Muhammad Abdul-Hayy Siddiqui (1857–1912), writing under the

pen-name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Bekhud Badayuni, was one of the leading

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

takhallus A takhallus ( ur, , fa, تخلّص, hi, तख़ल्लुस), is a pen-name. Pen names were widely adopted by Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and Persian poets. ''Takhallus'' is an Arabic word which means, literally, "to get liberated" or "become s ...

'') that can be employed as a pun in the final couplet of every

ghazal The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...

, often combined with a second name that denotes the poet's place of origin. In this case, "Bekhud", the pen-name means ''beside oneself (with joy or grief), out of one's mind; in ecstasy, transported, enraptured, intoxicated; senseless, delirious'', commonly used in the context of spiritual ecstasy, and is paired with "Badayuni", which indicates ties to the city of

Badayun Budaun is commonly pronounced Badayun is a city and a seat of Budaun district, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located near the Ganges river in the centre of Western Uttar Pradesh. Budaun was the capital of Delhi Sultanate for four years from 1210 C ...

History

Bekhud Badayuni's most recent biographer was Asad Ahmad of

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

's Urdu Department, who drew upon the work of prior biographers, including

Hasrat Mohani Syed Fazl-ul-Hasan (1 January 1875 – 13 May 1951), known by his pen-name Hasrat Mohani, was an Indian activist, freedom fighter in the Indian independence movement and a noted poet of the Urdu language. He coined the notable slogan ''Inquil ...

. Bekhud Badayuni was born on 17 September 1857 into Badayun's prominent

Siddiqui Siddiqui ()( Romanized: Ṣiddīqī ) are a South Asian Muslim Sheikh community found mainly in India and Pakistan and in expatriate communities in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East region. They claim to be the descendants of Abu Bakr, the first ...

family, known for its leadership in the areas of Islamic scholarship, mysticism (tasawwuf or "

Sufism Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...

"), and literary pursuits. He was a descendant of the first

Caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

Abu Bakr Abu Bakr Abdallah ibn Uthman Abi Quhafa (; – 23 August 634) was the senior companion and was, through his daughter Aisha, a father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as the first caliph of Islam. He is known with the honor ...

; an intermediate ancestor, Hameeduddin Mukhlis, immigrated to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

from

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in the late 13th century during the reign of Sultan

Ghiyasuddin Balban Ghiyas ud din Balban (1216–1287, reigned: 1266–1287) ( ur, ); (Hindi: ग़ियास उद-दीन बलबन); (IAST: ''Ghiyās ud-Dīn Balban'') was the ninth sultan of the Mamluk dynasty of Delhi. Ghiyas ud Din was the ''regen ...

, and was the brother of Shaikh Saadi Shirazi, one of the seminal and most-quoted poets of Persian literature. Balban appointed Hameeduddin ''

qadi A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...

-ul-quddat'' (literally "judge-of-judges", or Chief Justice) and granted him an extensive landholding in Badayun, at the time one of the key cities of the

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).

. It is also reported that Hameeduddin presented Saadi's two major works, Golistan and Bostan, as a gift to Prince Muhammad Shaheed (Balban's favorite son, and patron - along with Balban - of the great poet, musician, and mystic

Amir Khusro Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253–1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau was an Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar who lived under the Delhi Sultanate. He is an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian s ...

Life

Bekhud trained and qualified as a lawyer, and spent time practicing law in

Muradabad Moradabad () is a city, commissionary and municipal corporation in Moradabad district of Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Moradabad is situated on the banks of the Ramganga river, at a distance of from the national capital, New Delhi and 344& ...

and

Shahjahanpur Shahjahanpur () is a municipal corporation, town and district headquarters of Shahjahanpur District in Uttar Pradesh, India. The city is between Bareilly and Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. History Shahjahanpur was established by Dil ...

. Tiring of the practice of law, he eventually entered into government service, serving as a high official first in the princely state of

Sirohi Sirohi is a city, located in Sirohi district in southern Rajasthan state in western India. It is the administrative headquarters of Sirohi District and was formerly the capital of the princely state of Sirohi ruled by Deora Chauhan Rajput rul ...

(in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

), then in the princely state of

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Ki ...

, where he spent the remainder of his days. He died in 1912 in Badayun.

Influences

Bekhud initially entered the tutelage of Maulana

Altaf Hussain Hali Altaf Hussain Hali ( – ; 1837 – 31 December 1914), also known as Maulana Khawaja Hali, was an Urdu poet and writer. Early life He was born in Panipat to Aizad Baksh and was a descendant of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. He was in the care of his ...

Ghalib Mirza Beg Asadullah Khan (Urdu, fa, مرزا بیگ اسد اللہ خان; 27 December 1797 – 15 February 1869) also known as Mirza Ghalib (Urdu, fa}) was an Urdu and Persian language, Persian shayar (poet), poet of the 19th century Mughal Em ...

's most renowned protégé; it was under Hali's guidance that Bekhud chose his pen-name. Around 1879, concurrent with the publication of Hali's '' Musaddas-e-Hali'' (considered the beginning of the modern age of

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 Ghalib ...

) and Hali's shift in focus away from traditional forms and subjects of poetry, Bekhud left Hali and became the disciple of Nawab Mirza Khan

Daagh Nawab Mirza Khan Daagh Dehlvi ( ur, , 25 May 1831 – 17 March 1905) was a poet known for his Urdu ''ghazals''. He belonged to the old Delhi school of Urdu poetry.

Dehlvi, the last of the great poets of the erstwhile Mughal court. Upon Daagh's death, many of his numerous disciples clamored for the honor of being his ''jaa-nasheen'' (successor to his title and reputation as the greatest living Urdu poet); in his own memoirs, Bekhud reproaches many of Daagh's disciples for the manner in which they squabbled, and himself chose to remain aloof from the debate. Despite Bekhud's own reticence, Dr. Asad Ahmad quotes a well-known anecdote relating that Daagh, when asked to name his ''jaa-nasheen'', replied, "Bekhud-ain

he two Bekhuds He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

, referring to Bekhud Badayuni and Bekhud Dehlvi (a fellow student of Daagh).

Poetry

Much of Bekhud's poetry has fallen out of contemporary discourse, for a variety of reasons. In part, this circumstance is due to Bekhud's own reticence and limited publication of his works. He did not publish his collection of poetry ( diwan) until 1910 (two years before his death) despite having compiled the bulk of it as early as fifteen years prior. Biographers and critics have speculated that even this late publication of Bekhud's work occurred primarily to combat the plagiarism and misappropriation of his poetic works by other poets (since, short of publication, oral transmission is the primary medium for Urdu poetry). Bekhud's residence in

, isolated from the main centers of

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 t ...

in Delhi and Lucknow, also limited the circulation of his work and provided the opportunity for some of Bekhud's contemporaries in the centers of literature to pass his work off as their own. For this reason, much of his work has grown unfamiliar to the current generation of Urdu speakers, despite having been integral to any serious poet's or critic's study of Urdu poetry until late into the 20th century. At the same time, several of his works have been mis-attributed to Bekhud Dehlvi or other poets of his time.

Published works

''Hosh-o-Khirad ki Dukaan'' (The Shop of Sense and Wisdom) (1889) (هوش و خرد کی دکان) ''Sabr-o-Shakeeb ki Loot'' (The Plundering of Patience and Forbearance) (1889) (صبر و شکيب کی لوٿ) ''Marraat-ul-Khayaal'' (The Mirror of Thoughts) (1910) (مراﺓ الخيال) ''Afsaanah-e-Bekhud'' (The Tale of Bekhud) (date unknown) (افسانه بےخود)

History

Life

Influences

Poetry

Published works

Notes

See also