E-grāmata: Atiya's Journeys: A Muslim Woman from Colonial Bombay to Edwardian Britain [Oxford Scholarship Online E-books]

Born in Istanbul and raised in colonial Bombay, Atiya Fyzee (1877-1967), of the renowned Tyabji clan, was an extraordinary woman of her time. Traveller, writer, and reformer, she was a cultural icon---not least on account of her friendships with two of South Asia's prominent Muslim intellectuals, Maulana Shibli Numani and Muhammad Iqbal. Her partnership with her husband, artist, and writer Samuel Rahamin also earned the couple international acclaim in the fields of music, dance, visual arts, theatre, and literature.

Atiya's Journeys is the first English translation of Atiya Fyzee's travelogue-cum-diary, Zamana-i-tahsil, published in an Urdu journal in 1906-7. A fascinating account of a Muslim woman's experience of Edwardian Britain, this unique narrative moves away from formulaic European travelogues by Indian men in placing its emphasis on the `everyday'. From her visits to the opera to her experience of the lives of prominent Indians, from her accounts of daily activities of women and subaltern classes to her advice to her readers in India, Atiya's travels and writings reveal a kaleidoscope of the multicultural ethos of Edwardian Britain.

With meticulous annotations, rare photographs, and extracts from Atiya's other writings, this book will appeal to scholars and students interested in travel narratives, gender studies, Urdu literature, Islam as well as modern history of India and Britain.

This is the original English translation of the first Indian Muslim woman's experiences in the 'West'. Atiya Fyzee's (1877-1967), travelogue-cum-diary was published in an Urdu journal and then in 1922 as a book Zamana-i-Tahsil. The narrative is unique as it moves away from formulaic European travelogues by Indian men and places particular emphasis on 'everyday' activities of women and subaltern classes, dimensions which appeal to general readers and researchers alike today. Alongside lively accounts of local elites and prominent Indians abroad, Atiya provides descriptions of their clothing, meals, servants, homes, and mannerisms. The lucid translation and 48 photographs-some of them rare, are accompanied by meticulous annotations to the narrative and an introduction that provides the context.