Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor

Biography

Peerzada Ghulam Ahmad (Kashmiri: ग़ुलाम अहमद (Devanagari), غلام احمد (Nastaleeq)), better known by the pen name Mahjoor (Kashmiri: महजूर (Devanagari), مہجور (Nastaleeq)), was a renowned poet of the Indian Kashmir Valley, along with contemporaries, Zinda Kaul, Abdul Ahad Azad, Dinanath Nadim. He is especially noted for introducing a new style into Kashmiri poetry and for expanding Kashmiri poetry into previously unexplored thematic realms. In addition to his poems in Kashmiri, Mahjoor is also noted for his poetic compositions in Persian and Urdu.

Early Life

Mahjoor was in the village of Metragam, Pulawama, which is located approximately 37 km from the city of Srinagar. Mahjoor followed in the academic footsteps of his father, who was a scholar of Persian language. He received the primary education from the Maktab of Aashiq Trali (a renowned poet) in Tral. After passing the middle school examination from Nusrat-ul-Islam School, Srinagar, he went to Punjab where he came in contact with Urdu poets like Bismil Amritsari and Moulana Shibi Nomani. He returned to Srinagar in 1908 and started writing in Persian and then in Urdu. Determined to write in his native language, Mahjoor used the simple diction of traditional folk storytellers in his writing.

Mahjoor worked as a patwari (regional administrator) in Kashmir. Along with his official duties, he spent his free time writing poetry, and his first Kashmiri poem 'Vanta hay vesy' was published in 1918.

This text is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License