SULEIMAN AALI-SHAN

American historian, cinematographer, fiction writer and novelist Harold Albert Lamm (1892-1962) was born in Alpine, New Jersey (USA). He studied at Columbia University and during this time became interested in the peoples and history of Asia. Lamm made his writing a source of income from the beginning. He soon began writing for the well-known adventure magazine and demonstrated his talent for fiction for nineteen years. In 1927, he wrote a biography of Genghis Khan, after the success of which he turned his attention away from fiction and focused on other genres. By the time of his death, he had written numerous biographies and popular historical books. Inspired by the success of the two-volume book "Crusades", Cecil B. de Milly appointed Lamm as his consultant for a film about the Crusades and used him as a screenwriter for several other films. Lamm could speak French, Latin, Persian and Arabic fluently. Lam's prose was simple and distinctly different from that of his contemporaries. The stories were well-researched and often featured real historical characters that were unfamiliar to his Western readers. He avoided the facile tendency to portray foreign or unfamiliar cultures negatively. Many of his heroes were Mongols, Indians, Russians or Muslims. Moreover, they were unfamiliar with foreign or foreign civilizations, and most of them were skilled swordsmen and warriors. Many of Harold Lam's books were translated into Urdu in India and Pakistan. Saladin, Timur, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Suleiman the Magnificent, Babur the Tiger, Hannibal, Nur Mahal, Constantinople, Cyrus the Great, Mongols and their Leaders, The Invasion of the Tatars and The Kazakhs became particularly famous for their excellent Urdu translations.