The story of the tilism (an inanimate object transformed into its own world) of Hoshruba, defended by Emperor Afrasiyab against rival tilism as well as the trickster Amar Ayyar, has become one of the foremost fantasy tales in Urdu. Translated into English for the time by writer Musharrag Ali Farooqi, the entire first volume of classic fantasy epic Hoshruba: The Land and the Tilism, is serialized on Tor.com.

Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author, novelist, and translator. He is the critically acclaimed translator of Urdu fantasy classics Dastan-e Amir Hamza (The Adventures of Amir Hamza, Modern Library, 2007) and Tilism-e Hoshruba of which the first of 24 books have been published (Hoshruba: The Land and the Tilism, 2009). Farooqi writes the monthly Microtalk column on the myths and folklore of South Asia for the Livemint Lounge. He can be reached at  www.mafarooqi.com and on twitter at @microMAF