The Urdu dastan, or romance, tradition is often said to consist of stories of razm o bazm , tilism o 'ayyari -- "battles and elegant gatherings, enchantments and trickery." In India, one dastan always dominated the field: the story of Amir Hamza. Elaborate tales about this hero were recorded and illustrated in the emperor Akbar's famous Hamza-nama; it seems that Akbar also enjoyed personally telling the stories to the ladies of the harem.

As the stories moved from Indo-Persian into Urdu, their popularity increased; by the later 1800s oral dastan-go'i, or romance recitation, was enjoyed by aristocrats and commoners alike. The famous Naval Kishor Press of Lucknow called in the leading oral reciters of the day, and caused their Hamza stories to be written down. The resulting volumes were so popular that more and more were published, until the whole cycle ran to an astonishing 46 very large volumes. These volumes were created in Lucknow from the 1880s into the early 1900s, and became the crown jewels of Urdu narrative fiction.

By the 1920s, however, they had begun to seem outmoded, and were increasingly supplanted by western-style novels and short stories. But they have always been felt to be the heart of the cycle, and thus were chosen in 1998 by the Khuda Bakhsh Library to be reprinted.

Read the complete dastan here..
https://www.rekhta.org/dastan-e-amir-hamza