Kakori, a town situated in the suburbs of Lucknow, is famous for its kebabs and mangoes. But Kakori’s scholarly speciality has given it more fame than its fragrant fruit or its culinary delights, for the poets, writers, scholars, Sufis and journalists from Kakori are more celebrated than anything else it produces. It would not be an exaggeration if one puts the number of well-known writers, Sufis and intellectuals hailing from this town in hundreds.

Notes on literary figures from Kakori in reference works abound. For example, ‘Tazkira-i-mashaheer-i-Kakori’, a sort of Urdu biographical dictionary enlisting celebrities from Kakori, compiled by Muhammad Hyder Alvi Kakorvi and first published in 1927 (by Patna’s Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library in 1999), put the number well over 400. Hakeem Nisar Ahmed Alvi’s ‘Sukhanvaran-i-Kakori’ (Karachi, 1978) added a few hundred more names to the list. The lists include some names that have left indelible marks on Urdu language and literature. Only a few towns in the subcontinent can match Kakori in this regard.

Among the accomplished writers and scholars born in Kakori was Muslim Ziai, a Ghalib scholar, poet, editor, publisher and researcher who also wrote for children. Born in 1911, Muslim Ziai’s real name was Abdul Wahab. He obtained basic education in Kakori but when his father died, young Abdul Wahab had to go to Hyderabad Deccan with his maternal uncle in 1924. There he took admission into Chader Ghaat High School. Here the well-known orientalist and translator of the Quran, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, a convert, was headmaster as he was in the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad Deccan at that time. Muslim Ziai participated in literary activities at school and also edited ‘Chader Ghaat Magazine’ under the name of Abdul Wahab Muslim. Later, he added ‘Ziai’ to his name after his close friend Ziauddin, who had died at a young age.

Before completing his MA from Usmania University, Muslim Ziai had had a brief stint in journalism when he went to Bombay (now Mumbai) after matriculation to work for ‘Khilafat’, a newspaper. He also worked with the well-known fiction-writer and journalist Qazi Abdul Ghaffar to assist in his newspaper ‘Payam’, published from Hyderabad Deccan.

The year 1942 marked a watershed in Muslim Ziai’s life as he established a publishing house named ‘Urdu Mahal’ in Hyderabad Deccan that year. Besides publishing some memorable works, slowly but surely, ‘Urdu Mahal’ became a nursery for budding writers and poets. Muslim Ziai not only published the new writers but also trained them and encouraged them by holding launching ceremonies for their books. Many future bigwigs of Urdu literature such as Ibrahim Jalees, Himayat Ali Shaer, Anwer Inayatullah, Qamar Sahiri, Mughni Tabassum, Shaaz Tamkanat and many others were groomed here. Muslim Ziai was a mentor to many.

Aziz Cartoonist began his career from Urdu Mahal; Sulaiman Areeb established his literary magazine Saba’s office there. Some female writers of Urdu who were to become stalwarts later, such as Waheeda Naseem, Wajida Tabassum and Jeelani Bano, frequented Urdu Mahal and took guidance from Muslim Ziai. Muslim Ziai also launched a children’s magazine, named ‘Taare’ (Stars), from here in 1947 and encouraged youngsters to contribute to it. It became very popular among children. In other words, Urdu Mahal was not merely a publishing house and Muslim Ziai was not only a publisher and editor but played a significant role in the literary and cultural life of Hyderabad Deccan. It was a remarkable contribution towards promoting Urdu, too.

In 1948 Muslim Ziai had allied with the forces which were fighting to save Deccan from Indian occupation. With the fall of Deccan, his loyalties had become doubtful and to escape any untoward incident he had to migrate to Pakistan in 1952. But fate was smiling at him. Since many of his close friends in Pakistan were leftists and many of them were detained by the then government of Pakistan, Muslim Ziai too had to spend some time behind bars.

As a writer and research scholar, Muslim Ziai penned a large number of books and articles. His books include ‘Tipu Sultan aur uss ke Khwaab’, ‘Mir Taqi Mir ki Aap Beeti’ (an Urdu translation of Mir’s Persian autobiography ‘Zikr-i-Mir), ‘Roosi Zarafat’, and some others. But his first love was Ghalib and he was known as an authority on the poet. Many of his research articles on Ghalib presented new information on Ghalib’s life and works. One of his remarkable works on Ghalib is ‘Ghalib ka Mansookh Divan’.

His manuscripts that remained unpublished were numerous and included some important works. Four of them were on Ghalib.He was also working on the compilation of the Persian divan attributed to Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Ajmeri, though he, just like Hafiz Mahmood Sherani, believed that it had wrongly been attributed to the great saint.

Muslim Ziai died in Karachi on June 5, 1977.

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