Ibn-e-Insha

Ibn-e-Insha (1927–1978), born Sher Muhammad Khan, was a Pakistani Urdu poet and writer, regarded as one of the finest humorists in Urdu. He was known for his ghazals, which passed into the repertoire of famous singers, for his humorous travelogues, and for his newspaper columns. ^{1 2}

His place in this record rests on how far his writing travelled through the media of his day: leading ghazal singers performed his poems on Radio Pakistan and in concert, and his work continued to be sung and circulated decades after his death. ¹

He was born in Phillaur, in the Jalandhar district of Punjab, British India, on 15 June 1927; his father hailed from Rajasthan. ^{1 2}

He received his B.A. from Punjab University in 1946 and his M.A. from the University of Karachi in 1953. ¹

He was associated with several government services, including Radio Pakistan, the Ministry of Culture and the National Book Centre of Pakistan, and he also served with the United Nations for a time, which took him to many countries that then fed his travel writing: Japan, the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. ¹

In his youth in the late 1940s he lived for a short period in Lahore with the renowned film poet Sahir Ludhianvi, and he was active in the Progressive Writers' Movement. ¹

His poetry collections include Chand Nagar, Is Basti Key Ik Koochey Main, Dil-e-Wehshi, and Billo Ka Basta, a book of rhymes for children; he also translated a long humorous poem by the German poet Wilhelm Busch. ¹

His travelogues include Awara Gard Ki Diary, Dunya Gol Hey, Ibn Battuta Kay Taqub Mein (1974), Chaltay Ho To Cheen Ko Chaliye (1960) and Nagri Nagri Phira Musafar, journeys in which description is laced with his humour. ¹

His humour books include Urdu Ki Aakhri Kitab (1971), Khat Insha Jee Kay, a collection of letters, and Khumar-e-Gandum; posthumous collections of his writing include Aap Se Kya Parda (2004) and Batain Insha Ji Ki (2005). He also translated a collection of Chinese poems into Urdu in 1960, and works by Chekhov, O. Henry, Edgar Allan Poe and German short-story writers. ¹

His popular fame came through poems sung by great voices: his best-known ghazal, "Insha Ji Uttho Ab Kooch Karo", was popularised by the classical singer Amanat Ali Khan in 1974 in a Radio Pakistan Lahore production; "Kal Chaudhwin Ki Raat Thi" became highly popular in both India and Pakistan in the 1980s in Jagjit Singh's voice; "Yeh Baatein Jhooti Baatein Hain" was sung by Ghulam Ali; and "Sab Maya Hai" was performed by the folk singer Attaullah Khan Esakhelvi on Coke Studio Pakistan in 2017, some forty years after the poet's death. ¹

The veteran Pakistani writer and humorist Anwar Maqsood called him his hero, said writers learned writing by reading his books, and urged today's generation to leave internet browsing and read him. The playwright Bano Qudsia said his absence left a gaping hole in the Urdu literary world and that he wrote from his heart, which made him unique. ¹

He was awarded the Pride of Performance by the President of Pakistan in 1978. ¹

He spent the remainder of his life in Karachi and died of Hodgkin's lymphoma on 11 January 1978 while in London; he was buried in Karachi. His son, Roomi Insha, was a Pakistani filmmaker who died in 2017. ^{1 2}

• The defined sources cited above, registered in data/source/.
• There is no Arabic Wikipedia article on Ibn-e-Insha (only an Egyptian Arabic one), so this record is built on the English article and Wikidata.