Abbas says a PhD dissertation written on Ghalib’s commentaries mentions just 64 such works, while in fact the published commentaries on Ghalib’s Urdu poetry are well over 100. He has listed 107 such commentaries with bibliographic details, but two earliest commentaries remain unknown as Shadan Bilgirami, while mentioning them, has not given their details, except for one’s name: Cheestan-i-Ghalib, says Suhail Abbas. Aside from them, Chahar Chaman is the earliest commentary on Ghalib’s Urdu poetry, penned in 1876 by Durga Prashad Nadir Dehlvi.

Interestingly, the book also lists a ‘sharh’, or commentary, written in Avadhi, one in Marathi and five commentaries in Hindi on Ghalib’s Urdu poetry.

Shibli No’mani: kitabiyaat

Another bibliography compiled by Suhail Abbas is that of Shibli No’mani, the scholar, poet, historian, critic and poet. It lists books and articles written by Shibli, lectures delivered by him, books and articles written on Shibli and dissertations written on Shibli at universities. Anyone who intends to do some research on Shibli or write something on him must have this bibliography.

Qazi Abdul Wadood: kitabiyaat

Qazi Abdul Wadood was a critic and researcher ranked among Urdu’s best ones. He was a critic who would not spare anybody. Qazi Sahib has criticised even senior scholars such as Muhammad Husain Azad and Moulvi Abdul Haq on certain issues. This bibliography, compiled by Suhail Abbas and published by the NLPD, documents works by Qazi Abdul Wadood.

It would not be out of place to mention here that in India, at least three indexes of Qazi Abdul Wadood’s works have been published, one co-authored by Muhammad Zaki and Mansoor Alam, another by Jameel Ahmed and the third one, most comprehensive, by Dr Ata Khursheed. Since books published in India are generally not available in Pakistan, some citations are missing from this bibliography.

Apparently slim volumes, these books are invaluable as they encapsulate the essential works on three giants of Urdu literature.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2024