Salima Tyabji (1939-2013), was a teacher and an editor, and was educated at the Universities of Bombay and Oxford. She taught at the Bombay International School and at the Anjuman-I-Islam's Saif Tyabji Girls' High School. She later became an Editor, initially with Tata McGraw-Hill, and subsequently with Oxford University Press. After retiring from OUP, Tyabji taught herself Urdu and researched at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, both of which led to the manuscript which forms the basis of this book.