Bekhud Badayuni

Muhammad Abdul-Hayy Siddiqui (17 September 1857 - 10 November 1912) (Urdu/Arabic: محمّد عبدالحي صدیقی), writing under the pen-name Bekhud Badayuni (Urdu/Persian: بےخود بدایونی), was one of the leading Urdu poets of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

It is customary for Urdu poets to assume a pen-name (takhallus) that can be employed as a pun in the final couplet of every ghazal, often combined with a second name that denotes the poet's place of origin. In this case, "Bekhud", the pen-name means beside oneself (with joy or grief), out of one's mind; in ecstasy, transported, enraptured, intoxicated; senseless, delirious, commonly used in the context of spiritual ecstasy, and is paired with "Badayuni", which indicates ties to the city of Badayun.

Poetry
Much of Bekhud's poetry has fallen out of contemporary discourse, for a variety of reasons. In part, this circumstance is due to Bekhud's own reticence and limited publication of his works. He did not publish his collection of poetry (diwan) until 1910 (two years before his death) despite having compiled the bulk of it as early as fifteen years prior. Biographers and critics have speculated that even this late publication of Bekhud's work occurred primarily to combat the plagiarism and misappropriation of his poetic works by other poets (since, short of publication, oral transmission is the primary medium for Urdu poetry). Bekhud's residence in Jodhpur, isolated from the main centers of Urdu literature in Delhi and Lucknow, also limited the circulation of his work and provided the opportunity for some of Bekhud's contemporaries in the centers of literature to pass his work off as their own. For this reason, much of his work has grown unfamiliar to the current generation of Urdu speakers, despite having been integral to any serious poet's or critic's study of Urdu poetry until late into the 20th century. At the same time, several of his works have been mis-attributed to Bekhud Dehlvi or other poets of his time.

Published works
Hosh-o-Khirad ki Dukaan (The Shop of Sense and Wisdom) (1889) (هوش و خرد کی دکان)

Sabr-o-Shakeeb ki Loot (The Plundering of Patience and Forbearance) (1889) (صبر و شکيب کی لوٿ)

Marraat-ul-Khayaal (The Mirror of Thoughts) (1910) (مراﺓ الخيال)

Afsaanah-e-Bekhud (The Tale of Bekhud) (date unknown) (افسانه بےخود)