ʿEŠQĪʿAẒĪMĀBĀDĪ, SHAIKH MOḤAMMAD WAJĪH-AL-DĪN, 18th-19th century poet and writer in Persian and Urdu (d. after 1223/1808). He was a native of ʿAẓīmābād (Patna) in Behār, and lived for some time in Ḋhāka. He came from a learned family; his father, Shaikh Ḡolām-Ḥosayn, was a poet of Persian writing under the pen name Mojrem. ʿEšqī studied until his youth with his father. He learned the art of poetry from Shah Moḥammad Wafā, a pupil of the celebrated Indo-Persian poet ʿAbd-al-Qāder Bīdel (1054-1133/1644-1721, q.v.). From a reference in Neštar-e ʿešq (p. 95) it may be assumed that he was still alive in 1223/1808, though his eyesight had been impaired due to sickness. ʿEšqī is said to have composed a dīvān in Persian comprising ḡazals, robāʿīs, and a short maṯnawī (Spregner, p. 442). According to his own statement his efforts were mostly devoted to the writing of works in Persian, and he was less interested in Urdu (Dō taḏkerē II, p. 94). He has left a taḏkera of Urdu poets in Persian which was probably completed in 1215/1800 (Sprenger, p. 184).
Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail see “Short References”):
M.-M. ʿĀlam, Behār mēṅ taḏkera-negārī, Patna, 1980, pp. 81-87.
Āqā Ḥosaynqolī ʿĀšeqī ʿAẓīmābādī, Neštar-e ʿešq, tr. ʿA. Kākavī, Patna, 1388/1968, pp. 94-95.
ʿEšqī, Taḏkera-ye ʿEšqī, in Kalīm al-Dīn Aḥmad, ed., Dō taḏkerē, 2 vols., Patna 1959-63.
F. Fatḥpūrī, Urdu šoʿarāʾ kē taḏkerē awr taḏkera-negārī, Lahore, 1972, pp. 208-9.
N. Hadi, Dictionary of Indo-Persian Literature, New Delhi, 1995, pp. 263-64.
Ḥ. Naqvī, Šoʿarāʾ-ye Urdu kē taḏkerē, Lucknow, 1976, pp. 617-40.
A. Sprenger, A Catalogue of the Arabic, Persian and Hindustani Manuscripts of the Libraries of the King of Oudh, Calcutta, 1854, pp. 183-84, 441-42.
Storey, I/2, p. 880.
(Munibur Rahman)
Originally Published: December 15, 1998
Last Updated: January 19, 2012
This article is available in print.
Vol. VIII, Fasc. 6, p. 641
