Person · d. 1233 AH / 1817 CE · Poet; co-author, with Qateel, of the Darya-i-Latafat, "the first grammar of the Urdu language written by a native of the country" (Saksena, p. 87)

Insha Allah Khan Insha

Insha Allah Khan Insha, a Delhi Syed born at the Bengal Nawab's Murshidabad, became a poet at Shah Alam II's Delhi and then at the Lucknow court of Nawab Saadat Ali Khan, where he co-wrote the Darya-i-Latafat — "the first grammar of the Urdu language written by a native of the country" (Saksena, p. 87) — before a quarrel with his patron left him, in the same book's words, to "end his days in ignominy, regret and starvation" (p. 84).

What the sources did afterwards. Saksena's 1927 history buries the fall in the sentence that reports the death: "Insha, once the most sought-after companion, the breath of the nostrils of his master, the delight of his friends, the ornament of scholars, ended his days in ignominy, regret and starvation. He died in 1233 A. H. (1817 A. D.)" (p. 84). Two pages later it quotes a critic named Betab reading the fall the same way — as the patron's doing, not the poet's: "Poetry gave a death blow to the scholarship and accomplishments of Insha; and the companionship of Nawab Saadat Ali Khan proved the ruin of his poetry" (pp. 85–86). The same book also prints the patron's name two ways within five pages — "Nawab Saadat Yar Khan" (p. 83, in the sentence naming Insha's own introduction to the Lucknow court) and "Nawab Saadat Ali Khan" (pp. 85–86, including the Shikar-namah entry on p. 86) — and nothing on these pages resolves which is the compositor's slip.

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From Murshidabad to the courts of Delhi and Lucknow

"Syed Insha Allah Khan, son of Syed Hakim Mir Mashaallah Khan, poetically surnamed Insha, belonged to a noble stock of Syeds of Najaf" (Saksena, p. 82) whose family had settled at Delhi as Mughal courtiers; his father, a court physician and poet known by the pen-name Masdar, moved the household to Murshidabad when the Bengal Nawab's court offered a patronage the failing Delhi court no longer could. "Syed Insha was born at Murshidabad" (Saksena, p. 83), and was largely self-taught in verse rather than a long-standing pupil of his father. He later reversed the family's route, going to Delhi under the penniless poet-emperor Shah Alam II, quarrelling there with rival poets, and then, like many before him, "left for Lucknow, the refuge of the vagrant poets from Delhi and other places" (Saksena, p. 83). At Lucknow he first served the poet-prince Mirza Suleiman Shikoh before he "sought an introduction to the court of Nawab Saadat Yar Khan of Lucknow through the medium of Tafazzul Husain Khan" (Saksena, p. 83) — the same court the book names a few pages on, without the variant spelling, as that of Nawab Saadat Ali Khan.

The Darya-i-Latafat, and a fall from favour

"To Insha we owe the first grammar of Urdu by an Indian entitled Darya-i-Latafat, or the Ocean of Eloquence" (Saksena, p. 82), compiled with his friend and collaborator the poet Qateel and dated on the page to "1222 A. H. or 1802 A. D." Saksena calls it "the most important of Insha's work" and states of it plainly: "It is the first grammar of the Urdu language written by a native of the country" (Saksena, p. 87). The favour that had made the book possible did not last: accused of mocking his patron's birth, Insha was confined to his own house and his salary was stopped, and, in the book's words, he "ended his days in ignominy, regret and starvation. He died in 1233 A. H. (1817 A. D.)" (Saksena, p. 84). A verdict Saksena quotes from the critic Betab reads the collapse the same way: "Poetry gave a death blow to the scholarship and accomplishments of Insha; and the companionship of Nawab Saadat Ali Khan proved the ruin of his poetry" (Saksena, pp. 85–86).

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Sources

82 · read as page image Syed Insha Allah Khan, son of Syed Hakim Mir Mashaallah Khan, poetically surnamed Insha, belonged to a noble stock of Syeds of Najaf
82 · read as page image To Insha we owe the first grammar of Urdu by an Indian entitled Darya-i-Latafat, or the Ocean of Eloquence.
83 · read as page image Syed Insha was born at Murshidabad.
83 · read as page image Insha left for Lucknow, the refuge of the vagrant poets from Delhi and other places.
83 · read as page image he sought an introduction to the court of Nawab Saadat Yar Khan of Lucknow through the medium of Tafazzul Husain Khan.
84 · read as page image He died in 1233 A. H. (1817 A. D.).
84 · read as page image Insha, once the most sought-after companion, the breath of the nostrils of his master, the delight of his friends, the ornament of scholars, ended his days in ignominy, regret and starvation.
85–86 · read as page image Poetry gave a death blow to the scholarship and accomplishments of Insha ; and the companionship of Nawab Saadat Ali Khan proved the ruin of his poetry.
87 · read as page image The most important of Insha's work is his Daryai-Latafat or "the Ocean of Eloquence". It is a work in Persian on Urdu grammar and prosody written in collaboration with his coadjutor and friend Qateel.
87 · read as page image It is the first grammar of the Urdu language written by a native of the country.