دبستان لکھنؤ کی خارجیت اور دبستان دہلی کی داخلیت کا حسین امتزاج پیش کرنے والے امیر مینائی وہ قادر الکلام شاعر تھے جنہوں نے اپنے زمانہ میں اوراس کے بعد بھی اپنی شاعری کا لوہا منوایا۔ ان کی شاعری میں نازک خیالی، معنی آفرینی، فصاحت و بلاغت، تصوف اور اُس کے مسائل موجود ہیں۔ وہ جو کچھ کہتے ہیں کیف و سرمستی میں ڈوبا ہوا ہوتا ہے۔ ان کے کلام میں شاعری کے اعلیٰ نمونے موجود ہیں۔ آج بھی لوگ اُن کے اشعار بڑے شوق سے پڑھتے ہیں۔ زیر نظر کتاب امیر مینائی کا شعری مجموعہ ہے، اس مجموعہ میں امیر مینائی کا کلام الف بائی ردیف کے اعتبار سے پیش کیا گیا ہے۔

An eminent Urdu Poet and contemporary of Dagh Dehlvi, Ameer Minai was widely acclaimed for penning the ghazal "Sarakti jaye hai rukh se naqaab aahista aahista". He was born at Lucknow to Sheikh Karam Mohammad Minai, who was a direct descendant of Shah Makhdoom Minai, a renowned Muslim saint of 15th century. In addition to being a scholar of Urdu and Persian, he had thorough knowledge of Arabic, Sanskrit theology and medieval logic. After the revolt of 1857, Ameer migrated to Rampur, where he lived a life of comfort, under the patronage of Nawab Yusuf Ali Khan and his successor, Nawab Kalab Ali Khan. It was at Rampur where he had spent the larger part of his life and achieved a lot of fame as a poet. After the death of Nawab Kalab Ali Khan, Ameer had to go to Hyderabad, where he was given a warm welcome by the Nizam. However, destiny had different plans for him. He died in 1900 after a brief illness. Among all his pieces of work, the greatest was "Ameer-ul-Lughaat", a comprehensive Urdu-to-Urdu dictionary that he had intended to compile in eight volumes. Unfortunately, only two volumes were compiled and published in 1891 and 1892 respectively. Even though he was extremely skilled in various genres of poetry, ghazals brought him most of the fame. These were inclusive of Mirat-ul-Ghalib (1868), Gauhar-e-Intekhab (1896) and Sanam-khana-e-Ishq (1896). He died in the year 1900 in the city of Hyderabad.