Sheikh Ibrahim Zauq

Sheikh Muhammad Ibrahim Zauq (1789-1854) was poet laureate at the court of Bahadur Shah Zafar and the emperor’s tutor in verse — a position that made him Ghalib’s rival for Delhi’s highest literary post and, for most of their lives, the winner. Posterity reversed the verdict, but several of Zauq’s couplets on death and helplessness outlived the contest entirely and are quoted by people who could not name him. Couplets here are verified against his collected ghazals.