Insha Allah Khan

The book says Insha was born in Murshedabad, lived in Lucknow about the end of the eighteenth century, and enjoyed the favour of Prince Suleiman Shikoh. He wrote verse in Turkish, Arabic and Persian, but was most famous for his Urdu poems, described as elegant in style and conception.

The one piece given here is drawn from Hindustani Lyrics (London: The Sufi Publishing Society, 1919), in the English verse of Inayat Khan and Jessie Duncan Westbrook. It is a free rendering, not a literal translation, and the original Urdu poem is untitled; it is named here by its first line.