Every year on November 9, Pakistan observes ‘Iqbal Day’ to honour Allama Iqbal – a great politician and a poet – who played a significant role in the struggle for a separate homeland for Muslims of the subcontinent.

Here are some of interesting facts about Iqbal, which you didn’t know before.

1. Iqbal could speak seven languages including Urdu, Persian, Arabic, English, German and Sanskrit. Persian was his preference for poetic expression rather than Urdu.

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2. Sir Allama Iqbal has a holiday, medical college, a university campus, an airport, a stadium and many housing societies in Pakistan named after him. This is not all. A street in Germany is also named after him, while a commemorative plaque is placed outside the house he used to live in, during his stay there.

The carpet gifted by Wali Afghanistan Muhammed Nadir Shah

3. Iqbal was well-respected internationally. At the age of 45, Allama Iqbal was given the title of ‘Sir’ by King George V at New Year’s Honors event in 1922. Moreso, Wali Afghanistan Muhammed Nadir Shah gave him a magnificent carpet as a gift.

4. In 1933, Iqbal visited the Mosque of Cordoba in Spain. He was the first Muslim to offer prayers there since the Reconquista (a long military conflict in which the Muslims were forced out of Spain).

Muhammad Iqbal: probably the first and only muslim in eight centuries to  have prayed in the Mezquita.

5. Iqbal’s father Noor Muhammad belonged to a Hindu family, but he later converted to Islam.

6. Iqbal was married three times. His first marriage was with Karim Bibi in 1895. His second marriage was with Sardar Begum in 1910, who was the mother of former Justice at the Supreme Court of Pakistan Javed Iqbal. And finally, Iqbal entered his third marriage in 1914 with Mukhtar Begum.

7. Before his death, Iqbal spent three years in Lahore, living in Javed Manzil. It is said that he used to pay Rs 50 rent to his son Javed, for staying in the house. The house is currently a national monument in Pakistan.

If you want to take a virtual tour of Javed Manzil, watch the video below: