poet Al Mahmud, "one golden age of Bengali literature ended with Tagore and Nazrul and another began" with Ahmed. Writer Imdadul Haq Milan considered him to be "the almighty lord of Bengali literature, controlling all their actions and thoughts". Dawn, Pakistan's oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper, referred to him as the cultural legend of Bangladesh. Times of India credited Humayun as "the person who single-handedly shifted the capital of Bengali literature from Kolkata to Dhaka". Sunil Gangopadhyay described him as the most popular writer in the Bengali language for a century and according to him, Ahmed was even more popular than Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. However, during his lifetime author Shahriar Kabir dismissed him for "always speaking for the establishment." Literary critic Azfar Hussain said: "I am not surprised he talks like a pro-establishment writer. I find him ignorant." Controversy On 11 May 2012, two chapters of Ahmed's future novel Deyal were published in the daily Prothom Alo. 3 days later, Attorney General of Bangladesh Mahbubey Alam drew attention of the High Court on a discrepancy about a detail of the historical event of killing Sheikh Russel in Ahmed's writing. The court later issued a suo moto rule and asked the authorities to provide Ahmed copies of relevant documents and judgements of the killing case, so that Ahmed could rectify the writing. Personal life Ahmed married Gultekin Khan in 1973. Together they had three daughters: Nova Ahmed, Sheila Ahmed, Bipasha Ahmed and one son, Nuhash Humayun. Sheila Ahmed went on to become a television and film actress and Nuhash became a writer, film director and producer. 700 Taka, Pizza Bhai were directed by him. He was one of the directors of Iti, Tomari Dhaka. Bipasha also acted in a supporting role in Nokkhotrer Raat and starred in Mayaboti. In 2003, Ahmed divorced Gultekin. He then married actress Meher Afroz Shaon in 2004. He had two sons from the second marriage, Nishad Humayun and Ninith Humayun. Ahmed was a Sunni Muslim, and he described the Islamic scholar Muhiuddin Khan as his father figure. Death Ahmed had open-heart surgery at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. A few years later, during a routine checkup, doctors found a cancerous tumor in his colon. On 14 September 2011, he was flown to Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York City for treatment. During his stay there, he wrote the novel, Deyal, based on the