He was a handsome man who was born in Kābul and brought up in Hindūstān. In penmanship he was the pupil of Ashraf Khān. He died in Gujarāt at the time of the siege of Sūrat* in A.H. 980 (A.D. 1572-73) in the prime of his youth. Ashraf Khan composed a hemistich which formed a chronogram giving the date of his death, and Mīr ‘Alā'u-d-daulah completed the stanza, as follows:—

“Muḥammad Yūsuf, that residence of beauty,
Went from the world shedding tears from his eyes.
³⁴⁰ An honoured man gave this chronogram for the date of his
death.
‘Where is Yūsuf of Egypt, O ye honoured ones?’”*

This rhyming of ma‘rūf and majhūl is very strange.* The following ode, ‘The Master of the House,’ is by the above-men­tioned Muḥammad Yūsuf:—

“Happy is he who has taken up his abode in the wine-shop,
And is seated by the tun with a cup and a measure,
It is he who has given to the beloved her languishing
glances heavy with wine.
I am drunk with the languishing glances of those two
narcissus-like eyes.
The owl found no well-peopled spot in this transitory world
And hence chose for its dwelling the corner of a ruin.
I said (to my love), ‘Take up thy abode in my eyes,’ but
she answered coquettishly,
‘Does anybody build a house in a channel through which
floods flow?’
The comb has disordered thy locks,
May the hand of him who made that comb for thy locks
be broken.”

The following couplet is by him:—

“In thy absence I attempted in vain to take rest,
Disappointed by thy absence I took such rest as I could.”