I undertook the work for over three years, consulting friends and family on my visits to Aligarh and through correspondence. Since she was quite unwell at the time with her condition deteriorating each day, she was unable to take up the task and it fell to us, her daughters, and niece, Shahla Haidar, to develop and complete the manuscript. Publishers advised her to expand the writing with more details and clarifications and further research. Her biography was therefore much more than an account o f her personal life. Later, Khurshid Mirza wanted it to be published as a book since her narrative spanned from 1857 to 1983 and provided an insight into the social conditions of Indian Muslims and the transition to Pakistan. Credit is due to the editor, late Razia Bhatti, who encouraged her to write the recollections of a rich and varied life. The autobiography of Begum Khurshid Mirza was written for the monthly magazine Herald in a nine-part serial from August 1982 to April 1983 under the tide, ‘The Uprooted Sapling*. Typeset at Scribe Consultants, B4/30 Safdaijung Enclave, New Delhi-29 Printed at Raj Press, R 3 Inderpuri, New Delhi 110012įor Sheikh Abdullah and Waheed Jahan Begum, Papa Mian and Alabi to generations o f girls who studied at Aligarh Muslim Girls School and College. Zubaan an imprint o f Kali for Women K -9 2 ,1st Floor Hauz Khas Enclave NEW DELHI - 110016 A Woman of Substance The Memoirs o f Begum Khurshid M irzaĮdited and Com piled by LUBNA KAZIM Foreword by G a il M

Azra ki gurya urdu poem