Abdur Rauf Urooj ( 17 May 1990) was a Pakistani

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, critic,

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, and research scholar. Besides writing poetry, he also composed songs, including his first song titled "Phir aaj Divali aai" (Diwali came again today) which was recorded by Deccan Radio. He also composed music for

Radio Pakistan The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (); also known as ''Radio Pakistan'', serves as the national public broadcaster for radio in Pakistan. Although some local stations predate its founding, it is the oldest existing broadcasting network in P ...

. He wrote several books of poetry, literature history and criticism such as ''Chiragh Afreedam'', ''Khusro Aur Ahd-i-Khusro'', ''Rijal-i-Iqbal'', and ''Bazm-i-Ghalib''.

Biography

He was born around 1932 in

Aurangabad Aurangabad (), officially renamed as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in 2023, is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. In the early 1950s, he migrated to

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

, Pakistan at the apparent age of 18. However, he was not willing to disclose his early life and cause of migration. He later moved to

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

where he worked for various literary magazines and newspapers such as ''Naya Rahi''. In 1953, he participated in a

student protest Campus protest or student protest is a form of student activism that takes the form of protest at university campuses. Such protests encompass a wide range of activities that indicate student dissatisfaction with a given political or academi ...

organised in Karachi, however, when police opened fire on protesters he was injured during the

student activism Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. In addition to education, student groups often play central roles in democratization and winning civil rights. Modern stu ...

. He had no relatives in the affected area and hence Jam Navai, a poet took him to his home. He initially started working for ''Naya Rahi'', a literary magazine for which he wrote a book on the history of

marsia A marsiya (; ) is an elegiac poem written to commemorate the martyrdom and valour of Hussain ibn Ali, his family, and his companions at the tragedy of Karbala. Marsiyas are essentially religious lamentations. Background The word ''Marsiya'' is d ...

titled ''Urdu Marseye Ke Paanch Sau Saal'' (five hundred years of Urdu Marsia). His also used to write verses and critical essays which subsequently appeared in literary journals. He later introduced to Urdu Dictionary Board by Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee for writing as an external scholar. He also worked for the board's magazine ''Urdu Nama''. He wrote a some uncertain research paper, analysing the historical and cultural background of classical

Urdu literature Urdu literature (, ) comprises the literary works, written in the Urdu language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ''ghazal'' () and '' nazm'' (), it has expanded into other styles of writing, includin ...

for the magazine. He later met with Peer Hussamuddin Rashdie who introduced him to modern research techniques. After he was introduced to modern research, he wrote history of Persian titled ''Tazkira-i-Farsi Shuara-i-Urdu'' and ''Tareekh-i-Iran'', which won an uncertain award from the

government of Iran The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran (), known simply as ''Nezam'' (), is the ruling State (polity), state and current political system in Iran, in power since the Iranian Revolution and fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. Its Const ...

. He joined ''Anjaam'',

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

daily, but left it and joined ''Mashriq'' magazine. However, when ''Hurriyet'' magazine was introduced, he again quite working at the ''Nashriq'' and joined ''Hurriyet''. He later launched ''Hurriyet Adabi Gazette'', a literary magazine which became one of the prominent Urdu magazines of the time. In the last years, he primarily focused on

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

for classical

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Urdu poetry Urdu poetry ( ) is a tradition of poetry and has many different forms. Today, it is an important part of the culture of India and Pakistan. According to Naseer Turabi, there are five major poets of Urdu: Mir Taqi Mir (d. 1810), Mirza Ghalib (d. ...

. He died on 17 May 1990, in Karachi, Pakistan.

Books

References

External links

Abdur Rauf Urooj
at

Rekhta ''Rekhta'' ( ; ''Rekhtā'') was an early form of the Hindustani language. This style evolved in both the Perso-Arabic and Nagari scripts and is considered an early form of Standard Urdu and Modern Standard Hindi. According to the Pakistan ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urooj, Abdur Rauf 1932 births 1990 deaths Urdu-language poets from Pakistan 20th-century Persian-language writers Poets from Karachi Journalists from Karachi