Sheikh Zainuddin Makhdum's Tuhfatul Mujahideen

Anti-colonial and anti-invasion literature does not lose significance or go out of popular interest as long as invasions or political oppressions continue in one form or another. Works in this spectrum have been labeled variously in the modern times as literature of the colonized, anti-colonial literature, literature of the marginalized, subaltern literature etc. Written originally in Arabic about five centuries ago, Sheikh Zainuddin Makhdum's Tuhfatul Mujahideen is viewed as a classic text in this genre. It has been translated into several regional and international languages. It was rendered into English two or three times over the centuries. Yet a modern translation of the work in to English is worth the effort in view of the revival of interest in things related to colonial times especially in the context of post World War II trends of neo-colonialism. It is, no doubt, a rich addition to the growing genre of subaltern literature in English.