 Seemab had said that his forefather had migrated from Bukhara sometime during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir and made Agra his home, however, according to Mohan Lal his great-grandfather had migrated from Bukhara during Aurangzeb's reign.Seemab learnt Persian, Arabic and logic from Jamaluddin Sarhadi and Maulavi Rashid Ahmad Gangohi.The death of his father in 1897 forced Seemab to give up his studies and seek a livelihood first in Agra and then in Kanpur before joining the railways service at Ajmer, from which he resigned in 1922 and returned to Agra.