An epic dastan, in English

Portentous phrases like "important book" or "one of the year's biggest publishing events" are usually best reserved for jacket descriptions written by the marketing divisions of publishing houses.

However, these are phrases that sit well on Musharraf Ali Farooqi's The Adventures of Amir Hamza, an outstanding rendition of the Indo-Islamic epic Dastan-e Amir Hamza. As the first complete English translation of a medieval classic that has been in danger of neglect, this is a landmark work in its very conception "" invaluable to students of Islamic heritage and Arabic literature "" but the excellence of its execution makes it a fantasy-adventure that can be relished by readers of all backgrounds.

The Hamza story, which evolved over hundreds of years through the oral narrative tradition, is about the exploits of the eponymous hero, who was based on a real-life figure, an uncle of the prophet Muhammed.

The tale begins with the wise Buzurjmehr, a vizier to the Persian emperor Naushervan, discovering that the latter's life and throne will be protected by a young man hailing from Mecca. Using his clairvoyant powers, Buzurjmehr determines the identity of this infant and has him raised under his supervision.

On growing up, Hamza achieves everything that he has been prophesised to do, and a lot more besides; but when he falls in love with Naushervan's daughter Mehr-Nigar, things get complicated.

Further, much to the frustration of Hamza's friends and his beloved, there is a long, enforced separation when he must travel alone to the magical land of Qaf to help defeat a rebellious band of demons.

In the meantime, his companions (led by the irrepressible Amar Ayyar, prince of tricksters), stay behind on earth and pit their arms (and wits) against numerous enemy forces.

But these are just the bare bones of the plot, and provide little hint of the sweeping vibrancy of the epic, its Arabian Nights-style richness of characters and incidents, and its bawdy humour. Nor do they suggest the consistently high quality of the prose in Farooqi's translation.

In a disarming preface, he describes escaping into the world of the Dastan-e Amir Hamza as a child, his reacquaintance with it years later, and the peculiar dream that led to his taking up the intimidating task of translation; and his emotional stake in the work is on view throughout.

Farooqi never compromises on the dastaan flavour, which is so crucial to the effect of a story that has come down over many generations. Each chapter opens with a florid sentence that supplies a metaphor for the story-telling process ("The fingers of ancient scribes straddle the provident dark reed, galloping their mount in the sphere of rhetoric...the dove of the stylus trills its notes inside the vestibule of the page").

A shift in the narrative is typically marked by a sentence like "Now let me tell you of Amar Ayyar..." or "Hear a few words about Bahram Gurd..." and you can almost hear the storyteller at a Mughal-era campfire saying the equivalent lines in Urdu.

When a Prophet or some other venerated figure is mentioned, there is a phrase of exaltation in parentheses ("peace be upon him!"), and numerous other stylistic devices simulate the oral storytelling tradition.

And yet, despite all these devices, The Adventures of Amir Hamza is consistently engaging for a modern reader "" it's exciting, funny, heroic, irreverent and moving in turn.

Inevitably, the book raises questions about neglected literary treasures from the past. As children, most of us quickly become familiar with Hindu epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata through comics or grandmothers' tales "" later, for interested adults, there are a number of widely available translations as well as revisionist versions.

Given the rich culture of folktales and mythological stories in India, and the manner in which they disseminate (and take different forms) across the country, it's a wonder that the adventures of Amir Hamza are not better known outside of traditional Muslim households.

Add to this the growing popularity of modern fantasy "" the Harry Potter series and the renewed interest in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, for example "" and it's clear that a market exists for storytelling in this vein. So why have Islamic epics like the Dastan-e Amir Hamza not been better preserved?

"There is no excuse for us not to have worked on this very important classic," says the Canada-based Farooqi, during an email interview.

"Forget about translations, even a proper annotated Urdu version of the epic is not available." Until recently, he says, Gian Chand Jain's Urdu Ki Nasri Dastanen was the only book of substance that documented many of these dastaans and their writers and story-tellers.

"Now, thankfully, we have a three-volume study of the Dastan-e Amir Hamza by the Indian scholar Shamsur Rahman Faruqi "" he addresses both the single-volume version, which I have translated, and the larger, 46-volume version published between 1883-1917."

Farooqi himself is currently working on a translation of the magical fantasy Tilism-e Hoshruba, which was recently made into a TV serial by Sagar Arts. "Bostan-e Khayal is another book that is equally important, and a favourite of Mirza Ghalib. There are scores of other such dastaans that have never been translated."

Incidentally, Farooqi prefers the term "Indo-Islamic epic" to describe these neglected works. And as far as India is concerned, he believes the neglect has a political dimension.

"The geographical divide of 1947 was accompanied by a communal divide of the joint Indo-Muslim cultural heritage. A mindset was allowed to develop that slowly distanced young Indians from those aspects of their culture which reinforced an integrated Indo-Muslim identity."

However, he admits that the state-funded cultural organisations in Pakistan have been equally careless about preserving this heritage.

"In the end, it boils down to whether we are comfortable with our cultural identity. Our intellectual inquiries are informed by it. Without knowing "" or making an effort to know "" who we are, there will be no scholarly effort to reclaim our joint heritage."

But, as he cannily points out, "If such an effort is made, we will also have to deal with the fact that the 'sanitised' versions of our cultural identity thrust upon the people of the Indian subcontinent "" first by their colonial rulers and then by their own governments - do not hold up to close scrutiny. That would be the first step in any renaissance of our literary classics."

Indeed, The Adventures of Amir Hamza is a pointer to the more dynamic, cheeky, even profane aspects of Islamic literature that are often forgotten today. The catalyst for much of this is the Amar Ayyar character who, though a steadfast companion of Hamza and a heroic figure throughout, appears largely exempt from the conventional dictates of morality.

Unapologetically mercenary, Amar schemes and deceives his way through life; he plays several pranks on a respected mullah, including lacing his food with a strong laxative; on one occasion he speaks impertinently to Allah's prophet Khizr, who has made a divine visitation; and the "tricks" he plays on his enemies, drugging them and arranging their unconscious bodies in obscene positions, can be as shocking for a conservative reader as the uncensored, sexually explicit portions of the Hindu Puranas are.

That said, one of the intriguing things about the Hamza epic is an apparent contradiction in its tone. On the one hand, there are the subversive bits; on the other, there are the orthodox, strident passages when Hamza and his friends subdue various opponents and make them convert to the "True Faith" and "renounce idol worship", and the repeated suggestion that those who do not believe in the right god are destined for hell.

However, Farooqi doesn't read much into this. "Every adventurer out to win renown has the same concerns and preoccupations as Amir Hamza," he says, "His goal is to subdue enemies and triumph against threats. It's true that he does wholesale conversions, but it's also obvious that he does this in the service of Naushervan, the Persian emperor who is a fire-worshipper and an infidel, and who does not convert himself."

"When we look at Hamza's situation in context, we see that these conversions are a medieval warrior's attempts to win allegiance "" once an adversary converts, the threat is neutralised, Hamza can leave him behind and move on to meet his next challenge knowing that his back will be secure."

Globally, Islam tends to be seen as a restrictive religion. Will the greater availability of epics like this one introduce readers to another side of the medieval Islamic world and help bridge the cultural gap between East and West? Farooqi isn't excessively optimistic about this.

"I keep myself politically updated by watching Hollywood action movies," he quips. "They used to have Russian villains. Then, for a short while, I saw Japanese villains because their cars were selling better than the US autos. Now we have bearded Arabs waving kalashnikovs. I am not too worried. If the Chinese do not adjust their currency, soon the bearded Arabs will be replaced by evil Chinese businessmen. The role of the global villain keeps changing according to the political agendas and motivations of the major powers, and it is silly to think that the current Western political narratives on Islam will have a long life. You cannot fool everyone all the time."

A book like The Adventures of Amir Hamza can certainly be used in building bridges, he says: "After all, it's as fat as a brick! But jokes aside, I don't think we can throw books at people in any kind of cultural dialogue just to prove that we are liberal. Any kind of dialogue or consensus between peoples and cultures should be built on mutual respect and the traditions of tolerance and co-existence. Once that atmosphere is created, books like this will certainly have a positive influence, and will be read for the right reasons."