Amīr Aḥmad Amīr Mīnāʾī (1829-1900) was a poet, teacher, lexicographer, biographer, publisher, Islamic scholar, critical editor, and court official at Lucknow and Rāmpūr. He is remembered best for his Urdu ghazal s (lyrical poems) and naʿt s (poems in praise of the prophet Muḥammad), his biographical dictionary of poets at Rāmpūr, and an incomplete Urdu dictionary. 1. Life Amīr Mīnāʾī was born in Lucknow to a family of mystics and scholars who traced its lineage through the mystic Shāh Mīnā (d. 869/1465 in Lucknow, where his shrine is