Mirza Ghalib Biography
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Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan
(Urdu/Persian: مرزا اسد اللہ بیگ خان) was a classical Urdu and Persian poet
from India during British colonial rule. His also known as 'Mirza Asadullah
Khan Galib', 'Mirza Galib', 'Dabir-ul-Mulk' and 'Najm-ud-Daula'. His pen-names
was Ghaliband Asad or Asad or Galib. 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 one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language.
Ghalib today remains popular not only in India and Pakistan but also amongst
diaspora communities around the world. 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 (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 (Ghalib's 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 (Ghalib's
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. Ghalib's 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.
In accordance with upper class Muslim tradition, he had an arranged marriage at the age of 13, but none of his seven children survived beyond infancy. After his marriage he settled in Delhi. In one of his letters he describes his marriage as the second imprisonment after the initial confinement that was life itself. The idea that life is one continuous painful struggle which can end only when life itself ends, is a recurring theme in his poetry. One of his couplets puts it in a nutshell:
"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?"
In accordance with upper class Muslim tradition, he had an arranged marriage at the age of 13, but none of his seven children survived beyond infancy. After his marriage he settled in Delhi. In one of his letters he describes his marriage as the second imprisonment after the initial confinement that was life itself. The idea that life is one continuous painful struggle which can end only when life itself ends, is a recurring theme in his poetry. One of his couplets puts it in a nutshell:
"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?"
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.
Being a member of declining Mughal nobility and old landed aristocracy, he never worked for a livelihood, lived on either royal patronage of Mughal Emperors, credit or the generosity of his friends. His fame came to him posthumously. He had himself remarked during his lifetime that although his age had ignored his greatness, it would be recognized by later generations. After the decline of Mughal Empire and rise of British Raj, despite his many attempts, Ghalib could never get the full pension restored.
Being a member of declining Mughal nobility and old landed aristocracy, he never worked for a livelihood, lived on either royal patronage of Mughal Emperors, credit or the generosity of his friends. His fame came to him posthumously. He had himself remarked during his lifetime that although his age had ignored his greatness, it would be recognized by later generations. After the decline of Mughal Empire and rise of British Raj, despite his many attempts, Ghalib could never get the full pension restored.
Ghalib started composing
poetry at the age of 11. His first language was Urdu, but Persian and Turkish
were also spoken at home. He got his education in Persian and Arabic at a young
age. When Ghalib was in his early teens, a newly converted Muslim tourist from
Iran (Abdus Samad, originally named Hormuzd, a Zoroastrian) came to Agra. He
stayed at Ghalibs home for 2 years. He was a highly educated individual and
Ghalib learned Persian, Arabic, philosophy, and logic from him.
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.
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.
Mirza Ghalib Pics Pictures Photos Images2015
Mirza Ghalib Pics Pictures Photos Images2015
Mirza Ghalib Pics Pictures Photos Images2015
Mirza Ghalib Pics Pictures Photos Images2015
Mirza Ghalib Pics Pictures Photos Images2015
Mirza Ghalib Pics Pictures Photos Images2015
Mirza Ghalib Pics Pictures Photos Images2015
