Kaikobad

Kaikobad was born in 1857 in the village Agia, Purba Para, under Nawabgonj upazila in Dhaka district, Bangladesh.

His forefathers had came from Arabia and belonged to the famous Quraish tribe. It is said that Quari Hafizultah-Al-Quraishi, one of his forefathers, first migrated from Baghdad to Delhi during the time of Mughol emperor Shah jahan. Muhibullah was the great grand father of poet Kaikobad and that of his father,Shahmatullah-Al-Quraishi (alias Emdad Ali). Shahmatullah married Zarifunnesa Khatoon of Agla (Kaikobad's mother).            

Kaikobad had his schooling at Pogose School, St. Gregory School and Jagonnath School, Dhaka because at that time his father was a lawyer at Dhaka. But soon he lost his mother and next year his father too. So, the orphaned boy had to re-start educa­tion from the Dhaka Madrasha. But, before he could complete Entrance Examination, he had to discontinue education in search of career.

The infancy of Kaikobad was spent at Agia (village home of his maternal grand father.

Kaikobad wrote two books-"Bilap biraha” (1870) at the age of 12/13 and "Kusum Kanan" (1873) at the age of 16-which drew public admiration. The Maharani of Kasimbazar was so much moved by reading the two books that she at once at her own accord sent the boy (Kaikobad) Tk 10/- as a sort of encouragement. Really, this was no doubt an incentive for the budding poet.

However, it was not before the publica­tion of "Asroomala" (Garland of Tears) that his real recognition as a poet was estab­lished. This book was a collection of lyrical poems of high standard written at the age of 23, which was highly admired by the con­temporary poets and writers of all caste and creed.

 Poet Kaikobad through the medium of his poems like "Maha Shashan" (The Great Burial Ground), which relates to the events of the third battle of Panipath, he instilled into the Muslims the historical sense with patriotism and action. This epic (1311 B.S.) came out as his masterpiece.

Poet Kaikobad left a vast treasure of liter­ary works for the posterity. He wrote 18 books (17 lyrics and I epic) out of which 13 were published and manuscripts of 5 others could not be traced out after his death for obvious reason. The books which were pub­lished during and after the life time of the poet include one Epic and 12 Lyrics.

"Maha Shashan" (The Great Burial Ground), "Asroomala" (Garland of Tears), "Moharram Sharif Kabbya", "Omio Dhara" and "Ghaus Paker Premer Kunjo" are the great accomplishments of poet Kaikobad.

An outstanding literary personality, Kaikobad was agile and quick with an ency­clopedic mind and .made a lasting contribu­tion to the enrichment of Bengali literature.

Kaikobad may rightly be defined as : A Bangladeshi poet by heart. A poet of Muslim renaissance. A poet of Hindu-Muslim unity. A poet of Humanity. An Epic poet. His real Name is AL-KAZEM-AL - QURASHI .

The works of Kaikobad i.e. his "Maha Shashan Cabhya" and "Moharram Sharif cabhaya" were included in B.A. and M.A. Syllabus of the Dhaka University and Rajshahi University.

By profession, Kaikobad was a Post Master under the Postal Department. He joined the service in the year 1887 and retired from that service with pension in 1919. After retirement he once again was appointed as Sub-Post Master of Agia Sub-Post Office in 1930 where he served upto 1944.

Kaikobad had 5 sons and daughters . No one is alive now. He died on 21 st July 1951 at Dhaka and was buried at Azimpur Old Graveyard beside his beloved wife Taherunnesa Begum.