Delhi’s Last Mushaira in 1845: A Translation of Dehli ki aakhri shama

Delhi’s Last Mushaira in 1845, a translation of Farhatullah Baig’s popular work, Dehli ki aakhri shama, is set at an inflection point in the history of Delhi; a portrait of a culturally sophisticated and uncertain Delhi on the precipice of monumental change. It is a world on the threshold of being pushed into oblivion, a world Baig saheb wants to preserve in his word-images for future readers. Master poets like Mirza Ghalib, Sheikh Ibrahim Zauq and Hakim Momin Khan are seen in their prime at close quarters, and Dagh Dehlvi as a young poet on the threshold of fame. The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, makes a brief appearance, but still leaves an indelible impression. This is the first complete translation of the critical edition of this popular Urdu classic published by Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind) in 1991. It contains the original Urdu ghazals, along with their translations, plus curated word-portraits of the master poets of nineteenth-century Delhi. The Translator’s Introduction places the historic fictional mushaira in a larger context, against the socio-cultural backdrop of a city that had a Mughal badshah and a British administration, an eclectic vibrancy of artistic expression among people at large, especially a deep affinity for poetry that earmarked that epoch forever in history books and popular imagination.