Abul Kalam Qasmi

Abul Kalam Qasmi was born on 20 December 1950 in Darbhanga, Bihar.[1] He received his primary education at Madrasa Qāsim al-Ulūm Hussainiya, and graduated in the dars-e-nizami from the Darul Uloom Deoband in 1967.[1] He did his intermediate studies at the Jamia Millia Islamia and received a B.A. and an M.A. from the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 1973 and 1975 respectively.[1] His teachers included Anzar Shah Kashmiri.[2]

Qasmi became a lecturer at the AMU in 1976 and was appointed a Reader in 1984, the same year he received his PhD degree.[1] He compiled two course books for the university's Urdu department in 1980.[1] In 1993, he was appointed a professor of comparative literature.[1] He edited the Aligarh Magazine during 1975 and 1976 and served as the chief-editor of the bi-monthly magazine Alfāz, Aligarh from 1976 to 1980. Between 1983 and 1985, he was the chief-editor of Inkār, Aligarh. In 1996, he became the editor of Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq.[3] He was a member of the executive council of the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language from 1998 to 2003.[4] He served as the head professor of the AMU's Urdu department from 16 June 1996 to 15 June 1999.[5] He also served as the dean of the AMU's Faculty of Arts.[6] Mujawir Husain Rizvi, who was a professor of Urdu literature at the University of Allahabad, would call him "Father of the Pen" (Abul Qalam), for his literary contributions.[7]

Qasmi was considered a major pillar of Urdu criticism following on from Gopi Chand Narang and Shamsur Rahman Faruqi.[8] He received the Bihar Urdu Academy Award in 1980, and the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy Award in 1987 and 1993.[4] He was conferred with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2009 for his book Mu'āsir Tanqīdi Rawayye.[8] He received the Ghalib Award in 2013.[9] He died on 8 July 2021 in Aligarh.[6] Tariq Mansoor expressed sorrow and termed his death a great loss to the literary fraternity of India.[10]

Qāsmi translated E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel into Urdu as Novel ka Fun.[11]He authored books such as Kas̲rat-i Taʻbīr, Mashriqi She'riyāt aur Urdu Tanqīd ki Riwāyat, Mu'āsir Tanqīdī Rawayye, Shā'iri ki Tanqīd (The Criticism of Poetry) and Takhlīqi Tajruba.[11][12] By 2010 Qāsmi had 125 research articles to his credit.[13] His compiled works include:[11][12]

• Azādī ke baʻd Urdū Tanz-o-Mizāḥ
• Mashriq kī Bāzyāft: Muḥammad Ḥasan ʻAskarī ke ḥavāle se (The Recovery of the East, with Reference to Muhammad Hasan Askari)
• Rashīd Aḥmad Ṣiddīqī, Shak̲h̲ṣīyat aur Adabī Qadr-o- Qīmat (Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqui, Life and His Literary Importance)
• Mirzā G̲h̲ālib: Shak̲h̲ṣiyat aur Shāʻirī (Mirza Ghalib: Personality and Poetry)

• Muʻīdur, Raḥmān (2016). Nazr-i Abul Kalām Qāsmi [A Present to Abul Kalam Qasmi] (in Urdu). Ahmedabad: Educational Book House. ISBN 9789350738832.