Information About ™Ghazal |
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The form is ancient, originating in 10th Century Persian verse. It is derived from the Persian Qasida , which in turn derived from a pre-Islamic Arabian form. The ghazal spread into India in the 12th Century under the influence of the Mughal s. Although the ghazal is most prominently a form of Urdu Poetry , today, it has influenced the poetry of many languages. A Ghazal, in short, is a collection of couplets (called '' Sher '') which follow the rules of Matla , Maqta , Beher , Qaafiyaa , Radif , Khayaal and Wazan . The traditional complete ghazal has a ''matla'', a ''maqta'', and three other ''sher''s in between. The first two ''sher''s of a ghazal have the form of a '' Qatha '' (a specific variation of which is a '' Ruba'ee ''; most familiar to modern readers from Khayyám's Rubayyat ). Ghazals were written by the Persian mystics and poets Jalal Al-Din Muhammad Rumi ( 13th Century ) and Hafez ( 14th Century ), the Turkish poet Fuzuli ( 16th Century ), as well as Mirza Ghalib ( 1797 – 1869 ) and Muhammad Iqbal ( 1877 – 1938 ), who both 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 Kashmir i- 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". The ghazal is a common song form in India and Pakistan today. Strictly speaking, it is not a musical form, but a poetic recitation. Today, however, it is commonly conceived of as an Urdu song, with prime importance given to the Lyrics . In some modernized ghazals the poets name is hidden somewhere in the last verse. Usually between the front and end of a word. DETAILS OF THE FORM
THE THEME Illicit unattainable love The ghazal not only has a specific form, but traditionally deals with just one subject: Love. And not any kind of love, but specifically, an illicit, and unattainable love. The subcontinental ghazals 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 the being, and if attained will ascend the ranks of wisdom, or will bring satisfaction to the soul of the poet. Traditional ghazals' love does not have an explicit element of sexual desires in it, and hence the love is spiritual. Consequently, ghazals are not to be confused with Poetry Of Seduction . Persian historian Ehsan Yar-Shater notes that "As a rule, the beloved is not a woman, but a young man. In the early centuries of Islam, the raids into Central Asia produced many young Slaves . Slaves were also bought or received as gifts. They were made to serve as pages at court or in the households of the affluent, or as soldiers and body-guards. Young men, slaves or not, also, served wine at banquets and receptions, and the more gifted among them could play music and maintain a cultivated conversation. It was Love Toward Young Pages, Soldiers, Or Novices In Trades And Professions which was the subject of lyrical introductions to panegyrics from the beginning of Persian poetry, and of the ghazal." (Yar-Shater, Ehsan. 1986. ''Persian Poetry in the Timurid and Safavid Periods,'' Cambridge History of Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.973-974. 1986) The ghazal is always written from the point of view of the lover who is unable to attain his beloved, because either the beloved is just playing with the poet's feelings, or because the societal circumstances don't allow it. The lover is aware and resigned to this fate, but continues loving nonetheless. It is not important to the lover that the beloved does not echo the same feelings towards him. The beloved is often portrayed in exaggerated terms, with extended metaphors about the "arrows of her eyes", or 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 bood shab'':
The lover for his part portrayed as a spineless individual resigned to his fate that has no choice but to continue hopelessly loving his beloved. He almost enjoys the pain and torment that the beloved puts him through, for that is better than nothing. This is illustrated in the following couplet from Ahmed Faraz 's Urdu ghazal "Ranjish hi sahi":
In the context of Sufism It is not possible to get a full understanding of ghazal poetry without at least being familiar some concepts of Sufism . All ghazal poets were either avowed Sufis themselves (like Rumi or Hafiz ), or were sympathizers of 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. An example of an overtly mystic ghazal is an existentialist Urdu couplet produced by Ghalib :
Another version of this poem is:
Most ghazal scholars today recognize that some ghazal couplets are exclusively about Divine Love (ishq-e-haqiqi), others are about "metaphorical love" (ishq-e-majazi), but most of them can be interpreted in either context. In either case, the metaphor employed for this love is usually that of love for a beautiful boy, a love that has deep roots in the Sufi practice of Nazar Ill'al-murd . Sadiq Muhammad, in his ''History of Urdu Literature,'' treats the topic in derogatory terms, calling the love theme of the ghazal "a torture, a disease" a "morbid and perverse passion" and denounces it as a "legacy from Persia ultimately traceable to homosexual love." However, such criticism by native scholars is itself denounced as systematically distorted. In his monograph on same-sex relations in the pre-modern Middle East, Khaled El-Rouayheb demonstrates how Persian and Arabic love poetry and other literary material is routinely heterosexualized or devalued in critical studies authored by post-colonial Arab and Islamic scholars. In his view, the traditional tolerance, literary and religious, for Chaste Pederastic Love Affairs which was prevalent since the 800's began to be eroded in the mid-1800's by the adoption of European Victorian attitudes by the new westernized elite. (El-Rouayheb, 2005, p.156) GHAZAL SINGERS Some well-known ghazal singers are:
Many are also famous for singing ghazals. These include: SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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