Amir Khusro

Amir Khusro was a legendary Sufi poet, musician and scholar of the Delhi Sultanate, celebrated as the father of qawwali and a pioneer of Hindustani classical music and Hindavi literature. A disciple of the saint Nizamuddin Auliya, he wrote in Persian and early Hindi-Urdu and left an immense legacy of poetry, riddles and devotional compositions.

Amir Khusro was a towering figure of medieval India — a Sufi poet, musician, scholar and courtier whose genius shaped the very foundations of North Indian culture. Born Abul Hasan Yamin ud-Din Khusrau around 1253 CE, he served the court of the Delhi Sultanate and was the beloved disciple of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya. Celebrated as the "Tuti-e-Hind" (Parrot of India), he is widely regarded as the father of qawwali and a pioneer of Hindustani classical music and early Hindavi literature. This page covers the Amir Khusro biography, his poetry, works, famous compositions and lasting legacy.

For readers asking who was Amir Khusro (amir khusro kaun tha), he was a poet-musician of the Delhi Sultanate whose work bridged Persian and Indian traditions. On the question of the Amir Khusro ka janm (where and when he was born), he was born around 1253 CE in Patiyali, in present-day Uttar Pradesh. His father, Amir Saifuddin Mahmud, was a Turkic officer, and his mother was of Indian origin — a heritage reflected in the rich fusion of his art.

A gifted child, Amir Khusro rose to serve as a court poet under a succession of Delhi sultans. This Amir Khusro jeevan parichay is inseparable from his lifelong devotion to his spiritual master, Nizamuddin Auliya, whose khanqah shaped his mystical worldview and much of his devotional writing.

Amir Khusro is honoured as the father of qawwali, the devotional Sufi music still performed at dargahs across South Asia. He blended Persian, Arabic and Indian musical traditions into a new synthesis that became the bedrock of Hindustani classical music.

Tradition credits Amir Khusro with pioneering several ragas and musical forms, and popular legend associates him with the early development of instruments such as the sitar and the tabla. Whether myth or history, his name is inseparable from the birth of India's classical and devotional music, and many Amir Khusro songs and compositions are still sung today.

The Amir Khusro poetry (and the Amir Khusro shayari beloved across the subcontinent) ranges from Persian ghazals to playful Hindavi riddles (paheli) and dohas. Writing in both Persian and early Hindi-Urdu, he is regarded as one of the earliest and most important voices of Hindavi literature.

His vast body of work — the Amir Khusro books and Amir Khusro ki rachnaye that scholars still study — includes several divans of poetry, the five masnavis of the Khamsa-e-Khusrau, and historical works such as Tughlaq Nama. He is also remembered for his witty riddles and for coining verses that entered everyday speech.

Amir Khusro died in October 1325, shortly after his master Nizamuddin Auliya, and was buried near the saint's shrine in Delhi, where his tomb remains a place of pilgrimage. His legacy is immeasurable: he is credited with shaping qawwali, enriching Hindustani classical music, and helping give birth to the Hindavi literary tradition that evolved into modern Hindi and Urdu. Seven centuries on, his verses and compositions are still sung, studied and cherished.