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{{short description|Indian writer and diplomat (1910–1994)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Use Pakistani English|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ahmed Ali
| image = Ahmed Ali (Pakistani writer), 1974.jpg
| alt =
| birth_date = 1 July 1910
| birth_place = Delhi, British India
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1994|1|14|1910|7|1}}
| death_place = [[Karachi]], Pakistan
| occupation = Writer
| known for = one of the founders of [[Progressive Writers' Movement|All-India Progressive Writers Movement]]
}}
{{Progressive Writers' Movement}}

'''Ahmed Ali ''' ({{langx|ur| احمد علی }}; 1 July 1910 – 14 January 1994) was a Pakistani novelist, [[poet]], critic, [[translator]], [[diplomat]] and [[scholarly method|scholar]]. A pioneer of the modern Urdu short story, his works include the short story collections: {{Lang|ur-latn|[[Angarey]]}} (Embers), 1932; ''Hamari Gali'' (Our Lane), 1940; ''Qaid Khana'' (The Prison), 1942; and ''Maut Se Pehle'' (Before Death), 1945. His other writings include ''[[Twilight in Delhi]]'' (1940), his first novel in the English language.<ref name=britannica>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ahmed-Ali#ref845471 Profile of Ahmed Ali (writer) on Encyclopædia Britannica] Retrieved 31 August 2019</ref>

[[Muneeza Shamsie|Muneeza Shamshie]] has called him "the forefather to all [[Pakistani English literature|Pakistani English fiction]]."<ref name=":0">[[Muneeza Shamsie|Shamsie, Muneeza]]. "[https://www.dawn.com/news/543715/tribute-a-towering-figure. TRIBUTE: A towering figure]." ''[[Dawn (newspaper)|Dawn]]'', 27 June 2010. [https://web.archive.org/web/20250526080101/https://www.dawn.com/news/543715/tribute-a-towering-figure. Archived] 26 May 2025.</ref>

==Early life and education==
Ahmed Ali was born in Delhi, [[British India]], on 1 July 1910. He was descended from families of [[Ulama|Islamic scholars]] on both his paternal and maternal sides, with his paternal lineage tracing directly to [[Abdul Qadir Gilani]], the prominent 12th-century Islamic scholar and [[Wali|Sufi saint]].<ref name=":1">ALI, AHMED, and JSAL. “[http://www.jstor.org/stable/23234237 INTERVIEW : AHMED ALI: 3 AUGUST 1975 ROCHESTER, MICHIGAN].” ''Journal of South Asian Literature'', vol. 33/34, no. 1/2, 1998, pp. 117–94. ''JSTOR''. 26 May 2025.</ref> His father Syed Shuja-ud Din was a civil servant in the British administration, being associated with the Punjab Civil Service, and was fond of [[Persian literature]].<ref name=":1" />

Ali began his formal education at the age of 5 by learning [[Qira'at|Qur'anic recitation]].<ref name=":2">Coppola, Carlo. “[http://www.jstor.org/stable/23234236 AHMED ALI (1910-1994) : BRIDGES & LINKS EAST & WEST].” ''Journal of South Asian Literature'', vol. 33/34, no. 1/2, 1998, pp. 112–16. ''JSTOR.'' Accessed 26 May 2025.</ref> For his higher studies, he graduated in [[English literature]] from [[Aligarh Muslim University]] and [[Lucknow University]]; in the latter "having achieved the highest marks in English in the history of the university."<ref>Dr. T. Jeevan Kumar, "Ahmed Ali: A Progressive Writer" in ''The English Literature Journal'', Vol. 1, No. 2 (2014):57</ref>

== Personal life ==
In 1950, Ali married Bilqees Jehan Begum, the daughter of Barrister Rauf Ali; he was also from a prominent Delhi family and a friend of the noted lawyer and independence activist [[Asaf Ali]].<ref>''The Journal of Indian Writing in English'', Volume 23 (1995), Page 22</ref> Bilqees was a painter and writer who in 1963 had translated Ali's novel ''Twilight in Delhi'' into Urdu as ''Dilli ki Ek Sham''.<ref name=":0" />

Ali died on 14 January 1994 in [[Karachi]].<ref name="britannica" />

== Professional career ==

=== British India ===
From 1932 to 1946, he taught at the leading Indian universities including [[Allahabad University]] and his alma mater in [[Lucknow]]. He also joined the Bengal Senior Educational Service as professor and head of the English Department at [[Presidency College, Calcutta]] (1944–47) and was the [[BBC]]'s Representative and Director in India during [[World War II]], from 1942 to 1945.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=WjPofDcwmtsC&q=ahmed&pg=PT274 ''Orwell and Politics''. Penguin UK, 2001 on Google Books] Retrieved 23 April 2018</ref> Following that, he was the [[British Council]] Visiting Professor to [[Nanjing University]], as appointed by the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]] of India. In 1948, when he tried to return home after the [[Partition of India|Partition]], [[K. P. S. Menon]] (then India's ambassador to China) would not allow it because Ali had not indicated his preferences as a government employee; that is, whether to remain in India or transfer to Pakistan. As a result, he was forced to go to Pakistan.<ref name="twilight" />

=== Pakistan ===
In 1948, he moved to [[Karachi]].<ref>{{cite book|title=City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi|author=William Dalrymple|isbn=000215725X|publisher=HarperCollins|year=1993|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SBxuAAAAMAAJ}}{{page needed|date=June 2012}}</ref> Later, he was appointed Director of Foreign Publicity for the Pakistan Government. At the behest of Prime Minister [[Liaquat Ali Khan]], he joined the [[Pakistan Foreign Service]] in 1950. According to custom, tiles were drawn to determine the country of assignment. Ali's tile was blank, so he chose China and became Pakistan's first envoy to the new [[History of the People's Republic of China|People's Republic]]. By that time he had learnt the [[Chinese language]] and wrote a study titled ''Muslim China'' in 1949.<ref name=":0" /> He established formal diplomatic relations that same year. He also helped to establish Pakistan's embassy in Morocco.<ref name=":0" />

==Literary career==

=== Author ===

==== Short stories ====
Ali started his literary career at a young age, having published his first English poem in the ''Aligarh Magazine'' in 1926 and his first English short-story in 1929, "When the Funeral Was Crossing the Bridge" in the ''Lucknow University Journal''.<ref name=":2" />

He then became a co-founder of the [[Progressive Writers' Movement|All-India Progressive Writers' Movement]] along with the writer [[Sajjad Zaheer]] who had become well known by the publication of ''[[Angaaray (1998 film)|Angaaray]]'' (Embers) in 1932. It was a collection of short stories in the Urdu language and was a bitter critique of middle-class Muslim values in British India.<ref name="britannica" /> In addition to Ali, it included stories by three of his friends; Mahmud al-Zafar, [[Sajjad Zaheer]] and [[Rashid Jahan]]. This book was later banned by the British Government of India in March 1933.<ref name="twilight">Introduction by the author, Ahmed Ali, ''Twilight in Delhi'', Rupa Publishing Co., Delhi, 1993</ref> Shortly afterward, Ali and Zafar announced the formation of a "League of Progressive Authors", which was later to expand and become the All-India [[Progressive Writers' Association]].<ref>The Leader of Allahabad, 5 April 1933</ref> Ali presented his paper "Art Ka Taraqqi-Pasand Nazariya" (A Progressive View of Art) in its inaugural conference in 1936. Later, Ali would distance himself from the movement, which he considered too narrowly focused on [[Marxism]].<ref name=":0" />

==== Novels ====
Ali achieved international fame with his first novel written in English ''[[Twilight in Delhi]]'', which was published by the [[Hogarth Press]] in London in 1940.<ref>''Twilight in Delhi'', The Hogarth Press, 1940; Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1966; OUP, Karachi, 1984; Sterling Paperbacks, Delhi, 1973; New Directions, New York, 1994; [[Rupa Publications]], Delhi, 2007; Urdu translation, Akrash Press, Karachi, 1963, Jamia Millia, Delhi, 1969; (French) French translation, Editions Gallimard, Paris, 1989; Spanish translation, Ediciones Martinez Roca, 1991.</ref> This novel, as its title implies, describes the decline of the Muslim aristocracy with the advance of British colonialism in the early 20th century.<ref name=britannica/>

=== Translator ===
''[[Quran|Al-Quran]], A Contemporary Translation'' ([[Princeton University Press]], [[Oxford University Press]] & Akrash Publishing) is his most notable contribution in the field of translation. It was first published in the [[United States]] in 1988.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2001-07-22 |title=Al-Qur'an {{!}} Princeton University Press |url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691074993/al-quran |access-date=2026-01-27 |website=press.princeton.edu |language=en}}</ref> [[Francis Edward Peters]] called it the best English translation of the Qur'an while [[Fazlur Rahman Malik]] said of it that "it aims at doing something new, it seeks to bring out the original rhythms of the Quranic language and the cadences. It also departs from traditional translations in that it gives more refined and differentiated shades of important concepts."<ref name=":3" /> Other languages he translated from, apart from Arabic and [[Urdu]], included [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] and Chinese.<ref>[[Alamgir Hashmi]], "Ahmed Ali and the Transition to a Postcolonial Mode in the Pakistani Novel in English" in ''Journal of South Asian Literature'', Vol. 33/34, No. 1/2 (1998/1999), p. 256</ref>

==Awards and recognition==
* Elected a Founding Fellow of the [[Pakistan Academy of Letters]] in 1979.{{cn|date=November 2021}}
* [[Sitara-i-Imtiaz]] (Star of Excellence) Award in 1980 by the [[President of Pakistan]]<ref name=":0" />
* Conferred an honorary doctorate degree in 1993 by the [[University of Karachi]].<ref name=":0" />
* On 14 January 2005, [[Pakistan Post]] issued a commemorative postage stamp in his honour in its 'Men of Letters' series.{{cn|date=November 2021}}

==Works==
{{div col}}

===Novels===
*''[[Twilight in Delhi]]'' (1940)
*''Ocean of Night'' (1964)
*''Rats and Diplomats'' (1986)

===Plays===
*''The Land of Twilight'' (1931)
*''Break the Chains'' (1932)

===Short stories===
*"When the Funeral Was Crossing the Bridge," in ''Lucknow University Journal'', 1929.
*"Mahavaton Ki Ek Rât," in ''Humayûn'' (Lahore), January 1931.
*{{Lang|ur-latn|[[Angarey]]}} (1932). With [[Rashid Jahan]], Mahmuduzzafar and [[Sajjad Zaheer]].
*''Sholey'' (1934)
*"Our Lane," in ''New Writing'' (London), 1936.
*''Hamari Gali'' (1940)
*"Morning in Delhi," in ''New Writing'' (London), 1940.
*''Qaid-khana'' (1942)
*''Maut se Pahle'' (1945)
*"Before Death," in ''New Directions'' 15 (New York), 1956.
*''Prima della Morte'' (1966). Bilingual Italian-Urdu version of ''Maut se Pahle''.
*''The Prison-House'' (1985)

===Poetry===
*''Purple Gold Mountain'' ([[Keepsake Press]], 1960)
*''First Voices'' (1965)
*''Selected Poems'' (1988)

===Literary criticism===
*"Poetry: A Problem,” in ''Allahabad University Studies'', vol. XI, no. II, 1934.
*''Art ka Taraqqî-Pasand Nazariya'' (1936)
*“[[Maxim Gorky]] as a Short-Story Writer," in ''Lucknow University Journal'', 1938.
*''Mr. [[T.S. Eliot|Eliot]]'s Penny-World of Dreams'' (1941)
*''Failure of an Intellect'' (1968)
*"Illusion and Reality, the Art and Philosophy of [[Raja Rao]]," in ''Journal of Commonwealth Literature'', July 1968.
*''The Problem of Style and Technique in Ghalib'' (1969)
*''Ghalib: Two Essays'' (1969). With Alessandro Bausani.
*''The Golden Tradition: An Anthology of Urdu Poetry'' (1973)

===Translation===
*''The Flaming Earth'' (1949). An anthology of selected [[Indonesian literature|Indonesian poems]].
*''The Falcon and the Hunted Bird'' (1950)
*''The Bulbul and the Rose: An Anthology of Urdu Poetry'' (1960)
*''Ghalib: Selected Poems'' (1969)
*''al-Qur’ân: A Contemporary Translation'' (1988)
*''The Call of the Trumpet'' (unpublished). An anthology of [[modern Chinese poetry]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://tanzil.net/#trans/en.ahmedali/1 Online Quran] includes the [[Qur'an]] translation by Ahmed Ali.
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=La5vf709vCgC&q=ahmed+ali Twilight in Delhi – a novel by Ahmed Ali on GoogleBooks website]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Ahmed}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:Pakistani novelists]]
[[Category:Pakistani scholars]]
[[Category:Pakistani educators]]
[[Category:English-language Pakistani writers]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Allahabad]]
[[Category:Translators of the Quran into English]]
[[Category:Writers from Delhi]]
[[Category:University of Lucknow alumni]]
[[Category:Aligarh Muslim University alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Calcutta]]
[[Category:Islamic fiction writers]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of Pakistan to China]]
[[Category:Muhajir people]]
[[Category:Writers from Karachi]]
[[Category:Recipients of Sitara-i-Imtiaz]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian translators]]
[[Category:Progressive Writers' Movement]]
[[Category:Civil servants from Karachi]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to Pakistan]]

Ahmed Ali writer - Revision history

ColumbusCoffman at 21:50, 7 March 2026