| Name | Urdu poet of Mughal era Mirza Assadullah Khan Ghalib |
|---|
| Color | #B0C4DE |
|---|
| Caption | Mirza Ghalib |
|---|
| Pseudonym | Asad, Ghalib |
|---|
| Birthdate | December 27, 1797 |
|---|
| Birthplace | Agra, Maratha Confederacy |
|---|
| Deathdate | February 15, 1869 |
|---|
| Deathplace | Delhi, Punjab, British India |
|---|
| Occupation | Poet |
|---|
| Nationality | Indian |
|---|
| Period | Mughal era |
|---|
| Genre | Ghazal |
|---|
| Subject | Love, Philosophy |
|---|
| Influences | Meer Taqi Meer, Abdul-Qader Bedil, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi |
|---|
| Influenced | Urdu poetry, Maulana Hali, Bahadur Shah Zafar II, Faiz |
|---|
Dabeer-ul-Mulk, Najm-ud-daulah Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan
(Urdu/Persian: ), pen-name Ghalib
(Urdu/Persian: , ġhālib means dominant) and (former pen-name) Asad' (
Urdu/
Persian: ,
asad means
lion) (27 December 1797 — 15 February 1869), was a classical
Urdu and
Persian poet from the
Indian subcontinent during British colonial rule. During his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and displaced by the British and finally deposed following the defeat of the
Indian rebellion of 1857, events that he wrote of. Most notably, he wrote several
ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted and sung in many different ways by different people. He is considered, in
South Asia, to be the one of the most popular and influential poets of the
Urdu language. Ghalib today remains popular amongst Urdu speakers not only in India and
Pakistan but also amongst diaspora communities around the world.
Family and early life
Mirza Ghalib was born in
Agra into a family descended from Aibak Turks who moved to Samarkand after the downfall of the Seljuk kings. His paternal grandfather, Mirza Qoqan Baig Khan was a Saljuq Turk who had immigrated to India from Samarkand سمرقند (now in Uzbekistan) during the reign of Ahmad Shah (1748–54). He worked at
Lahore,
Delhi and
Jaipur, was awarded the subdistrict of Pahasu (Bulandshahr, UP) and finally settled in
Agra, UP,
India. He had 4 sons and 3 daughters. Mirza Abdullah Baig Khan and Mirza Nasrullah Baig Khan were two of his sons. Mirza Abdullah Baig Khan (Ghalibs father) got married to Izzat-ut-Nisa Begum, and then lived at the house of his father in law. He was employed first by the Nawab of Lucknow and then the
Nizam of Hyderabad,
Deccan. He died in a battle in 1803 in Alwar and was buried at Rajgarh (Alwar, Rajasthan). Then Ghalib was a little over 5 years of age. He was raised first by his Uncle Mirza Nasrullah Baig Khan.
Mirza Nasrullah Baig Khan (Ghalibs uncle) started taking care of the three orphaned children. He was the governor of Agra under the Marathas. The British appointed him an officer of 400 cavalrymen,fixed his salary at Rs.1700.00 month, and awarded him 2 parganas in Mathura (UP, India). When he died in 1806, the British took away the parganas and fixed his pension as Rs. 10,000 per year, linked to the state of Firozepur Jhirka (Mewat, Haryana). The Nawab of Ferozepur Jhirka reduced the pension to Rs. 3000 per year. Ghalibs share was Rs. 62.50 / month. Ghalib was married at age 13 to Umrao Begum, daughter of Nawab Ilahi Bakhsh (brother of the Nawab of Ferozepur Jhirka). He soon moved to Delhi, along with his younger brother, Mirza Yousuf Khan, who had developed schizophrenia at a young age and later died in Delhi during the chaos of 1857.
:
:
Translation:
:The prison of life and the bondage of grief are one and the same
:Before the onset of death, how can man expect to be free of grief?
Royal titles
In 1850, Emperor
Bahadur Shah Zafar II revived upon Mirza Ghalib the title of "Dabeer-ul-Mulk". The Emperor also added to it the additional title of
Najm-ud-daulah. The conferment of these titles was symbolic of Mirza Ghalib’s incorporation into the nobility of Delhi. He also received the title of 'Mirza Nosha' by the emperor, thus adding Mirza as his first name. He was also an important courtier of the royal court of the Emperor. As the Emperor was himself a poet, Mirza Ghalib was appointed as his poet tutor in 1854. He was also appointed as tutor of Prince Fakhr-ud Din Mirza, eldest son of Bahadur Shah II,(d. 10 July 1856). He was also appointed by the Emperor as the royal historian of Mughal Court.
Although Ghalib himself was far prouder of his poetic achievements in Persian, he is today more famous for his Urdu ghazals. Numerous elucidations of Ghalib's ghazal compilations have been written by Urdu scholars. The first such elucidation or Sharh was written by Ali Haider Nazm Tabatabai of Hyderabad during the rule of the last Nizam of Hyderabad. Before Ghalib, the ghazal was primarily an expression of anguished love; but Ghalib expressed philosophy, the travails and mysteries of life and wrote ghazals on many other subjects, vastly expanding the scope of the ghazal. This work is considered his paramount contribution to Urdu poetry and literature.
In keeping with the conventions of the classical ghazal, in most of Ghalib's verses, the identity and the gender of the beloved is indeterminate. The critic/poet/writer Shamsur Rahman Faruqui explains that the convention of having the "idea" of a lover or beloved instead of an actual lover/beloved freed the poet-protagonist-lover from the demands of realism. Love poetry in Urdu from the last quarter of the seventeenth century onwards consists mostly of "poems about love" and not "love poems" in the Western sense of the term.
The first complete English translation of Ghalib's ghazals was written by Sarfaraz K. Niazi and published by Rupa & Co in India and Ferozsons in Pakistan. The title of this book is Love Sonnets of Ghalib and it contains complete Roman transliteration, explication and an extensive lexicon.
His letters
poem in
Nastaliq]]
Mirza Ghalib was a gifted letter writer. Not only Urdu poetry but the prose is also indebted to Mirza Ghalib. His letters gave foundation to easy and popular Urdu. Before Ghalib, letter writing in Urdu was highly ornamental. He made his letters "talk" by using words and sentences as if he were conversing with the reader. According to him
"sau kos se ba-zaban-e-qalam baatein kiya karo aur hijr mein visaal ke maze liya karo"
[ from hundred of miles talk with the tongue of the pen and enjoy the joy of meeting even when you are separated]
His letters were very informal, some times he would just write the name of the person and start the letter. He himself was very humorous and also made his letter very interesting. He said
"main koshish karta hoon keh koi aisi baat likhoon jo parhay khoosh ho jaaye"
[ I want to write the lines that whoever reads those should enjoy it]
When the third wife of one of his friends died, he wrote...
Some scholar says that Ghalib would have the same place in Urdu literature if only on the basis of his letters.They have been translated into English by
Ralph Russell,
The Oxford Ghalib.
Ghalib was a chronicler of this turbulent period.One by one, Ghalib saw the bazaars – Khas Bazaar, Urdu Bazaar, Kharam-ka Bazaar, disappear, whole mohallas (localities) and katras (lanes) vanish. The havelis (mansions) of his friends were razed to the ground. Ghalib wrote that Delhi had become a desert. Water was scarce. Delhi was now “ a military camp”. It was the end of the feudal elite to which Ghalib had belonged. He wrote:
“An ocean of blood churns around me-
Alas! Were these all!
The future will show
What more remains for me to see”.
His pen name
His original
Takhallus (
pen-name) was
Asad, drawn from his given name, Asadullah Khan. At some point early in his poetic career he also decided to adopt the takhallus 'Ghalib' (meaning
all conquering, superior, most excellent).
Popular legend has it that he changed his pen name to 'Ghalib' when he came across this sher (couplet) by another poet who used the takhallus (pen name) 'Asad':
The legend says that upon hearing this couplet, Ghalib ruefully exclaimed, "whoever authored this couplet does indeed deserve the Lord's
rahmat (mercy) (for having composed such a deplorable specimen of Urdu poetry). If I use the
takhallus Asad, then surely (people will mistake this couplet to be mine and) there will be much
la'anat (curse) on me!" And, saying so, he changed his
takhallus to 'Ghalib'.
However, this legend is little more than a figment of the legend-creator's imagination. Extensive research performed by commentators and scholars of Ghalib's works, notably Imtiyaz Ali Arshi and Kalidas Gupta Raza, has succeeded in identifying the chronology of Ghalib's published work (sometimes down to the exact calendar day!). Although the takhallus 'Asad' appears more infrequently in Ghalib's work than 'Ghalib', it appears that he did use both his noms de plume interchangeably throughout his career and did not seem to prefer either one over the other.
:See note at Urdu poetry#Pen names (Takhallus)
Mirza Ghalib and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
1855,
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan finished his highly scholarly, very well researched and illustrated edition of Abul Fazl’s
Ai’n-e Akbari, itself an extraordinarily difficult book. Having finished the work to his satisfaction, and believing that Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib was a person who would appreciate his labours, Syed Ahmad approached the great Ghalib to write a taqriz (in the convention of the times, a laudatory foreword) for it. Ghalib obliged, but what he did produce was a short Persian poem castigating the Ai’n-e Akbari, and by implication, the imperial, sumptuous, literate and learned Mughal culture of which it was a product. The least that could be said against it was that the book had little value even as an antique document.
Ghalib practically reprimanded Syed Ahmad Khan for wasting his talents and time on dead things. Worse, he praised sky-high the “sahibs of England” who at that time held all the keys to all the a’ins in this world.
This poem is often referred to but has never translated in English. Shamsur Rahman Faruqi wrote an English translation. taking active interest in history and archealogy, and became a social reformer.
Personal life
Mirza was born in Kala Mahal in
Agra. In the end of 18th century, his birthplace was converted into Indrabhan Girls' Inter College. The birth room of Mirza Ghalib is preserved within in the school. Around 1810, he was married to Umrao Begum, daughter of Nawab Ilahi Bakhsh Khan of
Loharu (younger brother of the first Nawab of
Loharu, Nawab Mirza Ahmad Baksh Khan, at the age of thirteen. He had seven children, none of whom survived (this pain has found its echo in some of Ghalib's
ghazals). There are conflicting reports regarding his relationship with his wife. She was considered to be pious, conservative and God-fearing.
Ghalib was proud of his reputation as a rake. He was once imprisoned for gambling and subsequently relished the affair with pride. Once, when someone praised the poetry of the pious Sheikh Sahbai in his presence, Ghalib immediately retorted, "How can Sahbai be a poet? He has never tasted wine, nor has he ever gambled; he has not been beaten with slippers by lovers, nor has he ever seen the inside of a jail." In the Mughal court circles, he even acquired a reputation as a "ladies' man".
He died in Delhi on February 15, 1869. The house where he lived in Gali Qasim Jaan, Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, in Old Delhi has now been turned into 'Ghalib Memorial' and houses a permanent Ghalib exhibition.
Religious views
Ghalib was a very liberal
mystic who believed that the search for god within liberated the seeker from the narrowly Orthodox Islam, encouraging the devotee to look beyond the letter of the law to its narrow essence. His Sufi views and mysticism is greatly reelected in his poems and ghazals. As he once stated:
:"
The object of my worship lies beyond perception's reach;
:
For men who see, the Ka'aba is a compass, nothing more."
Like many other Urdu poets, Ghalib was capable of writing profoundly religious poetry, yet was skeptical about the literalist interpretation of the Islamic scriptures. On the Islamic view and claims of paradise, he once wrote in a letter to a friend:
:"In paradise it is true that i shall drink at dawn the pure wine mentioned in the Qu'ran, but where in paradise are the long walks with intoxicated friends in the night, or the drunken crowds shouting merrily? Where shall i find there the intoxication of Monsoon clouds? Where there is no autumn, how can spring exist? If the beautiful houris are always there, where will be the sadness of separation and the joy of union? Where shall we find there a girl who flees away when we would kiss her?".
He believed that if God laid within and could be reached less by ritual than by love, then he was as accessible to Hindus as to Muslims. As a testament to this, he would later playfully write in a letter that during a trip to Benares, he was half tempted to settle down there for good and that he wished he had renounced Islam, put a Hindu sectarian mark on his forehead, tied a sectarian thread around his waist and seated himself on the banks of the Ganges so that he could wash the contamination of his existence away from himself and like a drop be one with the river. Serial's music has since been recognised as Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh's magnum opus enjoying a cult following in the Indian subcontinent.
The Pakistan government in 1969 commissioned Khaliq Ibrahim (died 2006) to make a documentary on Mirza Ghalib. The movie was completed in 1971-72. It is said, that the movie, a docudrama, was historically more correct than what the official Pakistan government point of view was. Thus, it was never released. Till this date, barring a few private viewing, the movie is lying with the Department of Films and Publication, Government of Pakistan. The movie was made on 16 mm format. Ghalib's role was played by actor Subhani Bayunus, who later played this role in many TV productions.
Various theatre groups have staged plays related to the life of Mirza Ghalib. These have shown different lifestyles and the way he lived his life.
An animation film on Mirza Ghalib is telecast on Zee Cinema.
Ghalib in today's culture
Ghalib's is still very popular today, and his poetry is well known.
See also
Ghalib Study Centre, Ibn Sina Academy
Urdu poetry
List of Urdu language poets
List of Persian poets and authors
References
External links
Ballimaran.com Haveli of Mirza Ghalib, Chandni Chowk, Delhi
Ghalib Institute, New Delhi
A Visit to Mirza Ghalib's Haveli in Ballimara, Old Delhi
Ghalib in Love
(Blog) Kuchh Sacche Moti: Ghalib
; Works
Ghalib at Kavita Kosh (Devanagari Hindi script)
Fully coloured Deewan-e-Ghalib
Ghazal Translated By Qazi Muhammad Ahkam
koii ummiid bar nahii.n aatii Translated By Qazi Muhammad Ahkam
Selected Ghazals of Ghalib(Audio) Read by Qazi Muhammad Ahkam
DIVAN - E - GHALIB The Urdu Ghazals of Mirza Asadullah Khan "GHALIB".
Deewan-E-Ghalib
Poetry of Ghalib - Complete Collection of Mirza Ghalib, A large Number of his Ghazals
The Love Sonnets of Ghalib - Biography, selected works, and all things Ghalib
Biography and selected works
The Joy of the Drop - 37 poems by Ghalib in English translation.
Selected couplets of Mirza Ghalib
Selected couplets with translation of Mirza Ghalib
English translation of one of Ghalib's Persian poems.
Authorised Version of Deewan-e-Ghalib known as Nuskhae Hamidia uploaded by Javed Hussen
Complete Persian poetry of Mirza Ghalib at scribd uploaded by Javed Hussen
Mirza Ghalib's Diary of 1857 First Indian Libaretion Struggle in Urdu Translation uploaded by Javed Hussen
unpublished Poems of Mirza Ghalib edited by Kalidas Gupta Raza uploaded by Javed Hussen
original Urdu free pdf of Yaadgare Ghalib by Altaf Hussain Hali
An Bangla selected translation of Mirza Ghalib with originial Urdu
Category:Urdu poets
Category:Indian poets
Category:1796 births
Category:1869 deaths
Category:Persian poets
Category:Indian Muslims
Category:People from Agra
Category:People from Delhi
Category:Persian literature
