Famous Urdu Poets: 25 Great Poets from Mir and Ghalib to Iqbal and Faiz

About this novel

Meet the famous Urdu poets, from Wali Dakhni, Mir and Ghalib to Iqbal, Faiz and Parveen Shakir, with their dates and best works. Each classical poet comes with one famous sher in Urdu, Roman Urdu and English, and the list links to our full poet guides.

Urdu has one of the richest poetry traditions in the world. This list brings together 25 famous Urdu poets: fourteen classical masters, from the 17th century to Allama Iqbal, and eleven great modern poets of the 20th century. For each poet you will find their dates, their city and what they are known for.

Famous Urdu poets at a glance

Classical Urdu poets

These poets lived before 1940, so their poetry is in the public domain. Where a poet has a famous couplet (sher), it is given in Urdu script, in Roman Urdu and with our own English translation.

1. Wali Dakhni (ولی دکنی)

1667–1707 · Deccan; died in Ahmedabad

Wali Mohammad Wali, known as Wali Dakhni, is often called the father of Urdu poetry. When his diwan reached Delhi around 1700, it showed the poets there that the ghazal could be written beautifully in Urdu (then called Rekhta) instead of Persian, and Delhi poetry was never the same again.

2. Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda (مرزا محمد رفیع سوداؔ)

1713–1781 · Delhi and Lucknow

Sauda was the great master of the Urdu qasida (ode) and of sharp satirical poems (hajv) about the people and politics of his time. Like Mir, he left a declining Delhi for Lucknow late in life.

3. Khwaja Mir Dard (خواجہ میر دردؔ)

1721–1785 · Delhi

Khwaja Mir Dard was a Sufi who stayed in Delhi all his life while others fled. His short, clear ghazals about divine love and the fleeting nature of life made him the leading Sufi poet of Urdu.

جگ میں آ کر ادھر ادھر دیکھا
تو ہی آیا نظر جدھر دیکھا

Jag mein aa kar idhar udhar dekha
Tu hi aaya nazar jidhar dekha

I came into the world and looked here and there; wherever I looked, I saw only you.

4. Mir Taqi Mir (میر تقی میرؔ)

1723–1810 · Agra, Delhi and Lucknow

Mir Taqi Mir, also spelled Meer Taqi Meer, is called Khuda-e-Sukhan, the god of poetry. His simple, heartbroken ghazals about love and a ruined Delhi make many critics rank him as the greatest Urdu ghazal poet. Read 13 of his famous sher in our Mir Taqi Mir poetry guide.

پتا پتا بوٹا بوٹا حال ہمارا جانے ہے
جانے نہ جانے گل ہی نہ جانے باغ تو سارا جانے ہے

Patta patta boota boota haal hamara jaane hai
Jaane na jaane gul hi na jaane baagh to saara jaane hai

Every leaf and every bush knows the state I am in; only the rose does not know, though the whole garden does.

5. Nazeer Akbarabadi (نظیر اکبرآبادی)

1735–1830 · Delhi and Agra

Nazeer Akbarabadi wrote not for kings but for ordinary people. His nazms describe festivals, fairs, kites, the seasons, poverty and old age in the everyday language of the bazaar, and his poem Banjara Nama is still recited today. He is called the father of the Urdu nazm.

6. Bahadur Shah Zafar (بہادر شاہ ظفرؔ)

1775–1862 · Delhi; died in Rangoon

Bahadur Shah Zafar was the last Mughal emperor and also a fine poet. After the uprising of 1857 the British exiled him to Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar), where he died. His sad ghazals about loss and exile are remembered as the voice of a fallen empire. Zauq and later Ghalib were his teachers in poetry.

7. Sheikh Ibrahim Zauq (شیخ ابراہیم ذوقؔ)

1790–1854 · Delhi

Zauq was the poet laureate (Malik-ush-Shu’ara) of the Mughal court and Bahadur Shah Zafar’s teacher. He was famous for his command of language and idiom, and his rivalry with Ghalib is one of the best-known stories of Delhi’s literary life.

لائی حیات آئے قضا لے چلی چلے
اپنی خوشی نہ آئے نہ اپنی خوشی چلے

Laai hayat aaye qaza le chali chale
Apni khushi na aaye na apni khushi chale

Life brought me, so I came; death takes me, so I go. I neither came by my own wish nor leave by it.

8. Mirza Ghalib (مرزا غالبؔ)

1797–1869 · Agra and Delhi

Mirza Ghalib is the most famous of all Urdu poets. He took the ghazal beyond love into philosophy, faith, doubt and wit, and his letters helped create modern Urdu prose. Read 12 of his famous sher in our Mirza Ghalib shayari guide.

ہزاروں خواہشیں ایسی کہ ہر خواہش پہ دم نکلے
بہت نکلے مرے ارمان لیکن پھر بھی کم نکلے

Hazaron khwahishen aisi ke har khwahish pe dam nikle
Bahut nikle mere arman lekin phir bhi kam nikle

A thousand desires, each one worth dying for; many of my wishes came true, yet they were still too few.

9. Momin Khan Momin (مومن خان مومنؔ)

1800–1852 · Delhi

Momin was a physician, astrologer and poet of delicate, subtle love ghazals. One of his couplets so impressed Ghalib that, according to a famous story, Ghalib said he would give his whole diwan in exchange for it. That couplet is below.

تم مرے پاس ہوتے ہو گویا
جب کوئی دوسرا نہیں ہوتا

Tum mere paas hote ho goya
Jab koi doosra nahin hota

You are with me, as it were, whenever no one else is there.

10. Mir Babar Ali Anees (میر ببر علی انیسؔ)

1803–1874 · Lucknow

Mir Anees is the greatest master of the Urdu marsiya, the elegy for Imam Hussain and the martyrs of Karbala. His marsiyas are long, vivid and dramatic, and they are still recited every Muharram. His rival and contemporary Mirza Dabeer is the other great name of the form.

11. Dagh Dehlvi (داغؔ دہلوی)

1831–1905 · Delhi, Rampur and Hyderabad

Dagh Dehlvi wrote light, playful and very musical love ghazals in the pure idiom of Delhi, which is why so many of them are sung. He spent his last years as court poet in Hyderabad, and he corrected the early poems of the young Allama Iqbal.

غضب کیا ترے وعدے پہ اعتبار کیا
تمام رات قیامت کا انتظار کیا

Ghazab kiya tere waade pe aitbaar kiya
Tamaam raat qayamat ka intezar kiya

What a mistake it was to trust your promise; all night long I waited as if for the Day of Judgement.

12. Altaf Hussain Hali (الطاف حسین حالیؔ)

1837–1914 · Panipat and Delhi

Hali was a student of Ghalib who turned Urdu poetry towards social reform. His long poem Musaddas-e-Hali (1879), on the rise and fall of Muslims, was hugely influential. He also wrote Yadgar-e-Ghalib, the first biography of Ghalib, and Muqaddama-e-Sher-o-Shairi, the first major book of Urdu literary criticism.

13. Akbar Allahabadi (اکبر الٰہ آبادی)

1846–1921 · Allahabad

Akbar Allahabadi was a judge by profession and the great humorist and satirist of Urdu poetry. With gentle, witty verse he mocked people who copied Western ways without thinking, and many of his lines are still quoted as proverbs.

دنیا میں ہوں دنیا کا طلب گار نہیں ہوں
بازار سے گزرا ہوں خریدار نہیں ہوں

Duniya mein hoon duniya ka talabgar nahin hoon
Bazaar se guzra hoon khareedar nahin hoon

I live in the world but do not crave it; I have walked through the market without becoming a buyer.

14. Allama Muhammad Iqbal (علامہ محمد اقبالؔ)

1877–1938 · Sialkot and Lahore

Allama Iqbal is the national poet of Pakistan, called Shair-e-Mashriq, the poet of the East. His poetry of khudi (selfhood), faith and awakening inspired the Pakistan movement. Read his famous poems in our Allama Iqbal poetry guide and the full text of Shikwa and Jawab-e-Shikwa.

ستاروں سے آگے جہاں اور بھی ہیں
ابھی عشق کے امتحاں اور بھی ہیں

Sitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hain
Abhi ishq ke imtihan aur bhi hain

There are worlds beyond the stars; love still has more tests ahead.

Modern Urdu poets

The poets below wrote in the 20th century. Their poems are still protected by copyright, so we describe their work and name their famous books rather than printing their verses.

15. Firaq Gorakhpuri (فراق گورکھپوری)

1896–1982 · Gorakhpur and Allahabad

A professor of English who became one of the finest ghazal poets of the 20th century; he won India’s Jnanpith Award for Gul-e-Naghma.

16. Josh Malihabadi (جوش ملیح آبادی)

1898–1982 · Malihabad; later Pakistan

Called Shair-e-Inqilab, the poet of revolution, for his fiery nazms; his autobiography Yadon Ki Baraat is a classic.

17. Faiz Ahmed Faiz (فیض احمد فیض)

1911–1984 · Sialkot and Lahore

The most loved modern Urdu poet, who joined romantic love with the struggle for justice; his books include Naqsh-e-Faryadi, Dast-e-Saba and Zindan Nama. Read more in our Faiz Ahmed Faiz guide.

18. Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi (احمد ندیم قاسمی)

1916–2006 · Khushab and Lahore

Poet, short-story writer and editor of the literary magazine Funoon, who encouraged many younger writers.

19. Sahir Ludhianvi (ساحر لدھیانوی)

1921–1980 · Ludhiana; later Bombay

A poet of protest and lost love, best known for the lyrics he wrote for Hindi films; his first collection was Talkhiyan.

20. Nasir Kazmi (ناصر کاظمی)

1925–1972 · Ambala; later Lahore

A quiet, melancholy ghazal poet who wrote about loneliness and the pain of Partition; his best-known book is Barg-e-Nai.

21. Habib Jalib (حبیب جالب)

1928–1993 · Hoshiarpur; later Lahore

The people’s poet of resistance, famous for his poems against dictatorship, such as Dastoor.

22. Munir Niazi (منیر نیازی)

1928–2006 · Hoshiarpur; later Lahore

Wrote in both Urdu and Punjabi; his strange, dreamlike poems about cities, fear and lateness are unlike anyone else’s.

23. Ahmad Faraz (احمد فراز)

1931–2008 · Kohat; later Islamabad

A hugely popular romantic and political poet; his ghazal Ranjish hi sahi is one of the most sung Urdu ghazals.

24. Jaun Elia (جون ایلیا)

1931–2002 · Amroha; later Karachi

A rebellious, deeply personal poet who became famous among young readers after his death; his first collection was Shayad.

25. Parveen Shakir (پروین شاکر)

1952–1994 · Karachi and Islamabad

The leading woman poet of modern Urdu, who wrote about love from a woman’s point of view; her first book was Khushbu.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the greatest Urdu poet? Mirza Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir and Allama Iqbal are the names most often given. Among modern poets, Faiz Ahmed Faiz is usually ranked first.

Who is called the father of Urdu poetry? Wali Dakhni (1667–1707), whose diwan showed the poets of Delhi that great ghazals could be written in Urdu.

Who is the national poet of Pakistan? Allama Muhammad Iqbal, who died in Lahore in 1938.

Who is the most famous woman Urdu poet? Parveen Shakir (1952–1994), whose first book Khushbu made her famous almost overnight.

Who wrote Shikwa and Jawab-e-Shikwa? Allama Iqbal. You can read both poems in full on our site.

Read more in our Urdu Classics section: Urdu ghazal (famous and sad ghazals), Urdu poetry in English, sad Urdu poetry, love poetry in Urdu, Mir Taqi Mir poetry, Mirza Ghalib shayari, Allama Iqbal poetry and an essay on Allama Iqbal in Urdu.