Altaf Hussain Hali (1837 – 31 December 1914) (Urdu: الطاف حسین حاؔلی‎ – Alṭāf Ḥusain Ḥālī), also known as Maulana Khawaja Hali, was an Urdu poet and a writer. Writing The Indian rebellion of 1857 was an armed uprising in British India against the oppressive and destructive British colonial rule and was also popularly remembered as the 'First War of Independence'. This was a turning point in his life because he was an eyewitness to the catastrophe. His family took in a widowed girl who lived with them for the rest of her life. Her plight left a deep impression on Hali and he composed two poems on the condition of women: Munajaat-e-Beva (Supplication of the Widow) and Chup ki Daad (Homage to the Silent). Syeda Saiyidain Hameed called Hali "Urdu's first feminist poet". In 1863 he was appointed tutor to the children of Nawab Mustafa Khan Shefta of Jahangirabad, a position he held for eight years. In Lahore he was employed at the Government Book Depot from 1871 to 1874, where his task was to correct Urdu translations of English books. This brought him into contact with a wide range of literature and led to him writing the first book of literary criticism in Urdu, Muqaddama-e-Shair-o-Shairi. This was published as an introduction to his collected poems, Divan (1890) and then on its own (1893). Annemarie Schimmel called Hali the "founder of literary tradition in Urdu". He had by this time changed his takhallus from "Khasta" to "Hali", which means "contemporary" or "modern". A biography of Ghalib, Yaadgar-e-Ghalib – life and works of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797–1869), a legendary Urdu language poet of the 19th-century A biography of Saadi Shirazi, Hayat-e-Saadi – life and works of celebrated Persian language scholar and poet 'Saadi Shirazi' (1210–1292) of the 13th-century A biography of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Hayat-e-Javed – life and works of a renowned educationist, scholar and social reformer 'Sir Syed Ahmed Khan' (1817–1898) of the 19th-century Hali also wrote a poem "Barkha Rut" "Woh Nabiyon Mein Rahmat Laqab Paanaywala", a naat written by Altaf Hussain Hali