Seemab Akbarabadi

Seemab Akbarabadi Biography

Seemab Akbarabadi was an acclaimed Urdu poet from India. He was born on 5 June 1882 in Agra and died on January 31, 1951 in Karachi aged 68. His real name was Aashiq Hussain Siddiqui. His first book was published in 1923, titled, Naistaan – a collection of poems. Akbarabadi later published 75 books in his career of which 22 were poetry collections. He is best known for his ghazals particularly sung by Kundan Lal Saigal. His works "Loh-e-mahfooz" (1979), "Wahi-e-manzoom" (1981) and "Saaz-e-hijaz" (1982) were published long after his death. Apart from poetry, he was verse in short stories, novels, dramas, biographies and critical appraisals. He was widely accepted as a master of Arabic, Urdu and Persian languages and their grammar.

He was a descendant of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, the first Caliph of Islam, born in Agra. He was the eldest son of Mohammad Hussain Siddiqui, a renowned Urdu poet who has authored several books. Seemab learnt Persian, Arabic and logic from Jamaluddin Sarhadi and Maulavi Rashid Ahmed Gangohi. After the death of his father, he was forced to stop education and start earning. He joined railways service at Ajmer, but resigned the job in 1922 and returned to Agra. In 1923 he founded the publishing imprint, Qasr-ul-adab.

Seemab began ghazal writing in 1892. He became a disciple of Nawab Mirza Khan Daagh Dehlawi in 1898. Aside Saghar Nizami, he founded "Qasr-ul-adab" in 1923 and started publication of "Paimana", a monthly magazine. Very soon he started two more publications, Shair and Taj. When Saghar Nizami separated from Seemab and moved to Meerat, paimana was stopped. Throughout his life, despite being a good writer, Seemab has never enjoyed a good financial status. Yet he was appreciated for his neat dressing - sherwani and white wide payjama with a Turkish topi covering his head.

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Updated: March 28, 2014