Ḥayāt Maḥmūd (fl. 1135-72/1723-59) was a Bengali author who worked as a judge (qāḍī) and lived his entire life in the region of Ghoraghat, in northwestern Bengal. The main events of his biography can be gathered from evidence in his texts, information handed down by his descendants, and a dubious biographical sketch written by two local scholars who lived in the first half of the twentieth century (Heyāt Māmud, 1-23). Ḥayāt Maḥmūd was the son of a certain Shāh Kabīr. The genealogy preserved by his descendants