Mahmud Gami introduced in Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

i the Persian forms of the masnavi and ghazal

Ghazal

The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...

. He was born at Dooru shahabad, a historical town in south kashmir. He is noted for his work Yusuf Zulaikha, a poem which is a major contribution to Kashmiri literature

Kashmiri literature

Kashmiri literature has a history of at least 2,500 years, going back to its glory days of Sanskrit. Early names include Patanjali, the author of the Mahabhashya commentary on Pāṇini's grammar, suggested by some to have been the same to write the Hindu treatise known as the Yogasutra, and...

. It is the first and the most popular masnavi in Kashmiri. It comprises 700 verses and has also been rendered into the German by the 19th century European scholar Fredrich Burkhard.