Zahiruddin was known as Zahir Dehlvi. His father, Syed Jalaluddin Haider, was the mentor of  Shah Zafar in calligraphy. Zahir had been in love with poetry since a very early age. He became a disciple of Zoq Delhvi at the age of fourteen. After the mutiny of 1858, he was hunting for a job and passed four years in Rampur and another four in Alwar. He lived in Jaipur for nineteen years and passed another sixteen years of his age in Tonk. He reached Hyderabad during the last years of his life, where he died before getting any salary. He has four deewans to his credit. Though he was a disciple of Zoq but the shades of Momin dominate his poetry.