Altaf Hussain Hali

Altaf Hussain Hali (1837–1914) (Urdu: الطاف حسین حالی‎), known with his honorifics as Maulana Khawaja Hali, was an Urdu poet and writer. Hali occupies a special position in the history of Urdu literature. He was a poet, prose-writer, critic, teacher and reformer. He was a close friend of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

He is one of the Aanasar-e-Khamsa of Urdu. He has written the Musaddas-e-Hali which occupies an important position in Urdu literature.

Born in Panipat, Haryana in 1837, circumstances did not permit him to attain formal education in a school or college, yet he managed to acquire, through sustained self-effort, perfect command of Urdu, Persian and Arabic, and a good working knowledge of English. He later moved to Delhi where he wished to study the Islamic theology and poetic tradition. As a poet he did not confine himself within the narrow bounds of the ghazal, but exploited the other poetic forms such as the nazm, the rubai, and the Marsia. More particularly, he harnessed his poetic abilities to the higher aims of social and moral edification. His famous long poem, Musaddas-e-Hali, examines the state of social and moral degradation prevalent in the then contemporary Muslim society. His prose treatise, Muqaddama-e-Shair-o-Shairi, is a pioneering work of literary criticism. It dwells on the limitations of the traditional ghazal, and points to what he considered the hollowness of its hackneyed themes and imagery, especially when the form is handled by other poets and versifiers.

In 1886, he was chosen to be a member of the first teaching faculty at Aitchison College, Lahore. The College holds an Urdu elocution competition called the Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali Challenge Cup, in honour of the poet.