Muhammad Husain Azad


Muhammad Husain Azad was an Urdu writer who wrote both prose and poetry, but he is mostly remembered for his prose. His best known work is Aab-e-Hayat.

Early life and family

Azad was born in Delhi to a Persian immigrant family. His mother died when he was four years old. His father, Muhammad Baqir was educated at the Delhi College. In early 1837, Azad bought a press and launched the Delhi Urdu Akhbaar.
Azad married Aghai Begum, the daughter of another Persian immigrant family. Following his father's death and a period of turmoil in Delhi, Azad migrated to Lahore in 1861.

Career

Azad started teaching at the newly founded Government College, Lahore, and later at Oriental College, Lahore. In Lahore he came in contact with G. W. Leitner, who was the principal and founder of Anjuman-e-Punjab. In 1866 Azad became a regularly paid lecturer on behalf of the Anjuman and a year later became its secretary. In 1887 he established the Azad Library. Azad died in Lahore on 22 January 1910 at the age of 79.
Along with Altaf Hussain Hali, Azad led a movement for 'natural poetry', a movement to reform classical Urdu poetry. He declared the aim of poetry to be to “as we express it arouse in the listeners’ heart the same effect, the same emotion, the same fervor, as would be created by seeing the thing itself, rejecting the aesthetics of classical Urdu poetry, which, according to him, was artificial and enwrapped in a 'game of words' that did not produce emotion. He died in Lahore in 1910.

Works