Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy 
Cabot 206

This talk is part of a special lecture series: 'South Asian Women in the Public Sphere' and is sponsored by the School of Arts, Sciences and Engineering's Diversity Fund.

Sunil Sharma is Senior Lecturer in Persian at Boston University and Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago with a specialization in Persian Language and Literature. Sharma is the author of two books: "Persian Poetry at the Indian Frontier: Masud Sad
Salman of Lahore" (2000), and "Amir Khusraw: The Poet of Sultans and Sufis"
(2005). He has also published a number of scholarly articles on various
aspects of Persian and Urdu literatures.

This paper examines the role played by Atiya Fyzee (1877-1967) in the lives of Muslim literati and intellectuals. She was one of the first Indian women to come out of purdah and study in London. Here, she recorded her experiences in the form of an Urdu travelogue, published for the edification of Muslim women.  Despite her intellectual achievements, Atiya continues to be remembered for her relationships with the older scholar Shibli Numani and the poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal. Her relationships with these two men, although a source for public scandal, gave her the confidence that would allow her to develop fully as a musicologist, writer, and cultural maven.