Mirza Asadullah who is renowned with a pen-name Ghalib, was born on 27 December 1796 in Agra, the former capital of the Mughal Empire, now part of India's state of Uttar Pradesh during the terminal period of Mughal rule.

Mirza Ghalib started writing poetry in the age of 10. Known for using his poetry to speak of pain, anger, anguish and humour, Ghalib was also honoured by last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.

He is considered to be the most popular and influential of the Urdu language.

In 1850, Bahdur Shah Zafar awarded Mirza Ghalib as `Najm al-Daulah Dabir al-Mulk Nizam Jung' and bestowed upon him the responsibility to write the family's history.

Ghalib was a great Urdu writer and is considered the founder of modern prose. The real reason for the everlasting popularity of Ghalib was because of his Khutoot-e-Ghalib and Deewan-e-Ghalib.

He was died on 15 February 1869.