Akhtar ShërÃÂnë (; born Muhammad Dawood Khan; 4 May 1905 â 9 September 1948), also spelled Sheerani or Sherani, was a Pakistani Urdu romance poet and writer.
He was born on 4 May 1905 as Muhammad Dawood Khan, into a family belonging to the Pashtun Shirani tribe, which migrated to India with Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. The tribe later settled in Tonk, Rajasthan. He was the son of Hafiz Mahmood Shirani, a scholar and teacher who taught at Islamia College, Lahore in 1921, before moving to Oriental College, Lahore in 1928. Dawood moved to Lahore at a young age and spent most of his life there. He completed his Munshi Fazil (àÃÂôàÃÂçöÃÂ) (Masters degree) in 1921 and Adeeb Fazil (çïÃÂè ÃÂçöÃÂ) (Postgraduate degree) in 1922, earning degrees in Arabic and Persian also from Oriental College.
He decided to pursue poetry full time after graduating. His ustad (mentor) was Maulana Tajwar Najibabadi, who had been published in literary magazines. Since his birth name was relatively common, he adopted 'Akhtar' Shirani as his pen name.
Shirani's son, Javed Mahmood, died at an unknown age. He had another son, Dr. Mazhar Mahmood Shirani, a professor at Government College University, who died in 2020.
Akhtar wrote columns for the daily newspapers Hamdard and Zamindar, published by Maulana Muhammad Ali Johar and Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, respectively. He also published his magazine Romaan, which introduced many emerging writers, including Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi and Qudratullah Shahab.
He became known as ôçùñàñÃÂàçà(The Poet of Romance) because of his philosophical and inspiring poems.
His best-known poetry collections include Akhtaristan, Nigarshaat-e-Akhtar, Lala-e-Toor, Tayyur-e-Aawara, Naghma-e-Haram, Subh-e-Bahaar, and Shahnaz. From 1923 to 1939, he served as the editor of several literary magazines, including Intikhab, Bahaaristan, Khyaalistan, and Romaan.
Much of Akhtar's poetry was in the romantic tradition, similar to the Romanticism movement of European literature. His work focuses on landscape and women. He wrote romantic poetry that described both the physical beauty of women and the role of women in history and wider human existence. He also wrote both poetry and prose for children. He wrote in the nazm, radif and qafiya rhyming style, rather than blank verse.
<blockquote> According to Pakistan Post: "He exhales verse as a flower exhales fragrance. His verses touching colourful subjects flow with such tremendous ease and felicity as the reader is moved to ecstasy...artistic skills of Akhtar Shairani's poetry lend him a distinguished place in modern Urdu poetry". </blockquote>
His better known poems include:
On his death, Agha Shorish Kashmiri, a literary, political, and social figure in Lahore at the time, commented that seeing Shirani's physical and mental state would leave one deeply saddened. He was admitted to Mayo Hospital, Lahore, on 3 September 1948, and died in Lahore on 9 September 1948, while visiting a friend, Hakeem Nayyar Wasty, in Masti Gate. Sheerani is buried in Miani Sahib Graveyard. This was two days before the death of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Pakistan Postal Services issued a commemorative postage stamp in his honor in 2005 in its 'Poets of Pakistan' series.