With thanks to Francesca Orsini, Alok Rai and his family, and Fran Pritchett, we have a scan of the only photo portrait of Mirza Asadullah Ghalib. Incredible.
COMMENTS
Qalandar | January 30, 2010
wow, never knew there was an existing photo, this is awesome!
elizabeth | January 30, 2010
what eyes!
rk | January 30, 2010
Oriental STUD!
Nostalgic | January 30, 2010
"Uncle" Ghalib, preserved for posterity! The link also has a picture of Munshi Hargopal Tufta, Uncle's favorite pupil, familiar to anyone who has read Uncle's collection of letters... Thanks Sepoy!
maujkar | January 31, 2010
.......meharbaaN ho ke bulaa lo mujhe chaaho jis waqt maiN gayaa waqt nahiN hooN ke phir aa bhi na sakooN........
Aligarian | January 31, 2010
Can you please provide link to Tufta's pic
sepoy | January 31, 2010
See here: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/1800_1899/ghalib/portraits/ghalibtaftahphoto.jpg
Faraz Khan | February 01, 2010
This photo is incredibly similar to one published in my grand mother's family history book, supposedly scanned from the original. Ghalib was related by marriage to the Loharo family to which my maternal grand mother belongs. The links below are scans from that book named "Khandan-e-Loharo" by Tahira Bano. I am not an expert in photography, but I think the photo in the book is retouched or entirely hand drawn. A comparison shows that both are very similar but not exactly. A slight crack across the forehead in the Loharo photo is captured in the scan, something that is not found in the scan posted by Sepoy. Also the face is slightly more elongated in Sepoy's photo. http://www.ezdoc.net/faraz/ghalib_small.png http://www.ezdoc.net/faraz/ghalib.png
Hades | February 01, 2010
What sort of a topi is he wearing? Or is that a distortion due to picture quality or something like that?
shama zaidi | February 01, 2010
this has been around for some time and a touched up enlargement was included in the new delhi ghalib commemorative exhibition in 1969 on the centenary of his death. there is also a portrait in the red fort museum, delhi.
Tweets that mention Mirza Ghalib -- Topsy.com | February 01, 2010
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by David Boyk, Huma Imtiaz, elizabeth, Ricky Singh, Umair Muhajir and others. Umair Muhajir said: Only surviving Ghalib picture (thanks sepoy!): {{site.baseurl}}archives/homistan/mirza_ghalib.html [...]
Faraz Khan | February 01, 2010
The topi he is wearing is called "Papakh" made from sheep skin coat called posteen.
pervez Roderick | February 18, 2010
It is an honor to see the real portrait of Ghalib. I am a fan of his poetry Ate hain Ghaeb se ye mazameen khayal me Ghlib sareer-e-khama nawa-e-saroosh he
links for 2010-03-31 « Rumblegumption | March 31, 2010
[...] Mirza Ghalib [...]
ajit | July 01, 2010
Ustad will live for ever
Qaiser butt | February 22, 2011
whenever i read him i feel sad very sad.How on earth a man of his calibre could live so little.He wanted the world in his lifetime and he knew he was the best yet no one, except few, could understand him.I guess pain do bring the best in men of letter.But for him the end was too much.I was very surprised to read abouthim in a religious book, tazkara ie ghausia, where the Ghaus Ali Shah Sahib,the Qalandar, admired him as a excellent humanbeing and a fanatastic poet.What a pity every thing had to end.
Muhamamd Hassan | August 30, 2012
@5 maujkar Haan bula lena mujhko waqt se pehla ke agar che der huwi to bula na sako
Ravi | September 05, 2012
कà¥à¤¯à¥‹à¤‚ न फिरदोस को दोज़ख में मिला लें यारब सैर के वासà¥à¤¤à¥‡ थोड़ी सी फ़ज़ा और सही
Mirza | September 27, 2012
Dear Faraz Bhai, hope u r doing great. Well good to know that u r related to Mirza Ghalib Saheb. As we are also related to Saheb as my ancestor married his elder sister 'Choti Khanum'. Choti Khanum daughter was married in the family of nawab of loharu and other marriages as well. Well take care brother, b in touch. Urs, Mirza.
dr swanand pathak | February 14, 2013
the photograph was taken by Rahmat Ali in 1867 few months before Ghalib's death reference : ghalib and the mirs of gujrat by mir jafar imam 2006 ghalib .... great poet of all times puchte hai woh ki ghalib kaun hain koi batlao ke ham batlayen kya ( they ask who is Ghalib ... someone please tell them ... for i can't praise myself
dr swanand pathak | February 14, 2013
the unique thing is not the photograph of Ghalib ... which we see very often ... but the photograph of Hargopal Tufta or Tafta as he was called ... the formost shagird of Ghalib ... some very beautiful letters were written by Ghalib to Tufta his student ... in one of the letters he mentions that Tufta is writing too much ... literally thousands of verses ... but with no quality ... and if he continues to do so ... i will not correct them hence forth ... Tufta remained loyal to Ghalib till the end ... always worried about his mastre's health and the monitory conditions ... further in those troubled times a great example of hindu muslim unity ...
Prashant Keshavmurthy | February 15, 2013
I paste below a link to an essay on pictures - photographic and other - of Ghalib: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6873897/Mirza%20Ghalib%20ki%20Taswerein-1.pdf
Syed Muhammad Naqvi | September 12, 2013
I've just discovered this page and really amazed I was trying to know where is the original photo it now. If you could provide some details it will be a great favor. I thing some other copies of this photo also exist in some libraries. And Mr. Faraz Khan the links you have given no longer work, if possible please upload those photos again. Thank you
Syed Muhammad Naqvi | September 12, 2013
And one more thing can u provide a higher resolution of this photo?
kamran | December 11, 2013
i heard that Ghalib never gave any photograph but a portrait was drawn by artist few months before his death, he was so weak and hardly manage to gave enough time for portrait. The artist manage to draw sorrow and weakness on his face. This is the only Portrait we have on Ghalib. This all i read in an article some 15 years back in "The Hindu" Delhi Edition .