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Daagh Dehlvi

Indian poet

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ2886598
Source-derived summary

Nawab Mirza Khan (Urdu: نواب مرزا خان داغ دہلوی, 25 May 1831 – 17 March 1905), popularly known by his takhallus Dagh Dehlvi was an Indian poet known for his Urdu ghazals. He belonged to the old Delhi school of Urdu poetry.

He wrote romantic and sensuous poems and ghazals in simple and chaste Urdu, minimising usage of Persian words. He laid great emphasis on the Urdu idiom and its usage. He wrote under the takhallus (Urdu word for pen name) Daagh Dehlvi (the meanings of Daagh, an Urdu noun, include stain, grief and taint while Dehlvi means belonging to or from Dehli or Delhi). He belonged to the Delhi school of thought in Urdu poetry.

His honorific Dabeer ud Dawla, Faseeh ul Mulk, Nawab Nizam Jang Bahadur, Sipah Salar, Yar-e-Wafadar, Muqrib-us-Sultan, Bulbul-e-Hindustan, Jahan Ustad, Nazim Yar Jung, were the titles bestowed upon him by the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Mahbub Ali Khan.

Daagh was considered one of the best romantic poets of his time by some commentators.

Life

Early life

Dehlvi was born in Kuucha Ustad Dagh, Chandni Chowk in Delhi to Nawab Shamsuddin Ahmed Khan, the ruler of Loharu and Ferozepur Jhirka and Wazir Khanum, daughter of a Delhi jeweller. Dehlvi's father was hanged under charges of conspiracy in the murder of William Fraser.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Daagh Dehlvi” as indian poet. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Daagh, Dehlvi and Indian.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1831, 1905—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Daagh, Dehlvi and Indian providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Daagh Dehlvi”, the useful work is to connect “indian poet” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2886598. The first chronological checks are 1831 and 1905.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Daagh Dehlvi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.