Abdur Rauf Urooj ( 17 May 1990) was a Pakistani poet, critic, journalist, and research scholar. Besides writing poetry, he also composed songs, including his first song titled "Phir aaj Divali aai" (Diwali came today again) which was recorded by Deccan Radio. He also composed music for
Radio Pakistan
Radio Pakistan serves as the national public broadcaster for radio in Pakistan. Although some local stations predate Radio Pakistan's founding, it is the oldest existing broadcasting network in Pakistan. The network was established on 14 Augus ...
.
He wrote several books of poetry, literature history and criticism such as ''Chiragh Afreedam'', ''Khusro Aur Ahd-i-Khusro'', ''Rijal-i-Iqbal'', and ''Bazm-i-Ghalib''.
Biography
He was born around 1932 in
Aurangabad
Aurangabad ( is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a hilly upland terrain in the Deccan Traps, Aurangabad is the ...
, India. In the early 1950s, he migrated to
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...
, Pakistan at the apparent age of 18. However, he was not willing to disclose his early life and cause of migration. He later moved to
Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...
where he worked for various literary magazines and newspapers such as ''Naya Rahi''.
In 1953, he participated in a student protest organised in Karachi, however, when police opened fire on protesters he was injured during the student activism. He had no relatives in the affected area and hence Jam Navai, a poet took him to his home.
He initially started working for ''Naya Rahi'', a literary magazine for which he wrote a book on the history of
marsia
A marsiya ( fa, مرثیه) is an elegiac poem written to commemorate the martyrdom and valour of Hussain ibn Ali and his comrades of the Karbala. Marsiyas are essentially religious.
Background
The word ''Marsiya'' is derived from the Arabic word ...
titled ''Urdu Marseye Ke Paanch Sau Saal'' (five hundred years of Urdu Marsia). His also used to write verses and critical essays which subsequently appeared in literary journals. He later introduced to Urdu Dictionary Board by Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee for writing as an external scholar. He also worked for the board's magazine ''Urdu Nama''. He wrote a some uncertain research paper, analysing the historical and cultural background of classical
Urdu literature
Urdu literature ( ur, , ) is literature in the Urdu language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ''ghazal '' غزل and '' nazm '' نظم, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including that of ...
for the magazine.
He later met with Peer Hussamuddin Rashdie who introduced him to modern research techniques. After he was introduced to modern research, he wrote history of Persian titled ''Tazkira-i-Farsi Shuara-i-Urdu'' and ''Tareekh-i-Iran'', which won an uncertain award from the government of Iran.
He joined ''Anjaam'',
Urdu
Urdu (;"Urdu" ''
He later launched ''Hurriyet Adabi Gazette'', a literary magazine which became one of the prominent Urdu magazines of the time. In the last years, he primarily focused on
romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
for classical
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
and
Urdu poetry
Urdu poetry ( ur, ) is a tradition of poetry and has many different forms. Today, it is an important part of the cultures of South Asia. According to Naseer Turabi there are five major poets of Urdu which are Mir Taqi Mir (d.1810), Mirza Ghali ...
Rekhta
''Rekhta'' ( ur, ; hi, रेख़्ता ) was the Hindustani language as its dialectal basis shifted to the Delhi dialect. This style evolved in both the Perso-Arabic and Devanagari scripts and is considered an early form of Urdu and H ...