Jaun Elia

Syed Hussain Sibt-e-Asghar Naqvi (14 December 1931 – 8 November 2002), commonly known by his pen name Jaun Elia, was a Pakistani poet.

One of the most prominent modern Urdu poets of ghazals (amatory poems), popular for his unconventional ways, he "acquired knowledge of philosophy, logic, Islamic history, the Muslim Sufi tradition, Muslim religious sciences, Western literature, and Kabbala".

He was fluent in Urdu, Arabic, Sindhi, English, Persian, Sanskrit and Hebrew. Elia was also the younger brother of poet Rais Amrohvi.

Jaun Elia was born on 14 December 1931 in Amroha, UP, British India into an educated Shia family. He was the youngest child of Allama Shafiq Hassan Elia. His father was a scholar of literature and astronomy well-versed in the Arabic, English, Persian, Hebrew and Sanskrit languages, and who corresponded with leading intellectuals like Bertrand Russell. Jaun Elia was the youngest of his siblings: his brother Rais Amrohvi was a poet and psychoanalyst while another brother, Syed Mohammed Taqi, was a philosopher and a translator who had translated Karl Marx's Das Kapital. Indian film director Kamal Amrohi was his first cousin. Another relative in Pakistan is actor Munawar Saeed, famous for his roles as a villain.

Described as a child prodigy, Jaun was initially educated at the Syed-ul-Madaris in Amroha, a madrasa affiliated with the Darul Uloom Deoband.

He married writer Zahida Hina in the year 1970. He met her during the publication of an urdu language magazine Insha and ended up falling in love with her. They got separated in 1984 and later divorced due to differences in their temperament.

They have three children, Zeryoun Elia, Fainnana and Sohaina Elia

He began writing poetry when he was 8 but published his first collection, Shayad, when he was 60.