Photograph of N. M. Rashed by Khatir Ghaznavi

Khatir Ghaznavi. Photograph of N. M. Rashed by Khatir Ghaznavi. 1952. 2 pp. 1 sheet. 2 x 3.2". Black and white photograph. Photograph of N. M. Rashed by Khatir Ghaznavi. Writing in pencil on back identifies photographer as the poet Khatir Ghaznavi. Urdu. Box 2. Folder 1: Abijan's pictures. 005. Digitized by Zahra Sabri. Catalogued by Zain Mian. Donated (2015) by Yasmin Rashed Hassan to the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal. Full item here.

In this photograph from 1952, Rashed poses jacketless in a dress shirt and tie. The photo is attributed on the reverse to Khatir Ghaznavi, whose name is scribbled in pencil. Mohammad Ibrahim Beg "Khatir" Ghaznavi (1925-2008), was an Urdu poet born in Peshawar, who also wrote poetry in Hindko and translations from Pashto (thanks to Mohammad Taqi @mazdaki for providing basic biographical information). Like Rashed, Khatir Ghaznavi worked in radio from the 1940s to the 1960s, and in particular for Radio Pakistan in Peshawar, where Rashed also worked after Partition, as Assistant Regional Director from 1947-1948, and as Regional Director from 1950-1952, making it seem likely that this picture was taken in Peshawar while the two men were working there.[1]
According to Rashed's daughter Yasmin Hassan, Khatir Ghaznavi was a friend of the family, and took many photos of the family in 1952 before Rashed began his travels abroad in the same year.[2]
In his critical work Jadīd Urdū adab, an overview of modernist Urdu literature, Khatir Ghaznavi assessed his friend N. M. Rashed's work in the following terms.

There were many experiments in free verse. The name of N. M. Rashed has a place of pride in the list of those who made these experiments our own, and gave them a permanent place in the Urdu language. His efforts made free verse acceptable to such an extent that a large number of young poets were attracted to it. The influence of Iran is apparent in Rashed's poetry; in his language there is a grandeur, and his ideas are elevated.

Because he lived in Iran during the Second World War, Rashed had a chance to analyze the effects of the war upon Iranian society. In a very poetic and allusive manner, he poured this analysis into his poems. After Māwarā, his second book was Īrān meñ ajnabī (although this book was published well after 1947), which was the bearer of a new formal experiment, which was named the "canto."[3]

Article by Pasha M. Khan
September 20, 2015