About: Bekhud Badayuni

Muhammad Abdul-Hayy Siddiqui (1857–1912), writing under the pen-name Bekhud Badayuni, was one of the leading Urdu poets of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in India. It is customary for Urdu poets to assume a pen-name (takhallus) that can be employed as a pun in the final couplet of every ghazal, often combined with a second name that denotes the poet's place of origin. In this case, "Bekhud", the pen-name means beside oneself (with joy or grief), out of one's mind; in ecstasy, transported, enraptured, intoxicated; senseless, delirious, commonly used in the context of spiritual ecstasy, and is paired with "Badayuni", which indicates ties to the city of Badayun.