Najm Afandi

Najm Afandi was born in Agra, India in 1893. His father Bazm Afandi was also a poet.[1]

He moved to Hyderabad, Deccan. He started writing poetry early in his life and continued for 65 years.

His nazm durr-e-yateem was popular, which he wrote while he was only 15 or 16 years of age. He experimented with various genres of Urdu poetry. Najm had in the later part of his life dedicated himself to writing marsiya, salaam, manqabat and qasida.

Although he wrote numerous ghazals and nazms, because of the religious nature of his poetry and the issues he dealt with, he was known as 'Shair-e-Ahle-bait.'

Long before the Progressive Writers Movement came into existence his poetry dealt with the issues and themes which were the hallmark of the movement.

He published five collections of poetry; Mah-e-Wafa, Iqbal-e-Wafa, Jamal-e-Wafa, Ilham-e-Wafa, and he had noted the name of Najm Afandi and Haider Dehlvi as his teachers in each one of them.

He influenced generation of poets who adopted marsia, salam, qasida and other similar genres of poetry in Urdu.

He died naturally in 1975 in Karachi and is buried at the infamous Sakhi Hassan Graveyard, North Nazimabad.

• Najm Afandi, a forgotten poet
• Excerpts from marsia by Najm Afandi