Mir Muhammad Taqi (February 1723 - 20 September 1810), renowned as Mir Taqi Mir (also spelled Meer Taqi Meer), was an 18th-century Urdu poet from Mughal India. He was among the pioneers who shaped the Urdu language itself. His complete works, known as Kulliyaat, comprises of six Diwans containing 13,585 couplets, encompassing various poetic forms such as ghazal, masnavi, qasida, rubai, mustezaad, satire, and more. Mir's poetic reputation primarily rests on the ghazals found in his Kulliyat-e-Mir, many of which center around themes of love. His masnavi "Mu'amlat-e-Ishq," translated as "The Stages of Love," is one of the most renowned love poems in Urdu literature.His father, Meer Muttaqi, passed away during his childhood, leaving his step-brothers to take control of his property. Following his father's demise, he was taken care of by his step-uncle, and after his step-uncle's (paternal) death, his maternal step-uncle assumed responsibility for him. Much of Mir's poetry revolves around the expression of grief, particularly over the decline of his beloved city, Delhi. He was a prominent poet of the Delhi School of Urdu ghazal and is widely regarded as one of the finest poets of the Urdu language. He adopted the pen name (takhallus) of Mir. In his later years, he resided in the court of Asaf-ud-Daulah in Lucknow. Mir lived during a critical period of development for the Urdu language and poetry. His innate aesthetic sense allowed him to strike a balance between indigenous expression and the influx of Persian imagery and idiom, which contributed to the emergence of the refined language known as Rekhta or Hindui. Drawing from his native Hindustani, Mir skillfully incorporated Persian vocabulary and phraseology, creating a poetic language that was simple, natural, and elegant, serving as a guide for future generations of poets.The losses he experienced in his family, coupled with previous hardships faced in Delhi, imbued much of Mir's writing with a profound sense of pathos. Indeed, Mir is renowned for his poetry of sorrow and melancholy.
