Nassakh
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdul Ghafūr, better known by his pen name Nassakh, was a British Indian officer, writer, literary critic and collector. He is best known for his magnum opus Sukhan-e-Shuara which was a biography of prominent Urdu and Persian poets. He organised mushaira in places where he worked; inspiring young Urdu poets in Bengal.
Early life
Abdul Ghafur was born on 11 February 1834 to the Qadi family of Rajapur in Faridpur district. His father, Qazi Faqir Muhammad, was a lawyer at the Calcutta civil court and a Persian author best known for his Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh, a history book published in 1836. Reformer Nawab Abdul Latif was his elder brother and Nassakh's two other brothers were Abdul Hamid and Abdul Bari Sayd who were also poets.Career
Abdul Ghafur joined as deputy magistrate in the British Indian government. He served as deputy collector in many places in the Bengal Presidency. In particular, he worked as deputy collector of Dacca and Backergunge from 1860 to 1888. In 1868, Elayechiram Talib of Jalalabad, Amritsar migrated to Bakerganj to become a student of Nassakh, who would suggest edits to Talib's poetry. Talib would also write poetry in praise of his teacher Nassakh.Literary career
Abdul Ghafur mainly wrote poetry in Urdu, but he also wrote in Persian. Apart from Bengali, Urdu and Persian, he also knew English, Arabic and Hindi.Among his Urdu poetry are Daftar-e-Bemisal, Armugan, Armugani. Daftar-e-Bemisal was praised by Ghalib. In Sukhan-e-Shuara and Tazkiratul Muasirin he introduced Urdu and Persian poets. He translated Persian poet Fariduddin Attar's Pand Name into Urdu under the title of Chashma-e-Faez in 1874. Ganj-e-Tawarikh and Kanz-e-Tawarikh were pieces of poetry which contained biographies of great Islamic personalities. Ashar-e-Nassakh is also one of his works on poetry. His Intikhab-e-Nakam was a critique on the marsiya poetry of Mir Anees and Mirza Dabeer. Nassakh also wrote Mazhab-e-Muamma which contained his own works of Persian poetry.