Saif Mahmood

Saif Mahmood writes and speaks on Urdu poetry, literature and its cultural heritage. His book ‘Beloved Delhi: A Mughal City and Her Greatest Poets’ (Speaking Tiger, New Delhi, 2018; Second Edition 2023), is widely recognised as an authoritative work on the subject, has been endorsed by great experts in the field, critically reviewed, cited in research theses and peer-reviewed articles and discussed at various literary and cultural events.

A highly sought-after public speaker, he advises several literary and cultural organizations globally and his work appears regularly in periodicals and on news websites. Through his various speaking engagements, he works to showcase Urdu poetic traditions, as well as to emphasise poetry as a social document and the poet as a critic. From spirituality to sexuality, judicial metaphors to trenchant political critique, he brings fresh insight to a range of themes found in Urdu literature. Through his live recitation of verses, their English translations and the stories behind them, he renders the original literature accessible to English-speaking audiences all over the world.

An Advocate of the Supreme Court of India and an international lawyer by profession, he holds a PhD in Law and has been Visiting Academic in Law at the University of Oxford (2022) where he worked on ‘Free Speech in the Mughal Courts: Institutional Restrictions on Dissent in Literary and Cultural Expression’.  He divides time between London and New Delhi.