Ibn-e-Safi (26 July 1928 – 26 July 1980) (also spelled as Ibne Safi) () was the pen name of Asrar Ahmad (), a fiction writer, novelist and poet of Urdu from Pakistan. The word Ibn-e-Safi is a Persian expression which literally means Son of Safi, where the word Safi means chaste or righteous. He first wrote from the British India of the 1940s, and later Pakistan after the independence of British India in 1947. His main works were the 125-book series Jasoosi Dunya (The Spy World) and the 120-book Imran Series, with a small canon of satirical works and poetry. His novels were characterised by a blend of mystery, adventure, suspense, violence, romance and comedy, achieving massive popularity across a broad readership in South Asia. Biography Early life and education Asrar Ahmad was born on 26 July 1928 in the town 'Nara' of district Allahabad, India. His father's name was Safiullah and mother's name was Naziran Bibi. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Agra University. In 1948, he started his first job at 'Nikhat Publications' as an editor in the poetry department. His initial works date back to the early 1940s, when he wrote from British India. He also studied at Allahabad University where he was class fellow of Professor Mohammad Uzair and one year senior to Mustafa Zaidi . After the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, he began writing novels in the early 1950s while working as a secondary school teacher and continuing part-time studies. After completing the latter, having attracted official attention as being subversive in the independence and post-independence period, he migrated to Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan in August 1952. He started his own company by the name 'Asrar Publications'. Later life He married Umme Salma Khatoon in 1953. In the period from 1960 to 1963, he suffered an episode of severe depression and spent some time in the psychiatry ward of a hospital, but recovered, and returned with a best-selling Imran Series novel, Dairrh Matwaalay (One and a half amused) which was launched in India by to-be Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. In fact, he wrote 36 novels of 'Jasoosi Duniya' and 79 novels of 'Imran Series' after his recovery from depression. In the 1970s, he informally advised the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan on methods of detection. Death Ibne Safi died on 26 July 1980 of pancreatic cancer at age 52. He was