Fabulous Machinery for the Curious

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This volume presents six translations from the qissa genre, highlighting its unique characteristics. In Urdu, "qissa" refers to both short and long narratives, encompassing diverse forms of prose and verse. The narratives within qissa literature range from folk tales and historical accounts to adventure stories, picaresque narratives, and religious texts. Their structures vary widely, including frame stories, linear narratives, and loosely connected collections, which complicates a neat classification of the genre. The prevalence of such narratives suggests their significant social role, indicating a cultural impulse to structure various stories in a narrative form. This rich diversity implies that qissa literature served purposes beyond mere entertainment. For audiences, these stories provided social guidance, moral lessons, and insights into well-being, effectively functioning as a form of life education. The six qissas included in this collection exemplify the depth and breadth of this literature, now available in their first English translations, allowing readers to explore the profound engagement with storytelling in this cultural context.