مولوی لطف علی کے سیفل نامہ کا ایک قدیم قلمی نسخے سے محمد بشیر احمد ظامی کے مرتبہ نسخے سے تقابلی مطالعہ A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MAULVI LUTAF ALI’S SAIFAL NAMA FROM AN OLD MANUSCRIPT WITH BASHIR AHMAD ZAMI’S COMPILED SAIF UL MULUK Section Urdu Literature

Abstract

Saifal Nama by Maulvi Lutaf Ali is a masterpiece of Siraiki literature. Saifal Nama also gained great popularity and influenced also countless people. The wonder is that where it influenced poets and writers, it influenced a common man even more.

Khawaja Farid says about the Saifal Nama “In the beginning, there was no word except for the words of Saifal written by poet Lutaf Ali. Like all classical poets, Lutaf Ali’s Saifal Nama could not be published in his life time. Eighty-Eight years after the death of Maulvi Lutaf Ali, Saifal Nama was published for the first time. From its first publication, Saifal Nama gained great popularity which resulted in fact that various publishers in Punjab started publishing it regardless of the soundless of the text in view of their financial gained. As a result, there are many manuscripts of the printed text, but none of them meet the criteria of authentic or correct text in view of this need, Muhammad Bashir Ahmad Zami published Moulvi Lutaf Ali’s  Saifal Nama under the name of Saif ul Muluk. This is much better and superior work then the previous work. It is valued in academic and literary circles. Despite all this, the need for an authentic text is still needed. For this reason, for the first time in 2010 a comparative study of Muhammad Bashir Ahmed Zami’s manuscript was done with the belief and hope that in this way we will have the authentic text of Maulvi Lutaf Ali in future.

This article includes an introduction to Maulvi Lutaf Ali, a brief history of the printing of his kalaam, an interoduction to Muhammad Bashir Ahmed Zami, and the results of a comparative study of the Saifal Nama manuscript with Muhammad Bashir Ahmed Zami manuscript.