Dr Saleem Wahid Saleem: An Introduction

Dr Saleem Wahid Saleem was a poet par excellence. He was born in Teheran, Iran to Khalifa Abdul Wahid Dar of Lahore (Now in Pakistan) and Bibi Fakhr-us-Sadat, a qajari princess of Iran. In fact, the Khalifa family had moved to Lahore from Kashmir in the 19th century. After the age of 11, his parents shifted back to India along with their two daughters Akhtar and Shamsi.

Dr. Saleem was educated in Aligarh Muslim University Tibbiya College, Aligarh and later in London, where he also worked as announcer with BBC Persian Service. In Aligarh, he stayed with his close relative Dr. Ataullah Butt, of famous Butt Kada of Rashid Ahmed Siddiqui. Dr. Butt had founded Aligarh Muslim University Tibbiya College.

Throughout his life, Dr Saleem continued to write both prose and poetry in Urdu, Persian and English. In the 50’s and 60’s, his ghazals were published in many prestigious Urdu periodicals including Nuqoosh, Funoon, Adab-e-Latif, Adabi Duniya and other contemporary periodicals.

The most remarkable work of Dr. Saleem Wahid Saleem is ‘Khayyam-e-Nau’, which is poetic translation of Umar Khayyam’s ruba’is. The collection has been published by Sanjh Publications, Temple Road, Lahore.

During his last days, Doctor Sahib had become financially unstable and was greatly helped by his sister Mrs Akhtar Nazeer and her husband the late Malik Nazeer Ahmad. Dr. Saleem breathed his last in 1981.

Dr. Saleem wrote poetry in Urdu and Persian. Some of his works are in English as well.

Dr. Saleem Wahid Saleem was married to Begum Umm-e-Habiba, who was granddaughter of Syed Abdul Baqi, who was among first five students of Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College (which later became Aligarh Muslim University) and had imbibed education directly from Sir Syed. He was later appointed as bursar (accountant-cum-registrar) of the university.

Tabenda Batool has completed her master’s thesis on Dr. Saleem in 1987 from Punjab University Lahore and then her M. Phil in 1995 from Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad. Other collections of his poems and ghazals are also in the pipeline.

Dr. Saleem Wahid Saleem was a great man and a good poet, one blog is not enough to introduce him and his work. His work and he himself need a big website which would pay attention to provide knowledge about him.

Doctor Sahib's loyal son Mr. Muslim Saleem who himself is a good poet is doing very good job regarding this. You guys can get knowledge about Dr. Saleem wahid Saleem from websites designed by Muslim Saleem. You can visit for more details:

http://saleemwahid.blogspot.com and http://khojkhabarnews.com

An established publishing house in India has agreed to publish the Kulliyat of Dr Sb compiled by me. It has over 500 pages and contains his four collections. It will be published in the near future. There is a separate tag Dr Saleem Wahid Saleem on khojkhabarnews.com in which his poems, ghazals can be seen.

Muslim Saleem is also a very reputed poet. Hi poetic collection "Amad Amad" has been released by the Madhya Pradesh Urdu Academy on November 13, 2010. A detailed report about it and lots of picutres can be seen on  khojkhabarnews.com/?p=7394.

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Syeda Safaraz Fatima Nashtar Khairabadi: She was the wife of Syed Yadgar Hussain Nashtar Khairabadi  and the daughter -in-law of  Hazrat Muztar Khairabadi.She was writer.Her Stories   article and  two nazms published in Standard News Paper URDU TIMES NY. Her Stories named DARS, ASHIYANA, and EID, Ek GAUN KI KAHANI  are remarkable for their messages.Her Nazmen   FALSAFA-E- HAYAT  and  EK MAA  KI  DUA  AUR NASIHAT are famous  and appreciated by her Readers Circle.

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Dr. Zahida Zaidi: Born January 4, 1930. Zahida Zaidi and Sajida Zaid extremely talented. Both the sisters were teaching in Aligarh Muslim University when Muslim Saleem was a student there. Their names have been inseparable, On January 7, 2010 they jointly get Bahadur Shah Zafar award of Delhi Urdu Academy. Zahida Zaidi passed away at her residence in Aligarh on January 12, 2011.  She was 82. She was a distinguished bi-lingual writer in English and Urdu, dramatist and a stage director. She retired as a Professor of English from Aligarh Muslim University. She was also closely associated with the drama club at the varsity with popular actor, Naseeruddin Shah among her better known pupils. Zaidi was the grand daughter of Urdu poet Altaf Hussain Hali. Zahida Zaidi did her MA in English from Aligarh Muslim University in 1958 and then took a degree from Cambridge University. She had a teaching stint at Miranda House in Delhi and Simla Institute. After then she returned to Aligarh and spent rest of her life there while retiring as a professor of English. She was counted among prominent progressive writers. She was a poetess, writer, dramatist and critic. She had extreme command over English and Urdu and penned in all forms of Urdu literature. She has over two dozen books to her credit.

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