Akbar Allahabadi

سید اکبر حسین اکبرؔ الہ آبادی

Akbar Allahabadi in the original Urdu with a facing English translation. The first two chapters of each work are free with ads; Members and Patrons can read the full work without ads. Works can also be read in Roman Urdu and Hindi script.

Life1846–1921

Syed Akbar Husain, who wrote as Akbar, was born near Allahabad and served for many years as a judge in the British courts. In his poetry he became the great satirist of his age, mocking with wit and affection the rush of his countrymen to imitate English manners.

His verse, light in tone and serious underneath, covers Western education, the new politics and the changing family. Many of his lines passed into everyday Urdu speech, and he remains the best-loved humorous poet of the language.

Works by Akbar Allahabadi

Nazm

First two chapters free

Intikhab-e-Akbar: Satires and Occasional Poems

انتخابِ اکبر: پیش رو یعنی قطعات

Akbar Allahabadi · about Poetry

Akbar Allahabadi (1846–1921), judge, wit and the great comic poet of Urdu, wrote the sharpest verse commentary on India's meeting with the West: on the "New Light" of English education, English clothes and words, Sir Sayyid and the Aligarh college, Westernised young men and their English brides, purdah, the railway and the telegraph, and the Viceroy's durbars. This book gives the complete section "Pesh-rau" ("The Vanguard") of his collected poems, sixty pieces including "A Glimpse of the Delhi Durbar", "Lightning in the Church", the purdah poem of 1891, his answer to Southey's "Cataract of Lodore", "The Curzon Sabha" and the national poem written for Mohsin-ul-Mulk, with his parodies of Hafiz and Sa'di. Urdu text from Kulliyat-e-Akbar, Part One (4th ed., Standard Press, Allahabad, 1914), with a facing line-by-line English translation, notes on the puns and Persian quotations, an introduction and a glossary. A core text for courses on Urdu poetry and on colonialism and modernity in South Asia. Cite as: Akbar Allahabadi, Intikhab-e-Akbar: Pesh-rau, tr. urduintranslation.com (2026). The first chapter is free to read.

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