Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda

Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda was one of the most powerful voices of eighteenth-century Urdu poetry and a contemporary of Mir Taqi Mir. Born in Delhi, he witnessed an age of political upheaval and later lived in Farrukhabad, Faizabad and Lucknow. His pen name, Sauda, became a symbol of the force, wit and extraordinary command of language in his work.

Sauda wrote ghazals, qasidas, satires, marsiyas, masnavis, rubais and other forms, but he holds a particularly distinguished place as a master of the Urdu qasida and hajv. His poetry combines a commanding voice, vivid description, spontaneous satire and a close observation of the social disorder of his time. His shahr ashob poems and satires offer a rare poetic record of eighteenth-century society.

His ghazals are often discussed alongside Mir’s, yet his poetic temperament was distinct: outward-looking, dramatic and expansive. His contribution to the early literary formation of Urdu and the widening of its expressive power is fundamental.