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Muslim Societies in South Asia Seminar

Musharraf Ali FarooqiAuthor, Translator, Storyteller

Chair: Ali AsaniProfessor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures; Director, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, Harvard University

Click here to read an event summary.

From 2014-2015 author, translator and storyteller Musharraf Ali Farooqi led the highly successful ‘Leading Through Teaching’ storytelling workshop for Pakistan parliamentarians, in association with the education advocacy group Alif Ailaan. These storytelling workshops were aimed at preparing the parliamentarians to engage with young learners, and acquaint themselves firsthand with the education delivery issues in the schools in their constituencies. A record of these workshops, the storytelling sessions conducted by the parliamentarians, and their comments, can be viewed here: Leading Through Teaching

These workshops grew from Farooqi’s highly successful storytelling sessions in Pakistan schools to introduce the children’s publications of his publishing house Kitab. Farooqi’s own understanding of the storytelling processes are grounded in his study and translations of Urdu language classics. His acclaimed translations, The Adventures of Amir Hamza (2007), and Hoshruba (2009) were the first major translations of Urdu language classics.

Farooqi will offer his view of storytelling as a core function of human communication, discuss the special place of stories in the Indian subcontinent, and talk about his own work as a storyteller, writer and translator.

Cosponsored with the Prince Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program