Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal was born on November 9, 1877 in Sialkot, Pakistan. He received his early education in Sialkot, Passed his matriculation from Sialkot Mission School in 1897. Then he moved to Lahore and obtained BA degree from Government College, Lahore. After two years he secured his Master degree and appointed as a lecturer of history, philosophy and English. He later went to Europe for higher education. Obtained a degree at Cambridge, he studied his doctorate at Munich and finally qualified as a barrister. He came back to India in 1908. Besides teaching and practicing law, Allama Iqbal continued to write poetry. He resigned from government service in 1911 and took up the mission of propagating individual thinking among the Muslims through his poetry. Iqbal is admired as a famous classical poet by Pakistani, Indian and other international scholars of literature. His first poetry book, Asrar-e-Khudi, appeared in the Persian language in 1915, and other books of poetry include Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, Payam-i-Mashriq and Zabur-i-Ajam. Amongst these his best known Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim and a part of Armughan-e-Hijaz. In 1922, he was knighted by King George V, giving him the title of "Sir". In southern Asian countries, Iqbal is regarded as the Shair-e-Mashriq meaning "Poet of the East". He is also called Muffakir-e-Pakistan ("The Inceptor of Pakistan") and Hakeem-ul-Ummat ("The Sage of the Ummah"). The government of Pakistan has officially named him a "national poet". Allama Iqbal was died on April 21, 1938, Lahore.
