Manuscript of Mirza Ghalib's 1821 Divan discovered in Bhopal in 1917. Contains twice the number of verses compared to his previously published "official" Divans. Includes notes and additions in Ghalib's own hand. Rediscover Mirza Ghalib through his "unknown" Ghazals contained in this manuscript which was Ghalib's personal copy for over a decade. A treasure for all Ghalib lovers! Dr. Farooqi explains: "In 1918, some fifty years after Ghalib's death, a manuscript was discovered in the Hamidiyya Library in the princely state of Bhopal that was beyond doubt a Divan of the great poet. The colophon revealed that it had been calligraphed (in 1237 hijri, corresponds to1821CE) by Hafiz Mueenuddin. The manuscript or nuskha (as we call it in Urdu) was written in a pleasing hand and the text enclosed with red, gold and blue margins. Unlike the general practice of beginning a Divan with a ghazal, this Nuskha begins with a qita' in Farsi followed by two qasidahs in Urdu. The page marking the first ghazal, the famous, naqsh faryadi hai kiski shokhi-e tahrir ka, is elaborately embellished with gold and blue. Ghalib had composed much more than the 1800 verses presented in the mutadavil (official) Divan. The discovery of the Nuskha -e Hamidiyya was phenomenal in that it revealed a large number of verses that were not included in Ghalib's Divan! Of the 1900 verses that were presented in the Hamidiyya, only 700 had ever been included in the Divan. Of the 1900 verses, 1883 are from ghazals. According to Maulana Arshi, the Nuskha was prepared for Ghalib's personal use. It was given away most likely to a shagird after another copy had been made. It is possible that after Ghalib had made selections for Gul-ra'na (1828), he gave away this Nuskha. It is also possible that he had got another copy made (Nuskha-e Sherani, 1826) for safekeeping while he journeyed to Calcutta with the Nuskha-e Hamidiyya. One of the controversial features of the Nuskha is the addition of ghazals in the margins in a consistent but somewhat unpolished hand. The question is: Who made those additions? Maulana Arshi is of the opinion that the writing is in Ghalib's hand. Some scholars think the handwriting is not sophisticated enough to be Ghalib's. According to Gyan Chand Jain, the corrections and additions to the Hamidiyya were done after the circulation of the Nuskha -e Sherani and are not in Ghalib's hand. New ghazals and verses added to older ghazals were copied from the Sherani in the margins of the Hamidiyya. The Nuskha was last seen by Maulana Arshi in 1944. In the tumultuous events of India's Partition, the original Nuskha was lost. What is currently available in print is Hamid Khan sahib's 1969 edition that was assembled with the help of notes that the latter took in 1938, along with Mufti Anvarul Haq's edition and the Nuskha-e Sherani. The re-appearance of the original Nuskha-e Hamidiyya after nearly 75 years is a momentous event for Ghalibians all over the world.." The current publication is a full digital facsimile reproduction of the Nuskha-e-Hamidiya. A "must-have" publication for anyone interested in urdu poetry and especially the works of the legendary Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib.

Mirza Asadullah Khan (1797–1869), popularly, Ghalib, is the most influential poet of the Urdu language. He is noted for the ghazals he wrote during his lifetime, which have since been interpreted and sung by different people in myriad ways. Ghalib’s popularity has today extended beyond the Indian subcontinent to the Hindustani diaspora around the world. In this book, Gopi Chand Narang studies Ghalib’s poetics by tracing the archetypical roots of his creative consciousness and enigmatic thought in Buddhist dialectical philosophy, particularly in the concept of shunyata. He underscores the importance of the Mughal era’s Sabke Hindi poetry, especially through Bedil, whom Ghalib considered his mentor. The author also engages with Ghalib criticism that has flourished since his death and analyses the important works of the poet, including pieces from early Nuskhas and Divan-e Ghalib, strengthening this central argument. Much has been written about Ghalib’s life and his poetry. A marked departure from this dominant trend, Narang’s book looks at Ghalib from different angles and places him in the galaxy of the great Eastern poets, stretching far beyond the boundaries of India and the Urdu language.

This selection of poetry and prose by Ghalib provides an accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the preeminent Urdu poet of the nineteenth century. Ghalib's poems, especially his ghazals, remain beloved throughout South Asia for their arresting intelligence and lively wit. His letters—informal, humorous, and deeply personal—reveal the vigor of his prose style and the warmth of his friendships. These careful translations allow readers with little or no knowledge of Urdu to appreciate the wide range of Ghalib's poetry, from his gift for extreme simplicity to his taste for unresolvable complexities of structure. Beginning with a critical introduction for nonspecialists and specialists alike, Frances Pritchett and Owen Cornwall present a selection of Ghalib's works, carefully annotating details of poetic form. Their translation maintains line-for-line accuracy and thereby preserves complex poetic devices that play upon the tension between the two lines of each verse. The book includes whole ghazals, selected individual verses from other ghazals, poems in other genres, and letters. The book also includes a glossary, the Urdu text of the original poetry, and an appendix containing Ghalib's comments on his own verses.

Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib was born in Agra in the closing years of the eighteenth century. A precocious child, he began composing verses at an early age and gained recognition while he was still very young. He wrote in both Urdu and Persian and was also a great prose stylist. He was a careful, even strict, editor of his work who took to publishing long before his peers. His predilection for writing difficult, obscure poetry peppered with complex metaphors produced a unique commentarial tradition that did not extend beyond his work. Commentaries on his current Urdu divan have produced a field of critical writing that eventually lead to the crafting of a critical lens with which to view the classical ghazal. The nineteenth century was the height of European colonialism. British colonialism in India produced definitive changes in the ways literature was produced, circulated and consumed. Ghalib responded to the cultural challenge with a far-sightedness that was commendable. His imagination sought engagement with a wider community of readers. His deliberate switch to composing in Persian shows that he wanted his works to reach beyond political boundaries and linguistic barriers. Ghalib's poetic trajectory begins from Urdu, then moves to composing almost entirely in Persian and finally swings back to Urdu. It is nearly as complex as his poetry. However, his poetic output in Persian is far more than what he wrote in Urdu. More important is that he gave precedence to Persian over Urdu. Ghalib's voice presents us with a double bind, a linguistic paradox. Exploring his life, works and philosophy, this authoritative critical biography of Ghalib opens a window to many shades of India and the subcontinent's cultural and literary tradition.

Critical study of the works of Muohammad oHasan Askarai, 1919-1978, Urdu author.

First published in 1972, Ghalib presents aspects of Ghalib, the last great literary figured produced by Mughal India before the empire was swept away by the British after the Revolt of 1857, as he appears though the eyes of well-known British and other European scholars. The book gives a picture of Ghalib’s own personality as it emerges in passages from his own Persian and Urdu letters and prose writings. Percival Spear, who lived in Delhi for many years, describes the Delhi scene of Ghalib’s day. P. Hardy writes of his relations with the British, and finally, two essays, by A. Bausani and Ralph Russell respectively, give an account of his Persian and Urdu poetry. His book will be of interest to students of literature, poetry, South Asian studies and history.

Mirza Ghalib is to the Urdu language what William Shakespeare is to the English language. And the most widely read Urdu book in the world is a collection of the Love Sonnets of Ghalib. These sonnets resonate with the voices of maestros through the corridors of history. Ghalib is not just an Asian phenomenon and his sonnets are loved and studied worldwide.