Wali Muhammad Wali (1667–1707), also known as Wali Dakhani, Wali Gujarati, and Wali Aurangabadi, was a classical Urdu poet from India. He is considered by many scholars to be the father of Urdu poetry, being the first established poet to have composed ghazals in the Urdu language and compiled a divan (a collection of ghazals where the entire alphabet is used at least once as the last letter to define the rhyme pattern). Before Wali, Indian Ghazals were composed in Persian, almost being replicated in thought and style from the original Persian masters like Saa'di, Jami and Khaqani. Wali began, using not only an Indian language, but Indian themes, idioms and imagery in his ghazals. It is said that his visit to Delhi in 1700, along with his divan of Urdu ghazals created a ripple in the literary circles of the north, inspiring them to produce stalwarts like Zauq, Sauda and Mir. Early life Born in 1667 at Aurangabad, an important city in the present Maharashtra State which was part of The kingdom of Hyderabad. He loved travelling, which he regarded as a means of education. He visited Delhi, Surat, Burhanpur and also undertook pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. Career Wali Mohammed Wali's visit to Delhi in 1700 is considered to be of great significance for Urdu Ghazals. It was believed that he introduced deccani mushaira to Delhi. His simple, sensuous and melodious poems in Urdu, awakened the Persian loving poets of Delhi to the beauty and capability of "Rekhta" (the old name for Urdu) as a medium of poetic expression. Wali Mohammed Wali's visit thus stimulated the growth and development of Urdu Ghazal in Delhi. He died in Ahmedabad in 1707 in what is now Gujarat state, and was buried in the same city. Genre Although Wali tried his hand at a variety of verse forms including the masnavi, qasida, mukhammas, and the rubai., the ghazal is his speciality. He wrote 473 ghazals containing 3,225 couplets (Ashaar). His poems were simple, sensuous & melodious. He was a trend setter in classical poetry who helped establish Urdu ghazal in Delhi by inspiring different poets to write in Urdu It is believed that Wali started to have established the tradition of writing ghazals in Urdu and also influencing the other writers when he visited Delhi. Before that, the preferred language for ghazals was Persian. Some of his famous couplets are: Jisay