Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali (1837–1914) was an Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, and Writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

. Hali occupies a special position in the history of Urdu literature. He was a poet, a critic, a teacher, a reformer and an impressive prose-writer. He was a close friend of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.
Moulana Altaf Hussain Hali has an important place in Urdu literary history.He is one of the Aanasar-e-Khamsa of Urdu.He has written the Musaddas-e-Hali which occupies an important position in Urdu literature.

Born in Panipat

Panipat

Panipat بَنِبَت is an ancient and historic city in Panipat district, Haryana state, India. It is 90 km north from Delhi and 169 km south of Chandigarh on NH-1. The three battles fought at the city were turning points in Indian history. The city is famous in India by the name of "City of...

 in 1837, circumstances did not permit him to attain formal education in a school or college, yet he managed to acquire , through sustained self-effort, perfect command of Urdu, Persian and Arabic, and a good working knowledge of English.