Bahadur Shah II, usually referred to by his poetic title Bahadur Shah Zafar, was the twentieth and last Mughal emperor and an Urdu poet. He was the second son and the successor to his father, Akbar II, who died in 1837. He was a titular Emperor, as the Mughal Empire existed in name only and his authority was limited only to the walled city of Old Delhi (Shahjahanbad). Following his involvement in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British deposed him and exiled him to Rangoon in British-controlled Burma in 1858, after convicting him on several charges. The title of Empress of India was subsequently transferred to Queen Victoria.
The Hamzanama or Dastan-e-Amir Hamza narrates the legendary exploits of an Arab warrior named Hamza, usually mistaken for Hamza ibn Abdul-Muttalib, an uncle of Muhammad. Most of the stories are extremely fanciful, "a continuous series of romantic interludes, threatening events, narrow escapes, and violent acts". The Hamzanama chronicles the fantastic adventures of Hamza as he and his band of heroes fight the enemies.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form of a mutiny of sepoys of the company's army in the garrison town of Meerut, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Delhi. It then erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions chiefly in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, though incidents of revolt also occurred farther north and east. The rebellion posed a military threat to British power in that region, and was contained only with the rebels' defeat in Gwalior on 20 June 1858. On 1 November 1858, the British granted amnesty to all rebels not involved in murder, though they did not declare the hostilities to have formally ended until 8 July 1859.
Urdu literature comprises the literary works, written in the Urdu language. While, It tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ghazal and nazm, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including that of the short story, or afsana. Urdu literature is popular mostly in Pakistan, where Urdu is the national language, and in India, where it is a Eighth Schedule language.
Shabkhoon was an Urdu literary magazine started in June 1966 in Allahabad, India. The magazine was founded and edited by poet and author Shamsur Rahman Faruqi who used to work on it along with his job at the Indian Postal Service. The journal covered the modernist (jadidiyat) voice in Urdu literature at a time when the literary scene was dominated by progressive literature and was hailed as "the harbinger of modernism in Urdu". The Magazine was calligraphed by a scribe (katib) Salimullah Naiyer. Forty years after being started, the journal was published for the last time in June 2006. Though it was popular, it ceased publication owing to editor Shamsur Rahman Faruqi's failing health.
Intizar Hussain or Intezar Hussain was a Pakistani writer of Urdu novels, short stories, poetry and nonfiction. He is widely recognised as a leading literary figure of Pakistan.
Shibli Nomani was an Islamic scholar, poet, philosopher, historian, educational thinker, author, orator, reformer and critic of orientalists from Indian subcontinent during the British Raj. He is regarded as the father of Urdu historiography. He was also proficient in Arabic and Persian languages. Shibli was associated with two influential movements in the region, the Aligarh and the Nadwa movements. As a supporter of the Deobandi school, he believed that English language and European sciences should be incorporated into the education system. Shibli wrote several biographies of Muslim heroes, convinced that Muslims of his time could learn valuable lessons from the past. His synthesis of past and modern ideas contributed significantly to Islamic literature produced in Urdu between 1910 and 1935. Shibli established the Darul Musannefin Shibli Academy in 1914 to promote Islamic scholarship and also founded the Shibli National College in 1883. He collected much material on the life of Muhammad, and completed the first two volumes of the planned work, Sirat al-Nabi. His disciple, Sulaiman Nadvi, added to this material and wrote the remaining five volumes after Shibli's death.
Amroha is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is located north-west of Moradabad, near the Ganga River. It is the administrative headquarters of the Amroha district.
General Bakht Khan (1797–1859) was the commander-in-chief of the Indian rebel forces in the city of Delhi during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the East India Company.
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi was an Indian Urdu language poet, author, critic, and theorist. He is known for ushering modernism to Urdu literature. He formulated fresh models of literary appreciation that combined Western principles of literary criticism and subsequently applied them to Urdu literature after adapting them to address literary aesthetics native to Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Some of his notable works included Sher-e-Shor Angez (1996), Ka’i Chand The Sar-e Asman (2006), The Mirror of Beauty (2013), and The Sun that Rose from the Earth (2014). He was also the editor and publisher of the Urdu literary magazine Shabkhoon.
The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857 is a 2006 historical book by William Dalrymple. It deals with the life of poet-emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775–1862) and the unsuccessful Indian Rebellion of 1857, which he was participated in, challenging the British East India Company's rule over India. This was a major act of resistance against the British Empire, finally resulting in the replacement of the nominal Mughal monarch with the British monarch as the Emperor of India.
Muhammad Husain Azad was a scholar and an Urdu writer who wrote both prose and poetry, but he is mostly remembered for his prose. His best known work is Aab-e-Hayat.
Nisar Ahmed Faruqi was an Indian scholar and authority on Sufism in South Asia, with over 50 works and 700 articles to his credit.
Zakir Husain Delhi College, founded in 1696, is the oldest existing educational institution in India, and is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, accredited with NAAC 'A++' grade. The college comprises an area of 150 acres. The college is situated in south campus of University of Delhi It has had a considerable influence on modern education as well as Urdu and Islamic learning in India, and today remains the only Delhi University college offering BA (Hons) courses in Arabic and Persian.
Anusha Rizvi is an Indian film director and screenwriter. Formerly a journalist, Anusha's directorial debut, Peepli Live, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2010 in the World Competition Section. It was the first Indian film to be accepted in the 25 years of the festival’s existence. The film also won the Best First Film Award at the Durban film festival and the Gollapudi Srinivas Award.
Dastangoi is a 13th century Urdu oral storytelling art form. The Persian style of dastan evolved in 16th century. One of the earliest references in print to dastangoi is a 19th-century text containing 46 volumes of the adventures of Amir Hamza titled Dastan e Amir Hamza.
Ankit Chadha was an Indian writer, story-teller, oral narrative performance artist, researcher and educator. He specialized in research-based narratives performed in the centuries-old Dastangoi form of storytelling. His writing varied from biographical accounts of personalities like Kabir and Rahim to Dara Shikoh and Majaz. He had spoken on Dastangoi globally, including at Harvard, Yale and University of Toronto.
Syed Sahil Agha is a writer, author, and storyteller from New Delhi, India who specialized in the verbal art of dastangoi.
Moulvi Muhammad Baqir (1780–1857) was a scholar, an Indian independence activist and journalist based in Delhi. He was the first journalist to be executed following rebellion in 1857. He was arrested on 16 September 1857 and executed by gunshot two days later without trial.
Danish Husain is the stage name of Murtaza Danish Husaini, an Indian actor, storyteller, poet and theatre director. He has also been credited as Dan Husain and Murtaza Danish Husain.
