Traditions and Transitions folk narrative in the contemporary world
16-20
July 2001 The University of Melbourne, Australia
|
|
|
|
Traditions and Transitions folk narrative in the contemporary world |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | main abstract index | main congress page |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
In June 2000, I found an unpublished travelogue in Perth,
Western Australia, in the possession of a Pakistani family
(the manuscript was discovered while I was on a short term K. & D. Mackay
Travelling Scholarship). The manuscript is in Urdu, in elegant nast`aliq
script, 280 pp., 120 ´
200 mm size, with cca. 22 lines/page. It is highly legible, with some
underlining, corrections, glossae. (See the two attached facsimile pages). It
is titled Savánih `umriy (Events of My Life) and narrates the
travels of Khvájah Mohammad Bukhs (Anglicized spelling Bux, b. 1857 India, d.
1929 Lahore).
Title Page of the manuscript The Events of My Life by Mr Mohammad Bux, Australian Merchant.
Page 112 of the manuscript: Mohammad Bux was taken to court for keeping his wife locked inside the house. Note the English word for 'court' in line 17.
The travelogue starts with family history, followed by eleven Journeys
(Safar’s). The last twenty-some pages contain practical and pious advice. In
the First Journey Bux travels to Bombay, Basra, China, Arabia; the Second tells
his landing in Melbourne around 1880 as a stowaway from Singapore. Journeys
3-11 relate his later sojourns in Australia. In the 1920s he retired to Lahore.
He worked as chutney maker in Melbourne, hawker and shopkeeper in Fremantle and
Perth, and camel teamster in the WA gold fields. From his life savings he built
the old Horseshoe Coffee Palace in Murray St., Perth and the Australia Masjeed
mosque in Lahore (The Sunday Times (Perth) 31 Oct. 1965, p.26).
The Savánih `umriy contains a wealth of information on early ‘Afghan’
pioneers, their hard work, observance of Islam and native customs. Most of its
stories about hawkers and camel drivers cannot be found elsewhere. An annotated
facsimile edition of the text with English translation would benefit
historians, linguists and folklorists alike.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | main abstract index | main congress page |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |