Historical Trivia

  Mirza Abul Muzaffar Mohammad Sirajuddin (1775-1862) Bahadur Shah Zafar was the last Mughal emperor of the subcontinent and  the second son of Akbar Shah  II and Lal Bai . , who chose Zafar for a nom de plume; he was born in the red fort of Delhi. He received his early education there in Arabic and Persian, as well as in the arts of combat, and archery. He grew up with a deep interest in poetry, music, spiritualism, and calligraphy. He had a fine hand as a calligrapher and sent copies of his handwritten Quran to the prominent mosques of Delhi as a gift.  He came to the throne at the ripe age of sixty-two only to rule a namesake empire that had lost its power and gl ory and had shrunk to the vicinity of the fort itself. A liberal emperor, who respected all faiths, loved peace and was projected as a supporter of the 1857 uprising, was charged by the British government for treason and his role in a huge rebellion against the British Empire.  With the entry of the British army into the c

Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau: (1253-1325 ) Amir Khusrau or Ab’ul Hasan Yamin ud-Din Khusrau, It is being said that  after suffering the onslaughts of Chengez Khan, his father  Saifuddin , a Turk chieftain, migrated to India during the rule of Shamsuddin Altamsh who presented him a high position in his army. Khusrau was born in  in 1253  Patiali in Etah district of Uttar Pradesh  where his father had settled. When he was just eight years old, his father was killed in an army action after which his mother moved to Delhi to live with his maternal grandfather who was died when he was just twenty years old . Amir Khusrau is considered to be the first poet of Urdu-Hindi . The disciple of the famous Chishti saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya ,  was given the title of " Amir"  by one of his patrons, he had the unique distinction of being a soldier, courtier, Sufi, poet, litterateur, and music maestro. He was veteran   in Persian, Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi and many provincial languag

Syed Ahmad Shah: (1931-2008) Ahmad Faraz is one of the best poets Pakistan has ever seen.  He acquired the pen name of Faraz, came to be known as Ahmad Faraz as a poet. He was born on  January 12, 1931,  at Nav Shahra though his familial place is Kohat. He studied at Islamia College, Kohat; Edwards College, Peshawar; and Peshawar University from where he got his degrees of M. A. in Urdu and Persian. He began his career as a producer in Radio Pakistan. Lately, he worked as a lecturer at Islamia College in Peshawar. Faraz disapproved of the military dictatorship in Pakistan and expressed himself unreservedly for which he was arrested. On his release, he preferred to live in a self-imposed exile in Europe and Canada for six years. when he came back, he took up senior positions of administrative nature as Resident Director of Pakistan National Centre, and afterward as the Director of Akademy Adabiyat Pakistan, Lok Wirsa, and Chairperson of National Book Foundation. A popularly respected  p

   Sheikh Ali Sikandar  ( 1890-1960) Jigar is one of the most prominent pre-modern poets who enjoyed stunning popularity and fan-following. He is  known as a poet  with the pen name of Jigar, who was born at Moradabad, a city in India that he suffixed with his name like many other poets did as an act of tradition.  His father, ' Ali Nazar'  was a disciple of Khwaja Wazeer Lakhnavi.  He did not receive any regular or formal education but learned Arabic, Persian, and Urdu at an early age and later learned English. He came to be known as an epicurean and a highly sociable man of pleasant disposition. He also acquired a somewhat mythic reputation as one who must drink in order to please the muse. Later, he abandoned this way of life and sought solace in a religious way of life.   Jigar was addicted to alcohol all through his life and everyone knew about his forgetfulness and absent-mindedness.  Jigar learned his first lessons in poetry from his father, Ali Nazar , who was a poet h

  Faiz Ahmad Faiz: (1911-1984) He was among the most celebrated and popular shayars and authors in Punjabi and Urdu. He faced political repression for his revolutionary views. He was born in 13 Feb 1911, in Sialkot, Punjab. He was the son of wealthy Punjabi landowners Sultan Fatima and sultan Muhammad Khan , who passed away in 1913, just after his birth. His father was a well known lawyer and a member of a noble literary class including Allama Iqbal. He did his basic education from his hometown Church Mission School. Later, he received his bachelors  degree in Arabic then he did his Masters in English and Arabic from Government College, Lahore. During his college days, he continued to pursue his poetic aspirations. In 1936, he took up the post of an English lecturer at M.A.O. College, Amritsar. When the Progressive Movement in India gathered momentum in 1936, he was one of the protagonists. Faiz beautifully blended the grief of love with sorrows of life in his poetry which struck a ch

 William Wordsworth:  (1770-1850) English poet William Wordsworth was born in Cumberland of Yorkshire stock in 1770. He remained all his life very much a north countryman. When his mother died in 1778, he was sent to Hawkshead school. There he enjoyed a happy and free childhood and acquired a special childlike relationship with love of nature. In 1787 he went to St. John’s College Cambridge. There he passed an idle and unsatisfied life. His uncle intended hum to go into the Church but he went to France and lack of money brought him back to England . In 1793, he published two poems 'An Evening' and 'Descriptive Sketches'. These poems had broken the chain of 18th century poetic diction. A timely legacy of £900 from a friend enabled him to settle down in Somerset with his sister Dorothy. Dorothy’s  kindness and Coleridge (his friend) help made him stable foe the great Creative period ahead. With this help he published “Lyrical Ballads” in 1798 which was a land mark in Engl

  Saadat Hasan Manto:       ( سعادت حسن منٹو)   (1912-1995 ) Saadat Hasan Manto: (سعادت حسن منٹو)  (1912-1995) Manto's life, like the fiction written by him, was not only interesting but also brief. Living only up to 42 years, Manto, spent most of it on his own terms living with the least care possible. If the non-speaking Urdu class identifies Urdu poetry with Ghalib, then for fiction their point of reference is Manto. Saadat Hassan Manto was born on May 11, 1912, in a Kashmiri family in Sambarala, Ludhiana, India. His father was Maulvi Ghulam Hussain and he was a judge. He was born from his father’s second wife. And when it came to Manto's education and training, he had retired. His nature was harsh, so Manto did not get his father's love. After failing matriculation twice, he passed the examination in third division. He failed in Urdu. His father's strictness created a spirit of rebellion in him. His favorite pastime during school days was to spread rumors and