New Delhi, June 28 -- Biographies of renaissance men are rarely slim merchandise. Take, for instance, Mirza Wajid Ali Shah (1822-87), the 11th nawab of Awadh. A polymath who invested fortunes, employed legions, and even made his own foray into innovations in dance and theatre, architecture, music, calligraphy, poetry. The nawab has left behind a legacy just as vast as his eclectic patronage. To document such abundance, even with a tome like the 1998 Urdu magnum opus Wajid Ali Shah Ki Adabi aur Sakhawati Khidmat, written by the late Kaukub Quder Sajjad Ali Meerza (1933-2020), can seem but the iceberg's tip.

For the first time, Meerza's survey has been translated into English by Talat Fatima. Wajid Ali Shah: A Cultural and Literary Legacy ...