Imran Series by Ibn-e-Safi: Complete Guide to Ali Imran and X-2

The imran series is the most argued about creation in Urdu popular fiction. It begins with Ibn-e-Safi in 1955, introduces Ali Imran, an Oxford-educated young man who plays the fool while secretly running a secret service, and then continues for decades in the hands of other writers.

That double history is exactly why readers get confused. Book covers, fan lists and shop descriptions mix Ibn-e-Safi’s original novels with hundreds of later volumes by other hands, and totals quoted online vary wildly. This guide separates the confirmed record from the fan lore.

In Urdu script the name is عمران سیریز. The hero’s full name is Ali Imran, his secret codename is X-2, and understanding that double identity is the key to the whole series.

Quick Facts About Ali Imran and the Series

• Creator: Ibn-e-Safi, pen name of Asrar Ahmad (1928 to 1980)
• First novel: Khaufnaak Imarat, published in October 1955
• Hero: Ali Imran, holder of MSc and PhD degrees in chemistry from Oxford
• Secret identity: X-2, chief of the Secret Service, known to only a handful of people
• Household: Sulaiman, his cook, and Joseph Mugunda, his bodyguard
• Genre: Urdu spy fiction mixing humour, mystery, suspense and psychology
• Original run: more than one hundred novels by Ibn-e-Safi, with sources disagreeing between 120 and 121
• Later continuation: written for decades by Mazhar Kaleem and many other writers after, and in some cases during, Ibn-e-Safi’s lifetime

Hold that disagreement in mind throughout this guide. Where a number cannot be settled from reliable sources, we say so plainly instead of repeating the largest figure we could find.

What Is the Imran Series About?

The Imran Series is about Ali Imran, an Oxford-educated young man who acts the fool in public while secretly running a secret service as X-2. Each Urdu novel gives him a complete espionage case involving disguise, deduction, danger and comedy, where enemies underestimate him until his careful planning becomes clear at the end.

The comedy is not decoration. Imran’s foolishness is his cover. Colleagues in the Secret Service mock him as a useless hanger-on, never guessing that the frightening voice of X-2, whose orders they obey without question, belongs to the man they laugh at in the corridor.

The cases themselves range from criminal gangs to foreign espionage. Ibn-e-Safi deliberately never named Imran’s country outright, which let the stories feel local to readers in Pakistan and India alike while keeping the focus on plot and character rather than politics.

Ibn-e-Safi’s Original Novels, Explained Honestly

Imran does not begin as chief. In the early books he works as a solo detective. Only in the ninth book, Dhuaen ki Tehreer, is he shown as chief of the Secret Service under the codename X-2, after Sir Sultan, the senior official who oversees the service, offers him the role following events in the previous book, Raat ka Shahzadah.

From that point the structure settles. Imran appears to be an ordinary, low-ranking member of the service, while a small circle, including Sir Sultan and Tahir, who acts as X-2 under the name Black Zero when Imran is away, guards the secret. The other agents fear X-2 and tolerate Imran, never connecting the two.

Ibn-e-Safi had already proved the formula with Faridi and Hameed, as our complete guide to the Jasoosi Duniya series shows. With Imran he pushed the humour further and made the hero’s split personality the engine of every plot. Readers who like that modern mix of thriller plotting and a deceptive hero often go on to our guide to Namal by Nimra Ahmed.

Main Characters

Ali Imran and X-2

Imran is handsome, brilliant and deliberately infuriating. Reference accounts describe his eccentric dress, bright colours, mismatched clothes and a rose in his hat, which Ibn-e-Safi called his Technicolor outfit. He sings, jokes and appears to blunder, right up to the moment a trap closes.

As X-2 he is the opposite: cold, brief and feared. That contrast is the character. Writers who keep only the clowning, or only the brilliance, miss the point, which is one reason purist readers judge later continuations so strictly.

The Secret Service team

The team around Imran includes Safdar Saeed, often described as his favourite agent, along with Juliana Fitzwater, Tanveer Ashraf and others who work cases without knowing who leads them. Captain Fayyaz of the intelligence bureau provides a useful contrast: an earnest officer whose successes often quietly depend on Imran’s help.

At home, the cook Sulaiman and the bodyguard Joseph Mugunda anchor Imran’s private life. His father is a senior intelligence official, his mother is known as Amma Bi, and his friend Roshi is one of the very few people trusted with his secret.

Sing Hee, Theresia and the great villains

Two opponents define Imran’s world. Sing Hee, also written as Sing Hi, is an international criminal and master of the bullet-dodging technique called Sing Art, which Imran himself learns from him. The two address each other as uncle and nephew, a joke that captures their mixture of respect and rivalry.

Theresia, known as T3B, is a brilliant adversary with a personal fascination for Imran that he cheerfully refuses to return. As in the Faridi books, the villains are not filler. They are written as intelligent people, which is what makes outwitting them satisfying.

Mazhar Kaleem and the Long Continuation

The continuation is a fact of publishing history, not a rumour. During Ibn-e-Safi’s illness in the early 1960s, imitators were already producing unauthorised volumes under similar names. After his death in 1980, many writers continued the series openly, and one name outlasted all the others: Mazhar Kaleem.

According to the available record, Kaleem’s first volume, Maka Zonga, also written as Makazonga, appeared in the late 1960s or early 1970s under the name N Safi and introduced Captain Shakeel. He later published under his own name with publishers in Multan, and he added characters including Tiger, Juanna and Chief Shagal, as well as the fictional country name Pakasia for Imran’s homeland.

His approach differed from the original. Reference comparisons note that Ibn-e-Safi built his books around mystery, while Kaleem favoured action and early revelation of the plot, and presented Imran as more nearly indestructible. Purist readers object to those changes. Kaleem’s large and loyal readership is equally real, and any honest guide has to record both facts.

Counts, Claims and Fan Lore: What We Can and Cannot Confirm

For Ibn-e-Safi himself, sources give 120 or 121 original Imran novels. That is a small disagreement, probably caused by how special numbers and reprints are counted, and it is safe to say more than one hundred.

For Kaleem, the figures cannot be reconciled at all. His reference entry says over five hundred Imran books. Newspaper obituaries in 2018 said over five hundred in one report and over six hundred in another, while family claims quoted in coverage ran into thousands once children’s stories were included. Those are claims about different categories of writing, repeated without a single verified bibliography, so this guide states no exact Kaleem total.

The same caution applies to favourite fan claims: precise rankings of the single best novel, secret real identities for fictional places, and complete reading orders stitched together from dozens of authors. Enjoy them as fandom, but do not mistake them for the publishing record. For a calmer shelf of proven titles, browse our best books collections and our guide to the best mystery and thriller Urdu novels.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it Imran Series, Emran Series or Umran Series?

Imran Series is the standard spelling, from the hero’s name Ali Imran. Emran and Umran appear in shop listings and Roman Urdu conversation because the Urdu name عمران can be transliterated in several ways. All three spellings in a catalogue normally refer to the same body of books, so check the author name, Ibn-e-Safi or Mazhar Kaleem, to know which version you are buying.

How many Imran Series books did Ibn-e-Safi write?

Reference sources give 120 or 121 novels, published between 1955 and his death in 1980. Anyone quoting a much larger figure as his personal total is almost certainly counting the later books by Kaleem and other writers as well.

Are Mazhar Kaleem’s books part of the original series?

They continue the same hero and world, and they have been sold as Imran Series books for decades, but they are not by Ibn-e-Safi. Kaleem created his own characters, changed the tone towards action, and named Imran’s country Pakasia, which Ibn-e-Safi never did. Treat the two runs as related but distinct, and buy by author name.

What does X-2 mean?

X-2 is Imran’s codename as chief of the Secret Service. Inside the fiction, almost nobody knows that X-2 and the foolish Ali Imran are the same person. That secrecy is the central device of the series, not a side detail.

Where should a new reader start?

Start with Ibn-e-Safi’s Khaufnaak Imarat, the first book, which has also appeared in English as The House of Fear. Read a few of his early novels before sampling Kaleem, so you can judge the continuation against the original voice for yourself.

Where to Buy Legal Copies

Always buy by author. A genuine Ibn-e-Safi volume names him as author, and a genuine Kaleem volume names Mazhar Kaleem. Avoid anonymous scanned copies and listings that credit no author at all, because the series has a long history of unauthorised printing.

Reputable Urdu bookshops and the Urdu Bazaar markets are the best hunting grounds for both runs. Before you order, read our guide to buying books online in Pakistan and check our guide to bookshops in Pakistan for sellers who describe editions honestly.