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by Syed Ayaz Bokhari
Ahmed Shah Bokhari first started using a pen name “Peter”, in respect of
his teacher Peter Watkins, when he wrote in English. In his Urdu
writings he used the pen name “Patras”.
According to Khaled Ahmed, in his article “The House of Patras” which
appeared in The Friday Times, Lahore, on May 13, 1999, Patras is “a
Persian adaptation of an Arabic rendering of 'Peter'.”
An extract from Z.A. Bokhari's autobiography about the orientation of
ASB’s pen-name is :
“My brother’s full name was Pir Syed Ahmed Shah Bokhari. Our headmaster
(in Peshawar) Mr. Watkins addressed him by his first name ‘Pir’ but
pronounced it as ‘Pierre’ as if it was a French word. Pierre in French
stands for Peter, which is Patras in Greek….As a result of this
similarity, my brother took up ‘Patras’ as his pen-name.”
Ahmed Shah Bokhari was well read in Greek Philosophy and had a deep
understanding of Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. He wrote an article
“Ancient Greek Rulers and Their Thinking” which was published in March
1919 in the “Kehkashan”, Lahore. He was 21 years old at the time.
There is a historic Greek city called “Patras”,
for which evidence suggests it existed as far back as the 3rd
century BC.
It is the third largest city of Greece, and also the capital of the
Achaea region of Greece. Patra, or Patras, is located in the southwest
part of Greece in Peloponnesos. It is also the capital of the Region of
West Greece. The ancient city of Patras was originally formed by the
unification of three Mycenaean villages: Aroe, Antheia and Mesatis.
After the Dorian invasion a group of Achaeans from Laconia, led by
Patreas, established a colony and the city took its name from their
leader.
It therefore cannot be ruled out that Ahmed Shah Bokhari may have been
inspired to adopt this city’s name as his pen name.
Some persons refer to PATRAS Bokhari as “PITRAS Bokhari”. There is no
evidence to suggest that “PITRAS” is the correct pronunciation. In fact
there is sufficient evidence to conclude that “PATRAS” is the correct
pronunciation.
Without any need to conjecture or
hypothesize,
the following quotation from an interview of Ahmed Shah Bokhari,
published by The New Yorker on September 18, 1954 in its editorial
captioned “Be
Gentle” should clarify the matter as to what is the correct
pronunciation of his pen-name “…….Someday, when I am wise enough,
maybe Patras will write about America.”
The choice of a pen-name, and its pronunciation is the choice of the
person who adopted it. Sometimes it happens that over time, due to
various reasons, pronunciations of words change, resulting in a complete
change from the original. The purpose of this note is to attempt to
record the correct pronunciation of “PATRAS” with the hope that it will
continue to be referred to as was intended by Late Professor Ahmed Shah
Bokhari.
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