The Poet: Khwaja Ghulam Farid????? ???? ???? was born in 1845 at Mithan Kot ???? ??? (currently in District Rajanpur ???? ??? of Punjab, Pakistan). His ancestors were Arab traders who had settled in India. His mother passed away when he was only 4-5 years old. His father, Khwaja Khuda Bakhsh, also passed away when he was 8 years old. Then his older brother, Khwaja Fakhar-ud Din took care of his education. He learned the Holy Quran by heart at a young age. He was 27-28 years old when his older brother died. By that time he had completed his religious education. He then spent many years in the Rohi ???? Desert (also called Cholistan ??????? ). People have nomadic life style in that area. His life was spent teaching religion to his murids and writing poetry in Urdu and Saraiki ???????, and prose in Farsi. He performed Haj in 1876. He knew many languages including Arabi, Farsi, Saraiki, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Brij Bhasha, and Urdu. He and his poetry is deeply loved by the Saraiki speaking people of Southern Punjab in Pakistan. Like Punjabi and Sindhi, Saraiki is a member of the Indo-Aryan subdivision of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Khwaja Ghulam Farid passed away on 24th July 1901. His tomb is in Mithan Kot. His Saraiki Divan consists of poems called kafis, which are full of sufi themes. His works include: Divan-e Farid Saraiki ?????? ???? ??????? (published 1882), Divan-e Farid Urdu ?????? ???? ????(published 1884), Manaqib-e Mahbubia...

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