Mirza Ghalib
27 December 1797 – 15 February 1869
Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869) was an Indian poet who wrote in Urdu and Persian and is widely regarded as the greatest Urdu poet. Living in Delhi during the final decades of the Mughal Empire, he composed ghazals of enduring popularity and served as poet at the court of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar. His letters are also considered landmarks of Urdu prose.
Lived at the same time
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Life events
Born Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan into a family of Turkic aristocratic descent in Agra.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHis father died when Ghalib was about five years old, and he was raised largely in the household of his uncle and maternal relatives.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAt age thirteen he married Umrao Begum, from a family of Delhi nobility.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAfter his marriage he moved from Agra to Delhi, where he lived for the rest of his life.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgUndertook a long journey to Calcutta in the late 1820s to plead his case regarding a hereditary pension before British authorities.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe first printed edition of his collected Urdu ghazals appeared in 1841, securing his poetic reputation.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAfter the death of the court poet Zauq, Ghalib became poetry tutor and court poet to the last Mughal emperor, receiving honorific titles.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWitnessed the uprising and the British recapture of Delhi, recording his experiences in the Persian diary Dastanbuy.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDied at his home in the Ballimaran quarter of Old Delhi and was buried near the shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya.
Source: en.wikipedia.org