Diwan-i Ghalib-i Dihlawi

Mirza Asadallah Khan, better known by his pen-name of Ghalib Dihlawi, is the last one of the great poets of the Mughal era. Born in Agra in 1212/1797, he traced his origins back to Turan, his paternal grandfather having emigrated from Transoxania to India during the reign of Shah ?Alam (r. 1759-1806). While mostly known as one of the foremost Urdu poets, Ghalib's Persian work, poetry and prose, is of comparable quality. In his childhood days, his Persian had been greatly improved thanks to the teachings of a Persian immigrant by the name of ?Abd al-Samad. But even if Ghalib acknowledged ?Abd al-Samad's qualities as a teacher and a human being, as a writer of Persian poetry, he regarded his talents as God-given. Ghalib's life was full of drama: an unhappy marriage, the loss of all his children, alcoholism, depression, and years of financial hardship. Plagued by ill health, he died in Delhi, aged 71.