The five legends included in this volume are drawn from the main regions of the Indus Valley, which stretches from the Himalayas to the desert sands of the Arabian Sea, through a landscape of breathtaking beauty and contrast in what is now Pakistan. Adam & Durkhane from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sohni & Mahiwal from Punjab
Heer & Ranjha from Punjab
Omar & Marui from Balochistan
Sassui & Punhun from Sindh Traditionally told by local bards for entertainment and education at community gatherings, these folktales have been reinterpreted by each subsequent generation in verse and song, providing material for the great Sufi poets as well as musicians, visual artists and craftsmen. As part of her lifelong interest in preserving the rich cultural heritage and diversity of the Indus region, Samina Quraeshi (1944-2013) began to record and document different interpretations of these folk tales in the early 2000s. Inspired by her mentor Dr. Annemarie Schimmel’s interpretation of these folkstories as Sufi parables, Quraeshi created a contemporary text inspired by this oral, poetic, musical and artistic tradition. Originally published by Asia Ink in 2004, this new edition fulfills Quraeshi’s plans to provide a new volume of these classic tales, accessible to a new generation of readers in Pakistan and around the world. Featuring a new preface by her daughter Sadia Shepard, the Oxford University Press edition is designed by Saima Zaidi and illustrated with paintings from the collection of The Lahore Museum.