A presentation volume, also known as commemoration volume, is a collection of scholarly papers published to pay tributes to a personality — usually a living one — for the scholarly services that he or she has rendered.

The tradition of presentation volume may not be very old in the West either, but they have a glowing history of paying tributes to living legends. We, however, are a nation that loves the dead. No sooner than a celebrity departs this world can we acknowledge his or her services. In fact, our attitude towards the contemporaries betrays scorn and contempt rather than appreciation. But as soon as we read the obituary of a contemporary, we readily realise how great he or she was and we begin showering them with praise and love.

In this part of the world, the tradition of appreciating the great ones by publishing commemoration volume began quite late. It was Dr Moulvi Muhammad Shafi who pioneered the tradition by publishing ‘Woolner Commemoration Volume’ to appreciate the services rendered by Alfred Cooper Woolner (May 13, 1878-January 7, 1936), who was a scholar of Sanskrit and had served as the principal of Lahore’s Oriental College. He also served as the vice chancellor of the Punjab University. He died in Lahore and is buried there.

A C Woolner’s commemoration volume was in English. In Urdu, we don’t come across any presentation or commemoration volumes published earlier than 1955, the year when Dr Syed Abdullah compiled and published such a volume as a tribute to Dr Moulvi Muhammad Shafi, his beloved teacher who also served as the principal of Oriental College.

Dr Khalid Nadeem had published a research paper on the tradition of presentation volumes in Urdu in Sindh University’s research journal ‘Tehqeeq’ a couple of years ago. Aside from enlisting and evaluating the presentation volumes published in Urdu, he had raised an interesting point: the precise Urdu translation of the phrase “presentation/commemorative volume” is yet to be agreed upon. When Dr Syed Abdullah compiled such a volume for Dr Shafi, he named it ‘Armughan-e-ilmi’ and added in the parentheses ‘ba khidmat-e-professor Dr Moulvi Muhammad Shafi’. Later, when the tradition came in vogue and a number of such volumes were published to pay tribute some living personalities the title kept changing. For instance, writes Dr Khalid Nadeem, we had a volume titled as ‘Armughan-e-ulfat’ (presented to Ghulam-us-Syedain) and another named as ‘Nazr-e-Arshi’ (presented to Imtiaz Ali Khan Arshi). Volume published in honour of some departed souls also had different nomenclature like, ‘Yadgari mujaladda’ (for Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi) and ‘Yadgar nama’ (for Qazi Abdul Wudood).

Dr Shafi and Dr Syed Abdullah showed the way and their works became trendsetters. Now we have a large number of such volumes in Urdu. The latest in the tradition is the volume presented to Prof Dr Rafiuddin Hashmi, who truly deserves it. Prof Dr Rafiuddin Hashmi is one of the most distinguished scholars among our contemporaries. Though he is more known for his research and insight on Allama Iqbal and Iqbal Studies, Prof Hashmi is also respected for his works in other areas of Urdu literature as well as Islamic learning. Prof Hashmi Sahib has over 40 books and a large number of research papers to his credit. Having taught at different colleges and Punjab University for over 35 years, his last assignment before retirement was as head of the Urdu department at Punjab University Oriental College. He also served at Punjab University’s project of Urdu Encyclopaedia of Islam for a couple of years as director research. The Higher Education Commission obtained his services as Eminent Scholar and he served at Punjab University’s department of Iqbaliyaat (Iqbal Studies). He has supervised a considerable number of MA, MPhil and PhD dissertations.

Titled ‘Armughan-e-Rafiuddin Hashmi’, the presentation volume is compiled by Dr Khalid Nadeem who teaches Urdu at Sargodha University and has also been Prof Dr Hashmi’s pupil. Just published by Rawalpindi’s Al-Fatah Publications, the volume is divided into five sections: Iqbal Studies, Urdu literature, unpublished and rare letters of some celebrities and religion. The fifth portion consists of Prof Dr Hashmi’s biographical and bibliographical details.

Consisting of 28 research papers and write-ups, the volume is an invaluable present both to the readers and Prof Dr Hashmi. Dr Khalid Nadeem has done a marvellous job by obtaining and compiling papers written by some bigwigs of today’s Urdu literature, which include Dr Abdul Haq, Dr Gian Chand (the late scholar had sent this article to Dr Abdul Haq but it somehow remained unpublished and hence was included in the volume), Dr Asgher Abbas, Dr Anwar Sadeed, Dr Tehseen Firaqi, Dr Arif Naushahi, Dr Aslam Ansari, Dr Moinuddin Aqeel, Muhammad Alam Mukhter-e-Haq, Ikram Chughtai, Dr Muhammad Ali Asar, Dr Abdul Aziz Sahir, Dr Nasir Abbas Nayyay, Dr Rafaqat Ali Shahid, Dr Tayyab Muneer, Prof So Yamane, Dr Khalil Toker, Dr Ali Bayat, Dr Zahid Muneer Aamir, Dr Arshad Mahmood Nashad and many more. Aside from Urdu articles, the volume also includes papers in Persian, Turkish and English and scholars from Pakistan, India, Japan, Iran and Turkey have made it a truly international volume. In his foreword Prof Dr Muhammad Akram Choudhry, vice chancellor Sargodha University, has rightly mentioned that this presentation volume is being presented to Prof Dr Rafiuddin Hashmi on his 73rd birthday with the hope that those who seek knowledge would be able to quench their thirst from the works of Prof Hashmi in the years to come as well.

It is very difficult to comment on the individual papers but in a nutshell, most of them are worth reading.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com