Khawaja Haider Ali Atish was the son of Khawaja Ali Bakhsh. The elders belonged to Baghdad, and moved to Shahjahanabad in search of livelihood. His father Khawaja Ali Bakhsh came to Faizabad (Lucknow) during the reign of Nawab Shuja al-Dawla and settled here and was born here in 1778. Atish was still young when his father Khawaja Ali Bakhsh passed away due to which Atish's education remained incomplete, yet Atish studied Urdu, Persian and Arabic through his own efforts and remained in the company of soldiers. He mastered the art of wielding a sword. It is a strange coincidence that this art became his means of livelihood. Mirza Muhammad Taqi Khan, a Nawab of Faizabad, joined the swordsmen at Tarqi. When Nawab Sahib came to Lucknow from Faizabad, Atash also came to Lucknow with him and settled here. In Faizabad itself, Atish cultivated a taste for poetry. He came to Lucknow and became a student of Mushafi. Atish had a dervish-like temperament, and his nature was full of contentment and simplicity. The words carved in his ghazals seem to be intertwined like pearls. There is a deep imprint of Sufism in his poetry. Atish belonged to a Sufi family, including the Peri-Muridi dynasty, and himself led a life that of a fakir. It was his lineage’s values that did not let him to be caught in greed and lust for the rest of his life and he did not become attached to any court. In the last days of his life, his health began deteriorating and his eyesight also went away. He became a recluse and passed away in Lucknow in 1263 AH (1846).