Mir Taqi Mir

Mir Taqi Mir (1723 – 20 September 1810), born Mir Muhammad Taqi at Agra, was a principal poet of the Delhi school of the Urdu ghazal and one of the pioneers who gave shape to the Urdu language itself ¹.

Orphaned in his teens when his father, a religious man with a large following, died leaving debts, he left Agra for Delhi to finish his education and find patrons ¹. He lived much of his life at Kuchha Chelan in Mughal Delhi, and after Ahmad Shah Abdali's repeated sacks of the city he accepted Asaf-ud-Daula's invitation and moved to Lucknow, where the nawab settled a stipend on him ^{1 2}. His autobiography Zikr-e-Mir is the main source for his life, though it conceals as much as it reveals; his works include the Nikat-ush-Shuara, a biographical dictionary of Urdu poets, and Faiz-e-Mir, five stories about Sufis and faqirs written for his son ¹. The grief of Delhi's downfall is the signature of his verse. He died at Lucknow on 20 September 1810 ¹.

His faith is recorded as unknown. No source read names a school or sect for the man himself — the Urdu article's infobox gives Islam alone, as does Wikidata ^{2 3}. His father's household was religious and Sufi in temperament, and his poetry is steeped in Sufi themes, but family background and literary colouring never count as personal attestation; the Arabic article's suggestion that he may have practised the Malamati current is offered only as a possibility about a poetic stance ⁴. Under the doubt rule the readings are preserved and nothing is settled.

His birth year is debated — the English article gives February 1723 (its text allows August), the Arabic article August or September 1723, C. M. Naim's edition of the Zikr-e-Mir dates him 1725–1810, and some modern writing gives 1722; Wikidata's precise 28 May 1723 is supported by no article and is not adopted ^{1 4 3}. His place values on Wikidata are unreliable and were not used. Lucknow has no museum place record yet, so no died_in edge is recorded; his edges to Agra and Delhi stand in his record.