Ibn-e-Safi
Ibn-e-Safi (also spelled as Ibne Safi, ur:ابن صفى, July 26,1928-July 26, 1980) was the pen name of Asrar Ahmad, a best-selling and prolific author of spy novels in Urdu. The word Ibn-e-Safi is an Arabic expression which literally means Son of Safi, where the word Safi means chaste or righteous. He wrote from the 1940s in India, and later Pakistan after the partition of British India in 1947.
His main works were the 124-book series Jasoosi Dunya (The Spy World) and the 120-book Imran Series, with a small canon of satirical works and poetry. His novels were characterized by a blend of adventure, suspense, violence, romance and comedy, achieving massive popularity across a broad readership.
Biography
Ibn-e-Safi was born in the village of Nara in the district of Allahabad, U.P. (now Uttar Pradesh), India, and received a Bachelor of Arts from Agra University.
His early works in the 1940s included short stories, humour and satire. He began writing novels in the early 1950s while working as a secondary school teacher and continuing part-time studies. After completing the latter, having attracted official attention as being subversive in the independence and post-independence period, he migrated to Karachi, Pakistan.
In 1960-1963 he suffered an episode of schizophrenia, but recovered, returning with a best-selling Imran Series novel DaiRh Matwaalay (One and a half drunks).
In the 1970s he informally advised the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan on methods of detection.
He died of pancreatic cancer in 1980.
External links
- The mysterious Mr Safi Mahmood Farooqui, Mid Day column, December 10, 2004
Urdu Wikipedia pages
- [1] New Ibne Safi Website