Ali Haidar (1690–1785) was an eighteenth-century Punjabi Sufi poet.
Ali Haidar was born at Kazia near Multan. He is believed to have a long life from 1690 to 1785, however, Christopher Shackle questions it due to the length of the proposed span and the obscurity of his biographical details. As with most other Punjabi Sufis of the time, Ali Haidar was affiliated to the Qādirī Sufi order, and his humble devotion to the sayyids shows that he himself was not a sayyid. Ali Haidar spent most of his life in the village of his birth, where he died. He was subsequently buried at Qāḍī Ghālib near the Faisalabad District, where his shrine is located.
For a long time, Ali Haidar was virtually forgotten. His works were re-discovered and published in 1907 by a Lahore publisher, on which the later editions are based.[1] Ali Haidar's verses (abyāt) are in the format of Punjabi bayt, which according to Shackle display his mastery over the wordplays of Punjabi poetry. In addition to these Punjabi abyāt, he also wrote six sīḥarfī, which show influence from the southwestern dialectal forms or Multani, now known as Saraiki. Ali Haidar lived during the time of collapse of Mughal power in Punjab, and made occasional references to it. He condemned the "traitors" who were, according to the poet, offering wealth to the foreign raiders from Persia and Khurasan.