About the editor

Epsita Halder is Professor at the Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Her first monograph, Reclaiming Karbala: Nation, Islam and Literature of the Bengali Muslims (2023), on Bengali Muslim cultural nationalism, received the World Award for the Book of the Year of Iran (2025) as well as an award from the Indian History Congress (2023). Epsita Halder edited and co-translated an anthology of Abul Bashar’s short stories, The Open-Winged Scorpion and Other Stories (2021).

General Introduction
Editor’s Introduction

Salt Water – Syed Mujtaba Ali – trans. Nazes Afroz
In Whose Name the Cow Is Slaughtered – Syed Mustafa Siraj – trans. Ipshita Chanda
The Merchant of Sagar Island – Abdul Jabbar – trans. Sarmistha Dutta Gupta & Shambhobi Ghosh
The Prayer Beads – Abdur Rakib – trans. Debalina Sen
The Merchant of Paradise – Abdur Rowf – trans. Paramita Brahmachari
Qasid – Abul Bashar – trans. Sipra Mukherjee & Epsita Halder
The Birth of a Fable – Kamal Hosain – trans. Paramita Brahmachari
The Boundary – Murshid A.M. – trans. Sucheta Bhattacharya
My Ela-ting Bela-ting Bestie – Afsar Ahmed – trans. Sipra Mukherjee
The Water of Zamzam – Answar Uddin – trans. Supriya Chaudhuri
Falling Apart – Hasir Mallick – trans. Debalina Sen
Noorbaksh’s Cannabis Plant and the Story of a Butterfly – Sohrab Hossain – trans. Sipra Mukherjee
Beradane Islam – Niharul Islam – trans. Paramita Brahmachari
Moon-Touched – Nadira Sultana – trans. Debalina Sen
The Qissa of Rashida Bewa – Samim Ahmed – trans. Arunava Sinha
The Noose – Ayesha Khatun – trans. Paramita Banerjee
Imam Bhata, or A Tale of Survival – Asadul Islam – trans. Maharghya Chakraborty
In the Slumber of Liyaqat Ali – Sadique Hossain – trans. Devalina Mookerjee & Epsita Halder
A Man Madly in Love or the Chronicle of a Madman in Love – Hamiruddin Middya – trans. Sucheta Bhattacharya

Glossary
About the Contributors
About the Editor