Asad Ullah Beg Khan, famous in later life as Mirza Ghalib was born at Agra on 27th December, 1797. His father who was a wealthy nobleman died when Ghalib was only five years old. He was then brought up by an uncle who too died while the boy was hardly nine. A small pension in lieu of the family Jagir was sanctioned for the maintanance of Ghalib and his younger brother. According to the custom of the times, Ghalib was married at a young age.

His father-in-law, Mirza Ilahi Buksh, was a poet of distinction at Delhi. Ghalib?s marriage thus introduced him to the exclusive literary circles of the age. His marriage also resulted in Ghalib moving from Agra and making Delhi his permanent home. Ghalib lived a life of luxury at Delhi, but spent most of his leisure in reading or writing Persian and Urdu verse. An important development was his journey to and return from Calcutta between the years 1826 and 1829, Ghalib undertook the trip for securing a larger share of his patrimony but his efforts ended in failure. However, there were compensations.

He visited Lucknow, Varanasi and other places during the course of his journey and got acquainted with literary trends at these places and at Calcutta. This wasa a valuable experience and helped in enlarging his poetic horizon and he returned to Delhi a wiser if a sadder man. The next few years witnessed considerable literary activity on the part of Ghalib. His collection of Urdu poems, ?Diwan-E-Ghalib?, was published in 1841.

Another important publication was ?Panj Ahang?, a voluminous work in Persian which appeared in 1849. The next important phase of his life coincided with the First War of Independence in 1857 and its aftermath. Earlier, he had come close to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Moghul Emperor and had been appointed as the court historian.

This made him suspect in the eyes of the Britain when they returned to Delhi after the upheaval. Ghalib gives a vivid account to conditions at Delhi at the time in his Persian work.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India