Iqbal’s life in black and white

By Shoaib Ahmed

LAHORE: The unveiling of portraits of Allama Iqbal by cartoonist SA Hameed, popularly known as Mir Sahib, drew large crowds to Aiwan-e-Iqbal Complex on Thursday. The exhibition, titled ‘Iqbal in pictures’, is being held by the Iqbal Academy of Pakistan.

The portraits cover various aspects of Iqbal’s life: his childhood, youth, poetry gatherings, marriage functions, meetings with international leaders and life as a lawyer.

The artwork is arguably the most extensive portrayal of Iqbal by a single artist. The 18x24 portraits are sketched with charcoal and black pencil. Each picture carries with it an Urdu caption containing the date and description of the event portrayed

In one portrait, Allama Iqbal is shown travelling on a cargo train on December 25, 1929, to attend the funeral of his teacher Mir Hassan, because no other train was available. Others show him playing cricket with his son Javed in the house courtyard, caring for his pigeons, and offering fateha at Tipu Sultan’s tomb.

One portrait of Iqbal meeting Dr Abdul Hameed reads, “ I asked Iqbal how he became Hakeemul Ummat. Iqbal replied: I recited darood sharif one crore times. That’s why.”

Governor Khalid Maqbool inaugurated the exhibition. Maqbool held Iqbal Academy in high esteem and said that the academy had a great collection of books on Iqbal and the government was eager to support the academy in similar future projects.

The governor suggested that the academy hold poetry sittings and stage plays on Iqbal in Aiwan-e-Iqbal to raise awareness about the poet. He also praised Mir Sahib for portraying Iqbal and said that it was a great honour for the artist. He said that painter Aslam Kamal was illustrating Iqbal’s Javed Nama, for which he was being given the full support of the government.

Dr Ajaz Anwar, a professor at NCA and son of noted cartoonist Nannah, paid tribute to Mir Sahib. One a lighter note, he said that Hameed was his adopted uncle, for they had been living in the same area for the last 26 years. Anwar said that Mir Sahib used to show him work in progress which was a great honour for him. He requested the governor to protect Iqbal’s house near Ratan Cinema and his residence at Anarkali Bazar.

Mir Sahib told the gathering that he had completed 100 portraits of Iqbal in a span of 10 years. He said that his work was unique because no other had sketched Iqbal’s life. Hameed sketches for Daily Kohastan and Daily Mashriq. He was born in Sialkot on January 7, 1924. The exhibition will continue till 6pm today (Friday).

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_15-4-2005_pg7_13

Iqbal is one of the biggest name in Urdu poetry. learn more about him here
http://www.allamaiqbal.com/