Riaz (also Riyaz) Khairabadi: Full name: Syed Riyaz Ahmad (1853–1934) was a poet who lived in Gorakhpur in United Provinces (Now Uttar Pradesh).  Riaz Khairabadi was a senior contemporary of Mehdi Ifadi. In his letter to Riaz Khairabadi, which he had written from Allahabad in 1931, Ifadi has lamented closure of Riazul Akhbar edited by Riaz Khairabadi from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. Mehdi Ifadi admits the fact that he has been a great fan of Riaz Khairabadi since his adulthood when he did not even know the meaning of literature. He has said that a whole generation of Urdu litterateurs had been raised by Riaz Khairabadi.Though Riaz Khairabadi used terminology of maikhana, saghar, meena, jaam, mai mainly in poetry, in real life he was a teetotaler.  

 Specimen of kalaam:

mai rahe meenaa rahe gardish mein paimaanaa rahe

mere saaqi tuu rahe aabaad maikhana rahe

hashr bhi to ho chukaa rukh se naheen hatati naqaab

had bhi aakhir kuchh hai kab tak koi deevana rahe

raat ko jaa baithate hain roz ham majanun ke paas

pahle anaban rah chuki hai ab to yarana rahe

zindagi ka lutf ho udti rahe haradam 'Riaz'

ham hon sheeshe ki pari ho ghar parikhana rahe