Dastangoi is the art of storytelling. It developed around the stories of valour and adventures of Amir Hamza, an Arab hero, a thousand years ago but soon these stories spread out and the tradition could be found right from Bosnia, Morocco, Algeria to Indonesia and China. However, these stories became very popular when they entered the Urdu canon and the art form as known to us reached its zenith in the 19th century North India. But with the demise of Mir Baqar Ali, the last known exponent of the art form, in 1928, the form also died with him.