BROWNE, Edward
Granville. A Literary History of Persia
(4 vols.), Bethesda, MD: Iranbooks, 1992 [1906]. All
four volumes are available online through archive.org. This is a classic work,
and full of valuable background material; if only
because it’s shaped everybody’s literary attitudes,
it’s well worth studying.
CHELKOWSKI
1975. Mirror of the Invisible World: Tales
from the Khamseh of Nizami. Peter J.
Chelkowski et al. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, 1975. The Met has generously placed the work online; for extra security, it
is also available on this site.
DAUD RAHBAR,
trans. and ed. Urdu Letters of Mirza Asadullah
Khan Ghalib. Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1987.
FAROOQI, MEHR AFSHAN. Ghalib: A Wilderness at My Doorstep; A Critical Biography. New Delhi: Penguin Random House, 2021.
HARCOURT
and
HUSSAIN.
E.
S. Harcourt and Fakhur Hussain, trans. and ed. Lucknow:
The
Last
Phase of an Oriental Culture, by Abdul
Halim Sharar. London: Paul Elek, 1975.
KHWAJA AHMAD
FARUQI, trans. Dastanbuy: A Diary of the Indian
Revolt of 1857. Bombay: Asia Publishing House,
1970. This work was written in a special archaic
Persian that avoided Arabic words; the translation is
available on this site. The Persian text:
on the rekhta.org site.
NAIM 1970. C. M. Naim,
trans. and ed. Twenty-Five Verses by Ghalib.
Calcutta: Writers Workshop Redbird Book, 1970. All the
commentary from this volume has been included with the
relevant verses.
NAIM 1972.
C. M. Naim, trans. and ed. Ghalib’s Lighter Verse.
Calcutta: Redbird Book, Writers Workshop, 1972. All
the commentary from this volume has been included with
the relevant verses.
NIAZI 2002. Sarfaraz
K. Niazi, trans. and ed. Love Sonnets of
Ghalib. Lahore: Ferozsons, 2002. A
translation and commentary.
PLATTS. Platts, John
T. A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and
English. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1930 (fifth impression). This dictionary is online through DSAL.
PRITCHETT.
Frances
W. Pritchett. Nets of Awareness: Urdu Poetry and
Its Critics. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1994. Online on the Univ. of California Press website.
PRITCHETT
1991.
Frances
W.
Pritchett. The Romance Tradition in Urdu:
Adventures from the Dastan of Amir Hamzah. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1991. An extended
version is on this site.
PRITCHETT
AND
FARUQI.
Frances
W. Pritchett, in association with S. R. Faruqi, trans.
and ed. Ab-e Hayat: Shaping the Canon of Urdu
Poetry. New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2001. A slightly corrected version of this work is online through DSAL, with page
numbers linked to the original Urdu text.
PRITCHETT
AND
KHALIQ.
Frances
W. Pritchett and Khaliq Ahmad Khaliq. Urdu Meter:
A Practical Handbook. University of Wisconsin at
Madison: South Asian Studies, 1987. An online version
of this handbook is provided on
this site.
QUR'AN. A. Yusuf Ali,
trans. and commentator, The Holy Qur'an.
Beirut: Dar ul-Qur'an, 1992/3 [1934]. This translation
has many useful notes about South Asian Islamic
traditions.
RUSSELL
AND
ISLAM. Ralph Russell and Khurshidul Islam, trans. and
ed. Ghalib 1797-1869; Volume I: Life and Letters.
London: George Allen and Unwin, 1969, and many reprint
editions: on this site.
RUSSELL
AND ADANI. Ralph Russell and Iftikhar Ahmad Adani. Selections
from the Persian Ghazals of Ghalib, With
Translations. Lahore: Pakistan Writers’
Co-operative Society, 1997. Russell translates into
English, Adani into Urdu: on this site.
RUSSELL
2003. Ralph Russell. The Oxford India Ghalib:
Life, Letters, and Ghazals. New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 2003. Unfortunately, this is
a chaotic, poorly annotated rehash of parts of
Russell's other works and cannot be recommended.
SCHIMMEL.
Annemarie Schimmel, A Dance of Sparks:
Imagery of Fire in Ghalib's Poetry. New
Delhi: Ghalib Academy, 1979.
SCHIMMEL
1992.
Annemarie
Schimmel,
A Two-Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian
Poetry. Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1992. Very useful for background.
SHAHNAMAH.
Firdausi, The Epic of Kings (1010),
trans. by Helen Zimmern: online at MIT and at Univ. of Australia.
STEINGASS. F.
Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English
Dictionary. London: Routledge, 1988 [1892]. This
dictionary is online through DSAL.
YUSUF ALI. See
*QUR'AN.
YUSUF
HUSAIN, trans. Persian Ghazals of Ghalib. New
Delhi: Ghalib Institute, 1980.
THE ABOVE ENGLISH WORKS have
been particularly referred to in this site. For
additional literature see: ***GHALIB STUDIES IN ENGLISH***
Works in Urdu
== Urdu works used in this project ==
ABDUL
HAKIM (1885-1959). ḳhalīfah ʿabd
ul-ḥakīm — Ideas of Ghalib
/ afkār-e ġhhālib — Lahore:
Maktabah Mu'in ul-Adab, 1954. Commentary on selected
Urdu and Persian verses, especially from a mystical
point of view: available on this site.
ARSHI (1904-1981). imtiyāz ʿalī ʿarshī — Divan-e
Ghalib / dīvān-e
ġhālib — New Delhi: Anjuman Taraqqi-e Urdu,
1982 (2nd ed.) [1958]. All references are to the
ghazal numbers and page numbers in Part 2, called navā-e sarosh within the volume.
The second edition (1982) is available on this site. The first edition
(1958) is available on the rekhta.org site. Another copy:
on the rekhta.org site. Also available:
his Dictionary of Ghalib / farhang-e ġhālib : on the rekhta.org site.
ASAR LAKHNAVI
(1885-1967). jaʿfar ʿalī ḳhāñ
aṡar lakhnavii — A
Study of Ghalib / mut̤ālaʿah-e
ġhālib — Lucknow: Danish Mahal, 2nd edition,
1957. Thanks to the generosity of Satyanarayana Hegde
(of Mumbai), this rare text from his collection is
available on this site. This work comments
selectively on certain verses only, including some
unpublished ones.
ASI (1893-1946). ʿabd ul-bārī āsī
— Complete Commentary on the Divan-e
Ghalib / mukammal
sharḥ-e dīvān-e ġhālib — Lucknow: Siddiq
Book Depot, 1931; also Complete Commentary on the Poetry of Ghalib / mukammal sharḥ-e kalām-e ġhālib , his commentary on the
unpublished verses from published ghazals; both are available and indexed on
this site.
AZAD (1830-1910). muḥammad ḥusain āzād — Water
of Life / āb-e ḥayāt
— Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy, 1982. Photo
offset of: Lahore: Naval Kishor, 1907. This edition is
already online at DSAL, and is also
linked to the the Pritchett
and Faruqi translation.
BAQIR (1927?-1972). āġhā muḥammad bāqir — Ghalib's
Speech / bayān-e
ġhālib: sharḥ-e dīvān-e ġhālib — Lahore:
Shaikh Mubarak Ali and Sons, 1940: on the rekhta.org site; [Lahore: Shaikh
Barakat Ali and Sons, 1939]. Another edition: Mubarak
Ali, Lahore, 1954: on the rekhta.org site. A modern
reprint: on the rekhta.org site.
BEKHUD
DIHLAVI (1863-1955). sayyid vaḥīd
ud-dīn beḳhvud dihlavī — A Mirror of
Ghalib / mirāt
ul-ġhālib — Calcutta: 'Usmaniyah Book Depot,
1934 [Delhi: Mahbub ul-Mutaba, 1924].
BEKHUD
MOHANI (1883-1940). sayyid muḥammad
aḥmad beḳhvud mohānī — A Commentary
on the Divan of Ghalib / sharḥ-e
dīvān-e ġhālib — Lucknow: Nizami Press, 1970
[composed 1923].
CHISHTI
(1896-1984). yūsuf salīm chishtī
— A Commentary on the Divan of Ghalib
/ sharḥ-e dīvān-e ġhālib —
New Delhi: Itiqad Publishing House, 1983 [Lahore:
Ishrat Publishing House, 1959]. On the rekhta.org site.
FARHANG. sayyid aḥmad dihlavī — Asifiyah
Dictionary / farhang-e
āṣifiyah — Delhi: National Academy, 1974
[1896], 4 vols.
FARUQI, Shamsur
Rahman (1936-). shams ur-raḥmān
fārūqī — An Explanation of Ghalib
/ tafhīm-e ġhālib — New
Delhi: Ghalib Institute, 1989. A new, augmented
edition came out in 2006, and was reprinted in 2014.
An index to both editions of this book is provided on this site. Also,
the 2014 edition (an unchanged reprint of the 2006 edition) is available here, through the
generous permission of the author and the kind help of
Satyanarayana Hegde: on this
site. It is also on the rekhta.org site.
FARUQI
2. A Selection from the Complete Urdu Works
of Ghalib / intiḳhāb-e
urdū kulliyāt-e ġhālib — New Delhi: Sahitya
Academy, 1993. 2nd ed., 1999. A list of the verses chosen from divan ghazals contained in this book is provided here; of the verses chosen from unpublished ghazals, here. The
whole book is online through the rekhta.org site.
FARUQI 3. Four
Essays
on Ghalib / ġhālib par
chār taḥrīreñ — New Delhi: Ghalib
Institute, 2001. Online through the rekhta.org site.
FARUQI, S. R., et al. A
Course in Rhetoric / dars-e
balāġhat — New Delhi: Taraqqi-e Urdu Bureau,
1981; on this site.
GHALIB 1816— The
‘Nuskhah-e Bhopal’, compiled c.1816 — nusḳhah-e bhopāl aur nusḳhah-e
bhopāl-e ṡānī — ed. by 'Abd ul-Quvvi
Dasnavi. Bhopal: Saifiyah College, 1970; on
this site.
GHALIB 1821— The
‘Nuskhah-e Hamidiyah’, compiled c.1821 — nusḳhah-e ḥamīdiyah — ed. by
Hamid Ahmad Khan. Lahore: Majlis Taraqqi-e Adab, 1969;
on this site. An edition from
the Majlis Taraqqi-e Adab, Lahore, 1983: on the rekhta.org site. The early Anwar
ul-Haq edition is available on the rekhta.org site. There is also a beautiful modern facsimile edition: Nuskha-e-Hamidiya, introduced by Mehr Afshan Farooqi (Charlottesville: Department of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures, University of Virginia, 2015.
GHALIB 1826/7. The
'Nuskhah-e Sherani' -- dīvān-e
ġhālib nusḳhah-e sherānī — Lahore: Majlis
Taraqqi-e Adab, 1969; on
this site.
GHALIB 1828— 'A
Graceful/'Two-colored' Rose',
compiled 1828 / gul-e
raʿnā — ed. by Sayyid Qudrat Naqvi. Karachi:
Anjuman Taraqqi-e Urdu, 1975 [first published 1970].
Here are its Urdu ghazals: on
this site. The whole text of the Urdu and
Persian intikhab is available, in an edition by Malik
Ram (1970), on the rekhta.org site.
GHALIB 1841— Divan-e
Ghalib [Urdu], 1841 / dīvān-e
asadullâh ḳhān ṣāḥib ġhālib taḳhalluṣ —
intro. by Kalidas Gupta Raza, facsimile ed., Bombay
1986; on this site.
GHALIB 1862-- Divan-e
Ghalib [Urdu], 1862 / dīvān-e
ġhālib -- Kanpur, Nizami Press; on this site.
GYAN CHAND
(1923-). gyān chand — The
Interpretation of Ghalib / tafsīr-e ġhālib — Srinagar:
Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture, and
Language, 1971. A commentary on the unpublished
ghazals; on this site. Also: on the rekhta.org site.
HALI (1837-1914). ḳhvājah alt̤āf ḥusain ḥālī —
A Memorial of Ghalib / yādgār-e ġhālib — New Delhi:
Ghalib Institute, 1986 [Kanpur: Nami Press, 1897]. The
full text is available on this site.
HAMID (1901-1980), ed.
ḥāmid ʿalī ḳhāñ — Divan-e
Ghalib / dīvān-e
ġhālib — Lahore: Punjab University Press,
1969; on this site. Text images from this edition are also linked through the index pages of each divan ghazal.
HASRAT (1875?-1951).
faẓl ul-ḥasan ḥasrat mohānī
— A Commentary on the Divan of Ghalib
/ sharḥ-e dīvān-e ġhālib —
Karachi: Al-Kitab, 1965 [1905]; on this site.
JOSH (1883-1976). labbhū rām josh malsiyānī — The
Divan of Ghalib with Commentary / dīvān-e ġhālib maʿ sharḥ —
Delhi: Atma Ram and Sons, 1950; on
this site. Also: on the rekhta.org site.
KHALIQ
ANJUM, ed. ḳhalīq anjum — Letters
of Ghalib / ġhālib ke
ḳhut̤ūt̤ — New Delhi: Ghalib Institute, 1984
(vol. 1), 1985 (vol. 2), 1987 (vol. 3), 1993 (vol. 4);
there is also a fifth volume, an index. These volumes
are available online through rekhta.org: *volume 1*; *volume 2*; *volume 3*; *volume 4*; *volume 5*. There are reprints
too, but as far as I can tell they have the same
contents and pagination.
MIHR (1895-1971). ġhulām rasūl mihr — The
Voice of an Angel / navā-e
sarosh, mukammal dīvān-e ġhālib maʿ sharḥ
— Lahore: Shaikh Ghulam Ali and Sons, 1967.
MIHR (1895-1971). ġhulām rasūl mihr — Letters of Ghalib / ḳhut̤ūt̤-e ġhālib — Lahore: Punjab University, 1969. 2 vols. These volumes are available online through rekhta.org: *volume 1*; *volume 2*.
MIR (1722-1810). muḥammad taqī mīr — The
Complete Works of Mir, Volume 1 / kulliyāt-e mīr, jild-e avval,
mukammal chhih dīvān, ġhazaliyāt — Ed. by z̤ill-e ʿabbās ʿabbāsī , with
additions and corrections by aḥmad
maḥfūz̤ — New Delhi: Qaumi Council bara-e
Furogh-e Urdu Zaban, 2013 [1983, 2003]. The complete
ghazal texts from this edition are available through rekhta.org. See also 'A
Garden of Kashmir'.
MUHAMMAD
ANSARULLAH.
muḥammad anṣārullāh — A
Ghalib Bibliography / ġhālib
bibliyogrāfī — Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim
University, 1972. Updated edition: ġhālib
bibliyogrāfī , kitābeñ — New Delhi: Ghalib
Institute, 1998. On the rekhta.org site.
NAIYAR
MASUD (1936-). nayyar masʿūd
riẓvī — An Interpretation of Ghalib
/ taʿbīr-e ġhālib — Lucknow:
Kitab Nagar, 1973. Available on this site (with thanks to
Mehr Farooqi). Also on the rekhta.org site.
NATIQ (1886-1969). abū'l ḥasan nāt̤iq gulāʾoṭhvī
— A Treasure of Meanings: a Commentary on the
Divan of Ghalib / kanz
ul-mat̤ālib sharḥ-e dīvān-e ġhālib —
Lucknow: Maktabah Din o Adab, 1968. Thanks to the
generosity of Satyanarayana Hegde (of Mumbai), this
rare text from his collection is available on
this site. Using Satya’s numbers at the upper
right, alif begins on 9; be on 66; nūn
on 101; ye on 148; ghazal {181}
on 196. Also on the rekhta.org site.
NAZM (1852-1933). ʿalī ḥaidar naz̤m t̤abāt̤abāʾī
lakhnavī — A Commentary on the Urdu
Divan of Ghalib / sharḥ-e
dīvān-e urdū-e ġhālib — Hyderabad: Matba
Mufid ul-Islam, n.d. [1900]. This commentary (title
pages) is provided on this site, thanks to the
generous help of Sean Pue. Each verse is linked to the
relevant page(s) of the commentary. Here are Nazm's
concluding pages about other genres. Here's the
whole work together: on the rekhta.org site. Another
edition:on the rekhta.org site. A third
edition: on the rekhta.org site.
NIZAMI
BADAYUNI (1872-1947). niz̤āmī
badāyūnī -- The Urdu Divan of
Ghalib With a Commentary by Nizami / urdū dīvān-e ġhālib maʿ sharḥ-e
niz̤āmī -- Badaun: Matba Nizami Press, n.d.
[1915; 6th ed., 1927]. After 76 pages of extensive
introductory material (including reproduced separate
introductory notes to all five previous editions), the
commentary itself begins on a second p. 1. Available on this site.
NIYAZ FAT'HPURI
(1884-1966). niyāz fātḥpūrī
-- The Difficulties of Ghalib / mushkilāt-e ġhālib -- Lucknow:
Nasim Book Depot, 1972. Thanks to Satya Hegde, this
text is available on this site.
RAZA
(1988, 1995). kālīdās guptā
raẓā — The Complete Divan of Ghalib,
in Historical Order / dīvān-e
ġhālib kāmil, tārīḳhī tartīb se — Bombay:
Sakar Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1988. Page images from
this earlier edition are provided for all unpublished
ghazals, linked from each one. There is now a revised,
augmented, annotated final edition, dīvān-e
ġhālib kāmil, nusḳhah-e guptā raẓā
published in 1995 (with an intermediate edition in
1990); this definitive 1995 edition is now available on this
site.
SA'ID
UD-DIN
(1926). saʿīd ul-dīn aḥmad
— A Commentary on the Urdu Divan of Ghalib,
and Criticism of the Poetry of Ghalib, known as ‘the
Gift of Sa'id’ / sharḥ-e
dīvān-e ġhālib urdū aur tanqīd-e kalām-e
ġhālib maʿrūf bah hadiyah-e saʿīd — New
Delhi: Ghalib Academy, 2007 (1926). With much
appreciation for the good work of the Ghalib Academy
(and with many thanks to Satyanarayana Hegde for
making the pdf), this reprint edition is available on this site. Using Satya’s
numbers at the upper right, alif
begins on 23; be on 59; nūn on 82; ye
on 117; ghazal {181} on 147.
SARVAR. mīr muḥammad ḳhāñ bahādur sarvar
-- Best of the Anthologies; that is, the
Tazkirah of Sarvar / ʿumdat-e
muntaḳhabah yaʿnī tażkirah-e sarvar -- Ed.
and intro. by Khvajah Ahmad Faruqi. Delhi: Delhi
University Department of Urdu, 1961. The tazkirah was
composed from 1799 to 1809.
It contains an entry on the young Ghalib: pp. 116-120:
on this site. Sarvar includes,
sometimes with small changes in wording, verses from:
{345x}, {305x}, {88}, {432x}, {363x}, {324x}, {426x},
{238x}, {41}, {288x}, {301x}, {54}, {307x}, {129},
{165}, {434x}, {217}, {164}, {183}, {48}, and the
famous quatrain discussed in {141,1}. (Also included
is Sarvar's p. 121, with a rare sample of Bedil's Urdu
poetry.) The full tazkirah: rekhta.org.
SHADAN (1869-1948).
sayyid aulād ḥusain shādāñ
bilgrāmī — The Seeking Soul: A
Commentary on the Divan of Ghalib / rūḥ ul-mat̤ālib fī sharḥ-e
dīvān-e ġhālib — Lahore: Shaikh Mubarak Ali,
1967 [Lahore: Matba Koh-e Nur, 1946].
SHAHID. muḥammad ayyūb shāhid — A
Critical Examination of the Commentators on Ghalib
/ shāraḥīn-e ġhālib kā
tanqīdī mut̤āliʿah — Lahore: Maghrabi
Pakistan Urdu Academy, 1988. 2 vols.
SHAKIL UL-RAHMAN
(1929-). shakīl ul-raḥmān --
Mirza Ghalib and Indian-Mughal Poetics
/ mīrzā ġhālib aur hind muġhal
jamāliyāt -- New Delhi: Ma'sum Publications,
1987. Thanks to Satya Hegde, available on this site.
SHARAR (1860-1926). ʿabd ul-ḥalīm sharar — Guzishtah
Lakhna'u / gużishtah
lakhnaʾū yā mashriqī tamaddun kā āḳhirī
namūnah, tārīḳhī-o-jaġhrāfiyāʾī ḥālāt
— ed. Shamim Inhonvi. Lucknow: Nasim Book Depot, 1965.
SUHA (1892-1947). suhā mujaddidī — Meanings
of Ghalib mat̤ālib
ul-ġhālib — Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Urdu
Academy, 1923. Thanks to the generosity of
Satyanarayana Hegde (of Mumbai), this rare text from
his collection is available on
this site. Using Satya’s numbers at the upper
right, alif begins on 27; be on 76; nūn
on 103; ye on 136; ghazal {181}
on 168. An edition from Lahore, 1928: on the rekhta.org site.
VAJAHAT ALI
SANDILVI (1916-1996). vahāhat
ʿalī sandīlvī == The Delight of
Ghalib /nishāt̤-e ġhālib--
Idara-e Furogh-e Urdu, Lucknow, 1964. Focused on sixty
problematical verses. Thanks to Satya Hegde, available
on this site.
VAJID. muḥammad ʿabd ul-vājid vājid —
A Commentary on the Urdu
Divan of Ghalib, called the Rapture of
Investigation / sharḥ-e
dīvān-e urdū-e ġhālib mausūm bah vajdān-e
taḥqīq — Hyderabad: Matba Fakhr-e Nizami,
1902: [introduction]; [conclusion];
text source: [site]. A PDF file is linked from
each of the verses (selected from alif
ghazals only) on which Vajid comments. The whole text
is on the rekhta.org site.
VALIH. muḥammad ʿabd ul-aʿlâ vālih — Steadfastness of Purity / vuṡūq-e ṣarāḥat . Hyderabad: Matba Fakhr-e Nizami, 1893/4. A very early but all too brief commentary: on this site.
ZAMIN. sayyid muḥammad ẓāmin kantūrī
-- A Commentary on the Divan of Ghalib
/ sharḥ-e dīvān-e ġhālib --
ed. Ashraf Rafi'. Delhi: Educational Publishing House,
2012 [1934, mss. completed but not published]. The
only combined commentary on both published and unpublished
verses.
THE
ABOVE URDU WORKS have been particularly referred to
in this site. For additional literature see: ***GHALIB STUDIES IN URDU***