Selected Editions and Translations
Ahmad, Aijaz, ed. 1971. Ghazals of Ghalib. New York: Columbia University Press. Contains versions by W. S. Merwin, Adrienne Rich, William Stafford, David Ray, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Mark Strand, and William Hunt.
Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali Khan, ed. 1982. Dīvān-i Ghālib Urdū nuskha-yi ʿArshī. 2nd ed. Delhi: Anjuman Taraqqi-e Urdu (Hind). The canonical modern scholarly edition, including both published and unpublished poetry. Original edition 1958.
Hamid, Ali Khan, ed. 1969. Dīvān-e Ghālib. Lahore: Punjab University Press.
Khaliq Anjum. 1984–1993. Ghālib ke khut̤ūt̤. 4 vols. New Delhi: Ghalib Institute. The best modern edition of Ghalib’s Urdu letters.
Mihr, Ghulam Rasul. 1969. Khut̤ūt̤-i Ghālib. 2 vols. Lahore: Punjab University. An edition of Ghalib’s Urdu letters.
Naim, C. M. 1970. Twenty-Five Verses by Ghalib. Calcutta: Redbird Books, Writers Workshop. Translations and commentary.
——. 1972. Ghalib’s Lighter Verse. Calcutta: Redbird Books, Writers Workshop. Translations and commentary.
Niazi, Sarfaraz K. 2002. Love Sonnets of Ghalib. Lahore: Ferozsons. A full translation and commentary.
Rahbar, Daud. 1987. Urdu Letters of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib. Albany: SUNY Press. Most of the selected letters are literary ones, well annotated.
Rahman, Sarvat. 2003. Diwan-e-Ghalib: Complete Translation into English, Including All the Ghazals, Qasidas, Masnavis, Qitas and Quatrains of the Published Diwan and a Selection from the Unpublished Diwan. New Delhi: Ghalib Institute.
Raza, Kalidas Gupta. 1988. Dīvān-i Ghālib kāmil nuskha-yi Guptā Raẓā tārīkhī tartīb se. Bombay: Sakar. This authoritative work is a valuable supplement to Arshi and is arranged in a way that makes it easier to use.
Russell, Ralph. 2003. The Seeing Eye: Selections from the Urdu and Persian Ghazals of Ghalib, Translated and Explained. Islamabad: Alhamra.
Ansarullah, Muhammad. 1972. Ghālib bibliyogrāfī. Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University.
Baqir, Agha Muhammad. 2000. Bayān-i Ghālib: Sharḥ-i dīvān-i Ghālib. Delhi: Kitabi Dunya. Original edition Lahore: Shaikh Barakat Ali and Sons, 1939. A commentary that is an anthology of other commentaries.
Chand, Gyan. 1971. Tafsīr-i Ghālib. Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture, and Language. The only available commentary on the unpublished verses.
Chittick, William. 1975. “Ibn Arabi’s Summary of the Bezels of Wisdom,” Sophia Perennis XX, no. XX (season year): XXX–XXX.
Faruqi, Khwaja Ahmad. 1970. Dastanbuy: A Diary of the Indian Revolt of 1857. Bombay: Asia Publishing House. Ghalib’s official account of his experiences.
Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman. 1989. Tafhīm-i Ghālib. New Delhi: Ghalib Institute. Offers interpretation of selected verses only but is invaluable.
Hali, Altaf Husain. 1897. Yādgār-i Ghālib. Kanpur: Nami Press.
Mahmud, Sayyid Fayyaz. 1969. Ghalib: A Critical Introduction. Lahore: Punjab University. A general overview.
Mihr, Ghulam Rasul. 1967. Navā-yi sarosh, mukammal dīvān-i Ghālib maʿ sharḥ. Lahore: Shaikh Ghulam Ali and Sons. A well-known modern commentary.
Nazm Tabataba’i, Ali Haidar Lakhnavi. [1900]. Sharḥ-i dīvān-i Urdū-i Ghālib. Hyderabad: Matba Mufid ul-Islam. The most influential commentary.
Platts, John T. 1884. A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The best dictionary for the student of Ghalib.
Prigarina, Natalia. 2000. Mirza Ghalib: A Creative Biography. Karachi: Oxford University Press. Good background on his financial problems.
Pritchett, Frances, and Shumsurrahman Faruqi, trans. 2001. Āb-e ḥayāt: Shaping the Canon of Urdu Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The original Urdu anthology of poetry was first published in 1880.
Pybus, G. D. 1924. Urdu Prosody and Rhetoric. Lahore: Rama Krishna and Sons.
Russell, Ralph. 1972. Ghalib: The Poet and His Age. 1972. Cambridge: Allen and Unwin.
Russell, Ralph, and Khurshidul Islam. 1969. Ghalib, 1797–1869: Volume 1, Life and Letters. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. (There is no second volume.) By far the best overview of the poet’s life.
Schimmel, Annemarie. 1979. A Dance of Sparks: Imagery of Fire in Ghalib’s Poetry. New Delhi: Ghalib Academy.
Steingass, F. A. 1892. Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary. London: Routledge. The best way for the student to keep track of Ghalib’s Persianisms.
Zamin Kanturi, Sayyid Muhammad. 2012. Sharḥ-i dīvān-i Ghālib. Edited by Ashraf Rafi. Delhi: Educational Publishing House. Original edition 1934 (MS completed but not published). The only commentary that integrates both published and unpublished verses.