اُردو کی پہلی خاتون سفر نامہ نگار ، نواب سکندر جہاں بیگم

Nawab Sikandar Jahan Begum, the first woman travel writer of Urdu

Abstract

Safarnama (Travelogue) is an essential genre of literature. There are some historicalmistakes regarding Urdu's first female travelogue writer. It is highly important to correct it.on the basis of “Ser e Europe”(1908)) Nazli Rafia Sultan Begum has been declared as the first woman travel writer of Urdu in various books published in Pakistan and India , which is completely baseless. The fact is that the first female travel writer of Urdu was not Nazli Begum, but of the then ruler of Bhopal Nawab Sikandar Begum wrote a travelogue of Hajj in 1863under the name of "Tarikh-e-Waqeya Hajj".We find mention of this travelogue in Garsan Datasi's urdu articles and Sikandar Begum's book "Ain-e-Sikandri". A handwritten copy of this travelogue is still preserved in Raza Library, Rampur. We are happy that, We had the honor of finding the first woman travel writer.