Āzurda was the pen name of Muhammad Ṣadr al-Dīn Khān (1789-1868), born in Delhi into an illustrious family of Kashmiri extraction. He studied under the noted scholars Shāh ʿAbd al-Azīz (d. 1823) and Faḍl-i Imām Khayrābādī (d. 1827). On completing his education he entered the service of the East India Company's administration. By 1816-7 he was a ṣadr amīn (subordinate civil judge), and in the 1830s he became principal ṣadr amīn , the highest judicial position open to Indians at the time. Apart from his