Forms of Urdu poetry

The principal forms of Urdu poetry are:[1]

• Ghazal, usually a short love lyric, sometimes a poem on a general subject.

Strictly speaking it should have the same rhyme throughout. Urdu ghazals for the
most part are artificial and conventional.[1]

This article is about the poetic form. For other uses, see Ghazal (disambiguation).

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Related areas Persian • Afghani • Turkish

The gazal (Arabic/Pashto/Persian/Urdu: ‫ ;غزل‬Turkish: gazel) is a poetic form consisting

of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may
be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty
of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century Arabic verse.
It is derived from the Arabian panegyric qasida. The structural requirements of the ghazal
are similar in stringency to those of the Petrarchan sonnet. In its style and content it is a
genre which has proved capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around its
central themes of love and separation. It is one of the principal poetic forms which the
Indo-Perso-Arabic civilization offered to the eastern Islamic world.

The ghazal spread into South Asia in the 12th century under the influence of the new
Islamic Sultanate courts and Sufi mystics. Although the ghazal is most prominently a
form of Dari and Urdu poetry, today it is found in the poetry of many languages of Indian
sub-continent.

Ghazals were written by the Persian mystics and poets Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi
(13th century) and Hafez (14th century), the Azeri poet Fuzuli (16th century), as well as
Mirza Ghalib (1797–1869) and Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), both of whom wrote
ghazals in Persian and Urdu. Through the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749–1832), the ghazal became very popular in Germany in the 19th century, and the
form was used extensively by Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866) and August von Platen
(1796–1835). The Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali was a proponent of the
form, both in English and in other languages; he edited a volume of "real ghazals in
English".
In some ghazals the poet's name is featured somewhere in the last verse (a convention
known as takhallus).

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Pronunciation
• 2 Details of the form
• 3 Themes
o 3.1 Illicit unattainable love
o 3.2 In the context of Sufism
• 4 Important poets of Urdu ghazal
• 5 Translations and Performance of Classical ghazal
• 6 Ghazal and its popularity
• 7 In English
o 7.1 Ghazals composed in English by notable poets
• 8 Ghazal singers
• 9 Notes
• 10 References

• 11 External links

[edit] Pronunciation
The Arabic word ‫ غزل‬ġazal is pronounced [ˈɣazal], roughly like the English word
guzzle, but with the ġ pronounced without a complete closure between the tongue and the
soft palate. In India, the name sounds exotic, as the voiced velar fricative (ġ sound) is not
found in native Indic words. In English, the word is pronounced /ˈɡʌzəl/[1] or
pronounced /ˈɡæzæl/.[2]

[edit] Details of the form

• A ghazal is composed of five or more couplets.
• The second line of each couplet (or sher) in a ghazal usually ends with the
repetition of a refrain of one or a few words, known as a radif, preceded by a
rhyme known as the qaafiyaa. In Arabic, Persian and Turkic the couplet is termed
a bayt and the line within the bayt is called a misra. In the first couplet, both lines
end in the rhyme and refrain so that the ghazal's rhyme scheme is AA BA CA etc.
• Enjambment across lines or between couplets is not permitted in a strict ghazal;
each couplet must be a complete sentence (or several sentences) in itself.
• All the couplets, and each line of each couplet, must share the same meter.
 • Ghazal is simply the name of a form, and is not language-specific. Ghazals exist,
for example, in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Turkish, Kashmiri, Gujarati, Malayalam,
Punjabi, Kurdish and Pashtu and many other languages.
• In languages of Indian sub-continent ghazals occasionally contain no radif. Such
ghazals are termed "ġair-muraddaf" ghazal. The pre-Islamic Arabian qasida was
in monorhyme; like the rest of the qasida, the ghazal itself did not have a radif.
• Although every sher may be an independent poem in itself, the shers may share
the same theme or even display continuity of thought. This is called a musalsal
ghazal, or "continuous ghazal". The ghazal "chupke chupke raat din aasUU
bahaanaa yaad hai" is a famous example of a musalsal ghazal.
• In modern Urdu poetry, there are a few ghazals which do not follow the
restriction that the same beher must be used in both the lines of a sher. But even in
these ghazals, qaafiyaa and, usually, radif are present.
• By placing his or her takhallus (pen name) in the maqta or final sher, the poet
traditionally attempted to secure credit for his or her work. Poets often made
elegant use of their takhallus in the maqta.

[edit] Themes
[edit] Illicit unattainable love

The ghazal not only has a specific form, but traditionally deals with just one subject:
love, specifically an illicit and unattainable love. The ghazals from Indian sub-continent
have an influence of Islamic Mysticism and the subject of love can usually be interpreted
for a higher being or for a mortal beloved. The love is always viewed as something that
will complete a human being, and if attained will lift him or her into the ranks of the
wise, or will bring satisfaction to the soul of the poet. Traditional ghazal love may or may
not have an explicit element of sexual desire in it, and the love may be spiritual. The love
may be directed to either a man or a woman.

The ghazal is always written from the point of view of the unrequited lover whose
beloved is portrayed as unattainable. Most often either the beloved does not return the
poet's love or returns it without sincerity, or else the societal circumstances do not allow
it. The lover is aware and resigned to this fate but continues loving nonetheless; the
lyrical impetus of the poem derives from this tension. Representations of the lover's
powerlessness to resist his feelings often include lyrically exaggerated violence. The
beloved's power to captivate the speaker may be represented in extended metaphors about
the "arrows of his eyes", or by referring to the beloved as an assassin or a killer. Take for
example the following couplets from Amir Khusro's Persian ghazal Nami danam chi
manzil buud shab:

nemidanam che manzel bood shab jayi ke man boodam;

be har soo raghse besmel bood shab jayi ke man boodam.
pari peykar negari sarv ghadi laleh rokhsari;
sarapa afat-e del bood shab jayi ke man boodam.
I wonder what was the place where I was last night,
All around me were half-slaughtered victims of love, tossing about in agony.
There was a nymph-like beloved with cypress-like form and tulip-like face,
Ruthlessly playing havoc with the hearts of the lovers.

[edit] In the context of Sufism

It is not possible to get a full understanding of ghazal poetry without at least being
familiar with some concepts of Sufism. All the major historical post-Islamic ghazal poets
were either avowed Sufis themselves (like Rumi or Hafez), or were sympathizers with
Sufi ideas. Most ghazals can be viewed in a spiritual context, with the Beloved being a
metaphor for God, or the poet's spiritual master. It is the intense Divine Love of sufism
that serves as a model for all the forms of love found in ghazal poetry.

Most ghazal scholars today recognize that some ghazal couplets are exclusively about
Divine Love (ishq-e-haqiqi), others are about "earthly love" (ishq-e-majazi), but many of
them can be interpreted in either context.

Traditionally invoking melancholy, love, longing, and metaphysical questions, ghazals

are often sung by Iranian, Afghan, Pakistani, and Indian musicians. The form has roots in
seventh-century Arabia, and gained prominence in the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century
thanks to such Persian poets as Rumi and Hafez and later due to Indian poets such as,
Mirza Ghalib. In the eighteenth-century, the ghazal was used by poets writing in Urdu, a
mix of the medieval languages of Northern India, including Persian. Among these poets,
Ghalib is the recognized master.

[edit] Important poets of Urdu ghazal

In Urdu some important and respected ghazal poets are Wali, Aatish, Mir Taqi Mir,
Mirza Rafi Sauda, Mirza Ghalib, Zauq, Dard, Daagh, and Jigar Moradabadi. Post-
partition poets include Firaq Gorakhpuri, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Jaun
Elia, Habib Jalib, Munir Niazi, Jan Nisar Akhtar, Shakeb Jalali, Parveen Shakir, Tanwir
Phool, Qamar Jalalabadi, Qateel Shifai, Aghar Gondvi, Nasir Kazmi, Ahmed Faraz,
Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Sahir Ludhianvi, Nida Fazli, Gulzar, Ali Arman, Vikram Singh,
Raees Warsi, Mir Dard, Hasrat Mohani, Momin Khan Momin, Altaf Hussain Hali

[edit] Translations and Performance of Classical ghazal

Enormous collections of ghazal have been created by hundreds of well-known poets over
the past thousand years in Persian, Turkish, and Urdu, as well as in the Central Asian
Turkic languages. Ghazal poems are performed in Uzbek-Tajik Shashmakom, Turkish
Makam, Persian Dastgah and Uyghur Muqam. There are many published translations
from Persian and Turkish by Annemarie Schimmel, Arthur John Arberry, and many
others.
Ghazal "Gayaki", the art of singing or performing the ghazal in Indian classical tradition,
is very old. Singers like Ustad Barkat Ali and many other singers in the past used to
practice it, but due to the lack of historical records, many names are anonymous. It was
with Begum Akhtar, and later on Ustad Mehdi Hassan, that classical rendering of ghazals
became popular amongst the masses. The categorization of ghazal singing as a form of
"light classical" music is a misconception. Classical ghazals are difficult to render
because of the varying moods of the "shers" or couplets in the ghazal. Ustad Amanat Ali
Khan, Begum Akhtar, Mehdi Hassan, Jagjit Singh, Farida Khanum, and Ustad Ghulam
Ali are popular classical ghazal singers.

[edit] Ghazal and its popularity

Understanding the complex lyrics of ghazals required education typically available only
to the upper classes. The traditional classical rāgas in which the lyrics were rendered
were also difficult to understand. The ghazal has undergone some simplification in terms
of words and phrasings, which helps it to reach a larger audience around the world. Most
of the ghazals are now sung with various styles which are not limited to khayāl, thumri,
rāga, tāla and other classical and light classical genres. However, these forms of the
ghazal are looked down on by purists of the Indian Classical tradition. In Pakistan Noor
Jehan, Iqbal Bano, Farida Khanum, Ghulam Ali, Ahmed Rushdi, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan
and Mehdi Hassan are known for Ghazal rendetions . Singers like Jagjit Singh (who first
used a guitar in ghazals), Ahmed and Mohammed Hussain, Hariharan, Mohammad Rafi,
Pankaj Udhas and many others have been able to give a new shape to the ghazal by
incorporating elements of Western music. In India, in addition to Urdu/Hindi, Ghazals
have also been very popular in the Gujarati language. For centuries there have been
notable Gujarati ghazal writers like Barkat Virani 'Befaam', Aasim Randeri, Shunya
Palanpuri, Amrut 'Ghayal', Khalil Dhantejvi and many more. Some of the notable ghazals
of these prominent writers have been sung by popular Bollywood Playback Singer of 80's
and 90's, Manhar Udhas (who is the elder brother of noted Ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas).
These have been released under various album titles and are quite popular. The Canadian
classical ghazal singer Cassius Khan has the unusual talent of singing in the recitational
style whilst accompanying himself on the tabla. Renowned Ghazal singer, Pioneer of
Telugu ghazals, Dr Ghazal Srinivas popularized the Ghazal in Telugu language all over
the world. Dr Ghazal Srinivas also introduced ghazal singing in Kannada language and
ghazals in Kannada language were written by Markandapuram Srinivas

[edit] In English
After nearly a century of "false starts" -- that is, early experiments by James Clarence
Mangan, James Elroy Flecker, Adrienne Rich, Phyllis Webb., etc., many of which did not
adhere wholly or in part to the traditional principles of the form, experiments dubbed as
"the bastard ghazal"[3] -- , the ghazal finally began to be recognized as a viable closed
form in English-language poetry sometime in the early to mid 1990s. This came about
largely as a result of serious, true-to-form examples being published by noted American
poets John Hollander, W. S. Merwin and Elise Paschen, as well as by acclaimed
Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali (d. 2001), who had been teaching and
spreading word of the ghazal at various American universities over the previous two
decades. Ali, it is worth noting, had also published by this time a collection (The Rebel's
Silhouette) of translations of the legendary Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz (b. 1911, d.
1984), and although the selected poems were presented in English in a free verse style,
their romantic and revolutionary-Marxist sociopolitical impact was not entirely lost upon
Western readers.

Recognizing the growing interest, in 1996 Ali decided to compile and edit the world's
first anthology of English-language ghazals. Finally published by Wesleyan University
Press in 2000, Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English served as material proof
that the ghazal had indeed finally arrived in the English-speaking Western world. (Still
fewer than one in ten of the ghazals collected in "Real Ghazals in English" observe the
constraints of the form.) Sadly, succumbing to brain cancer in December 2001, Ali did
not live long enough to witness the book's full impact and further evolution of the
Western ghazal.

A ghazal is composed of couplets, five or more. The couplets may have nothing to do
with one another, except for the formal unity derived from a strict rhyme and rhythm
pattern.

A ghazal in English which observes the traditional restrictions of the form:

Where are you now? Who lies beneath your spell tonight?
Whom else from rapture’s road will you expel tonight?

Those “Fabrics of Cashmere--“ ”to make Me beautiful--“

“Trinket”-- to gem– “Me to adorn– How– tell”-- tonight?

I beg for haven: Prisons, let open your gates–

A refugee from Belief seeks a cell tonight.

God’s vintage loneliness has turned to vinegar–

All the archangels– their wings frozen– fell tonight.

Lord, cried out the idols, Don’t let us be broken

Only we can convert the infidel tonight.

Mughal ceilings, let your mirrored convexities

multiply me at once under your spell tonight.

He’s freed some fire from ice in pity for Heaven.

He’s left open– for God– the doors of Hell tonight.

In the heart’s veined temple, all statues have been smashed

No priest in saffron’s left to toll its knell tonight
God, limit these punishments, there’s still Judgment Day–
I’m a mere sinner, I’m no infidel tonight.

Executioners near the woman at the window.

Damn you, Elijah, I’ll bless Jezebel tonight.

The hunt is over, and I hear the Call to Prayer

fade into that of the wounded gazelle tonight.

My rivals for your love– you’ve invited them all?

This is mere insult, this is no farewell tonight.

And I, Shahid, only am escaped to tell thee–

God sobs in my arms. Call me Ishmael tonight. (Agha Shahid Ali)

[edit] Ghazals composed in English by notable poets

• Agha Shahid Ali, "Ghazal ('...exiles')"

• Robert Bly, The Night Abraham Called to the Stars and My Sentence Was a
Thousand Years of Joy
• Francis Brabazon, In Dust I Sing (Beguine Library, 1974).
• Lorna Crozier, "Bones in Their Wings"
• Judith Fitzgerald, Twenty-Six Ways Out of This World (Oberon), 1999.
• Thomas Hardy, "The Mother Mourns"
• Jim Harrison, Outlyer and Ghazals (Touchstone), 1971
• John Hollander, "Ghazal On Ghazals"
• Galway Kinnell, "Sheffield Ghazal 4: Driving West", "Sheffield Ghazal 5:
Passing the Cemetery" (Mariner Books), 2001
• Maxine Kumin, "On the Table"
• Marilyn Krysl, "Ghazals for the Turn of the Century"
• Edward Lowbury, "A Ghazel (for Pauline)" (1968); "Prometheus: a ghazel"
(1976); "Remembering Nine (a ghazel for Peter Russell)" (1981)
• W. S. Merwin, "The Causeway"
• William Matthews, "Guzzle", "Drizzle"
• Elise Paschen, "Sam's Ghazal"
• Robert Pinsky, "The Hall"
• Spencer Reece, Florida Ghazals
• Adrienne Rich, Ghazals: Homage to Ghalib
• John Thompson, "Stilt Jack" (Anansi), 1978.
• Andrew D. Chumbley, "Qutub" (Xoanon), 1995.
• Natasha Trethewey, "Miscegenation", 2006.
• Phyllis Webb, Water and Light: Ghazals and Anti Ghazals (Coach House), 1984.
• John Edgar Wideman, "Lost Letter"
• Rob Winger, "The Chimney Stone" (Nightwood Editions), 2010
• Sukhdarshan Dhaliwal, "Ghazals at Twilight" (SD Publications), 2009
[edit] Ghazal singers
Some notable ghazal singers are:

• Ahmed Rushdi • Cassius Khan • Reshma

• Asha Bhosle
• Ahmed and Mohammed
Hussain
• Anup Jalota
• Ataullah Khan
• Aziz Mian
• Begum Akhtar
• Chitra Singh
• Ghulam Ali
• Jagjit Singh
• Salma Agha
• Yateesh M. Acharya
• Kiran Ahluwalia
• Mahwash
• Ustad Amanat Ali Khan
• Najma Akhtar
• Talat Aziz
• Iqbal Bano
• Mohammed Rafi
• Mehdi Hassan
• Munni Begum
• Malika Pukhraj
• Ghulam Abbas • Sabri Brothers
Khan • Mohammad Hussain
• Nusrat Fateh Ali Sarahang
Khan • Mohammad Reza
• Farida Khanum Shajarian
• Runa Laila • Bhupinder and Mitali
• Master Madan Singh
• Talat Mahmood • Jasvinder Singh
• Lata Mangeshkar • Tahira Syed
• Penaz Masani • Manhar Udhas
• Habib Wali • Pankaj Udhas
Mohammad • Ahmad Wali
• Nayyara Noor • ( Ghazal Srinivas)
• Noorjehan
• Shishir Parkhie
• Abida Parveen
• Anuradha
Paudwal

• Hariharan

Many Indian and Pakistani film singers are famous for singing ghazals. These include:

• Asha Bhosle
• Ahmed Rushdi
• Chitra Singh
• Jagjit Singh
• Mehdi Hassan
• Talat Mahmood
• Hariharan
• Mohammad Rafi
• Noor Jehan
• Lata Mangeshkar
• Srilekha Parthasarathy
• K. L. Saigal
• Ghulam Abbas Khan
• Ghulam Ali Khan
[edit] Notes
1. ^ Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation
2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary
3. ^ That Bastard Ghazal

[edit] References
• Agha Shahid Ali (ed.). Ravishing Disunities: Real Ghazals in English. ISBN 0-
8195-6437-0.
• Agha Shahid Ali. Call Me Ishmael Tonight: A Book of Ghazals. ISBN 0-393-
05195-1.
• Bailey, J. O. The Poetry of Thomas Hardy: A handbook and Commentary. ISBN
0-8078-1135-1
• Doty, Gene (ed./sitemaster). The Ghazal Page; various postings, 1999—2010.
• Faiz, Faiz Ahmed. The Rebel's Silhouette: Selected Poems. Translated by Agha
Shahid Ali. University of Massachusetts Press, 1995.
• Kanda, K.C., editor. Masterpieces of the Urdu Ghazal: From the 17th to the 20th
Century. Sterling Pub Private Ltd., 1991.
• Mufti, Aamir. "Towards a Lyric History of India." boundary 2, 31: 2, 2004
• Reichhold, Jane (ed.). Lynx; various issues, 1996—2000.
• Watkins, R. W. (ed.). Contemporary Ghazals; Nos. 1 and 2, 2003—2004.

[edit] External links

• Urdu poetic forms
• a ghazalsagar all in one ghazal site
• A Desertful of Roses The Divan-e Ghalib - in Urdu, with Devanagari and Roman
transliterations. Also includes a collection of concise commentaries on each verse
by well-known scholars, as well as other critical information.
• The Ghazal Page, an online journal devoted to the ghazal in English.

Qasida (also spelled qasidah), in Arabic: ‫قصيدة‬, plural qasā'id, ‫ ;قــصــائـد‬in Persian:
‫( قصیده‬or ‫چكامه‬, chakameh), is a form of lyric poetry that originated in pre-Islamic
Arabia. Well known qasā'id include the Qasida Burda ("Poem of the Mantle") by Imam
al-Busiri and Ibn Arabi's classic collection "The Interpreter of Desires".

The classic form of qasida maintains a single elaborate meter throughout the poem, and
every line rhymes. It typically runs more than 50 lines, and sometimes more than 100. It
was adopted by Persian poets, where it developed to be sometimes longer than 100 lines.

Form
Qasida literally means "intention" and the genre found use as a petition to a patron. A
qasida has a single presiding subject, logically developed and concluded. Often it is a
panegyric, written in praise of a king or a nobleman, a genre known as madīḥ, meaning
"praise".

In his 9th century "Book of Poetry and Poets" (Kitab al-shi'r wa-al-shu'ara') the Arab
writer ibn Qutaybah describes the (Arabic) qasida as formed of three parts;

• a nostalgic opening in which the poet reflects on what has passed, known as
nasib. A common concept is the pursuit of the poet of the caravan of his beloved:
by the time he reaches their campsite they have already moved on.

• a release or disengagement, the takhallus, often achieved by describing his

transition from the nostalgia of the nasib to the second section, the travel section
or rahil, in which the poet contemplates the harshness of nature and life away
from the tribe.

• the message of the poem, which can take several forms: praise of the tribe (fakhr),
satire about other tribes (hija) or some moral maxim (hikam).

While many poets have intentionally or unintentionally deviated from this plan it is
recognisable in many.

[edit] Persian variation

After the 10th century Iranians developed the qasida immensely and used it for other
purposes. For example, Naser Khosro used it extensively for philosophical, theological,
and ethical purposes, while Avicenna also used it to express philosophical ideas. It may
be a spring poem (Persian ‫بهاريه‬, baharieh) or autumn poem (Persian ‫خزانيه‬, khazanieh).
The opening is usually description of a natural event; the seasons, a natural landscape or
an imaginary sweetheart. In the takhallos poets usually address themselves by their pen-
name. Then the last section is the main purpose of the poet in writing the poem.

Persian exponents include;

• Farrokhi Sistani, the court poet of Mahmoud Ghaznavi (11th century), especially
his 'Hunting Scene' (in Persian: ‫)قصيده شكارگاه‬,
• Masud Sa'd Salman (12th century) who was wrongfully imprisoned on the
suspicion of treason
• Anvari Abiverdi, (12th century) especially his petition for help against the
invasion of Mongols
• Khaghani Shervani (12th century)
• and in the 20th century, Mohammad Taghi Bahar with his innovations in using
the qasida for political purposes.
From the 14th century CE Persian poets became more interested in ghazal and the qasida
declined. The ghazal developed from the first part of qasida in which poets praised their
sweethearts. Mystic poets and sufis used the ghazal for mystical purposes.

[edit] The Urdu Qasida

Qasida in Urdu poetry is often panegyric, sometimes a satire, sometimes dealing with an
important event. As a rule it is longer than the ghazal but follows the same system of
rhyme.[1]

Marsiya (Marsia) (Persian: ‫ )مرثی ہ‬is an elegiac poem

written (especially in Persia and India) to
commemorate the martyrdom and valour of
Hussain and his comrades of the Karbala.[1] They
are essentially religious.[1] Background
The word ‘Marsiya’ is derived from the Arabic word ‘Risa’, meaning a great tragedy or
lamentation for a departed soul.[2]

Marsiya (or elegy), is nearly always on the death of Hasan and Husain and their families,
but occasionally on the death of relatives and friends. It is usually in six-lined stanzas
with the rhyme aaaabb. The recitation of these elegies in the first ten days of Muharram
is one of the greatest event in Muslim life. A fully developed marsiya is always an epic.[3]

This form found a specially congenial soil in Lucknow, chiefly because it was one of the
centres of Shia Muslim communities in Indian sub-continent, which regarded it an act of
piety and religious duty to eulogies and bemoan the martyrs of the battle of Karbala. The
form reached its peak in the writing of Mir Babar Ali Anis. Marsia is a poem written to
commemorate the martyrdom of Ahl al-Bayt, Imam Hussain and Battle of Karbala. It is
usually a poem of mourning. and Even a short poem written to mourn the death of a
friend can be called marsia. Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem 'In Memoriam' can rightly be
called marsia. The sub-parts of marsia are called noha and soz which means lamentation
and burning of (heart) respectively.[4]

The famous marsia writers in Urdu are Mir Babar Ali Anis, Mir Moonis, Salamat Ali
Dabeer, Mir Zameer.[2]

Mir Babar Ali Anis a renowned Urdu poet, composed salāms, elegies, nauhas, quatrains.
While the length of elegy initially had no more than forty or fifty stanzas, it now was
beyond one hundred fifty or even longer than two hundred stanzas or bunds, as each unit
of marsia in musaddas format is known. Mir Anis has drawn upon the vocabulary of
Arabic, Persian, Urdu/Hindi/Awadhi in such a good measure that he symbolizes the full
spectrum of the cultural mosaic that Urdu has come to be.[5] [2]
Muharram and Mir Anis have become synonymous among Urdu lovers of the Indo-Pak
subcontinent.

The first major and still current critical articulation about Mir Anis was Muazna-e-Anis-
o-Dabir (1907) written by Shibli Nomani in which he said "the poetic qualities and
merits of Anis are not matched by any other poet".

Formation
Urdu poetry forms itself with following basic ingredients:

Sher
(Couplet). It consists of two lines (misra); first line is called 'misra-e-oola' and the second
is called 'MISRA-E-SANI'. Each verse embodies a single thought or subject (sing): Sher,
Shero, Shayari, Shyari, Shayri.

[edit] Bait-ul-Ghazal
The best Sher in a Ghazal.

Example- a Shēr (couplet by poet Majrooh Sultanpuri as given below.

mai.N akelā hī chalā thā zānīb-ē-manzīl magar lōg sāth ātē gayē aur kāravā banatā gayā

(I started all alone towards the goal but people kept joining and it began to turn into a
caravan)[2]

[edit] Urdu Ghazal

The Ghazal is an ode. The literal meaning of the word "ghazal" is "to converse with the
beloved". Etymologically, it comes from the Arabic word Ghizaal, meaning gazelle. It is
a poem containing a minimum of 5 verses and maximum 25. The opening verse of the
ghazal is called matla and both hemistiches rhyme with one another. The last verse of the
ghazal is a maqta, which usually contains the penname of the poet. Most of Persian and
Urdu writers have earned fame as ghazal writers. Ghazal is the soul of Urdu literature and
most popular form of Urdu poetry.

The following is an example of sher, composed by Mirza Ghalib:

nahii.n ki mujhko qayaamat kaa etiqaad nahii.n

shab-e-firaaq se roz-e-jazaa ziyaad nahii.n
It is not that I do not have faith in (the pains of) the day of judgement
But the night of separation is not less than the day of judgement.
What the poet is trying to say is that he trusts that the day of judgement would be very
painful, as it has been described in Qur'an and Hadith; however, this night of separation
from his beloved is not less painful than the day of judgement.

A better example of ghazal is shown below from two couplets of Baqa Akbarabadi*, a
contemporary of Meer Taqi Meer, from a ghazal written in the classical conversational
form, that is, a dialogue between the lover and the beloved. This traditional form, as seen
in Hafiz Shirazi's works in old Persian poetry, does seldom appear in contemporary
Urdu works.Today we have only few good ghazal writers it includes dr asif husain Tahir
faraz,Iqbal ashar,Naseem nikhat ETC.

Kaha main ne! Sila meri wafa ka tujhsey kya nikla?

Kaha us ne! Nateeja dil lagane ka, bura nikla?

Kaha main ne! Wajah koi teri is be-wafaai ki?

Kaha us ne! Fida mujhpar koi, tujhsey siwa nikla! Said I! What return did my love get
back from you?
Said she! Did indeed your heart have a bad experience?

Said I! What caused this unfaithfulness of yours?

Said she! Someone more enchanted than you has shown up!
*
Diwaan e Baqa Akbarabadi, Nizami Press Kanpur India 1932. Kutubkhana Anjuman
Taraqqi Urdu. Hyderabad. India.

[edit] Fard
Composition of only a single SHER, Shero-Shayari, Shyari, Shayri is called FARD.

[edit] Hamd
These are works written in praise of Allah.

[edit] Hijv
(Satire). A poem written to condemn or to abuse a person. This form of poetry is
considered of low type and which is usually avoided by reputed poets. The exact opposite
of HIJV is MADAH which is a poem written in praise of Kings and Patrons.

[edit] Matla
Rhyming of the first two lines of a GHAZAL is called HUSN-E-MATLA.

[edit] Madah
Poem written in praise of Kings and Patrons.

[edit] Manqabat
Poem written in praise of Ahle-E-Bait (the members of the family of Prophet
Muhammad) or Sahaaba (companions of the Prophet)

[edit] Maqta
The last line of a GHAZAL or a poem which generally contains the poet's pen-name.

[edit] Masnawi
A long epic poem describing the battles fought long ago and past events. It may also
contain philosophical or ethical themes. The most famous MASNAWIS are Shah-Namah
of Firdosi, Masnavi-E-Roomi in Persian language and Zehar-E-Ishq in Urdu. (Tarekh-E-
Islam-AZ-Quran) by Allama Dr.Syed Ali Imam Zaidi (Gauher lucknavi) published by
Nizami Press Lucknow.226003

[edit] Matla
The opening SHER of a GHAZAL.

[edit] Misra
One line of a couplet, or verse.

[edit] Munajat
A lyrical poem as prayer to Allah. i agree with this

[edit] Musaddas
Each unit consists of 6 lines (Misra). Most famous writer of this type of poem is Maulana
Altaf Husain Hali.

[edit] Naat
Verses written in praise of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W)

[edit] Nazm
The literary meaning of Nazm is Poetry (cf. Nasr, or Prose) A poem fully dealing with a
single subject or thought.

[edit] Qafia
Rhyming of the last words of a poem. I agree with this

[edit] Qasida
(Ballad). It is a long poem in Urdu, Persian or Arabic which usually describes battles or
written in praise of kings; princes or the poet's patron. There is no limit of verses; it may
even go beyond hundred lines.

[edit] Qat'a
(Fragments). It has two Ashaar and has a one complete subject. Plural Qita'at.

[edit] Radeef
(End rhyme). Each SHER or couple of GHAZAL in addition to QAFIA may also have
RADEEF which is rhyming of more than the last two or three words.

[edit] Ruba'i
Persian word for Quatrain. Contains only 4 lines, the third one being different from the
other three as it should not have QAFIA and RADEEF. RUBA'I deals with social,
philosophical and romantic subjects. In Persian language Umar Khayyam is supposed to
be a great poet of RUBAIYY A T whereas in Urdu Yagana, Firaq and Josh are leading
poets of this time and Anis, an old time poet.

[edit] Salam
(Literal meaning Salutation) It is a kind of poem in which the incidents of Karbala i.e.
hardships of Imam Husain and his followers are described It is also written in praise of
the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and is recited by standing up.

[edit] Sehra
A song sung at the time of tying Sehra during wedding ceremony, praising the bride or
the bridegroom and their relatives.

[edit] Shehr Ashob

 This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

[edit] Tah-Tul-Lafz
The manner of reciting a poem; like rhythmic prose i.e. without singing; word for word.
And, when a poem is sung, its tune is called TARANNUM.

[edit] Takhallus
A name adopted by a poet, by which he is known in the literary world.

[edit] Wasokht
Literal meaning 'displeasure' or 'disgust'. A kind of poem in which the displeasure and
carelessness of a lover is narrated; while relinquishing the beloved.

[edit] Geet
Song or hymn.

[edit] Qawwali
Sufi music expressing the love and oneness with God or Prophet Muhammad and his
companions sung by a group of people to the accompaniment of musical instruments.
Nowadays, it has taken popular form covering subjects of romance, liquor, etc.

Beher in Urdu poetry is the meter of a sher (a form of poetry in Urdu, essentially a
couplet). It can be considered as the length of the sher. Both the lines in the sher, the
couplet, must be of same beher. And all the shers in one ghazal (a poetic form consisting
of couplets which share a rhyme and a refrain) must be of the same beher. There are 19
kinds of beher. However, generally beher is categorized in three classes: Short, medium,
long, depending upon the length of the misra (first line of the sher)

For a ghazal, all the shers in the ghazal should be of the same of beher. The example of
this is this ghazal of Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Notice the length and meter of the ashaars in this
ghazal: it is same throughout.

shaiKh saahab se rasm-o-raah na kii

shukr hai zindagii tabaah na kii
tujh ko dekhaa to ser-e-chashm hue
tujh ko chaahaa to aur chaah na kii
tere dast-e-sitam kaa ajz nahii.n
dil hii kaafir thaa jis ne aah na kii
 the shab-e-hijr kaam aur bahut
ham ne fikr-e-dil-e-tabaah na kii
kaun qaatil bachaa hai shahar me.n 'Faiz'
jis se yaaro.n ne rasm-o-raah na kii

Diwan (Arabic: ‫ديوان‬, Diwan) (Persian: ‫ديوان‬, Divan) is a collection of poems.

Etymology
The English usage of the phrase Diwan Poetry comes from the Arabic word diwan (
‫)دیوان‬, which is loaned from Persian means designated a list or register.[1] The Persian
word derived from the Persian dibir meaning writer or scribe. Diwan was also borrowed
into Armenian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish[2] In Persian, Turkish and other languages the term
diwan came to mean a collection of poems by a single author, as in selected works, or the
whole body of work of a poet. Thus Diwan-e Mir would be the Collected works of Mir
Taqi Mir and so on. The first use of the term in this sense is attributed to Rudaki.[citation
needed]

The term divan was used in titles of poetic works in French, beginning in 1697,[1] but was
a rare and didactic usage, though one that was revived by its famous appearance in
Goethe's West-Östlicher Divan (Poems of West and East), a work published in 1819 that
reflected the poet's abiding interest in Middle Eastern and specifically Persian literature.

This word has also been applied in a similar way to collections of Hebrew poetry and to
poetry of al-Andalus.[citation needed]

[edit] Mode
An Ottoman garden party, with poet, guest, and winebearer; from the 16th-century
Dîvân-ı Bâkî

Ottoman Divan poetry was a highly ritualized and symbolic art form. From the Persian
poetry that largely inspired it, it inherited a wealth of symbols whose meanings and
interrelationships—both of similitude (‫ مراعات نظير‬mura'ât-i nazîr / ‫ تناسب‬tenâsüb)
and opposition (‫ تضاد‬tezâd)—were more or less prescribed. Examples of prevalent
symbols that, to some extent, oppose one another include, among others:

• the nightingale (‫ بلبل‬bülbül) — the rose (‫ گل‬gül)

• the world (‫ جهان‬cihan; ‫‘ عالم‬âlem) — the rosegarden (‫ گلﺴﺘان‬gülistan; ‫گلﺸﻦ‬
gülşen)
• the ascetic (‫ زاهد‬zâhid) — the dervish (‫ درويش‬derviş)

As the opposition of "the ascetic" and "the dervish" suggests, Divan poetry—much like
Turkish folk poetry—was heavily influenced by Sufi thought. One of the primary
characteristics of Divan poetry, however—as of the Persian poetry before it—was its
mingling of the mystical Sufi element with a profane and even erotic element. Thus, the
pairing of "the nightingale" and "the rose" simultaneously suggests two different
relationships:

• the relationship between the fervent lover ("the nightingale") and the inconstant
beloved ("the rose")
• the relationship between the individual Sufi practitioner (who is often
characterized in Sufism as a lover) and God (who is considered the ultimate
source and object of love)

Similarly, "the world" refers simultaneously to the physical world and to this physical
world considered as the abode of sorrow and impermanence, while "the rosegarden"
refers simultaneously to a literal garden and to the garden of Paradise. "The nightingale",
or suffering lover, is often seen as situated—both literally and figuratively—in "the
world", while "the rose", or beloved, is seen as being in "the rosegarden".

Divan poetry was composed through the constant juxtaposition of many such images
within a strict metrical framework, thus allowing numerous potential meanings to
emerge. A brief example is the following line of verse, or mısra (‫)مصراع‬, by the 18th-
century judge and poet Hayatî Efendi:

‫بر گل مى وار بو گلﺸﻦ عالمده خارسز‬

Bir gül mü var bu gülşen-i ‘âlemde hârsız[3]
("Does any rose, in this rosegarden world, lack thorns?")

Here, the nightingale is only implied (as being the poet/lover), while the rose, or beloved,
is shown to be capable of inflicting pain with its thorns (‫ خار‬hâr). The world, as a result,
is seen as having both positive aspects (it is a rosegarden, and thus analogous to the
garden of Paradise) and negative aspects (it is a rosegarden full of thorns, and thus
different to the garden of Paradise).

As for the development of Divan poetry over the more than 500 years of its existence,
that is—as the Ottomanist Walter G. Andrews points out—a study still in its infancy;[4]
clearly defined movements and periods have not yet been decided upon. Early in the
history of the tradition, the Persian influence was very strong, but this was mitigated
somewhat through the influence of poets such as the Azerbaijani Nesîmî (?–1417?) and
the Uyghur Ali Şîr Nevâî (1441–1501), both of whom offered strong arguments for the
poetic status of the Turkic languages as against the much-venerated Persian. Partly as a
result of such arguments, Divan poetry in its strongest period—from the 16th to the 18th
centuries—came to display a unique balance of Persian and Turkish elements, until the
Persian influence began to predominate again in the early 19th century.

Despite the lack of certainty regarding the stylistic movements and periods of Divan
poetry, however, certain highly different styles are clear enough, and can perhaps be seen
as exemplified by certain poets:

Fuzûlî (1483?–1556), a Divan poet of Azeri origin

• Fuzûlî (1483?–1556); a unique poet who wrote with equal skill in Ottoman
Turkish, Persian, and Arabic, and who came to be as influential in Persian as in
Divan poetry
• Bâkî (1526–1600); a poet of great rhetorical power and linguistic subtlety whose
skill in using the pre-established tropes of the Divan tradition is quite
representative of the poetry in the time of Süleyman the Magnificent
• Nef‘î (1570?–1635); a poet considered the master of the kasîde (a kind of
panegyric), as well as being known for his harshly satirical poems, which led to
his execution
• Nâbî (1642–1712); a poet who wrote a number of socially oriented poems critical
of the stagnation period of Ottoman history
• Nedîm (1681?–1730); a revolutionary poet of the Tulip Era of Ottoman history,
who infused the rather élite and abstruse language of Divan poetry with numerous
simpler, populist elements
• Şeyh Gâlib (1757–1799); a poet of the Mevlevî Sufi order whose work is
considered the culmination of the highly complex so-called "Indian style" (‫سبك‬
‫ هندى‬sebk-i hindî)
The vast majority of Divan poetry was lyric in nature: either gazels (which make up the
greatest part of the repertoire of the tradition), or kasîdes. There were, however, other
common genres, most particularly the mesnevî, a kind of verse romance and thus a
variety of narrative poetry; the two most notable examples of this form are the Leylî vü
Mecnun (‫ )ليلى و مجنون‬of Fuzûlî and the Hüsn ü Aşk (‫" ;حﺴﻦ و عﺸق‬Beauty and
Love") of Şeyh Gâlib.

[edit] Urdu variation of Diwan

Diwanin Urdu poetry a collection of poems, chiefly gazals.[5]

[edit] Notes
1. ^ a b Alain Rey et al., Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, new ed. (Robert,
1995), vol. 1, p. 617.
2. ^ Dīvān Encyclopaedia Iranica, VOLUME 7 FASCICLE 4
3. ^ Pala, İskender (1995) Divân Şiiri Antolojisi: Dîvânü'd-Devâvîn Akçağ Yayınları,
Kızılay, Ankara, p. 425, ISBN 975-338-081-X
4. ^ Andrews, Ottoman Lyric Poetry: An Anthology, 22–23
5. ^ A History of Urdu literature by T. Grahame Bailey; Introduction

[edit] See also

• Arabic literature
• Persian literature
• Anthology
• Ottoman poetry
• Poetic meter of Ottoman Turkish
• Category:Ottoman divan poets

[edit] External links

• with many examples of Ottoman Divan poetry, in Turkish, from Internet Archive
• Divan-Full Text-Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in Turkish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Urdu_poetry