Khan Bahadur
Khan Bahadur – a compound of khan ('leader') and bahadur ('brave') – was a formal title of respect and honor, which was conferred exclusively on Muslim and other non-Hindu natives of British India. It was one degree higher than the title of K ...
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdul Ghafūr (1833-1889), better known by his
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 ...
Nassakh ( ur, نساخ), was a British Indian officer, writer, literary critic and collector.
He is best known for his
magnum opus ''Sukhan-e-Shuara'' ( ur, سخن شعرا Speech of Poets) which was a biography of prominent Urdu and
Persian poets. He organised
mushaira in places where he worked; inspiring young Urdu poets in Bengal.
Life
Abdul Ghafur was born in 1833 into a
Bengali Muslim household, best known as the
Qadi family of Rajapur in
Greater Faridpur. His father, Qazi Faqir Muhammad, was a lawyer at the
Calcutta civil court and a
Persian author best known for his ''Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh'' ( ''Compendium of Chronicles''), a history book published in 1836. Reformer
Nawab Abdul Latif
Nawab Bahadur Abdul Latif (1828 – 10 July 1893) was a 19th-century Bengali aristocrat, educator and social worker. His title, ''Nawab'' was awarded by the British in 1880. He was one of the first Muslims in 19th-century India to embrace the i ...
was his elder brother and Nassakh's two other brothers were Abdul Hamid and Abdul Bari Sayd who were also poets.
Abdul Ghafur joined as deputy magistrate in the British Indian government. He served as deputy collector in many places in the
Bengal Presidency. In particular, he worked as deputy collector of
Dacca and
Backergunge from 1860 to 1888.
In 1868, Elayechiram Talib of
Jalalabad, Amritsar migrated to Bakerganj (Barisal) to become a student of Nassakh, who would suggest edits to Talib's poetry. Talib would also write poetry in praise of his teacher Nassakh.
Literary career
Abdul Ghafur mainly wrote poetry in
Urdu, but he also wrote in
Persian. Apart from
Bengali, Urdu and Persian, he also knew English,
Arabic and
Hindi.
Among his Urdu poetry are ''Daftar-e-Bemisal'' (1869), Armugan (1875), Armugani (1884). Daftar-e-Bemisal was praised by
Ghalib. In Sukhan-e-Shuara (1874) and Tazkiratul Muasirin he introduced
Urdu and
Persian poets. He translated Persian poet
Fariduddin Attar's ''Pand Name'' into Urdu under the title of ''Chashma-e-Faez'' in 1874. ''Ganj-e-Tawarikh'' (1873) and ''Kanz-e-Tawarikh'' (1877) were pieces of poetry which contained biographies of great Islamic personalities. ''Ashar-e-Nassakh'' (1866) is also one of his works on poetry. His ''Intikhab-e-Nakam'' (1879) was a critique on the
marsiya poetry of
Mir Anees
Mir Babar Ali Anees ( ur, مير ببر على انيس) (1800–1874), also known as Mir Anees was an Indian Urdu poet. He used his pen-name (takhallus) of Anees (Urdu: , ''Anees'' means "close friend, companion") in poetry. Anees used Persian, ...
and
Mirza Dabeer
Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer ( ur, ),
(29 August 1803 – 6 March 1875) was an Urdu poet who excelled and perfected the art of Marsiya writing. He is considered the leading exponent of Marsiya Nigari or marsiya writing along with Mir Anees.
Mirz ...
. Nassakh also wrote ''Mazhab-e-Muamma'' (1888) which contained his own works of Persian poetry.
See also
*
Zaigham, his teacher
References
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1833 births
1889 deaths
People from Faridpur District
Urdu-language poets
Persian-language poets
Translators from Persian
19th-century translators