The Repentance of Nussooh (1884) is a translation of Taubat-al-Nasuh (1874) by Nazir Ahmad, one of the stalwarts of the Aligarh Movement and a younger contemporary of Syed Ahmad Khan. Inspired by Daniel Defoe’s The Family Instructor, the Urdu novel far surpasses its English model in bringing alive, through incident and dialogue, a crisis of values among members of an elite Muslim family in Delhi soon after the Great Rebellion of 1857. Though didactic in purpose, the novel’s many literary qualities justify its general recognition as the first major novel in Urdu. Like its predecessor, Mirat-ul ‘Arus (The Bride’s Mirror), Taubat-al-Nasuh received an award from the colonial government and was immediately made a part of the Urdu syllabus in Indian schools; it thus became integral to the formal education of all Urdu-speaking generations in North India. This novel is among India’s most important literary texts emphasizing the role of religion in inculcating ideals and virtues for proper conduct.
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