Zauq

ZAUQ SUFI POET-LAUREATE & SPIRITUAL MASTER OF THE LAST MUGHAL EMPEROR, THE SUFI POET ZAHAR Translation & Introduction Paul Smith (Mohammad Ibrahim took Zauq (meaning 'taste') as his takhallus or pen-name. He was born at Delhi in 1788. His father was a lowly paid soldier. Zauq, not having proper treatment on account of the poverty of his family survived attacks of small-pox nine times during his childhood. Shah Naseer was the most famous master poet of Delhi. Naseer recognised natural talent and made him his pupil. Gradually, Zauq began participating in readings. His natural way with poetry and his obsession to excel in it eventually brought fame and fortune. He was the Poet-laureate and Spiritual Master of the last Mughal Emperpr of India, the Sufi Poet Badhar Shah Zafar.He was a prominent contemporary of Ghalib and in the history of Urdu poetry the rivalry of the two is well known and during his lifetime Zauq was more popular than his now much more famous rival. He was a religious man and in his ghazals he often dealt with mystical (Sufi) themes. Most of his poems were lost during the mutiny of 1857. He had passed away two years earlier in 1855. His Urdu Divan is composed of ghazals and ruba'is and qasidas. Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862) was the last of the Mughal emperors in India, as well as the last ruler of the Timurid Dynasty. Zafar was a noted Urdu poet and Sufi who often held poetry readings that the poets Zauq, Ghalib, Momin, Shefta and Dagh oattended. He was especially influenced by Zauq. He wrote Urdu ghazals, ruba'is, qit'as and other forms of poetry. He also wrote an annotation of Sadi's Gulistan. Here is the largest selection in the correct rhyme-form and meaning of their poems. Introduction: Sufism in Poetry, The Main Forms in Zauq's & Zafar's Poetry, Biographies and Selected Bibliograpies. Large Format Paperback 7" x 10" 200 pages. Paul Smith (b.1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets of Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish and other languages including Hafez, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu'in ud-din Chishti, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Hallaj, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Ghalib, 'Iraqi, Iqbal, Makhfi, Lalla Ded, Abu Nuwas, Ibn al-Farid, Rahman Baba, Nazir, Ghani Kashmiri, Mir, Seemab, Jigar, Huma, and many others, as well as his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, childrens books, a dozen screenplays. www.newhumanitybooks.com