Ghalib

Mirza Mohammad Asadullah Khan Ghalib began writing poetry in Persian when he was nine years old. Mir, the leading poet of the day, was shown his verses and predicted a great future for the gifted child. Yet success and reward did not come easily. The times worked against him, and he had little patience for fools, even those who held positions of importance.

He was at the height of his powers when events turned against him. The Mughal court declined, the British Empire rose, and then came the Revolt of 1857. Ghalib survived the upheavals and purges that followed, but many of his friends and contemporaries did not, and his beloved Delhi was changed beyond recognition. He emerged a broken man who longed for death.

He died on 15 February 1869, leaving behind some of the most vivid accounts ever written of that period. In this biography, Pavan K. Varma sets out to capture both the spirit of the man and the essence of the age he lived through.