"Qani'" Tattavī

Poet and Historian

Mīr ʿAlī Šīr “Qāniʿ” Tattavī was born in Tatta, Sind in 1140/1727–8. It has been said that he composed his first verses of poetry while still a boy. Qāniʿ received an education from local scholars and soon thereafter began a career as a poet and historian. He went on to produce a great number of works (in both prose and verse) on a variety of topics, including: a love story in the manavī form, a compendium of the lives of saints and Sufis from the times of Muḥammad until the late 12th/18th century, an account of the martyrs of Karbalā, and a work of general history. Qāni died in Tatta in 1203/1788.