Waqif Lahori

Sheikh Nūr-ul-‘Ain Waqīf Lāhōri (Persian and Punjabi: شیخ نورالعین واقف لاہوری), also known as Waqif Batalvi (died 1776),[1] was an 18th-century Punjabi and Persian-language poet and author.[2][3]

Biography

Born in Batala, Punjab, his father Qazi Amanatullah was the chief qazi of Batala.[4] His date of birth is not given in any of his biographical sources.[4] His family was apparently well-to-do: he was described as among the nobles of Punjab by his contemporary Siraj-ud-Din Arzu.[4]

Waqif was a contemporary of Siraj-ud-Din Arzu, Azad Bilgrami, Faqirullah Afarin, and Abdul Hakīm Hākim Lahori, and except Arzu, had deep relations with all of them.[4] In 1760 (1174 hijri) he went to Deccan with Abdul Hakim where he met Azad at Aurangabad. After a short stay both travelled to Surat, from where Abdul Hakim went on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Waqif stayed there until Abdul Hakim returned and both again went to Deccan, where Waqif lived in Hyderabad for a while. He returned to Punjab next year, reaching Batala in 1176 hijri (1762/1763).[4] Owing to the anarchy prevailing in Punjab at the time, Waqif later settled in Bahawalpur. He died in 1776.[5]

Poetry

Waqif was his pen name.[4] He was not connected to any royal court,[4] although Ahmad Durrani who, according to Ganda Singh, greatly admired his poetry, had invited him to his court at Kandahar, where he was welcomed and entertained as a state guest.[5] He was praised and given the title of Shamsuddin-i-Punjab by Abdul Hakim Lahori for his poetic talents.[4]

An autographed copy of Waqif's Divan was discovered in 1962 among the manuscripts from the imperial library of maharaja Ranjit Singh.[3] In the same year Punjabi Adabi Board published his Persian Divan with the aid of six of its manuscripts.[4] A collection of his poems was translated and published by Afzal Ahmed Syed in 2020.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Kirmani, Waris (1981). "Introduction to the Study of Indo-Persian Poetry". Islam and the Modern Age. XII (2). Islam and the Modern Age Society.: 126–146. ISSN 0021-1826.
  2. ^ Alireza, Poudineh; Mohammadamir, Mashhadi; Abdollah, Vacegh Abbasi (22 September 2024). "Alchemist of poverty (The most prominent themes in Waqif Lahori's poems)". Journal of Subcontinent Researches. 16 (47). doi:10.22111/j. ISSN 2008-5710. Archived from the original on 27 May 2025.
  3. ^ a b Srivastava, R. P. (June–December 1981). "Sikh Painting or Sikh School of Paintings: a Myth or Reality". Vishveshvaranand Indological Journal. XIX (I–II). Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute: 288–293. ISSN 0507-1410.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Professor Muhammad Baqir, "Nūr al-ʻAyn Vāqif", in Aziz 1962
  5. ^ a b Singh, Ganda (1959). Ahmad Shah Durrani: Father of Modern Afghanistan. Asia Publishing House. pp. 332–333. OCLC 1016251090.
  6. ^ Farrukhi, Asif (31 May 2020). "Poetry: Jewels from Forgotten Persian Poetry". Dawn. Retrieved 6 December 2025.

Further reading

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