HALIL TOKER was born in 1967 and is a Professor in the Department of Urdu Language and Literature at Istanbul University, Turkey, having also studied Persian and Urdu literary traditions and received his Ph.D. there. His dissertation dealt with “Persian and Urdu Poetry in India and the Poets of the Bahadur Shah II Era.” He writes in Turkish, English and Urdu, and has translated extensively from Urdu into Turkish, especially the writings of Allama Muhammad Iqbal.