Syed Muhammad Muqim ( bn, ছৈদ মোহাম্মদ মুকিম) was an 18th-century Bengali poet, author and philosopher who was active during the advent of
company rule in Bengal. His
puthi
A Puthi ( bn, পুঁথি, Nagari: , Perso-Arab: پوتھی), is a book or writing of poetic fairy tales and religious stories of Bengal and present-day East India, which were read by a senior "educated" person while others would listen. Th ...
s are notable as they are interspersed with his own philosophical thoughts on prosody, music, astrology and religions.
Background
Muqim was born in the 18th century, to a
Bengali Muslim
Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the se ...
family of
Syeds in the neighbourhood of Noapara in
Chittagong
Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...
. His father, Syed Muhammad Daulat, had origins in
Feni. Muqim later became a disciple of
Sufi poet Ali Raza, and he was also inspired by the poetry of Muhammad Danesh. After losing his father at an early age, Muqim started his career at the record office of Ali Akbar Chowdhury, a prominent
zamindar
A zamindar (Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...
of Chittagong.
Bichitra Sen of ''
The Azadi'' asserts that there were two poets of Chittagong with the name Muhammad Muqim.
Works
*Faydul Muqtadi (1773)
*Tajul-Bakāwali, his own Bengali rendition of the Persian romance Gul-e-Bakāwali (which also has references to colonial rule in Chittagong)
*Kalakam
*Mrigābôti, his own Bengali rendition of a romance about fairies
*Aiyub Nôbir Kôtha (About the
prophet Job)
References
18th-century Bengali poets
18th-century Indian Muslims
Bengali male poets
People from Chittagong
Place of death unknown
People from Feni District
18th-century births
Year of death unknown
{{Bangladesh-poet-stub
Bengali Muslims