Khwaja Mir Dard

Khwaja Mir Dard was a distinguished poet, Sufi thinker and scholar of eighteenth-century Delhi. Raised in the spiritual household of his father, Khwaja Muhammad Nasir Andlib, he remained associated with the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi tradition. He spent almost his entire life in Delhi and witnessed attacks on the city and its political decline.

Dard wrote poetry in both Urdu and Persian, as well as important prose works on Sufism. His Urdu divan is small, but its inward feeling, simplicity of expression and musicality gave it a central place in the classical ghazal. His apparently simple words hold several layers of meaning.

Dard also had a deep knowledge of music, reflected in the rhythm and cadence of his verse. His union of poetic restraint, mystical thought and emotion made him a distinctive voice in the Delhi school and Urdu’s Sufi tradition.