Habba Khatoon Nightingale Of Kashmir

Prof.wakhlu’s immensely interesting novel is the odyssel of love, intense & passionate. Thus the book is a song of love. The book narrates in full, rich & lucide style the love of sultan yousf shah chak of kashmir for a village belle, habba khatoon, whose original name was zoon, born of an ordinary peasant family at the village chandhara in kashmir, she blossomed into an exquisitely charming damsel & a melodious singer who could compose lyrics which are even now considered the gems of kashmiri literature. We also see the turbulant & strife-torn times in kashmir’s history.there are evil forces of communalism & sectarianism & then the aggressive designs of emperor akbar. The threat of war always hangs like the dead albatross around the neck of yusuf shah.all this & much more makes the novel a national epic of kashmir. The book is studded with gems of kashmiri poetry translated into english by the author himself.the novel inspires pity & terror & so is, like a greek tragedy, cathartic in character.