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 ...
Zaigham ( ur, ), was a 19th-century teacher and alchemist based in
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...
poetry, specialising in
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 ...
and
marsiya
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 ...
in
Rekhta
''Rekhta'' ( ur, ; hi, रेख़्ता ) was the Hindustani language as its dialectal basis shifted to the Delhi dialect. This style evolved in both the Urdu alphabet, Perso-Arabic and Devanagari scripts and is considered an early for ...
.
Early life and education
It is considered that Ikram was born in Rampur, Agra Presidency, while others suggest he was born in
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 ...
but from Rampur. His name is often preceded with the title of Hafiz, a term used by
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
for people who have completely memorised the
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
.
Ludwig W. Adamec
Ludwig W. Adamec (10 March 1924 – 1 January 2019) was a noted scholar on the Middle East and Afghanistan. He was a professor emeritus in the School of Middle East and North African Studies at the University of Arizona.
(2009), ''Historical Dictionary of Islam'', pp.113-114. Scarecrow Press. .
Career
Zaigham migrated to
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
at some point in his life where he gained popularity. A notable piece of poetry of his include a fifty-verse long Persian
qasida
The qaṣīda (also spelled ''qaṣīdah''; is originally an Arabic word , plural ''qaṣā’id'', ; that was passed to some other languages such as fa, قصیده or , ''chakameh'', and tr, kaside) is an ancient Arabic word and form of writin ...
. Ikram was celebrated for his
metre
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...
capability.
Nassakh
Khan Bahadur Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdul Ghafūr (1833-1889), better known by his pen name 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, ...
, a contemporary Urdu poet of Bengal, praised his teacher, Ikram, on this; stating that a single
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 ...
written by Ikram can include up to 72 Urdu poetic metres.
He was also a teacher to a number of students to whom he taught Urdu poetry. Some include
Nassakh
Khan Bahadur Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdul Ghafūr (1833-1889), better known by his pen name 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, ...
, Hafiz Rashidun Nabi Wahshat, Mahmud Azad, Hakim Ashraf Ali Mast, Hamid Bakht Mazumdar, Arman and Khwaja Abdul Ghaffar Akhtar. He was also a tutor to the family of Nawab Syed Mahmud. It has also been said that Shaykh Haji Ilahi Bakhsh Bijan Siddiqi of