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بہادر شاہ ظفرؔ
Bahadur Shah Zafar Poetry
The last Mughal emperor and a poet of sorrow. Read Zafar’s best-known ashaar, written by a king who lost his throne and died in exile, and download any of them as a picture.
- Full name
- Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah
- Pen name
- Zafar
- Born
- 24 October 1775, Delhi
- Died
- 7 November 1862, Rangoon
- Known as
- The last Mughal emperor
Shayari
Famous ashaar of Bahadur Shah Zafar
Press Download JPG under any sher for a picture ready for WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram.
لگتا نہیں ہے دل مرا اجڑے دیار میں
کس کی بنی ہے عالمِ ناپائیدار میں
کتنا ہے بد نصیب ظفرؔ دفن کے لیے
دو گز زمین بھی نہ ملی کوئے یار میں
بات کرنی مجھے مشکل کبھی ایسی تو نہ تھی
جیسی اب ہے تری محفل کبھی ایسی تو نہ تھی
نہ تھی حال کی جب ہمیں اپنے خبر رہے دیکھتے اوروں کے عیب و ہنر
پڑی اپنی برائیوں پر جو نظر تو نگاہ میں کوئی برا نہ رہا
ظفرؔ آدمی اس کو نہ جانیے گا وہ ہو کیسا ہی صاحبِ فہم و ذکا
جسے عیش میں یادِ خدا نہ رہی جسے طیش میں خوفِ خدا نہ رہا
Life
Bahadur Shah Zafar was born in Delhi in 1775 and became emperor in 1837, when the Mughal empire had shrunk to little more than the Red Fort and the British held the real power. He was a gentle man who loved poetry, calligraphy and gardens, and his court gathered the great poets of the age: Zauq was his teacher in poetry, and Ghalib was later given that place.
In 1857 the rebel soldiers made him the leader of their uprising. When the British took Delhi back, his sons were killed and he was tried and exiled to Rangoon in Burma, where he died in 1862. He was buried there in an unmarked grave, which was found again only in 1991.
Poetry and style
Zafar wrote in a simple, flowing Urdu close to song. His ghazals, many of them sung to this day, are full of the pain of loss: of a world falling apart, of a city ruined, of a home he could not return to. The verse about not finding even two yards of earth in his beloved land has come to stand for his exile.
Books
- Kulliyat-e-Zafar: his collected poetry, in four diwans
Write your own verse in Nastaliq
Type a sher, put it on your own photo, and download it for WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram.
Questions
About Bahadur Shah Zafar
Who was Bahadur Shah Zafar?
The last Mughal emperor of India (1837–1857) and an Urdu poet.
Where is Bahadur Shah Zafar buried?
In Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar, where he died in exile in 1862.
Who was Zafar’s teacher in poetry?
Ustad Zauq, and after him Mirza Ghalib.