Mirza Muhammad Taqi Hawas

Lucknow's cousin of the Nawab — the classical ghazal in its simplest, most elegant dress. Mirza Muhammad Taqi Hawas (1766–1855), whose real name was Mirza Mohammad Taqi Khan, was a classical Urdu poet of Lucknow, remembered by his pen name Hawas. Born at Faizabad in 1766, he was a cousin of Asif-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Awadh, and spent his working life in Lucknow, in the flourishing literary world of the Nawabi court. His ghazals are noted for their elegance and simplicity, turning on longing, love and quiet reflection; twenty-three of his ghazals survive. His collected verse survives as Deewan-e-Hawas. He died at Lucknow in 1855.