Ghazal
The ghazal spread into the Indian subcontinent in the 12th century due to the influence of Sufi mystics and the courts of the new Islamic Sultanate, and is now most prominently a form of poetry of many Languages of South Asia and Turkey.
[4] A ghazal commonly consists of five to fifteen couplets, which are independent, but are linked – abstractly, in their theme; and more strictly in their poetic form.
[5] In style and content, due to its highly allusive nature, the ghazal has proved capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around its central themes of love and separation.
This genre of Arabic poetry is derived from غَزَل (ḡazal) or غَزِلَ (ḡazila) - To sweet-talk, to flirt, to display amorous gestures.
[9] A common conceit that traces its history to the origins of the ghazal form is that the poem is addressed to a beloved by the narrator.
[10] Abdolhamid Ziaei considers the content of old Persian ghazal to include four elements: love, mysticism, education or excellence, and Qalandari.
There are several locations a Urdu sher might take place in:[13] hoon garmi-i-nishat-i-tasavvur se naghma sanj Main andalib-i-gulshan-i-na afridah hoon - Ghalib I sing from the warmth of the passionate joy of thought I am the bulbul of a garden not yet createdmir un neem-baaz ankhon men saari masti sharab ki si hai - Mir Taqi Mir 'Mir' is in those half-closed eyes all flirtation is a bit like wine The ghazal originated in Arabia in the 7th century,[14] evolving from the qasida, a much older pre-Islamic Arabic poetic form.
However, the qaṣīda's opening prelude, called the nasīb, was typically nostalgic and/or romantic in theme, and highly ornamented and stylized in form.
These included sub-genres with themes of courtly love (udharî), eroticism (hissî), homoeroticism (mudhakkar), and as a highly stylized introduction to a larger poem (tamhîdî).
Ghazals in the Arabic form have also been written in a number of major West African literary languages like Hausa and Fulfulde.
Because of its comparative brevity, thematic variety and suggestive richness, the ghazal soon eclipsed the qaṣīda, and became the most popular poetry form in Persia.
The 'Early Persian poetry' period spanned approximately one century, from the Ghaznavid era (which lasted until 1187) till a little after the Mongol Invasion.
During the reign of the Sultan of Bengal Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, the city of Sonargaon became an important centre of Persian literature, with many publications of prose and poetry.
When the Sultan invited Hafez to complete an incomplete ghazal by the ruler, the renowned poet responded by acknowledging the grandeur of the king's court and the literary quality of Bengali-Persian poetry.
[19] Residing in Lucknow, he was inspired by Persian ghazals and experimented with a stream of Bengali music which was later enriched profusely by the contribution of Kazi Nazrul Islam and Moniruddin Yusuf.
The lover is aware and resigned to this fate but continues loving nonetheless; the lyrical impetus of the poem derives from this tension.
Take, for example, the following couplets from Amir Khusro's Persian ghazal Nemidanam che manzel būd shab:
pari paikar negar eh sarv qaad e lalhaa rokhsar; sarapa afat-e del būd shab jayi ke man būdam.
There was a nymph-like beloved with cypress-like form and tulip-like face, Ruthlessly playing havoc with the hearts of the lovers.
Traditionally invoking melancholy, love, longing, and metaphysical questions, ghazals are often sung by Afghan, Pakistani, and Indian musicians.
Ghazals were written by Rumi, Hafiz and Saadi Shirazi of Persia; the Turkic poets Yunus Emre, Fuzuli and Nasimi in the Ottoman Empire; Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal of North India; and Kazi Nazrul Islam of Bengal.
Through the influence of Goethe (1749–1832), the ghazal became very popular in Germany during the 19th century; the form was used extensively by Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866) and August von Platen (1796–1835).
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.
Despite often being written in strong Urdu and rendered with classical Indian Ragas along with complex terminology most usually accessible to the upper classes, in South Asia ghazals are nonetheless popular among all ages.
Whether it's spoken in fancy places or sung in everyday life, its powerful words touch deep inside, staying with us for a long time.
The ghazal has undergone some simplification in recent years, in terms of words and phrasings, which helps it to reach a larger audience around the world.
For around a century, starting with Balashankar Kantharia, there have been many notable Gujarati ghazal writers including Kalapi, Barkat Virani 'Befaam', Asim Randeri, Shunya Palanpuri, Amrut Ghayal, Khalil Dhantejvi and many more.
Kazi Nazrul Islam brought ghazals to the Bengali language, composing numerous poems which are still famous in both Bangladesh and India.
After nearly a century of "false starts," the early experiments of James Clarence Mangan, James Elroy Flecker, Adrienne Rich, Phyllis Webb, etc., many of whom did not adhere wholly or in part to the traditional principles of the form, experiments dubbed as "the bastard Ghazal,"[32] the ghazal finally began to be recognized as a viable closed form in poetry of the English language some time in the early to mid-1990s.
