Mazhar Jan-i Janan

Mazhar of Delhi, of a family originally from Bokhara, is described in the book as learned in jurisprudence as well as poetry, with many favourite poets among his pupils, a Sunni who professed spiritual poverty and was reputed able to work miracles. The book says he was killed by a fanatic because he disagreed with the Shiah mourning for the death of Hussein, and died in 1780, aged nearly a hundred years.

The 5 pieces given here are drawn from Hindustani Lyrics (London: The Sufi Publishing Society, 1919), in the English verse of Inayat Khan and Jessie Duncan Westbrook. They are free renderings, not literal translations, and the original Urdu poems are untitled; each is named here by its first line.