Mohammad Meer Soz Dehlvi

Mohammad Meer Soz Dehlvi — born in Delhi, the son of Syed Ziauddin, whose forefathers had migrated from Bukhara to India — was a prominent contemporary of Mir Taqi Mir. He first took "Mir" as his takhallus, then changed it to "Soz" (burning, passion) when Mir Taqi Mir rose to fame under that name — a change he himself records in one of his couplets. A master of Persian and Arabic, a noted calligrapher, and a skilled archer and horseman, Soz was above all famous as a reciter: his manner of reciting verse was widely imitated in his day. When Delhi lay devastated, he left for Lucknow, where Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula honoured him and even became his disciple. His Urdu diwan holds ghazals, masnavis, quatrains and mukhammas, and his ghazals are praised for directness, simplicity and pathos. In his last years he withdrew into seclusion and prayer, and died in Lucknow.