1. Qurratulain Hyder was an Indian Urdu novelist and short story writer, academic, and journalist.
23 Facts About Qurratulain Hyder
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Qurratulain Hyder's mother, Nazar Zahra, who wrote at first as Bint-i-Nazrul Baqar and later as Nazar Sajjad Hyder, was a novelist and protegee of Muhammadi Begam and her husband Syed Mumtaz Ali, who published her first novel.
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Qurratulain Hyder received the 1967 Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu for Patjhar Ki Awaz, 1989 Jnanpith Award for Akhire Shab Ke Humsafar, and the highest award of the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 1994.
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Qurratulain Hyder received the Padma Bhushan from the Government of India in 2005.
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Qurratulain Hyder was born on 20 January 1927 in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.
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Qurratulain Hyder's father Syed Sajjad Haider Yaldram was a well known Urdu writer in India of travel and humour literature.
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Qurratulain Hyder was named after a notable Iranian poet Qurrat-ul-Ain Tahirih.
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Qurratulain Hyder instilled in it a new sensibility and brought into its fold strands of thought and imagination hitherto unexplored.
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Qurratulain Hyder is widely regarded as the "Grande Dame" of Urdu literature.
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Qurratulain Hyder lived in Bombay for nearly twenty years before shifting to Noida near New Delhi, where she had been staying till her demise.
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Qurratulain Hyder worked as a journalist to earn her living but regularly kept publishing short stories, literary translations and novels, by now almost thirty in number.
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Qurratulain Hyder was Managing Editor of the magazine Imprint, Bombay, and a member of the editorial staff of the Illustrated Weekly of India.
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Qurratulain Hyder's books have been translated into English and other languages.
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Qurratulain Hyder was visiting professor at the Urdu Department at Aligarh Muslim University, where her father had earlier been a registrar.
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Qurratulain Hyder was Professor Emeritus, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Chair at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
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Qurratulain Hyder has done a significant amount of translation of classics.
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Qurratulain Hyder received the Jnanpith Award in 1989 for her novel Aakhir-e-Shab ke Hamsafar.
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Qurratulain Hyder received the Sahitya Akademi Award, in 1967, Soviet Land Nehru Award, 1969, Ghalib Award, 1985.
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Qurratulain Hyder won Sahitya Akademi Award for her collection of short stories Patjhar ki Awaz in 1967.
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Qurratulain Hyder was conferred Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1984, and in 2005 she was conferred the Padma Bhushan the third highest civilian honour awarded by the Government of India, for her contribution to Urdu Literature and education.
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Qurratulain Hyder died in a NOIDA hospital, near New Delhi, India on 21 August 2007 after a protracted lung illness.
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Qurratulain Hyder was buried in the Jamia Millia Islamia cemetery, New Delhi.
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Qurratulain Hyder's death has been condoled by the President and Prime Minister of India, and Chief Minister of her home state Uttar Pradesh.