Barda By Riaz Aqib Kohlar

About this novel

Barda (Urdu: بردہ) by Riaz Aqib Kohlar is an epic historical novel, thousands of pages long, set among the desert tribes of ancient Arabia before Islam. It opens with a birth: in a camp of tents on a trading journey, the midwife steps out and announces that the tribe’s chief has a son.

The chief, Shareek, is overjoyed. He rewards the midwife with a purse of coins, and within moments the whole caravan has heard the news. His wife, Aqida, was heavily pregnant when the journey began, and he had tried to leave her behind, but she refused to stay away from him, so the caravan halted at an oasis and the boy was born in the desert. Shareek lifts his newborn son high and says no man on earth has been given a greater gift. He calls the child a gift from Hubal, the idol his people worship, and points out a birthmark on the baby’s side as a sign of good fortune.

صحرا میں جنم لینے والا سردار کا بیٹا — اور قسمت کا لکھا کچھ اور۔

The midwife wants to know the boy’s name, but tribal custom says the heir must be named by the chief and his brothers together. Until then, Shareek says, he is simply the chhota sardar. The caravan rests at the oasis for a week, enjoying the water and the green grass after a long, hard journey. Then, on a cold moonlit night, a young man stepping out of his tent sees a lone rider watching from the dunes. Moments later a band of raiders appears out of the darkness and quietly surrounds the sleeping camp.

The title means “slave”, and the opening makes clear that this child’s life, born a chief’s heir, is not going to follow the path his father planned. Riaz Aqib Kohlar brings the tents, caravans, tribal honour and rivalries of the old desert to life, making this a big read for anyone who loves historical adventure.

You can read Barda online here or download the complete PDF for free. For a very different side of the same writer, try Snipper or Adawat, or see all Riaz Aqib Kohlar novels.