Footnotes

Provenance:
From the Collection of Mustansar Hussain Tarar, gifted by the artist in 1974.

Mustansar Hussain Tarar is Pakistan's best selling Urdu language author. His novels, short story collections and travelogues have inspired generations of Pakistani readers and a devout following.

Each of Tarar's novels Bahhao, Raakh, Qurbat-e-Merg Main Mohabat, Dakia Aur Jolaha, Qilaa Jaangi, Khas-o-Khashak Zamanay, and Ay Ghazaal-I-Shab explored newer themes yet have plots linking them in certain ways through tararesque characters, symbolism and similitude, and a strong undercurrent of Pakistan's social and political history. Bahhao and Raakh have been rated as one of the most influential Urdu novels written in the last century.

Tarar's work is part of Urdu curriculum in university's home and abroad and a topic of several academic works. Tarar's multifaceted contribution to Pakistan's fiction and as a media person is widely acknowledged. Rarely has a public intellectual in Pakistan contributed in such diverse areas yet enjoyed respect, credibility and mass popularity.

Mustansar Hussain Tarar's publication 'Nikley Teri Talaash Mein' (In search of you), released in 1971, was a best selling travelogue spanning 16 countries by road. Tarar's personal accounts of his travels allowed readers to immerse themselves in the different cultures and environments of each country with the gusto only a seasoned traveller could. Sadequain had illustrated the first edition of this acclaimed travelogue and the relationship between great artist and great writer brought forth a publication of beauty in both design and content.

This piece depicts the first four verses of the first chapter of the Holy Qur'an, Surah Al-Fatiha:

'In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
[All] praise is [due] to Allah, Lord of the worlds -
The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful,
Sovereign of the Day of Recompense.'
Surah Al-Fatiha (1:1-4)