From Delhi to Isfahan and Beyond: Mirza Ghalib in World Literature

Abstract Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib was born in Agra in 1797. A precocious child, he began composing verses at the age of nine and had a divan of Urdu poetry by the time he was 19. He wrote poetry in both Urdu and Persian and was also a great prose stylist. Ghalib was a careful, even strict editor of his work and took to publishing long before his peers. His predilection for writing difficult, obscure poetry peppered with complex metaphors produced a unique commentarial tradition that did not extend beyond his work. At the same time, however, British colonialism in India produced definitive changes in the ways literature was produced, circulated, and consumed, and Ghalib responded to the cultural challenge with farsightedness. His imagination sought engagement with a wider community of readers. Ghalib's deliberate switch to composing in Persian gave his works a reach beyond political boundaries and linguistic barriers.