His paternal grandfather, Mirza Qoqan Baig, was a Seljuq Turk, and a descendant of Sultan Berkyaruq[6][verification needed] who had immigrated to India from Samarkand during the reign of Ahmad Shah (1748–54).

[7] Mirza Abdullah Baig (Ghalib's father) married Izzat-ut-Nisa Begum, an ethnic Kashmiri,[8] and then lived at the house of his father-in-law.

[13] In 1850, Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar bestowed upon Mirza Ghalib the title of Dabir-ul-Mulk (Persian: دبیر الملک, lit.

He was also appointed as a tutor of Prince Fakhr-ud Din Mirza, eldest son of Bahadur Shah II, (d. 10 July 1856).

[14] When Ghalib was 14 years old a newly converted Muslim tourist from Iran (Abdus Samad, originally named Hormuzd, a Zoroastrian) came to Agra.

The critic/poet/writer Shamsur Rahman Faruqui explains[18] that the convention of having the "idea" of a lover or beloved instead of an actual lover/beloved freed the poet-protagonist-lover from the demands of realism.

In a letter he wrote, "Main koshish karta hoon ke koi aisi baat likhoon jo padhe khush ho jaaye'" (I want to write lines such that whoever reads them would enjoy them).

At some point early in his poetic career he also decided to adopt the pen-name of Ghalib (meaning all conquering, superior, most excellent).

This made Ghalib take a long journey to Calcutta to make an appeal about his pension to the British Governor General.

During this time, he penned two masnavis in Persian like Chiragh-e Dair (Lamp of the Temple) and Bad-e Mukhalif (Adverse Winds).

In a letter that he wrote to Mirza Ali Bakhsh Khan, he says how the city has stolen his heart and left him mesmerized.

1855, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan finished his scholarly, well-researched, and illustrated edition of Abul Fazl's Ai’n-e Akbari.

Ghalib obliged, but what he produced was a short Persian poem castigating the Ai’n-e Akbari and, by implication, the imperial, sumptuous, literate and learned Mughal culture of which it was a product.

Ghalib placed a greater emphasis on seeking of God rather than ritualistic religious practices; although he followed Shia theology and had said many verses in praise of Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib.

[32][33][34] Ghalib states: ہے پرے سرحد ادراک سے اپنا مسجود قبلے کو اہل نظر قبلہ نما کہتے ہیں The object of my worship lies beyond perception's reach; For men who see, the qibla is a compass, nothing more.

[35]: 41 In another verse directed towards certain maulavis (clerics), he criticized them for their ignorance and arrogant certitude: "Look deeper, it is you alone who cannot hear the music of his secrets".

[35]: 80 During the anti-British Rebellion in Delhi on 5 October 1857, three weeks after the British troops had entered through Kashmiri Gate, some soldiers climbed into Ghalib's neighbourhood and hauled him off to Colonel Brown (Urdu: کمانڈنگ آفیسر کرنل براؤن, romanized: Kamānḍing Āfīsar Karnal Brāūn)[37] for questioning.

[40] Said I one night to a pristine seer (Who knew the secrets of whirling Time) 'Sir you well perceive, That goodness and faith, Fidelity and love Have all departed from this sorry land.

Pass over my Urdu collection; it’s only a sketch.The majority of Ghalib's poetic compositions in Persian were qasidahs dedicated to numerous patron rulers.

[42] In 2010, Maulana Azad National Urdu University published a compilation of 11,337 poems by Ghalib titled "Kulliyat-e-Ghalib Farsi".

[46] Ghalib's closest rival was poet Zauq, tutor of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the then Mughal emperor with his seat in Delhi.

[53][54] There have numerous Urdu books attempting to explain the poetry of Ghalib, with Dr Sohail Baloch, a literary critic from Pakistan, listing 107 of those.

The film was released on 24 November 1961 and reached average status at the box-office, however, the music remains memorable in Pakistan to this day.

[67] Other stage works include the Pakistani play Dozakhnama by Azad Theatre, which portrays a fictional meeting between Ghalib and Saadat Hasan Manto in hell.

Ghalib's character lacked subtlety and he was shown philandering with the courtesan, Chaudvin, famously played by Punjabi singer Madan Bala Sandhu.

Over the years, it has been directed by numerous theatre directors, including Ram Gopal Bajaj in 1989, at the National School of Drama.

][citation needed] The name of play 'Main Gaya Waqt Nahin Hoon' was later changed to 'Anti-National Ghalib',[70] which has had several successful shows in DelhiNCR.

[72] The 2015 film Masaan contains various examples of poetry and shaayari by Ghalib, along with works by Akbar Allahabadi, Basheer Badr, Chakbast, and Dushyant Kumar.

[74][75][76][47] Ghalib was commemorated on his 220th birth anniversary by Search Engine Google which showed a special doodle on its Indian home page for him on 27 December 2017.

The mural is located outside a Municipal Garden near the Madanpura Area of Mumbai, which was once a hub for art, literature, writers and poets.